What do you find MOST useful about the Cruise Critic forums?

What do you find MOST useful about the Cruise Critic forums?

The "tips & advice" !

Just because we've been cruising for a long time and have taken lots of cruises doesn't mean we know everything! :D

If newbie cruisers have cruised on a cruise line or ship or taken an excursion we haven't, they will know more about it than we do and we appreciate their help!

LuLu

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That was a tough question. I could have easily picked three "mosts"!:D

I picked other......I have been on this site for 10 years now and of course

never too old to learn.:) Getting information is always a good thing.

But I also enjoy seeing some of my friends (who I am now friends with

in real life:D) and we chat on a couple of "fun threads"......so it is

more than just one thing and since you can't choose multiple reasons

I had to choose other.:)

I love the information and experiences of other travelers, it saves me the""Ooh.. I forgot to do that!! "", or " I didn't know about that?! " feeling. I am very grateful to all the info on CC, along with the friendly people .

I find the Ports of call section the most useful. The Regent board is amusing to me due to the one or two "Oracles" who seem to have the final word on all things big and small as related to Regent or PCH....

all of the above!!

I could have picked more than one, also... :-D

What do you find MOST useful about the Cruise Critic forums?

Staying apprised of what is going on with cruising, such as cruise news, changes, what's new, issues, etc.

As someone that is fairly new to cruising, Cruise Critic has been a wonderful source for making our trips the best they can be.

It was hard to choose only 1 though. I also wanted to say meeting people before the cruise. As I have now found some life long friends that I hope to cruise with again some day

Tips and advise from other cruisers has saved me a lot of money, helped me choose some really fabulous excursions and given me insight into any new cruise ship/line I sail before I try them out. The friends I have made on here (and then met on ships) is the icing on the cake.

I find this place pretty awesome.

All of the above. I like getting tips, but you do need to learn to be able to seperate fact from fiction. I love meeting my roll call before I am on the ship, I love reading the reviews, and I love my Legend roll call from last year, we are plotting ournext cruise now.:D

I picked "other." I like using the roll call as a resource to put together a private excursion. Not tips. Just to recruit fellow cruisers, or to tag onto an already in place tour.

Also when I have time on my hands, it's something to do.

Tough choice between questions one and two. Easily could be either.

Its good for all, though it has been going downhill very fast the last few years. You can rarely state an honest opinion or true facts without getting flamed or punished. I use it primarily for entertainment anymore, attempting to read the fun stuff before it gets removed. Seems like a lot of stuff gets removed that shouldn't be, and a lot of stuff that should be, stays. FB is the place to go for honest, useful information and meaningful discussions.

I like reading about others' experiences and see answers to their questions on stuff I probably never would have thought to ask. The boards even helped me to choose my new camera. The special needs area has been quite a bit helpful to me as a disabled cruiser.

Just wish they could curb some of the nasty people who pick on others for what they say on the boards. Can't they just chill and not answer if they don't like something?

I really enjoy reading reviews....it helps me plan my cruise. Love when there are lots of pictures, too. I usually feel very comfortable knowing everything there is to know about the ship BEFORE I board! It helps me navigate my way around and gets my vacation off to an even faster start! :)

And I like having an idea about what 'not to miss' and things to avoid.

VERY detailed picture reviews are invaluable! I wish CC had an area just for them!

All of the knowledge and willingness to share with anyone that asks.

This has to be the most helpful and kind(most times) than any other information site!!!:D

Like others I voted for "something else" because I needed multiple answers. While we have gotten great tips/advice over the years and are very appreciative of it (and certainly continue to learn things) we couldn't rank it above the friendships we have made by chatting with folks before and after cruises. We might or might not have met Some of our best buddies if we hadn't chatted on the M&M boards! Love, love, love CC. Love the cruise line forums. Love the M&M forums. Love the "cruise-related" but not "cruise specific" forums. The only thing I would like to see more of is for more folks to visit the "port" boards so those boards would be more active. For me it is all about the boards/forums. I rarely look at anything else on CC. (But LOVE CC forums!)

It was tough to pick. I get so much from CC. I have made good friends, learn about new rules or innovations, get great ideas for excursions. Heck I even got helpful packing hints! There is so much to learn and I always do. Thanks CC.

I don't read it as much as I used to because people have become very snotty and act like they know everything, and if someone else's opinion differs from theirs they are just wrong. I hate that part.

But I still join every single Roll Call because we have met life long friends from a Roll Call probably 11 or so years ago that we will be forever grateful. We went to our first "real" meet and greet from the roll call and met this wonderful couple that we cruise every year with since! Their values and philosophy on vacation and life are so similar to ours that every year we just pick up where we left off. We keep in touch all year long and plan our next cruise while we are on that cruise. We have so much fun and we love them dearly(yes Palolake- Cathy and Bill I am talking about you!). So we will always thank Cruise Critic for that.

Sue

The most useful is getting tips and advice for future cruises and shore excursions.

However, the most common reason I post (by far) is to share local advice and insight and to answer questions about the port city where I live at the time.

I agree with most of what dave76310 had to say. People have made CC a facebook copycat under the guise of informing or organizing shore excursions etc. CC is good for someone taking the lead on planning all sorts of good stuff for others to participate in whilst on holiday. I greatly appreciate those who devote a lot of time to make cruises better and more fun for all of us and I have taken advantage of their generosity and info passing. I trust others have benefitted from things I've had to offer as well. However, in the past year or so an epidemic of fluff which does not belong on the roll calls has permeated those threads. I pretty much dropped off one roll call when it exceeded 1500 posts for a cruise which was not sailing for months and months. I see that particular roll call now has over 2500 posts (and it doesn't sail for another 3 months!) and I venture to say half of them could be handled on another venue between parties interested in wishing each other Happy Birthday, deciding which hotel to stay at, which show to go see prior to the sailing, yada yada yada........... In contrast the roll call for another cruise I am taking just prior to the one just mentioned has one tenth of the number of posts on it. Maybe it's the demographic of those taking the trans-Atlantic sailing that is driving folks to post so frequently. The simple socializing that is occurring on CC is just clogging up the thread. I'm not anti-social at all but CC was not designed for people to "keep in touch". I mean no offense to those who continually gab on CC but I wish you'd stop and keep CC strictly for pertinent information sharing. If you must gab and I am not against that at all please use your personal emails so the rest of us don't have to wade through all the fluff which quite frankly is meaningless. I know I'll get flamed for this and I hope others who feel the same way support me. I know you're out there.

While the other stuff is nice too, Tips and Advice is by far the most important thing. I've been cruising for years but only recently found this site. I LOVE IT! I'm the "coordinator" for our group of friends so I do most of the research and book most of our travel. The ability to come here and ask questions and look up posts where people have reviewed the ships, the cabins, the features, excursions/private tours, and other experiences is very useful.