How to Improve Cruise Critic Coverage of River Cruises: A Discussion

Considering the growing interest in river cruising (political upheaval and river flooding notwithstanding) is there anything that CC consumers can do to improve coverage/support for river cruises?

Seems that content forums not always separated from Roll Calls, and the majority of Roll Calls (when population is under 200) are often failures, compared to cruise ships (populations usually 1,000 to 2,500) where the majority of roll calls are active and helpful?

Maybe Roll Calls should start with ship/itinerary across a year's dates? That is, just start with locating anyone who will have (or has had) the same itinerary/ship? Perhaps CC can monitor forums/roll calls to sort them out? Maybe Cruise Critic can manage river cruise coverage to be more readily identified in a general Google search? I am going to make a couple of more general forum postings this week to determine if we have an active participant community that could be better served with some format adjustments. What do you think?

DJ:)

I would certainly like to see something like that. We will be on an Avalon cruise next summer and I am finding it quite difficult to find any information on the cruise or the itinerary!

I will say that the ship (the Artistry II) is a new ship (can I call it a boat since it's smaller than an ocean liner??) so that might impede my searches, but I'm also finding it a bit sketchy to find reviews as well!!

I know I'm of no help since I haven't been on my river cruise yet, but I will help any way I can!!

DJ ~ hurray for you!! The River Cruise pages are as hard to navagate as I'm sure some actual rivers are!!!! Last year I hardly posted anything and rarely read the headings - could find very, very little helpful and I was a complete newbie to River Cruising!!!

At least this year there are some "general" heading like "Christmas Markets 2013" - also a 2014 - or "Viking Rhine River" so that we can talk and learn from others who'll be on similar trips even if they're not on our ship. There is just SO much to learn from others who have taken same/similar trips!!!

I do agree with you about specific roll calls - just not enough over-all passengers to usually generate much of a response for each sailing. But a better overall organization would help!

CaroleSS

We sailed on Artistry II Basel to Amsterdam, July 2013, our first river cruise, it was everything we expected plus more, could not fault Avalon or the ship in anyway, loved it so much we are booked to do Prague to Budapest with Avalon in July 2014.

What pieces of info are you wanting, we also found it hard to get info without spending many many hours reading CC

That sounds like a good idea for the River Cruise Roll Calls.

The other thing CC should do is fold "River Cruise Ports-Europe" into this main area. There are very few postings there, and most of them belong here anyway.

We enjoy both ocean and river cruises.

When we try to research an itinerary and the companies that cruise that itinerary we find it hard to find information on comparing cruise line "A" to cruise line "B".

So anything that could help in comparing cruise line "A" to cruise line "B" type of comparisons for both river and ocean cruise lines would be greatly appreciated.

That sounds like a good idea for the River Cruise Roll Calls.

 

The other thing CC should do is fold "River Cruise Ports-Europe" into this main area. There are very few postings there, and most of them belong here anyway.

That is the problem. On the ocean cruise boards, the moderators are very strict about where each post belongs. They move posts around if not on the proper board. Here, I have seen posts about specific itineraries or cities that should be on the European River port boards or on the Roll Call board on this "Main" board. Either do away with the Europe river board or move postings that belong specifically to that board over there. But with the popularity of China, Vietnam, and now Amazon cruises, where do people ask questions concerning those ports. Hopefully, other more exotic ports will open up too.

I did start a Paris/Normandy "all ships" roll call, and it worked very well. We were able to share information concerning the specific ship, and the area in general. It doesn't even have to be year specific, as long as the details of the itinerary doesn't change. Hints about various cities and markets are always welcomed.

I have found that if you use the Cruise Review section here on Cruise Critic, you can get a general feel about the experiences of past cruisers to compare various lines.

Having a search feature that works would help. I searched for "2014" and "Christmas" using advance search, titles only (in various ways, for a couple weeks) - and STILL never pulled up the thread titled "All 2014 Christmas Market river cruises" :rolleyes:

Thankfully someone bumped the thread....

Having a search feature that works would help. I searched for "2014" and "Christmas" using advance search, titles only (in various ways, for a couple weeks) - and STILL never pulled up the thread titled "All 2014 Christmas Market river cruises" :rolleyes:

 

Thankfully someone bumped the thread....

