Do the cruise lines watch cruise critic closely for passenger reactions and for input into their products?

[SelectSys]

Here is my attempt at a non-COVID thread.

 

 I have wondering if the cruise lines pay attention to our musings in Cruise Critic and other similar sites.  The lines can obviously see what's important to a vocal subset of passengers, but do you really think the pay serious attention to these chats?

[mom says]

From what I've heard, on the lines we've cruised,  they are aware of what goes on here. At least on the cruiseline specific forums.  This was from speaking with various officers on board. However, I'm not too sure how much this is reflected in policy decisions. You have to remember that CC members  make up only a tiny slice of the whole passenger population. It likely gives them a heads up on where the next major round of complaints are going to come from. 🙄

[Flatbush Flyer]

As someone already mentioned,  only a small average percentage of cruisers use CC and, of that number, a significant group are first time cruisers in general or new to the line in which they’re interested.

From personal experience, I know that our preferred cruise line’s IT director would occasionally know of a tech issue raised on CC (e.g., new website issue) and even post when it was important to say something. But, I doubt that there are cruise line staff assigned to monitor what is basically a chat room.

[JRG]

Normally what happens on Cruise Critic stays on Cruise Critic.....right

 

But One Fine Day.....I witnessed  the HAL PR CC member come down from the clouds and put the clamper on some innuendo.   I wanted to get a comment from them but just like that they were gone and I have not seen from them again.   They are out there.

 

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by JRG

[Ride-The-Waves]

Cruising on Azamara out of Mumbai for Piraeus the cruise director "recommended" we give Azamara and Journey a "positive" rating on CC.  The group was from CC - 69 of us who had earnestly shared information on India and ports of call along the route.  Four hundred ninety-six passengers on that leg.  So about 13 percent of embarked "quests" were on or aware of CC.  The usually percentage I've seen on larger ships (about 2500) drops to around 8 percent.  Not all "cruisers" are aware of or use CC and likely the cruise lines are aware of comments but take them with a big grain of salt.

[Mary229]

I think they should if they don’t.   We are avid cruisers on these boards, we are a natural focus group.    

[richstowe]

They may pay some small attention . They pay greater attention to the concerns of important TA's . NCL is a case in point . They routinely make changes that are in their favor . These changes have caused a kerfuffle here but there is rarely any change . One time they instituted a new policy of not allowing food to be taken out of the buffet . They had to walk back this change but I wonder which pressure they reacted to . This came at the same time that "free" room service was scaled back . That change stuck .

[clo]

When things were shutting down last year, I became pretty unhappy with how Oceania was handling refunds and generally not communicating well at all. It left a bad taste in my mouth. So I mentioned it to my O rep and suggested that they really ought to be monitoring their specific lines. No idea if anything change but I did speak up. (Who? Me????)

[ontheweb]

6 minutes ago, clo said:

When things were shutting down last year, I became pretty unhappy with how Oceania was handling refunds and generally not communicating well at all. It left a bad taste in my mouth. So I mentioned it to my O rep and suggested that they really ought to be monitoring their specific lines. No idea if anything change but I did speak up. (Who? Me????)

And I bet they found you annoying.🤣

 

[clo]

11 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

And I bet they found you annoying.🤣

 

When I speak out I'm generally far more polite than the average person. I wasn't looking for a response, just wanted to reach out. And when I wasn't getting refunds from Hurtigruten and Norwegian Air I remained totally polite and emailed their CEOs. And got my monies quickly.

[getting older slowly]

I think some cruise line may look at posts of CC

As it gives more of an overview of opinions,

but of a somewhat small, overall percentage of cruisers..

 

 

But I am not sure about reviews..... as a lot of them are by non forum posters as well as the one review poster never to see again....

So If they think like me, most of the review would be taken with a grain on salt, as so the problem of, is you get two types... the ones who hated it and ones who loved it and little inbetween...

 

So do they listen to what is said on CC.... maybe out of interest....

 

Don

Edited February 21, 2021 by getting older slowly

[Aquahound]

Yes. The cruise lines do monitor. I know this because I know some of these folks. 
 

However, probably to the dismay of some around here, very little content is worth making a note of. 
 

There have been some policy changes over the years, though, that can be attributed to Cruise Critic postings. 

[Heidi13]

Viking does monitor the Viking Board, with customer service periodically posting comments in reply to some posts, often providing an email for posters to contact them.

[Joebucks]

I'm sure some of the data is used in their business analytics. However, CC members aren't as important as they think they are. Attracting new and big spending cruisers is far more important than hearing the same 30 people complain about tablecloths, cutbacks, chair hogs, and food quality.

[Elaine5715]

5 hours ago, SelectSys said:

Here is my attempt at a non-COVID thread.

 

 I have wondering if the cruise lines pay attention to our musings in Cruise Critic and other similar sites.  The lines can obviously see what's important to a vocal subset of passengers, but do you really think the pay serious attention to these chats?

