Reorganization of River Cruising forums (again)

I’m coming back to the question of how to organize the River Cruising areas.

There are currently 3 forums in this area: *River Cruising, River Cruise Ports, and River Cruising Roll Calls.

When I asked for ideas on how to refine the categories there were conflicting suggestions – but things seemed to be coalescing around two basic ideas: either split things up by cruise line, or by river. A late idea that gained a lot of traction was to divide the cruise lines into Viking and All Other. But it wasn’t clear to me which of the 3 forums people wanted to divide (I think the focus was on Roll Calls).

After giving it more thought, I have come up with this idea:

• River Cruising [unchanged]

• • River Cruise Itineraries [replaces River Cruise Ports — for questions and discussions about specific rivers (and their ports) and theme cruises — see list below]

• River Cruise Roll Calls [category only, no forums or threads]

• • All Viking Rivers Roll Calls [by itinerary and year only, not individual dates]

• • All Other Roll Calls [by line, itinerary and year only, not individual dates]

Here are the categories for the River Cruise Itineraries subforum:

Africa

Black Sea

Bordeaux

China

Chocolate Theme

Christmas Markets

Danube East (Budapest – Bucharest)

Danube West (Amsterdam – Budapest

Jewish Heritage

Mosel (Amsterdam – Luxembourg)

Myanmar (Burma)

Nile

Rhine (Amsterdam – Basel)

Rhone & Saone (Chalon – Arles)

Russia

Seine (Paris – Normandy)

Spain & Portugal

Tulip Time

Vietnam & Cambodia

Wine Theme

How does this strike you?

Makes sense to me . . . Especially the breakdown of itineraries. Good job!

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I wish you all the best but after my unsuccessful attempt to find even one other person coming on my cruise I've convinced myself that so few read the roll calls that it's a waste of time posting there.

I wish you all the best but after my unsuccessful attempt to find even one other person coming on my cruise I've convinced myself that so few read the roll calls that it's a waste of time posting there.

That's the point: we're giving up on finding mates among 150 on a single sailing, and going to common interests among all those sailing that itinerary on that line in a whole year. River Cruise rolls calls can't be like Ocean Cruise roll calls, setting up sail aways and shore excursions -- since those are basically entire-ship events on a river cruise.

I think the organization makes a lot of sense ... I just think it will be interesting to see if people follow the structure put in place.

Makes sense to me . . . Especially the breakdown of itineraries. Good job!

 

 

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I agree, I like the breakdown of the itineraries and also the splitting off of Viking from all other cruise lines. Anything that reals down the categories on the boards is a big help.

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I think it's a great idea. It's haphazard right now. Any organization would be an improvement.

Looks good. Makes a lot of sense.

I don't think the board organization is broken and see no need to "fix" it. If you subscribe to "constantly innovate," then some way to divide Roll Calls seems reasonable. Honestly, It appears that the mod is overthinking this.

The proposed itinerary breakdown is just way too confusing, particularly when you use the parenthetical descriptions, Amsterdam - Budapest encompasses what? Three rivers and a canal that is omitted even though it has several very popular stops. And where do I post my question or comment about Koblenz? Depending on the cruise I took I might choose: Mosel, Rhein, Danube West, or wine.

As things now stand, the thread titles on the first page of the forums are pretty darn clear and I can quickly scroll down and decide what threads I want to read. If you reorganize as proposed, I would need to check into a bunch of different forums (Chocolate, Christmas, Danube West, Mosel, Rhein, Tulip, Wine, maybe Jewish Heritage, as well as Elbe and Main-Danube Canal which are missing) to cover all the bases in my interest, Germany and Netherlands.

Is the board organization really broken? I don't think so, and I see no need to "fix" it. If you subscribe to the need to "constantly innovate," then some way to divide Roll Calls seems reasonable.

I would like to see Viking separate and all other lines together. Some days I have a look and it's all Viking, and that is great for the people who are going with them, but time consuming scrolling down trying to find something about another line.

Thanks:)

Sorry, these proposed subdivisions make no sense to me.

What kind of river cruise is Black Sea? Bordeaux is not a river and not a country. There are no river cruises in Spain, only trip extensions of Portugal's one river cruise on the Douro. Why Africa? There is only one river offered, the Nile, and you list it separately.

