Is anyone booked on the Inaugural Crystal Serenity cruise? No Roll Call yet

[the_dylaness]

I've also been wondering about the Roll Calls... our June 2022 Celebrity cruise was reasonably active (active enough that I got to join a shared shore excursion that turned out to be one of the best parts of our whole trip!) but 12+ years ago they were WAY more active, I feel like. I remember TONS of exchanges with folks on a Princess RC in maybe 2007-ish, we booked more than one shore excursion together, met up on the ship, etc. It was fun!

[the_dylaness]

ETA: I realize my post was NOT about Crystal roll calls but in general it does seem participation has declined.

[Stickman1990]

Still no roll calls for the early voyages including the inaugural? - that just seems strange to me

Are roll calls on CC a thing anymore?

[bitob]

1 hour ago, Stickman1990 said:

Still no roll calls for the early voyages including the inaugural? - that just seems strange to me

Are roll calls on CC a thing anymore?

The main purpose of roll calls was to organize private shore excursions or sometimes set up a CC meet & Greet (no more).  With so many lines including excursions, that motivation has diminished.  My Regent roll calls are the most active (having nothing to do with excursions).  Silversea is less active but they do exist.  Still -- the fact that none of the early NC cruises has a roll call does strike me as odd.

 

Whenever I book a new cruise I start a roll call if there isn't one.  Force of habit, since I was the always the one organizing the private tours.  Most of the time now we sail with friends and just arrange our own tours for ourselves.

[johng75370]

2 hours ago, Stickman1990 said:

Are roll calls on CC a thing anymore?

I think they are still a thing as @bitob noted for coordinating on excursions and discuss specific stops, but for the early cruises departing from Europe there is not as much need for that type of discussion (places are well known).  The Explora roll calls are following a similar pattern (and their ship is following similar path as Serenity); none for initial sailings, a lot of activity on the Iceland to NY sailing but less on other North American sailings.  

[bitob]

11 hours ago, johng75370 said:

I think they are still a thing as @bitob noted for coordinating on excursions and discuss specific stops, but for the early cruises departing from Europe there is not as much need for that type of discussion (places are well known).  The Explora roll calls are following a similar pattern (and their ship is following similar path as Serenity); none for initial sailings, a lot of activity on the Iceland to NY sailing but less on other North American sailings.  

One more point. One of the reason I like the roll calls is I often find people I’ve sailed with before are on a cruise I have booked. Over the years we’ve all met a lot of great people cruising ( ok some not so great lol) and it’s nice to know you will see them again. 

[bitob]

I would think there would be roll calls for the inaugural NC cruises where folks are celebrating the fact that the line is sailing again!  Another reason it's strange.

[Texas Tillie]

As a longtime Crystal cruiser/Cruise Critic participant, the decline in the people posting on Roll Calls started a while before Old Crystal went kaput, actually before the Covid shut down. The reasons are probably as varied as the people who no longer post. I have 2 bookings with Crystal but haven't posted on the roll calls and probably won't. I have my reasons, others have theirs.

 

Patty

[bitob]

53 minutes ago, Texas Tillie said:

As a longtime Crystal cruiser/Cruise Critic participant, the decline in the people posting on Roll Calls started a while before Old Crystal went kaput, actually before the Covid shut down. The reasons are probably as varied as the people who no longer post. I have 2 bookings with Crystal but haven't posted on the roll calls and probably won't. I have my reasons, others have theirs.

 

Patty

Understood -- only a small percentage of cruisers are on CC and only a small percentage of those post on roll calls.  Just odd that no one started any roll call given all the excitement about the restart.

[Keith1010]

Roll Calls have served different purposes over the years including:

 

Arranging for get-together on-board before Meet and Mingles started with old Crystal.

 

Arranging group tours.

 

Asking about local ports, what people have booked in terms of Crystal tours or private.

 

For first time Crystal cruises and there were often quite a few questions about Crystal.

 

As to today:

 

Crystal Marketing of the inaugural voyages 2023/2024 is primarily directed at Crystal Society members so  likely very few if any first time Crystal Cruisers.

 

As Patty correctly said Roll Call activity has been on the decline and this was exasperated with Covid with less people wanting to tour with others due to Covid.

 

Many people I know who are on the first voyages of both ships are not members of CC and the few who are do not post and are lurkers.

 

And:

 

Roll Calls are for the benefit of those who are booked on the cruise. Not sure why it matters to some of you.  