Maybe if you had put river cruise after 2014 Christmas you would have gotten the correct site. Try it anyway and see what happens.

Not sure if this is relevant but In 2010 I tried to post a review of the "Mekong Explorer" Heritage Line as there was nothing here - not sure if there are any reviews to date. CC rejected - not enough info re ports of call - not sure how you can describe a riverbank than "riverbank"; or dining options. Maybe the paremeters for river cruising have to be reset as they are different to ocean cruises. I have since been on 3 other Asian river cruises and would not even bother to try and do a review.:)

Considering the growing interest in river cruising (political upheaval and river flooding notwithstanding) is there anything that CC consumers can do to improve coverage/support for river cruises?

 

Seems that content forums not always separated from Roll Calls, and the majority of Roll Calls (when population is under 200) are often failures, compared to cruise ships (populations usually 1,000 to 2,500) where the majority of roll calls are active and helpful?

 

Maybe Roll Calls should start with ship/itinerary across a year's dates? That is, just start with locating anyone who will have (or has had) the same itinerary/ship? Perhaps CC can monitor forums/roll calls to sort them out? Maybe Cruise Critic can manage river cruise coverage to be more readily identified in a general Google search? I am going to make a couple of more general forum postings this week to determine if we have an active participant community that could be better served with some format adjustments. What do you think?

DJ:)

We agree,,,perhaps the CC staff could begin dividing up the Main topics of River Cruises just like the Ocean Cruises...it is a bit difficult to find people with info that have done what you are about to. The Ocean Cruises are so wonderfully organized and with the new interest in River Cruises, perhaps they will set them up like Ocean Cruises. We can only ask. And perhaps, the River Cruise Posters could be a bit more careful to start a thread in the area provided instead of just posting a New topic. Combining these posts wont be an easy job for the CC Staff.

Just wondering now so DO NOT GET UPSET.

Is less attention given to river cruises because of less profit generated from them vs. ocean cruises?

Maybe if you had put river cruise after 2014 Christmas you would have gotten the correct site. Try it anyway and see what happens.

A proper keyword search on a message board should pull up EVERY thread with the word "Christmas" in the title if that is how you structure the search (that is what I did). What CC told me is that no such thread exist. In fact, there are MANY. I moderate a couple of message boards - I know how searches should work;)

(I'm not talking about a Google search- which often work better when an internal message board search feature is messed up. I am talking about the CC board search in the upper right corner, and using the Advance feature to search titles only)

DJ ~ hurray for you!! The River Cruise pages are as hard to navagate as I'm sure some actual rivers are!!!! Last year I hardly posted anything and rarely read the headings - could find very, very little helpful and I was a complete newbie to River Cruising!!!

 

At least this year there are some "general" heading like "Christmas Markets 2013" - also a 2014 - or "Viking Rhine River" so that we can talk and learn from others who'll be on similar trips even if they're not on our ship. There is just SO much to learn from others who have taken same/similar trips!!!

 

I do agree with you about specific roll calls - just not enough over-all passengers to usually generate much of a response for each sailing. But a better overall organization would help![/quote]

 

I second this! We have booked the Po in 2014 and the discussion that includes "all" Po River cruises has been extremely helpful. Specific dates just don't seem to work for river cruises. Thanks for bringing this conversation to the forefront.

Cole

We've been posting on a "Vantage all 2013-2014 cruises," which has been quite good for information about ships and itineraries.

Cole ~ thanks for your comments!!!

Last year was our first RC and I began a specific thread fot it - no replies! Then I began to think - our RC ship held about 144 people. Our last ocean cruise (Celebrity Constellation) held 2000+ passengers and we were thrilled to have about 100 on our CC roll call - that was 5%! So, at the most, there should have been 7 people responding to my thread!!! Its impossible for individual sailings to have the amount of response as the larger ships.

I think its obvious that more "general" thread do spark interest from CC members and we all enjoy learning from and sharing with others!! So, regardless of how changes might be made, just keep the River Cruise forum alive!!!!

