Which cruise line has the most interactive cruisers Celebrity , Princess or HAL ?

[scubacruiserx2]

They are our favorite 3 cruise lines so who do you think has the most interactive cruisers ?

[Pam in CA]

I think it depends more on the size of the ship and itinerary. I’ve been on all three lines and the most “interactive” cruises I’ve taken were on the Pacific Princess and HAL’s Prinsendam and Amsterdam. Thirty-day and longer cruises on Princess, such as my 31-day on the Sapphire, was very interactive. 

[scubacruiserx2]

Merriam Webster defines interactive as Mutually or reciprocally active .

[patrickmoran]

Yes. It depends on what you make of it.  The best indicator would probably be the roll call for which ever cruise you are interested in.

[BarbinMich]

Do you mean friendliest?  We've been on 51 cruises and all were on the 3 lines you mention.  Our last cruise was on HAL and I would say it was a "quieter" cruise than most of our other ones which have mainly been on Princess (a few on Celebrity).  HAL ships are generally smaller than those on the other two lines.  We always enjoy trivia and that was offered less often on HAL than on the other lines.  There were 3 susbstantive lecturers on our last HAL cruise (it was a TA, which is what we usually do plus 1/yr in the Caribbean), nightly entertainment was underwhelming compared to that on Princess and X.  As long-time members of Cruise Critic, we always join the Roll Call for our cruise.  I would say that RCs are much more active on Princess than Celebrity and HAL, planning small group excursions plus events on sea days, esp. on TAs.  I enjoy playing the slots and pretty much had that part of the casino to myself on the last HAL cruise.

[Qcruise]

We mostly cruise Princess,  but think they could do way better.  The one Celebrity cruise we did on the Infinity had something called a "silent party" and they did it twice during an 8 night cruise.  Everyone gets a headset which has light up ear pieces Red, Blue and Green.....each color is for a chanel the DJ is broadcasting and has different music .....county or hip hop etc.  What you have is a bunch of people dancing or conga lines and it's silent.....so people walking by can't hear anything but everyone is dancing a different way based on what they are listing to .   It was a hoot.......I wish Princess would do this......

[scubacruiserx2]

The reason we joined Cruise Critic, is to be active  and interactive with fellow cruisers on our cruises. Joining Roll Calls and participating in Meet and Greets as well as shore excursions together.  Also dining together, meeting for drinks, meeting before the cruise or after the cruise and share like interests (for us it would be photography and scuba diving). We have written at least 3  photo travelogues  for each of the 3  cruise lines, to share  travel experiences and tips we have picked-up from others along the way. In the process we have made some life long friends.

Which cruise line has the most participation or interaction on Roll Calls which leads to other activities on and off the ship as a result ?

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

The reason we joined Cruise Critic, is to be active  and interactive with fellow cruisers on our cruises. Joining Roll Calls and participating in Meet and Greets as well as shore excursions together.  Also dining together, meeting for drinks, meeting before the cruise or after the cruise and share like interests (for us it would be photography and scuba diving). We have written at least 3  photo travelogues  for each of the 3  cruise lines, to share  travel experiences and tips we have picked-up from others along the way. In the process we have made some life long friends.

Which cruise line has the most participation or interaction on Roll Calls which leads to other activities on and off the ship as a result ?

well, what were 'your' expectations and results ?   does it really matter what others think when you have first hand knowledge ?  I'd like to read your thoughts ...

[hbrote]

54 minutes ago, Qcruise said:

We mostly cruise Princess,  but think they could do way better.  The one Celebrity cruise we did on the Infinity had something called a "silent party" and they did it twice during an 8 night cruise.  Everyone gets a headset which has light up ear pieces Red, Blue and Green.....each color is for a chanel the DJ is broadcasting and has different music .....county or hip hop etc.  What you have is a bunch of people dancing or conga lines and it's silent.....so people walking by can't hear anything but everyone is dancing a different way based on what they are listing to .   It was a hoot.......I wish Princess would do this......

Not really silent when those in headphones start singing out loud but sure entertaining 😂😂

[NemoCrownie]

50 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

The reason we joined Cruise Critic, is to be active  and interactive with fellow cruisers on our cruises. Joining Roll Calls and participating in Meet and Greets as well as shore excursions together.  Also dining together, meeting for drinks, meeting before the cruise or after the cruise and share like interests (for us it would be photography and scuba diving). We have written at least 3  photo travelogues  for each of the 3  cruise lines, to share  travel experiences and tips we have picked-up from others along the way. In the process we have made some life long friends.

Which cruise line has the most participation or interaction on Roll Calls which leads to other activities on and off the ship as a result ?