 

And one final note a couple of people have gone out of their way to say they don't want to hear comments  from those who are Crystal fans of which there are many people who used to post regularly who are Crystal fans so comments like those are certainly not well received by some.  And related to that my belief from cruising extensively in 2021 when some you chose not to or could not based on country regulation's is that I met many people on those cruises who said they were lurkers or would post very occasionally.

 

If you look today and no I have not done a count but the number of people posting is far less than it was pre-pandemic and during the pandemic so right now we are not talking about a large number of people posting.

 

Finally, some who are questioning people for not cruising or waiting for Crystal to cruise from what I remember were not the recipients of put downs when they chose not to cruise in 2021 or could not due to regulations.  People's motives for cruising or not cruising don't need to be questioned nor should anyone have to explain themselves.  To those who feel the need to continually do this did you ever think there are health or other circumstances why someone isn't cruising or that they have other family or organizational commitments? You may think it is funny but IMHO it is not and IMHO it is simply childish.  

 

Anyway, let's see how things turn out with posters who are on CC who will be on the inaugural cruises. I definitely remember reading from at least one or two from this board who have said they will be on the first cruise of Serenity or Symphony.

 

Bags packed. (doesn't have to be literal does it?), Ready to go. Can't wait.

 

Keith

[StoryMag]

Not on first cruise out, but on second one. Fingers crossed Leo returns, but realize that is highly unlikely.

 

I am sure there will be hiccups, but I will be in a “Serenity” state of mind…..

 

Thank you for all your posts Keith!

[ctjon]

There are also people that don't want to publish their whereabouts (on this cruise on these dates) on any or on a mostly public forum such as this.

[bayonejoe]

Bingo!

[Keith1010]

5 hours ago, StoryMag said:

Not on first cruise out, but on second one. Fingers crossed Leo returns, but realize that is highly unlikely.

 

I am sure there will be hiccups, but I will be in a “Serenity” state of mind…..

 

Thank you for all your posts Keith!

You are very welcome and I just wanted to say I think you will be pleased with the crew who are returning. So many people we have come to know very well.

 

Keith

[Leejnd4]

On 4/18/2023 at 5:44 PM, bitob said:

Whenever I book a new cruise I start a roll call if there isn't one.  Force of habit, since I was the always the one organizing the private tours.  Most of the time now we sail with friends and just arrange our own tours for ourselves.

 

Same here! I have started many roll calls, probably because I'm such an early planner...I always book my cruises insanely early. And I too have always been the one organizing private tours, get togethers, etc. I know there are many people who would never consider doing a private tour with veritable strangers, but some of my BEST moments on cruises have been on these tours! They've usually been van or boat tours with 6 or even 8 people, so even if one or two of them were not folks I would choose to hang out with, the rest made up for it. I've only done a 4-person private tour with roll-call people once, and they were lovely and we're still friends. I guess I should count myself lucky. 🙂 

 

On 4/19/2023 at 11:31 PM, Keith1010 said:

Roll Calls have served different purposes over the years including:

 

Arranging for get-together on-board before Meet and Mingles started with old Crystal.

 

Arranging group tours.

 

Asking about local ports, what people have booked in terms of Crystal tours or private.

 

For first time Crystal cruises and there were often quite a few questions about Crystal.

 

Exactly! And for me, it was even more for meeting people before the cruise, so that we could have ready-made friends when we board. I'm a very social person, and what I discovered from my heavy participation in roll-calls was that you could get to know quite a bit about people, and then when you meet them face-to-face you already are past the awkward stage and immediately have things to talk about.

 

I have met some of the loveliest people that way, some of whom are still very good friends. One couple we met on our roll call on my last Crystal cruise (South America in 2019) lived near us and we've had dinners at each others' homes. Another couple I met on a Regent cruise in 2005, and I consider them some of our dearest friends.

 

I'm pretty dismayed at the massive drop in CC participation. This has happened across pretty much every type of message forum - Scubaboard used to be THE hangout for divers, and a rich source of information and connections, but it's a shell of its former self. I know that Facebook has a lot to do with it, but you just can't get the same sort of conversations, or find people or targeted info, on Facebook the way you can on message forums.

 

Also, regarding roll calls - I know that the mass-market cruise lines have definitely migrated to Facebook. A good friend is a frequent NCL cruiser, and just finished up two back-to-back cruises, both of which had VERY active Facebook roll-calls, but nearly empty CC ones. But the smaller and/or luxury lines don't seem to have Facebook roll-calls at all. I'm particularly bummed because my upcoming Paul Gauguin cruise has only one other couple in the roll call, and they seem to have disappeared after their one post. Crickets ever since. 😞 I guess I'm just gonna have to meet people the old-fashioned way. LOL!