I agree that individual sailings on the Roll Calls don't make much sense as there are so few passengers for each sailing. Last year there was a "Russia River Cruises 2012 All Lines" on the Roll Calls that covered all cruise lines traveling in Russia, all sailings. Let's face it, most of the cruise lines on a particular itinerary go to the same places, and folks have similar experiences and similar questions. Within that thread, to make it easier to find potential fellow travelers, someone kept a spreadsheet with the CC ids, ship, and travel dates, and posted this spreadsheet from time to time. A surprising number of fellow travelers found each other via this method. It worked so well that this year there's a similar single thread for all Russian cruises (2013), and I've noticed one for 2014. The only downside is that someone has to volunteer to keep and post the spreadsheet. This is where CC could help in my opinion, as keeping this "spreadsheet" is not easy as Excel or any other commercial spreadsheet does not easily "cut and paste" into a CC post. It would be great if CC could facilitate some kind of spreadsheet capability to make this easier.

I agree that individual sailings on the Roll Calls don't make much sense as there are so few passengers for each sailing. Last year there was a "Russia River Cruises 2012 All Lines" on the Roll Calls that covered all cruise lines traveling in Russia, all sailings. Let's face it, most of the cruise lines on a particular itinerary go to the same places, and folks have similar experiences and similar questions. Within that thread, to make it easier to find potential fellow travelers, someone kept a spreadsheet with the CC ids, ship, and travel dates, and posted this spreadsheet from time to time. A surprising number of fellow travelers found each other via this method. It worked so well that this year there's a similar single thread for all Russian cruises (2013), and I've noticed one for 2014. The only downside is that someone has to volunteer to keep and post the spreadsheet. This is where CC could help in my opinion, as keeping this "spreadsheet" is not easy as Excel or any other commercial spreadsheet does not easily "cut and paste" into a CC post. It would be great if CC could facilitate some kind of spreadsheet capability to make this easier.

I have been the one maintaining the Christmas Markets 2013 spreadsheet and you are right, it does not cut and paste well. I have yet to figure out how to extend the margins to the right so that I can have all info for one listing on one line. If anyone has any suggestions on how to do this I would love to hear them :D.

CaroleSS

We sailed on Artistry II Basel to Amsterdam, July 2013, our first river cruise, it was everything we expected plus more, could not fault Avalon or the ship in anyway, loved it so much we are booked to do Prague to Budapest with Avalon in July 2014.

What pieces of info are you wanting, we also found it hard to get info without spending many many hours reading CC

Hey Peter!

We will be on the Artistry II next summer doing the Highlights of Germany tour. We will go from Munich (land tour) boarding the ship at Passau and end up in Basel. I see a lot of trips from Amsterdam to Basel and lots for Passua to wherever, but not a lot doing the Main River inbetween.

I am glad you were happy with Avalon and with the Artistry! I guess I'm looking for information like how we're the meals. I know this is quite subjective, we aren't picky, but we are looking forward to experiencing local foods. Did you find the wine/beer selections adequate? Again, we are looking to experience local flavors. I read somewhere that you can bring wine/beer purchases ashore onboard for consumption. Dd you se any of that? How big we we the excursion groups and how many optional excursions did you take? Dd you find them beneficial or would you have preferred to just venture out on your own?

Oh my, I have just asked tou to write a discertation haven't I? If you'd prefer to take this discussion off-line, you can email me at teddy_spaghetti at yahoo dot com.

Thank you soooo much for any information you can offer. If anyone else wishes to chime in, please feel free to do so! :D

Hello Folks:

(1) Could use some assistance in locating name/email address of someone at Cruise Critic who would have an influence and would actually provide some serious consideration to improvements?

(2) Lack of structure is a big problem. I think that most people, given structure will at least post in the correct place and maybe also provide the most useful content if given some structure!

(3) Individual Roll Calls (specific vessel/specific dates) for vessels with less than 200 passengers makes little sense? The use of River Cruise Roll Calls to find like-minded people for private port tours makes little sense. Perhaps general discussions of vendor, vessel, advice. Perhaps Roll Calls structured by location/river; cruise company; specific date to locate a specific Roll Call?

(4) Researching a specific port usually just locates postings with the name of the town/city -- not a description of the positive/negative experiences in the town/city (obviously a problem). Some structure by geography/river/major ports and "other" category. Otherwise, just use TravelAdvisor?

