Roll Calls...way of Dodo?

Curious what people think are the reasons for a big lack of posting/interest in Roll Call threads? I have been a participant in the Roll Calls of any cruise I have been on and enjoyed the bantering and getting to know some of the folks a little before the cruise.

Today I see on many different roll calls a lack of interest and posting activity. Not sure why that might be..but it does seem to be widespread.

Curious what people think are the reasons for a big lack of posting/interest in Roll Call threads? I have been a participant in the Roll Calls of any cruise I have been on and enjoyed the bantering and getting to know some of the folks a little before the cruise.

 

Today I see on many different roll calls a lack of interest and posting activity. Not sure why that might be..but it does seem to be widespread.

Lack of feature, too many posting rules, better sites to get to know people on that for whatever reason cant be mentioned here. Also the meet and mingles are always the same. I think its just a dying method of getting to know people.

6&8

I think it varies as to length of cruise and the itinerary. We've never had a busy roll call on Caribbean itineraries. The roll calls for the three we have this year are all active. Our two NCL cruises last year both had active roll calls....longer cruises. When we've had seven day cruises on NCL and HAL...not so much.

Most of the ones I'm on are quite active (not because of me).

I think it's hit or miss.

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Lack of feature, too many posting rules, better sites to get to know people on that for whatever reason cant be mentioned here. Also the meet and mingles are always the same. I think its just a dying method of getting to know people.

 

6&8

^^ This ^^

I tried a roll call thread once, but it didn't seem to have any function other than to say Im going on this cruise. So I never really tried one again.

Im perfectly happy with my signature informing people of my upcoming cruises and I think thats mostly just for my own ego :p

I just think its the nature of a particular cruise and the people on that cruise. In January our roll call was slow until after the holidays and just a few weeks from cruise date. In 2 weeks time we went from 30-40 people saying they would attend the M&G to over 70. We actually had over 80 people show up. It was nice.

This was on the Getaway. Norwegian also did things a little different. Along with the officers, Sponge Bob made an appearance. Also some bar staff walked around with some smoothies. The staff really mingled more than most I've attended.

Now my longer Panama Canal Cruise that is coming in April, has some awesome participants, we are planning some excursions together, but our numbers are still on the lower side (about 30). Hoping a few more people will join us and our numbers increase by sail date.

I don't know that the site that can't be named is really the issue as every time I've searched for people sailing on my sailings, I've had zero luck finding any groups.

So my thoughts is it just has to do with people and how crazy their personal lives are and how much they want to communicate and share ahead of time

Maybe people don't want to broadcast when they won't be home. Ya Neva Know!!!

I am on several different discussion forums and it's the same elsewhere. There is little interest in newbies wanting to make the effort to post unless they want to vent or are looking for answers to a question.

Just got off Jade B2B. First Roll Call very active. Second kind of dead. Part of it may have had to do with E/Med (first) being somewhat more of an unknown destination than the W/Med (second).

Our main reason for the M&G was to set up excursions and get others to join up and save %40 or more or even get add on's to the tour that ship is offering.

Last time we did a M&G was 2010 19 day South America cruise and most were unfamiliar with the ports. M&G went well we for the excursions just didn't participate in the other stuff.

However the big reasons for not participating are not into slot pulls, not into gift exchange (that's kids stuff) not into cabin crawls or pub crawls meetings dinners, and too much posting all about nothing and the list goes on.

I also don't think that Caribbean ports have been done over and over by a lot of us.

For our first cruise on Epic in Europe, the Roll Call made the experience for us. I couldn't wait to start one when we booked our second cruise on Pearl in the Caribbean but there were major differences--most folks had families along, as opposed to couples traveling without kids, and there wasn't much need/interest to try to set up shared private excursions. I'm seeing the same issue with our current Alaska Roll Call--folks just check in, but not much more--and I'm ok with that, I guess.

IMHO, the reasons for a busy roll call and a quiet/dead roll call can vary from Roll Call to Roll Call. Sometimes it is the people who post often who can keep the ball rolling. Sometimes it is because you have been on an itinerary so many times you aren't really interested in talking about it or coming off as a know it all. In reading the OP's post, it occurred to me that many of us are so plugged in to tweets, blogs, and Facebook that the novelty of posting thoughts is much less attractive.

^^ This ^^

 

I tried a roll call thread once, but it didn't seem to have any function other than to say Im going on this cruise. So I never really tried one again.