Countries: the Rhine and Danube flow through several. With rivers, same issue. Many cruises use several rivers. Mosel and Rhine is one itinerary and then Rhine, Main, Donaukanal, Danube is another one. Any separations will be confusing.

Since the itinerary is so closely connected with which ship you choose I don't think it's a good idea to separate. Ex not all Rhine River cruises make the same exact stops even in the same direction. If you are trying to compare two cruise lines itinerary is a major consideration. Sharing information about the itineraries is a good idea though. Bottom line one still has to switch between two boards to get all info. I happen to think the way the board is set up is fine. Viking has lots of ships but their pax share lots of good information no need to classify. Jmo

I wish you all the best but after my unsuccessful attempt to find even one other person coming on my cruise I've convinced myself that so few read the roll calls that it's a waste of time posting there.

I agree...

I don't see how the changes you are about to make add any improvement to my user experience.

Are post counts down with the current setup versus the way the river cruise forum was laid out previously? What is the impetus behind changing the forum yet again?

Why mess up a good thing. The way it is now is very good.

That's the point: we're giving up on finding mates among 150 on a single sailing, and going to common interests among all those sailing that itinerary on that line in a whole year. River Cruise rolls calls can't be like Ocean Cruise roll calls, setting up sail aways and shore excursions -- since those are basically entire-ship events on a river cruise.

I agree with the shared roll calls idea. Jazzbeau was most helpful in combining various roll calls for 2015 Viking Rhine Getaway and we now have a number of people, all from different sailings who are sharing ideas and excitement for our upcoming cruises. Unfortunately we won't meet each other on our cruises but we can still enjoy the shared virtual world of anticipation!:)

I would like to see changes to the Roll Call so that it is easier to find one's roll call (assuming there is one). I suggest splitting the roll calls to EACH cruise line, not just two - Viking and the rest. Why should someone sailing AMA have to scroll through threads for Avalon, Tauck, etc.?

I can understand the reluctance to do individual roll calls for each sailing date.

As for the itinerary changes, I find the proposed list confusing. I agree with CPT Trips that that portion of the forum does not require changing.

I’m coming back to the question of how to organize the River Cruising areas.

 

There are currently 3 forums in this area: *River Cruising, River Cruise Ports, and River Cruising Roll Calls.

 

When I asked for ideas on how to refine the categories there were conflicting suggestions – but things seemed to be coalescing around two basic ideas: either split things up by cruise line, or by river. A late idea that gained a lot of traction was to divide the cruise lines into Viking and All Other. But it wasn’t clear to me which of the 3 forums people wanted to divide (I think the focus was on Roll Calls).

 

After giving it more thought, I have come up with this idea:

 

• River Cruising [unchanged]

• • River Cruise Itineraries [replaces River Cruise Ports — for questions and discussions about specific rivers (and their ports) and theme cruises — see list below]

 

• River Cruise Roll Calls [category only, no forums or threads]

• • All Viking Rivers Roll Calls [by itinerary and year only, not individual dates]

• • All Other Roll Calls [by line, itinerary and year only, not individual dates]

 

 

Here are the categories for the River Cruise Itineraries subforum:

Africa

Black Sea

Bordeaux

China

Chocolate Theme

Christmas Markets

Danube East (Budapest – Bucharest)

Danube West (Amsterdam – Budapest

Jewish Heritage

Mosel (Amsterdam – Luxembourg)

Myanmar (Burma)

Nile

Rhine (Amsterdam – Basel)

Rhone & Saone (Chalon – Arles)

Russia

Seine (Paris – Normandy)

Spain & Portugal

Tulip Time

Vietnam & Cambodia

Wine Theme

 

 

How does this strike you?

Host Jaxxbeau, you have a real challenge with the entire River Cruise board and I appreciate all your efforts to improve our experiences. I'm just wondering this; if someone has a question, comment or review about a port or river that is included in one or more sub forum, where would they post that? Example, Budapest could fit into 3 of the sub forums including Christmas Markets. Guess I will have to wait and see how this turns out and maybe my answer will be evident:)

I would like to see changes to the Roll Call so that it is easier to find one's roll call (assuming there is one). I suggest splitting the roll calls to EACH cruise line, not just two - Viking and the rest. Why should someone sailing AMA have to scroll through threads for Avalon, Tauck, etc.?