I think it depends on several factors.  I had a 14 night Celebrity cruise cancelled for 1/31/2020 and the roll call has almost 3,000 replies and various activities, besides the routine roll call Meet and Greet and the Sailaway party, were planned; i.e., a Pub/Poker Crawl, Cabin Crawl, Slot Pull and LRC games. The roll call participants included a fair number of cruisers that do 14 night Caribbean itineraries, are active and want to book group tours, along with a desire to meet others. We then booked our first Princess Cruise which is a 15 night to Hawaii.  The Hawaii cruise has a roll call that just hit 100 replies and seems to be made up of Hawaii itinerary "regulars".  My expectation is that the customer base will be older and less adventuress, they already know what they are going to do on the very few port days, etc. and there aren't enough other roll call participants to plan a lot of activities.

 

I have always been a part of very active roll calls on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity so I suspect the Princess roll call is a one off of the norm but expect that the passenger base will be equally as engaging.

 

BTW, we are also divers and, with only a few exceptions, have only had a handful of other divers that were also active on a roll call with us.

[scubacruiserx2]

In response to our question Celebrity had 303 views and 14 replies . HAL had 288 views and 11 responses and Princess had 218 views and 9 responses . Only Princess had more helpful and constructive responses than unhelpful . 

 

On Celebrity our top 3 travelogues have 522,000 views

 

On Princess our top 3 travelogues have 326 ,000 views

 

On HAL our top 3 travelogues have 177 ,000 views 

 

Our last 2 cruises on HAL were 2 of our longest and best cruises with some our best photos and videos and yet we only had 66 , 000 views . We wonder how many views we would have had if we were on Celebrity or Princess .

 

Our 3 future cruises have no M&G's or tours planned so we have booked our own tours . When we organized a M&G on the Eurodam to Alaska we were the only 2 people there .

[bemis12]

You care entirely too much about how many people are viewing your travelogue.

[mek]

1 hour ago, bemis12 said:

You care entirely too much about how many people are viewing your travelogue.

Not nice.   

 

And perhaps they make money with their travelogues.

[ldubs]

Most interactive?  Depends on which one has the best/fastest wifi.  😀😀😀

[pjrockman]

I find this thread quite intriguing and it is what I like to read on CC, as opposed to the many unhelpful comments that penetrate the site.  Scubacruiser didn’t even link their travelogues to the thread.  It is helpful to post topics that may help explain what many of us are wondering. Very few Rollcalls on Princess generate the buzz like they used to generate.  The Sky Inaugural TA has over 7,000 posts, and I find myself following just to gain ideas and get excited for their excitement.  The Rollcall for the repositioning cruise in October from NYC to Fort Lauderdale used to be quite popular, as well, (even if they ‘debated’ a lot, it was still quite entertaining!).

 

As you can see by the number of my posts, I am more of a reader, than a poster, but that is just my personality.  So, I guess that I am guilty of not adding to the Rollcalls.  Heck, I was following CC since about 2004, but didn’t get the courage to even sign up for like 7 years after that time!

 

 Thanks for the thread.  Safe Journeys, Paul

[scubacruiserx2]

11 hours ago, bemis12 said:

You care entirely too much about how many people are viewing your travelogue.

 

You got the first part right that I care about people . The numbers of views are points of reference to quantify how a thread is doing .

 

[scubacruiserx2]

10 hours ago, mek said:

Not nice.   

 

And perhaps they make money with their travelogues.

 

This is not true . We have no blogs that pay us and we have never received ANY payment . It's only done on CC to help others that may want it and to entertain others .

Edited October 5, 2019 by scubacruiserx2

[BarbinMich]

16 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

In response to our question Celebrity had 303 views and 14 replies . HAL had 288 views and 11 responses and Princess had 218 views and 9 responses . Only Princess had more helpful and constructive responses than unhelpful . 

 

On Celebrity our top 3 travelogues have 522,000 views

 

On Princess our top 3 travelogues have 326 ,000 views

 

On HAL our top 3 travelogues have 177 ,000 views 

 

Our last 2 cruises on HAL were 2 of our longest and best cruises with some our best photos and videos and yet we only had 66 , 000 views . We wonder how many views we would have had if we were on Celebrity or Princess .

 

Our 3 future cruises have no M&G's or tours planned so we have booked our own tours . When we organized a M&G on the Eurodam to Alaska we were the only 2 people there .

 

What itineraries and ships were those 3 cruises with so many views of your travelogue?  I think one has to take into account the number of ships each of these lines have and how large their ships are.  HAL doesn't have what I would consider "mega" ships (3,000+ pax); their 3 newest ships carry a max of 2,100-2,650 pax each.  OTOH Princess Royal/Regal carry 3,600 pax each; Celebrity's newest ships carry 2,600-3,000 pax.  As for CC activities, the most are usually found on long cruises, such as TAs, with lots of sea days.  I don't think there's ever been much CC activity, if any, on our many cruises to the Caribbean or Alaska where there were few sea days.  Finally, I find the Princess board to be the most active of these 3 cruise lines and HAL the least active.

[scubacruiserx2]

Thank you for your insightful response .