Im perfectly happy with my signature informing people of my upcoming cruises and I think thats mostly just for my own ego :p

We're at 1,900 posts on my upcoming October cruise. And there must be a dozen activities planned:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=45706376&postcount=1836

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I guess we've been lucky! Always a great group on our roll calls! Nice to get the chat and party going before hand. Gets the excitement going!

Also have booked tours with other roll call members, many of whom we are still friends with years later.

I think the common love of cruising and planning brings some folks together quicker than others.

Some roll calls on Cruise Critic have ALWAYS been more active than others.

Roll Calls and M&G do not always seem to relate. The roll call and be quite chatty and fun, but the M&G is dull and people hardly talk (or vice versa). I think these things are what you make them.

Our upcoming cruise has some fun interactive events planned. Some of the standard stuff, but also a pre-cruise dinner in Miami. I would love to take credit for arranging it.

Our main reason for the M&G was to set up excursions and get others to join up and save %40 or more or even get add on's to the tour that ship is offering.

 

Last time we did a M&G was 2010 19 day South America cruise and most were unfamiliar with the ports. M&G went well we for the excursions just didn't participate in the other stuff.

 

However the big reasons for not participating are not into slot pulls, not into gift exchange (that's kids stuff) not into cabin crawls or pub crawls meetings dinners, and too much posting all about nothing and the list goes on.

 

I also don't think that Caribbean ports have been done over and over by a lot of us.

Amen.

I was really keen to use Roll Call to set up private tours.

It was good to use M&G to put faces to names and to reconfirm excursions but beyond that there's no way I would have stuck around for a gift exchange/slot pull had there been one (there wasn't).

CC telling us what links and other things we can and cannot post in the Roll Call also cramps my style.

CC telling us what links and other things we can and cannot post in the Roll Call also cramps my style.

As for one who isn't and never will be part of the book with the faces I feel that is an extremely fair thing for C.C. to do. This website is theirs and their rules to make for it. I don't want to feel left out of a 'group meet up' just because everyone is touting it on FB. I am glad there are options for meeting cruisers and discussing excursions.

As for one who isn't and never will be part of the book with the faces I feel that is an extremely fair thing for C.C. to do. This website is theirs and their rules to make for it. I don't want to feel left out of a 'group meet up' just because everyone is touting it on FB. I am glad there are options for meeting cruisers and discussing excursions.

I'm not on that other website either.

I don't know anyone who gives a rat's as to what I ate for lunch today, so why I'd bother posting it, I've no idea.

While CC is within its rights to say what can and can't be posted, it's weak. That other website we're not on does understand that censorship doesn't build community. This site's practice of banning mentions of groups, and asterisking out useful sites like the one about the fish who like to cruise, only hurts CC in the long run.

I think it depends on the people involved. We leave on March 5 on the Pearl and have over 100 pages and 2000 posts. Great group.

Another reason for low post count is ignorance. I've been on 3 cruises and just found out about CC and roll calls.

We have 2 upcoming cruises that I just booked....I started roll calls for both. On one, I am the only poster. On the other, I have 1 other poster.

I have no idea what the 'other' site is....bummer....since you guys can't even tell me ( would it help me to check FB?). Our nearest cruise is only 2 months away (May 1st on the Pearl). My wife and I are going without the kids and it would be nice to have a drink or meet up with some others while cruising. It's a lot easier if you've chatted with them beforehand. Plus, they may have some tips or know of some events we are not aware of.

We had our first M&G last year. The roll call was Ok, but the M&G was boring. The crew came out and all, but they did that multiple times throughout the cruise. We are early 40's and I felt like we were the youngest couple there.

I am booked on the Escape for Nov. and the thread has been hijacked by 3 or 4 members who just banter back and forth, about work and other personal issues. I really don't see the point of going to the M&G if its going to be clicky.

That's the thing. People have to have things in common. My first two cruises, the roll call went nowhere, no one met up, no M&G. The last one was a bit better, larger ship, longer cruise. Met a few people that we saw here and there but the M&G was pretty boring. Maybe, just maybe, we'll find some people on the next one. We are 8 months out, but I'd like to meet some bar buddies on this one.

For my last cruise, while the participants were very well intended, I was uncomfortable with the insistence that we post "key words" about ourselves to help facilitate conversation during the meet and greet. It completely turned me off.

The personal tibits about my life like what I do, what my hobbies are, and my family dynamic should be private until I decide that I want to share them with the person I am standing in front of. Others were fine sharing, I wasn't.

Roll calls usually get more active as the sailing date gets closer. Some cruisers start a roll call when their cruise is nearly two years away, so obviously there won't be any activity for a while. We has 150 at our recent M&G on Gem and a slot pull that lasted two hours.