No, they don't

[ilikeanswers]

I suspect that CC members are a little different to the average cruiser🤔. I think most don't have cruising on their mind as often as those who join a forum to continually talk about it😂. I'm sure those in the PR and marketing probably will have a gander through their cruise lines sub forums maybe to get a gauge what is drawing interest but it would be more like a supplemental research source than anything primary.

[Aplmac]

About 10 years ago

Carnival Cruises substantially changed the format of their cruise card.

A white background with the cruiser's status (in blue, red, gold, platinum)

indicated in minimal area writing and other graphics

but basically it was a white card!

You should have heard the hoo-ha raised on Cruise Critic!

 

Back then, Carnival normally switched card designs every two years

around mid-year BUT..

within a few months that undesirable design was swiftly changed

to reverse the colours.

I imagine a lot of white cards saw the dump!

As a collector of Carnival cards, those white cards are now quite rare

and I have very few of them!

 

Below you see the offending white card

and examples of the revised design (in blue -ignore the red one)

 

So.

If the issue is voluminous enough

cruise lines will pay attention to our bleatings!

 

[sparks1093]

In this day an age any large company would be well served by keeping an eye and/or ear on social media outlets dedicated to them or their product. I do know that my Carnival PVP has said that she will read Cruise Critic from time to time and others in the company have also said the same thing. The question comes down to "serious attention" and while I think that some in a company do have a feel for what is said I'm not sure "serious attention" is how I would describe it. As others have pointed out changes have been made in response to some issues that were discussed on Cruise Critic but I doubt that this was the only feedback considered in the changes.

[dkjretired]

Celebrity used to have someone assigned on Cruise Critic with the screen name Celebritycruises.   They would actively post of that  board.  

[ontheweb]

10 hours ago, Aquahound said:

Yes. The cruise lines do monitor. I know this because I know some of these folks. 
 

However, probably to the dismay of some around here, very little content is worth making a note of. 
 

There have been some policy changes over the years, though, that can be attributed to Cruise Critic postings. 

Could you share what some of those policy changes were?

[Aquahound]

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Could you share what some of those policy changes were?

I can recall 2. 
 

Several years ago, there was a policy change with RCI’s loyalty program that created an uproar. I think it had to do with the concierge lounge. RCI walked it back and credited the feedback on CC.
 

Not too long ago, NCL tried to create a policy forbidding people from taking food out of the buffet. It was to force an up charge room service on passengers. The policy was quickly reversed and Cruise Critic was quoted as a source of angry customers. 

[cruisemom42]

I'm pretty sure HAL's walk-back of the additional charge for a second entree was at least in part influenced by the angry responses on CC (as well as onboard).

[cruisemom42]

3 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

In this day an age any large company would be well served by keeping an eye and/or ear on social media outlets dedicated to them or their product. I do know that my Carnival PVP has said that she will read Cruise Critic from time to time and others in the company have also said the same thing. The question comes down to "serious attention" and while I think that some in a company do have a feel for what is said I'm not sure "serious attention" is how I would describe it. As others have pointed out changes have been made in response to some issues that were discussed on Cruise Critic but I doubt that this was the only feedback considered in the changes.

 

This seems spot on based on what I know. I have first-hand experience of several lines that "keep an eye" on CC, but how seriously they take it is different and I couldn't presume to guess. I have been disconcerted, on a large ship/mass market line, to have been identified almost immediately by the officer attending our Meet & Greet by my CC handle, despite not having name tags and not having given any identifying characteristics!

 

Some may say that CC is a small microcosm of cruisers, but it is also one of the longer-running (and lasting) forums for information about cruising and relevant threads frequently are found near the top of Google searches, for example, so readership isn't necessarily limited to the "faithful".

 

@clo  I'm quite sure Oceania keeps tabs on their forum here, whether it's done formally...or informally.

[LocoLoco1]

Some employees/contractors... in any industry, glean the Internet; Data Mining for all sorts of reasons. Planting leading questions too ??? Probably. 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, Aquahound said:

I can recall 2. 
 

Several years ago, there was a policy change with RCI’s loyalty program that created an uproar. I think it had to do with the concierge lounge. RCI walked it back and credited the feedback on CC.
 

Not too long ago, NCL tried to create a policy forbidding people from taking food out of the buffet. It was to force an up charge room service on passengers. The policy was quickly reversed and Cruise Critic was quoted as a source of angry customers. 

I wonder if the change by Princess to allow OBC to be used pre-cruise for excursions was sparked by complaints in these forums. They used to allow you to pre-book excursions and not have it charged to your credit card until you boarded the ship. And then they did away with that. And there were plenty of protests. Allowing OBC to be used for excursions booked prior to the cruise seemed to be a compromise by them in response to the protests.