Are fewer cruisers participating in Roll Calls now??

:confused::confused:Is it just me or are only a very few people signing up on the HAL Roll Calls ?

I have posted on our Roll Call for private tours for our Canada/New England cruise on August 4, 2018 and

no one has replied except two couples who are travelling on different dates.

I am the only one on the Roll Call. I find this very strange and unusual.

ANY ideas why .........:confused:

The roll call for our recent Eurodam sailing had minimal participation. I could be wrong, but I tend to think this may be somewhat unique to HAL and its demographic.

From our experience, roll calls from other lines are typically quite active with lots of participation.

Just my experience and opinion though..

I would not presume to speak for anyone but myself, so I will not attempt to address anyone else's reason(s) for not joining Roll Calls. For myself, it is a decision based on the very unpleasant personalities of some of the RC folks we met. I see no purpose served in joining a group whose members I would not choose as friends off a cruise. We do not go on cruises to find/make new friends - we already have enough good friends at home, some of whom also enjoy cruising and, on occasion, join us on a cruise that we both find interesting.

In my opinion, it varies from cruise to cruise. I have 3 Roll Calls posted: two for the Nieuw Statendam and one for Royal Princess. Minimal participation for all of them thus far. But, the cruises are in the 12/29/18-1/13/19 time period. People may not be thinking that far ahead and have the time and are willing to begin communicating on a Roll Call.

On my most cruises, the Roll Call numbers have been nearly overwhelming. During my Zaandam's Christmas/New Year's Cruise recently, there was active participation and a very large turnout for the M&G. I have found that, disappointingly, I am unable to "find" some of the people who have posted on the Roll Call that I really looked forward to meeting. When one only knows a screen name, that is of no use in trying to make contact with them on a ship.

Our two most recent HAL sailings (February 2017 to Hawaii on Westerdam and September 2017 Zuideram Quebec to New York), as well as our contemplated January 2019 Volendam San Diego to Fort Lauderdale, showed the same low roll call participation.

Previous sailings involved dozens of posters and hundreds of posts - recently there seem to be maybe ten or so - only posting a couple of times before losing interest because of lack of response.

In earlier years the same demographic seemed to show a lot more interest.

My Canada/New England cruise for this summer has no activity. That's ok. It is a port intensive cruise and the Meet and Greet would be towards the end of the cruise. That might be why people don't join. Also, all of the ports are easy for DIY and no real reason to plan tours together.

Now, the cruise I want for 2019 has much more activity. It is a 24 day cruise and has the opportunity to plan tours and such. The cruise I did last summer - 14 days in Norway - was slow at first, but picked up closer to sailing and we had 60 at the Meet and Greet.

I have met a lot of great people on the ship thanks to our roll calls.

We had a pretty active roll call for our Rotterdam cruise and for my upcoming Prinsendam cruise, I would say we are very active - over 1700 posts, around 70 for our Meet and greet on our first segment and nearly 80 for our 2nd.

Those are pretty good numbers considering it is nearly 10% of the P'dam.

Nearly all of our private tours were filled very fast. There seemed to be a couple that, for some strange reason, people didn't sign for but the rest were booked up very fast.

It might be the itinerary? People can do their own thing?

Not sure, but just trying to figure out the conundrum.

In my opinion, a M&G towards the end of a cruise is a waste of time. To be recognized by Roll Call members earlier in the cruise, wear some type of recognizable sign as to who you are. This worked for me in Santiago in December. During the Roll Call, I said that I would be wearing a particular colored windbreaker and a ball cap from my Alma Mater. While waiting for a transfer from the airport to the hotel, the organizer of our Roll Call and M&G recognized me when her husband and she arrived at where we needed to be for our transfer.

In my opinion, a M&G towards the end of a cruise is a waste of time. To be recognized by Roll Call members earlier in the cruise, wear some type of recognizable sign as to who you are. This worked for me in Santiago in December. During the Roll Call, I said that I would be wearing a particular colored windbreaker and a ball cap from my Alma Mater. While waiting for a transfer from the airport to the hotel, the organizer of our Roll Call and M&G recognized me when her husband and she arrived at where we needed to be for our transfer.

I agree - a M & G too late in the cruise is too little, too late.