 

 

[Boatie 1]

Keith,

I think you are correct about a lack of response on roll calls. Times have changed since Covid.

As for us we are just happy to be able to experience the NEW Crystal and fingers crossed that it will be like what we experienced in the past.

Boatie(Muriel)

[crickette]

Speaking of roll calls - Keith you used to maintain a thread about participation on future cruises.  Will that be resurrected under NC?  Will meet and mingle be resurrected by CC?   Keith - will you be posting to roll calls?  How have your personal thoughts changed, under NC, about participating on roll calls?

[Keith1010]

2 hours ago, crickette said:

Speaking of roll calls - Keith you used to maintain a thread about participation on future cruises.  Will that be resurrected under NC?  Will meet and mingle be resurrected by CC?   Keith - will you be posting to roll calls?  How have your personal thoughts changed, under NC, about participating on roll calls?

Let me start with the easy question.  My personal thoughts about NC are very positive.  Old Crystal was never perfect nor is any product but for us it was as good as it gets.  I expect NC to be different taking several of the attributes we enjoyed with old Crystal and adding in new ones.  I am very much looking forward to returning.

 

I haven't asked about Meet & Mingle yet.  In the past I used to start some roll calls but often waited for others to do that and often posted to answer questions particularly to those new to Crystal or for those new to an itinerary or new say to the World Cruise.  I do expect to post to Roll Calls after Crystal starts sailing.

 

I think in time we will see more roll calls with more first time Crystal Cruisers when Crystal markets more beyond Crystal Society members and after people share their experiences from those early sailings.  In some ways, the new Crystal is a hybrid of old Crystal and new Crystal so it carries with it the pluses and the minuses of the former cruise line (pluses are those things people liked about Crystal and those that they didn't and for some the issue of not getting money back) while having characteristics of a new cruise line including needing to establish itself and reach many more people in the market who never sailed old Crystal.

 

I do believe more people will post if the tone on the board softens.  Even in the best of times people would tell me they wouldn't post because they didn't want to be attacked and didn't like the negativism.  This includes people who used to post who still  read the board but refuse to post and many new. As to the latter I heard this first hand on each of the Nassau sailings in 2021 as a good number of people were first time Crystal Cruisers attracted to try the line due to the pricing.

 

Like the restart of Crystal IMHO the discussions onf the new board will slowly be more about the actual experiences on new Crystal with each sailing .

 

Keith

[crickette]

6 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

Let me start with the easy question.  

...I don't think I asked this question, but thanks for repeating your thoughts.

 

...

And what of the future cruise thread that you maintained?

6 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by crickette

[Leejnd4]

11 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

I do believe more people will post if the tone on the board softens.  Even in the best of times people would tell me they wouldn't post because they didn't want to be attacked and didn't like the negativism.  This includes people who used to post who still  read the board but refuse to post and many new. As to the latter I heard this first hand on each of the Nassau sailings in 2021 as a good number of people were first time Crystal Cruisers attracted to try the line due to the pricing.

 

Like the restart of Crystal IMHO the discussions onf the new board will slowly be more about the actual experiences on new Crystal with each sailing .

 

Keith

 

Boy ain't that the truth! I stayed off this board for several YEARS after I got brutally attacked for posting about a concerning experience I had with Crystal customer service before my Baltics cruise. I posted a completely factual account, thinking it would help other Crystal cruisers to know that this situation was going on and how to get around it. But some people can't handle any negative comments about their favorite line, no matter how accurate. Shoot the messenger! 😉 

 

I actually stayed away from cruising Crystal for a few years, because a couple of the attackers were frequent Crystal cruisers and I was afraid to run into them! One of them had actually called a crew member on the ship with whom they were friendly, to "warn" them about me before we embarked. (Fortunately the crew member made an effort to get to know me, which is how I found out. LOL!)

 

I'm glad I eventually came back, as my Crystal cruises are among my favorite of all time.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing how the early cruises go. I'm not ready to start cruising Crystal yet...probably not until late 2024, once we are back living in our house in CA (we currently live on a sailboat in Mexico). But depending on how the reports come back, I'll be looking at itineraries soon. 😁 And I too hope the tone on the board stays welcoming, and more people come back to CC. There really isn't another communication method that works nearly as well.