(5) Differentiate between River Cruise Forum (all sorts of discussions) and River Port Forum (what's to do in location X, etc.).

I see that Viking is running an ad on CC and I enjoy the ads on PBS that are associated with some of my favorite programs, so at least river cruise companies that cooperate with TAs should be supportive. (Anyone have a good contact at Viking [name/email address]?) I would expect that Cruise Critic, if it decides to make the effort to improve this segment of their website knows the companies to contact to get their input?

Maybe if enough people make a posting CC will see that this is a reasonable area for improvement?

Thanks,

DJ:)

 

(1) Could use some assistance in locating name/email address of someone at Cruise Critic who would have an influence and would actually provide some serious consideration to improvements?

Have you asked the moderators for this forum? Names at the bottom of the page - LauraS & HostJoe

I sent HostJoe an email over the weekend asking for assistance and referencing this thread.

I sent HostJoe an email over the weekend asking for assistance and referencing this thread.

Absolutely more than motivated to email with folks whose opinions count. From someone who has for several years made very important (to my travels) use of Cruise Critic (actually more than TripAdvisor) I am truly impressed with the difference between all of the ocean cruise forums and structure and those for river cruises: (1) Roll Calls make little sense because of the numbers involved, and some structure to geography/river and cruise provider/perhaps specific ship would at least start to allow people to find others who have gone on a specific cruise/are on a specific cruise/or interested in a specific cruise. Whether posting people end up on the same vessel at the same time would be wait and see. (2) A general forum about river cruising (comparison of rivers, comparison of vessels), general issues like $$$, weather, provided/optional tours, etc. (3) A ports section divided into geographical groups in which questions are asked about activities in a specific port: what did you do you liked?/specific experience/planning ahead for a specific port, etc. (right now if you research a port name on the Rhine Amsterdan/Basel (a very popular experience) you obtain only a handful of postings, the majority just mentioning the name of the town/city and of no use to prepare to visit or select among itineraries.

DJ:)

[balticports@yahoo.com]

Sorry if these ideas have been posted, but I am in a hurry and wanted to get this out before I forgot.

There are 2 sections for river cruises on the main forums page. (River Cruising- River Cruise Ports-Europe) and also Special Interest.

Would like to see the one for River Cruise Ports-Europe eliminated since river cruises can be more than just Europe.

Also, would like to see it drilled down a bit more to include ports/destinations and also the individual lines, much like the ocean cruises are.

This is a GREAT topic. Thanks for thinking of it.

Felicia

Some time ago I suggested a different structure for the board here:

- River Cruising (ports, rivers, companies, cruises in Europe)

- - River Cruises anywhere else (Russia, China, and so forth)

- - Roll Calls

Until a similar debate came up last time I was not even aware of a roll call section existing. River cruising is very different from ocean cruising and the rest of the board. So I have to admit, I never go anywhere else but the 191 sub forum (river cruising). In my opinion it makes more sense to keep everything together.

Next: Last time when CC split up the river cruises into company subboards it did not work out. Especially due to all the "Company X or Company Z" topics. About 90% of the debates here deal with european rivers. So I would vote for only seperating the non eu river cruises, splitting them into another board.This would also prevent them from getting pushed down by the EU related posts.

On the roll calls: As the ships are much smaller (and the river cruise faction of the CC community) it is just logical that one gets only a few (if any) answers. According to my database the main companies have around 1200 departures a year. Statistically unlikely to meet a lot of cruisers before you go. Furthermore I think it is also not really possible to make the board more "google-friendly" as was suggested in the opening post. The only thing that could help would be a clean and neat structure for the boards. Maybe define a particular syntax for roll calls? Like "Cruise Line, Cruise Name, Departure Date in YYYY-MM-DD format"

Last but not least: Maybe the biggest problem we had (and should think about) is how we (me included) treated some newbies this year when they posted their negative reviews on flood affected cruises, calling them fakers, bashers and so forth instead of taking them serious. This might have pushed some people away. So maybe we should reflect about our communication skills in order to make the community grow.

my 2 cents,

Ingo