Our 2nd segment on our upcoming cruise is very port intensive, so I have asked for space only to be saved for us and we will gather for a sail a way/ meet and greet in the Crow's Nest. We don't expect HAL's cookies, tea, coffee & water (and I suspect many will have a saila way drink). I made that quite clear in my request. I just wanted some saved space. We'll make our own fun. HAL has kindly obliged. :D

I found it varies really on the cruisers themselves. I've been on some sailings where the roll call was very active early and ongoing on board. One cruise, the roll call agreed and had a happy hour pre M&G price was reasonable and almost open bar. It and M&G was full. On a HAL sailing,had an informal with people wearing beads and formal one later.

Others been where the most active on roll call were MIA to M&G. Some only a few show up. Other roll call dead the whole time. Some picked up after final payment or a month out. You can't say it just varies.

I posted the same thing on our roll call on Veendam 7/7/18. I think we have three members. I would have liked trying to share private tours, but as previously noted, maybe people are just doing their own thing.

On two NCL and one Celebrity cruise I have joined the roll call and found great excursions to share as well as onboard activities like cabin crawls and slot pulls. Joined our Westerdam roll call 10 months out and it is so quiet. Only 15 members and nothing happening. Have been really disappointed, HAL seems very different, I would like to know why?

:confused::confused:Is it just me or are only a very few people signing up on the HAL Roll Calls ?

I have posted on our Roll Call for private tours for our Canada/New England cruise on August 4, 2018 and

no one has replied except two couples who are travelling on different dates.

I am the only one on the Roll Call. I find this very strange and unusual.

ANY ideas why .........:confused:

I've seen this same question asked not just here on the HAL board, but on other boards as well. From everything I've read, and I'm no expert, others seem to think that social media options are replacing CC roll calls.

I think the length of the cruise may make a difference, too. I've noticed that for the shorter cruises (< 14 days), there isn't much roll call activity. My first cruise last fall to Alaska -- 14 days on the Amsterdam -- never did get much roll call activity (maybe 10 or so folks who posted on it).

It may just be a coincidence, but the roll call for this summer's Voyage of the Vikings (July 18 - August 25 -- 38 days) has been super active since I booked the cruise last summer, and is now up to 130 participants, with 91 signed up (so far) for the first M&M and 36 signed up for the second M&M after we pick up some new folks and "turn around" in Rotterdam. We have trivia teams lined up, a sit 'n' stitch organized, lots of excursion activity, etc.

And the roll call for the Mar 9, 2019, Hawaii-Tahiti-Marquesas (28 days) has been busy, too -- lots of activity re: private excursions, etc. -- almost a year from now.

But that doesn't seem to apply to other cruise lines either -- I'm booked in a 29-day Regent Seven Seas trip this fall from Vancouver, BC to Miami (includes both Alaska and the Panama Canal), and there are about 6 of us who've posted on the roll call. It's just dead over there! Granted, it's a smaller ship, but still -- it's not an insignificant trip.

I travel solo, so I'm used to entertaining myself, but I do enjoy getting to know other folks who are sharing what for me, at least, is probably a once in a lifetime trip. It's all good.

Lana in Bellingham, WA

We have only been to one M&G. Met some lovely people who we bumped into a few times around the ship. Unfortunately there were a couple of very self opinionated, loud, obnoxious people there who knew everything.

Haven't been to one since.

We have only been to one M&G. Met some lovely people who we bumped into a few times around the ship. Unfortunately there were a couple of very self opinionated, loud, obnoxious people there who knew everything.

Haven't been to one since.

We have been on many roll calls on various cruise lines including 2 others on HAL. People at the M&G always vary. There are always a few who are full of themselves and think they know everything, but most are friendly and fun to spend time with.

After several disappointing cruise ship's excursions, I started participating and organizing private tours and never looked back. The private small group tours are far superior and much cheaper and well worth the time to organized. Last summer I organized 2 tours which filled up almost immediately. This upcoming cruise I have 2 tours booked for a maximum of 6 people including us and so far no takers. Maybe after final payment things will pick up. I can only hope !

Thanks for all the replies.

We assume the OP is referring to the onboard Meet and Greets"....as opposed to the Roll Calls which are simply blogs here on CC.