[Keith1010]

3 minutes ago, Leejnd4 said:

 

IAnd I too hope the tone on the board stays welcoming, and more people come back to CC. There really isn't another communication method that works nearly as well.

Amen to that.

 

I remember the issue you raised. I actually remember the issue that you raised about why you were being told you needed a visa but had completely forgotten that someone had contacted a crew member about you.

 

I'll never get the put downs.  But I am reminded of two things. Some people never grow up and some hide behind a computer screen.  The company I worked at for most of my career was one of the pioneers of e-mail. I remember when it eventually rolled out to our teams that some people would write some viscous e-mails. We had to talk to them about e-mail etiquette.  I used to add to that and say if you were in a face to face conversation would you really have said that to someone and the answer was usually no. And I would add to that if you write something like that don't send it and read it the next day and you will likely delete it or change the tone.

 

I am looking forward to when Crystal sails.

 

I do believe if people do not get attacked they will return to posting and not only the good but things that they were disappointed in.  Time will tell.

 

I am glad to see you posting on this board.

 

Keith

[Leejnd4]

4 minutes ago, Keith1010 said:

Amen to that.

 

I remember the issue you raised. I actually remember the issue that you raised about why you were being told you needed a visa but had completely forgotten that someone had contacted a crew member about you.

 

I'll never get the put downs.  But I am reminded of two things. Some people never grow up and some hide behind a computer screen.  The company I worked at for most of my career was one of the pioneers of e-mail. I remember when it eventually rolled out to our teams that some people would write some viscous e-mails. We had to talk to them about e-mail etiquette.  I used to add to that and say if you were in a face to face conversation would you really have said that to someone and the answer was usually no. And I would add to that if you write something like that don't send it and read it the next day and you will likely delete it or change the tone.

 

I am looking forward to when Crystal sails.

 

I do believe if people do not get attacked they will return to posting and not only the good but things that they were disappointed in.  Time will tell.

 

I am glad to see you posting on this board.

 

Keith

Thanks Keith! Yeah, that was an epic kerfuffle, wasn't it? 😂

 

I just recently came back to Cruise Critic, having left it once we started cruising full-time on our own boat in 2019. But we only have a little more than a year to go before we start making our way back to being dirt-dwellers, and already I'm figuring out how to get back out to sea. 😉 In fact I'm doing a Paul Gauguin cruise this November, even though we will still be living on our boat! Crazy, huh? That might seem nuts, but the reason I'm doing that is because we'd originally planned on sailing our own boat over to the South Pacific, but Covid messed that up for us when they closed the entire South Pacific to pleasure craft. And now that they've opened it up again it's too late for us to go, since we're already 4 years into our 5-year cruising plan and we don't have time. I really wanted to see French Polynesia again.

 

So I will be back to cruise ships to get my fill of the sea! I still hope to run into you on a ship someday.

[Keith1010]

3 hours ago, Leejnd4 said:

 I still hope to run into you on a ship someday.

I feel the same way and hopefully this will happen.  Great that you are back here. 

 

You picked a perfect time to cruise on your own ship full-time give how things got topsy turvy in 2020.

 

Best to you.

Keith 

[Leejnd4]

2 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

I feel the same way and hopefully this will happen.  Great that you are back here. 

 

You picked a perfect time to cruise on your own ship full-time give how things got topsy turvy in 2020.

 

Best to you.

Keith 

Well, we would DEFINITELY have preferred to have started our full-time live-aboard life without the pandemic! It made the early days very challenging. Especially at the beginning - we got trapped on our boat in La Paz, Mexico, unable to leave the port but also not allowed to even leave our boat except once a week to buy provisions. Those first few months were scary. And even after that it was not what we'd expected our cruising life to be.

 

But it's all great now, and we're loving it, so I can't complain. Except for the fact that we never got to sail to French Polynesia! 

 

I'm sure we all have some wild stories of what the early days of the pandemic were like for us. I remember wondering what was going to happen to the cruising industry. There were several cruise lines who anchored their ships off the coast of La Paz and just left them there for over a year. There were HAL ships, NCL, Carnival, all just sitting out there. I'd look out at those ships hulking offshore and feel like the world had gone sideways. I'm SO GLAD that cruising has come back to life!

 

And now so has Crystal, so that's even better. 😀

[gwesq]

Does anyone know what hotel Crystal is using in Marseille?

OR - recommendations for a hotel?  We'll only be spending one night there precruise, training in from Paris.