 

Our TA on the Eclipse and stay in Russia and London has 315 k views

Baltic Eclipse has 136 k

 

Caribbean Princess in the Caribbean 142 k

Regal Princess in the Caribbean 117 k

 

HAL Eurodam in Alaska 76 k

 

The strange thing about our last 2 cruises on HAL was they were 3 weeks each . The Zuiderdam Baltic and Norway , Iceland and Scotland had some our best photos ever and The Zaandam South America and Antarctica with a stay in Patagonia also some our best photos only had 66 k views . 7 weeks total had less than 1 week in Alaska .

 

It seems to be across the board that a Celebrity review has about 1k views daily when we're doing it daily .

 

Princess about 800 daily and HAL only about 200 - 300 .

[Hlitner]

On 10/4/2019 at 12:11 PM, BarbinMich said:

Do you mean friendliest?  We've been on 51 cruises and all were on the 3 lines you mention.  Our last cruise was on HAL and I would say it was a "quieter" cruise than most of our other ones which have mainly been on Princess (a few on Celebrity).  HAL ships are generally smaller than those on the other two lines.  We always enjoy trivia and that was offered less often on HAL than on the other lines.  There were 3 susbstantive lecturers on our last HAL cruise (it was a TA, which is what we usually do plus 1/yr in the Caribbean), nightly entertainment was underwhelming compared to that on Princess and X.  As long-time members of Cruise Critic, we always join the Roll Call for our cruise.  I would say that RCs are much more active on Princess than Celebrity and HAL, planning small group excursions plus events on sea days, esp. on TAs.  I enjoy playing the slots and pretty much had that part of the casino to myself on the last HAL cruise.

Will admit to not reading any of your travelogues.  We have also cruised quite a bit (far more then double your number) on the 3 cruise lines you mentioned and agree with much of what you have posted in this blog.  Yes, HAL Meet and Greets have waned in recent years for good reason.  We used to attend but got tired of a few cruisers trying to take over the M&G and actually impose rules.  We once got yelled at (by another cruiser) because 6 or us were just sitting around a table quietly discussing a private tour.  Her "rule" was that is was "not allowed' for anyone to talk about any tour unless it was a HAL Excursion (we have taken 2 in over 500 HAL days).  On longer cruises HAL attracts a pretty loyal group of long time HAL cruisers and many have adopted our attitude of avoiding M&Gs.  In fact, the Senior Officers of HAL have also adopted an attitude of avoiding M&Gs (this apparently has been supported by the home office).  The most interesting Meet and Greets we ever attended have been on Princess and MSC.   In fact, MSC was so much fun we might attend again on our next cruise this December.

 

  Yes, you might have the slots to yourself on many longer cruisers since lots of experienced (i.e. older cruisers) realize  that slots have the worst odds in any casino (the exception is Keno).   Personally I would have more fun tossing money overboard and watching it fall to the sea then dropping it in machines designed to pay-back less than 95 cents on the dollar.  That being said we bear no bad will towards those who see slots as entertainment.  Given that HAL no longer has Production Shows, never has late night comedy shows, has even encouraged it's CDs from telling a joke (heaven forbid somebody is offended), late night folks probably look to the Casino as about the only thing open with any other cruisers.  We do have a future HAL cruise (30 days) booked and will probably make sure our Kindles are loaded with lots of books.  Reading on HAL is about the highest level of excitement.  Surprised you were not "impressed" with the Trivia on HAL...since that has become about the only major activity.

 

Hank

[clo]

I'll admit that I read some of these and skimmed some.  But I have to wonder why OP cruises or blogs.  Do they cruise in order to blog?  If they're not making money, then shouldn't they just blog because they enjoy doing it whether anyone reads it or not.  I'm really confused by this.  OP seems really angry.

[ldubs]

2 hours ago, clo said:

I'll admit that I read some of these and skimmed some.  But I have to wonder why OP cruises or blogs.  Do they cruise in order to blog?  If they're not making money, then shouldn't they just blog because they enjoy doing it whether anyone reads it or not.  I'm really confused by this.  OP seems really angry.

 

Huh, I didn't think the OP sounded angry.   Well, other than perhaps at the one post which was kind of a dig, but even then not really angry.  

 

I think the OP enjoys doing the blogs and knowing others enjoy it makes it that much better.  But, what do I know. Lol.  

[scubacruiserx2]

For those who may be thinking of going to South America or Antarctica on Celebrity , Princess or HAL :

 

 

 

Patagonia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[clo]

5 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

For those who may be thinking of going to South America or Antarctica on Celebrity , Princess or HAL :

 

 

 

Patagonia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you really mean to put this here?

 

[GUT2407]

It can vary, I find the smaller ships better, as Pam said above Pacific Princess was great with only around 680 on board you almost got to know everyone, but made good friends on bigger ships. And I am a hermit who isn’t out to make friends.