DW and I are in the group that seldom participates in HAL M&Gs....anymore. Years ago we were always active, went to the M&G and often participated in follow-up social events organized at that first meet. But then things changed. We had folks who wanted "gift exchanges," "imposed rules such as no talking about private tours," and a few that always wanted to take over the function and run things according to their own desires. Like most of the HAL Senior Officers, we soon grew weary of what was happening at M&Gs...and we stopped participating...unless we had to go to meet another cruiser with whom we were involved in some shared port tours.

And the same thing happened to us with most of the Mariner's Club functions. We used to enjoy the awards function and the luncheons. But then we started to meet folks who were wearing their Medallions, telling us how they "earned" their Medallions, stuck their noses up in the air as they would tell of their hundreds of days on HAL, etc. And the luncheon menus (and food) was nothing great. We discovered that those luncheons were a great time to go to the Lido buffet (no big lines or fighting for a table) etc. So now we are 5 Star Mariners with more our share of medallions (either thrown away by DW or sitting in a bottom drawer somewhere) and feel even less personal need to attend those functions. We will still go if we meet some friends who want us to join them....but otherwise we prefer to be relaxing in a deck chair and not having to wear "smart causal" clothes during the daytime :). On our last 3 or 4 cruises we have sunk to such a low...that we don't go to any Mariner function...even when its just a small group cocktail hour.

This might sound elitest, but there are just too many HAL cruisers (mostly fellow 4-5 Star Mariners) that seem to have a personal agenda of impressing others with how much they cruise on HAL...and how much they love the line. To us, HAL is a fine cruise line...but just one of many upon which we cruise. But you will never find us wearing those silly medallions around our necks..or even wearing the Pins. We will leave that too others who apparently have a need to impress.

Hank

We have only been to one M&G. Met some lovely people who we bumped into a few times around the ship. Unfortunately there were a couple of very self opinionated, loud, obnoxious people there who knew everything.

Haven't been to one since.

This is one of the reasons I won't do "fixed seating" dining. I tend to do longer cruises and the thought of having to share a table with a blowhard or two just doesn't fit with my idea of a relaxing vacation experience. Open seating seems to work well for me.

This is one of the reasons I won't do "fixed seating" dining. I tend to do longer cruises and the thought of having to share a table with a blowhard or two just doesn't fit with my idea of a relaxing vacation experience. Open seating seems to work well for me.

Could not agree with you more...husband and I go to open seating and request a table for two. Maybe we are missing a chance to meet some very nice people who are interested in knowing us. But past experience has resulted in us meeting people who are interested in them telling us all about THEM. :rolleyes:

Yes IMO there are fewer and fewer individuals participating in Roll Calls. As for M&G's it has always been hit and miss, I set one up and 76 people said they would be there, the Captain, Bar Manager, and Hotel Manager all came ant only 21 people showed up. This is more of an individual integrity thing if you say you are going to be some where then either come or let people know you can't make it.

We have only been to one M&G. Met some lovely people who we bumped into a few times around the ship. Unfortunately there were a couple of very self opinionated, loud, obnoxious people there who knew everything.

Haven't been to one since.

This is one of the reasons I won't do "fixed seating" dining. I tend to do longer cruises and the thought of having to share a table with a blowhard or two just doesn't fit with my idea of a relaxing vacation experience. Open seating seems to work well for me.

Two very good Posts!!! (y)(y)(y)

Could not agree with you more...husband and I go to open seating and request a table for two. Maybe we are missing a chance to meet some very nice people who are interested in knowing us. But past experience has resulted in us meeting people who are interested in them telling us all about THEM. :rolleyes:

Another spot on Post!!! (y)(y)(y)

Wow! Donald Trump was on your cruise?:D:D :D

... and this Post pretty well sums it all up for me ... even if you don't join a RC or attend a M&G, you might encounter boors, louts and imbeciles, so why tempt fate and join a RC or M&G where you are almost certain to do so? JMO YMMV

HamOp, I have to say that when I started this thread, it was never meant to become a political discussion. This is not the place for politics so, regardless of your political views, please discuss them elsewhere. Thank you in advance.

Perhaps you missed the 3 smiles at the end. It was a joke. Get over it.

I am one of only two on our roll call for a Boston to Montreal cruise.

We've been on one other HAL cruise (Greek Isles) and the roll call and subsequent meet and greet were very well populated.