Roll Calls do they work for Seabourn

When Dan suggested having roll calls for Seabourn cruises a while ago I thought it was a great idea. Now not so sure. We have a roll call going for our upcoming cruise from Istanbul to Athens and also from Athens to Rome. Very little response to either of these RC's.

Share if you will your experiences with our roll calls.

Just a question, I don't mean to rock the boat :p

I think it just depends. Many of us forget that here on CC there are very few cruisers who read and post in relation to the total number of Seabourn sailors. In addition, many are from Europe and I think that may also make a difference.

I am planning my 3rd SB cruise- Asia (2 years ago) and Spirit (2/12) and now Sojourn 7/12 and have started a roll call for all 3 cruises- with I think only 1 response on the Spirit cruise. I have had good response to a roll call from previous (especially) Oceania and Regent cruises. Onboard my cruises, I try to publicize the existence of cruise critic boards as a benefit in cruise planning, etc, and some of the other pax seem interested, but does not seem to result in any participation. Found the same problem with Silverseas roll call. I have found the advice and recommendation of CC posters to be invaluable- and I am disappointed that other SB cruisers do not seem to be taking advantage of all the resources available.

Kathy

I too am very frustrated on the non-use of a roll call. For my first upcoming cruise Rome to Monte Carlo I had hoped to garner some interest in having others join us/or us joining them on some private tours. With over 100 views, we have only experienced 5 total posts (3 by me and 2 by another couple), so I guess we are on our own. On previous cruises we have been able to get together for dinner with several couples in our area before the cruise and have that repoir built up before sailing. I know the Legend only handles 208 passengers, but to not know anybody is disheartening. Hope that we have not made a mistake by our choice of Seabourn.

I too am very frustrated on the non-use of a roll call. For my first upcoming cruise Rome to Monte Carlo I had hoped to garner some interest in having others join us/or us joining them on some private tours. With over 100 views, we have only experienced 5 total posts (3 by me and 2 by another couple), so I guess we are on our own. On previous cruises we have been able to get together for dinner with several couples in our area before the cruise and have that repoir built up before sailing. I know the Legend only handles 208 passengers, but to not know anybody is disheartening. Hope that we have not made a mistake by our choice of Seabourn.

I notice that you have mainly cruised the mainstream lines with thousands of passengers. You will obviously get ALOT more participation on those roll call boards for obvious reasons. Don't fret, you will surely make long standing friendships on your Seabourn cruise. The limited amount of passengers make "getting to know one another" alot easier.

Host Dan

I have been involved in roll calls on both seabourn and larger cruise lines.

I find it depends on the demographic of the passengers.

I do find that very few members from uk will post, rather it is usually people from other countries. but again sometimes it is not many or certainly not a high percentage.

Like Dan says, I am sure you will make friends onboard, and have a great trip.

Host Dan is right again. The most passengers sailing with you on any Seabourn cruise is 450. How many of those do you think have even heard of cruise critic? Ipso facto there will be few replies to a roll call of any particular cruise.

We sailed on the Spirit in February. I posted a roll call last fall and heard from five or six fellow passengers. We exchanged ideas and requests for tour companions. Although the number was small, we were all excited to talk about the cruise in advance. We planned a get together at the sail away and there were at least a dozen of us sitting around a table, getting to know each other. You may find that the responses are low in numbers but those who do respond will be enthusiastic and friendly.

We had such a nice group for our Legend cruise March '11. And getting to know one another beforehand certainly added to the anticipation of the cruise.

But as has been noted these are small ships and the percentage of CC people (and those who would respond) can be low. But for another view, before our Regent cruise (700 passengers), we had a tremendous roll call with I would guess 40-50 people and I only met two of them on board. So I think it depends on the cruise.

It's so easy to be social on the small sisters. And we only have two weeks now until we are on board the Legend again and I can't wait to meet the people who have responded to the roll call.

We will be cruising again with Seabourn Sojourn in June 2014 from Monte Carlo - we have been involved with roll calls on other lines and have found them excellent with a good number of cruisers attending the "get togethers" on board. However we note there is only one other posting for this cruise and interested to read that Seabourn cruisers do not in the main sign up for roll calls - a bit disappointing. We noticed on our last Seabourn cruise that our U.S. cruisers often travel together in big groups and this of course generally means that they stick together. We are an Australian couple and maybe that makes a difference. We will see what happens between now and June.

When Dan suggested having roll calls for Seabourn cruises a while ago I thought it was a great idea. Now not so sure. We have a roll call going for our upcoming cruise from Istanbul to Athens and also from Athens to Rome. Very little response to either of these RC's.

