What Do The Numbers Say?

[hensghan]

I am curious. Are the numbers of posted threads on each of the various cruise line's Cruise Critic sites (Carnival 111,000, NCL 52,000, HAL 39,000, Celebrity 36,000) pretty much indicative of the market share each of these lines now represents? Is it that Carnival just has more ships than all other lines or is Carnival now somehow doing things better? I love HAL but I am puzzled by the disparity of the thread numbers, especially since I have always thought HAL cruisers to be a particularly vocal group of people. Any HAL cruisers who have also sailed Carnival care to comment?

[kryos]

I am curious. Are the numbers of posted threads on each of the various cruise line's Cruise Critic sites (Carnival 111,000, NCL 52,000, HAL 39,000, Celebrity 36,000) pretty much indicative of the market share each of these lines now represents? Is it that Carnival just has more ships than all other lines or is Carnival now somehow doing things better? I love HAL but I am puzzled by the disparity of the thread numbers, especially since I have always thought HAL cruisers to be a particularly vocal group of people. Any HAL cruisers who have also sailed Carnival care to comment?I don't think one can judge number of threads as any correlation to the market share of each cruise line. Sadly, I don't think we will ever know that. Carnival Corp certainly wouldn't seem inclined to release that particular information.

I just think that the Carnival, RCI or NCL cruiser tends to be a lot younger, and thus more internet savvy. Those lines would seem to be exactly the ones that draw the younger cruiser with their whole onboard environment. So those people, since they generally are younger, tend to be comfortable reading and posting to message boards. HAL and some of the other cruiselines have passengers that are generally older, and many may not be comfortable on the internet.

Also, as you say ... some of those other lines like Carnival and RCI have more ships ... a lot more ships than HAL ... so in that case, yes, they probably have a lot more cruisers. Couple that with the fact that most of those cruisers are younger, family-style cruisers ... and thus more comfortable on the internet (hey, they use it everyday as a part of their jobs), and you will get more threads on those boards than you will on a HAL board. It's simply a matter that more of them are posting than HAL cruisers do. The fact of the matter could very well be that HAL may have a greater market share than those lines ... then again, they may not. But I just don't think you can make the assumption based on posts to an internet message board.

Just my opinion ...

Blue skies ...

--rita

[Host Michell]

I am curious. Are the numbers of posted threads on each of the various cruise line's Cruise Critic sites (Carnival 111,000, NCL 52,000, HAL 39,000, Celebrity 36,000) pretty much indicative of the market share each of these lines now represents? Is it that Carnival just has more ships than all other lines or is Carnival now somehow doing things better? I love HAL but I am puzzled by the disparity of the thread numbers, especially since I have always thought HAL cruisers to be a particularly vocal group of people. Any HAL cruisers who have also sailed Carnival care to comment?

Let me recommend this book -- http://www.amazon.com/How-Lie-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/dp/0393310728

and suggest that it's a perilous course, indeed, to try to draw conclusions from facts such as those you've observed. One might also suggest that since CC was started in 2000, and Carnival's passenger ages trend younger, the more internet-savvy types have migrated there first.

Number of threads also doesn't actually have anything to do with vast numbers of people reporting great stuff about the cruiseline. :D Read a few pages of ANY cruiseline's board and you'll see why I say that.

[usha]

I don't believe the number of threads for one particular cruise line has anything to do with actual cruises booked by posters. It's just questions. Sometimes, you'll see the same question asked again & again & again & again.....:eek: This does not mean people are booking cruises. It only means they have questions, comments, complaints, drivel....

[Aunty Pat]

It’s all a matter of numbers.

HAL has way fewer passenger beds:
HAL 18,915
Carnival 50,882
NCL 25,326
Royal Caribbean 52,838

Because HAL’ s longer average cruise length means those bed are turned over to new passenger less often (half) then the other lines.

Add the passenger demographics makes for a lot few passengers who would use the internet resulting in a lot fewer hits by HAL passengers on this site.


Aunty Pat


Barefoot Windjammer - Phantom ‘81
K&D German Rhine Line ‘84
NCL - Norway ’85, Pride of America ’05, Southward ’87, Star ’97 & ‘05, Starward ’92, Sun ’02 & Windward ’93
RCC - Song of America ‘89
American Hawaiian - Independence ‘98
HAL - Volendam ’99, Noordam ’06, Oosterdam ’07 & ‘09, Statendam ’02 & ‘08, Prinsendam ’03 & ’06, Westerdam ’09 & Zuiderdam ’04, ’06 & ‘07
Carnival - Spirit ‘05
Celebrity – Summit ‘05
Cruise West - Yorktown Clipper ‘06
Princess - Golden Princess ‘07
A & K - East Queen ‘07
Cunard - QM2 ’08

[fann1sh]

Aunty Pat, thanks so much for your "number of beds" analysis. When I started to read this thread, it struck me that would be one way to gauge number of pax, since ships don't sail empty.

By the time I reached your post, I realized I didn't have to do my own math! :D

[HALFans]

HAL has way fewer passenger beds:
HAL 18,915
Carnival 50,882
NCL 25,326
Royal Caribbean 52,838

Not just the beds/turnover ratio... I was reading a thread yesterday and the OP (for that thread, not this one!) referred to the Eurodam as a 'Small Ship'!

While she's the largest in the HAL fleet, she's still dwarfed by some of the 'Mega' cruise ships out there.

That's another way to look at the reduced thread numbers for HAL. For me, it's just one more reason to stay loyal to HAL and our beloved S & R class ships.

[IheartHAL]

It has a lot to do with demographics. The average Carnival passenger is younger and therefore more likely to be on-line than the average HAL passenger. A quick read through the different cruise line boards is quite enlightening! The communities are vastly different.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Also another problem -- back in 2004 when this site was being updated -- thousands of threads and post were lost.

This site was started quite a few years before then.

Immagine what the numbers would be like if nothing had been lost??