 

I can understand the reluctance to do individual roll calls for each sailing date.

 

As for the itinerary changes, I find the proposed list confusing. I agree with CPT Trips that that portion of the forum does not require changing.

I agree. I think the proposed itinerary changes are very confusing. New threads have a topic and you can scroll past ones you're not interested in and only hit ones that grab you. The only thread I would give its own category to, maybe, is Christmas markets, since that is a pretty specific topic. Otherwise, I agree with breaking up roll calls by Cruise Line but I would leave ports and itineraries as they are.

Jazzbeau ~ first, you've done a fantastic job handling this board so far - even dealing with situations like the one I "innocently" created by posting the jpegs of dallies that were too small to read thus creating the "messiness" of people posting their e-amial address! (I'll use pdf files in the future!!)

As to re-organizing the Forum - my thoughts are to leave it the way it is for another season (fall) and see how much activity there is - then if you/CC feel the need to reorganize begin this discussion again.

I know you're trying to help and make things easier by dividing up the itineraries - but so many overlap! Many of the RCers have taken cruises on different rivers and can offer great advice. But they have to see the title of the thread to join in the discussion. If there are too many sub-catagories who's going to check through all/many of them so see where he/she can comment?

Last year I found the "All Christmas Markets 2014" full of wonderful advice - and in some cases it didn't matter if the person was traveling on the Rhine or Danubu or whatever - just that they were cruising in cold weather. I also learned a lot from the Rhine Getaway thread - even from people who cruised in the summer!

Good Luck with whatever you decide - some will like it, other will hate it, but I'll stick with it!!!!

Alberta Quilter ~ I also would like to see a Roll Call for each cruise - but only IF there were more than 2 CC members on that cruise!

That's the flip side of the small number of passengers on RC ships! We all enjoy the smaller numbers - more individual service, easier to meet people, shorter line getting on/off ships, fewer people shoving and bumping at buffets - many great features!! But then there's also less of a chance of "meeting" fellow passengers here on CC - and that can't be helped!!!

The ships with 2000/3000 passengers have about 100/250 on their CC Roll Call - what hope does a RC ship of 125/200 passengers have? That's one reason the General Forums have a good following - at least then you can "talk" with others going on your "cruise" but on a different date. And for most of us, while there's a lot less planning taking the ship's excursions, we still want to know about the ports/cities we'll be experiencing.

[OK - I'm off my soap box!!]

CC administration would never approve a change unless we had virtual unanimity here, and it is clear that we will never get that. So I am dropping the idea of reorganizing the River Cruising and/or Ports forums. If the volume of Ports stays as low as it has been, I may suggest rolling that into River Cruising [nobody seems to miss the old Ports--US etc. sub forums].

There is more agreement that the Roll Calls aren't working, but again opinion hasn't crystalized around one solution. The last time I asked, the thread moved strongly to Viking vs. All Other -- but I think that sounds too much like advertising for Viking, and therefore don't think CC Admin would approve it.

I also don't think CC is willing to program roll call forums for each river cruise line. I thought of setting up Stickies for each line, but now that I see how stickies work I think that would be a nightmare [they rearrange with newest posted on top, so you would never know where your line is among the 20+ stickies].

Also the occasional individual cruise Roll Call does reach critical mass, so we don't want to make that impossible.

So I am going to end this effort with the suggestion that posters consider creating Roll Calls for larger categories rather than individual sailings. There are few enough roll calls for most cruise lines that "All Scenic river cruises Roll Call" format seems to work. Viking is probably too big for that, but "Viking Rhine Getaway All 2015 Sailings" is working.

I will try to draft a sticky to help people create semi-standardized thread titles [even though I know that few people read the stickies ...]

I would divide up the Roll Call as suggested, and leave everything else as it is.

"All Vantage Roll Call" has been working fine. I don't see why all AMA, All Viking, etc. wouldn't work, too.

Glad you're not reorganizing - I don't think there was anything wrong with it to begin with.