Share if you will your experiences with our roll calls.

Just a question' date=' I don't mean to rock the boat :p[/quote']

Same problem here...we are commencing a 36 day cruise on the Odyssey on Oct 4. I love to take private tours, but they are usually too expensive for just two people. There are only about five people on the roll call, and only one couple responded to a private tour I arranged.

Another necro thread. IMO the roll calls don't work. I don't recall hearing any CC names at the Skybar @ 1600 the other day at sail away from St. Thomas.

In the olden days, before CC posted a separate Roll Call forum, people looking to share tours posted on this forum. At that time I always received responses to share and met some very dear friends that way. Since the Roll Call has been separate I find fewer postings. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to do this for such small ships.

We had such a nice group for our Legend cruise March '11. And getting to know one another beforehand certainly added to the anticipation of the cruise...... And we only have two weeks now until we are on board the Legend again and I can't wait to meet the people who have responded to the roll call.

The Roll Calls have always worked for me. We are currently on the Legend & have organised at least 3 private tours with fellow passengers via the Roll Call. See you in Dubai hoosier74!

I started a roll call for our upcoming Spirit cruise in mid April 2014, and have had only 1 other couple reply. (a very nice couple!). I am under the impression most would rather arrange private tours or do ship excursions. Most of my previous experience was with Celebrity and I met a lot of interesting people on the roll call to share private tours with and exchange ideas before the cruise. As this is such a small ship, I did not expect a lot of response.

I think that there are an awful lot of Lurkers on the Seabourn board....... I have never figured out why....

On our last SB cruise (Barcelona to Rio on the Quest Oct 2013) there was an active roll call and a good group turned up at an initial meeting. It was good to have familiar faces over the next two weeks, but it was less 'in your face' than on the only mainstream cruise CC meet up we've been to.

My opinion is that roll calls do not work as effectively with the smaller luxury lines as the do with the larger mass market lines.

This is a shame because many luxury line pax do like to take private tours, but don't think to go on the roll calls to find others to do them with.

Personally, I never use roll calls for private tours. Private means just that to me, private for me and my traveling partner only. I don't want to have to consider anyone else's needs or desires. That's why I take private tours. But I do like the roll calls for finding out in advance who will be on board.

All you need is to meet one or two couples on it for transportation / to share a private car. I would say only a very small percentage of those travelling on SB will ever go on these boards at all, but a handful of passengers for any given cruise will go on Roll Call. Post closer in time to the cruise.

We're on the Odyssey in less than two weeks. I keep going onto the roll call in the hope of 'meeting' some fellow passsengers, and have posted several times but received no responses.

I don't think its purely because Europeans don't post so much (as intimated in previous posts). Obviously, there are far fewer cruisers from the UK than the US due to population. I was on Azamara last year and the roll call was so lively and informative. I'm also hoping we'll make friends that we can have a drink and chat with sometimes.

The Roll Calls have always worked for me. We are currently on the Legend & have organised at least 3 private tours with fellow passengers via the Roll Call. See you in Dubai hoosier74!

While I would love to be on the Legend in two weeks, I won't be. My post was from 2012. On our recent Sojourn cruise, we had a reasonably active roll call and the sail away was a bust (mostly because it was delayed and then delayed again until about 8 PM....since we had flown in that day, we were already asleep by then). We only met up with one of the other couples on the roll call and while that made it worthwhile---super nice MichiganDave!--I think it is hard to generate much interest in a roll call on such a small ship.

We were on Azamara Journey last year with only 460 passengers and the roll call was extremely lively. A similar cruise this year on Journey, also a small ship, is equally busy. I think several factors account for fewer or more posts. Given up on our next roll call. Just hoping there are some friendly people when we're onboard!

Welwyngirl, I went to the Odyssey roll call feature, since I also have one set up for responses, and could not easily find yours. Could this be a factor? I tend to think what works is a subject line defining ship, dates, and emb/disemb ports. But then, maybe you've already erased it... V.

Welwyngirl, I went to the Odyssey roll call feature, since I also have one set up for responses, and could not easily find yours. Could this be a factor? I tend to think what works is a subject line defining ship, dates, and emb/disemb ports. But then, maybe you've already erased it... V.

I couldn't find the correct roll call initially either, Ithaca, didn't realise it was titled 'Kingdoms of the Sun'. I agree with having a definite subject line but it seems there are only one or two posts from each person and then they stop! Probably for the same reason I have!