Have Cruise Critic roll calls died?

[Shellbelle28]

For all the past cruises I've been on, I've participated in a roll call. Most have been lively, or at least had three or four active discussion participants and a lot of lurkers. For the last several, I've been the organizer of an on-board meetup. The last cruise, in October of 2021, for the Bliss's first sailing after shutdown, we had a pretty big meet and mingle. 

I'm on a sailing on the Sun in Alaska next month and there are only about 5 posts in our roll call and half are probably mine! Is it just the sailing I'm on, or are roll calls just not active any more? I know a lot of people are on other social media platforms, has that killed the Cruise Critic roll call?

[JT1962]

Most have moved to the big social media site. 

[OZ.]

Like the others have said a lot of people moved over. There they can pretty much post what they want.

[cruiserbear55]

48 minutes ago, Shellbelle28 said:

For all the past cruises I've been on, I've participated in a roll call. Most have been lively, or at least had three or four active discussion participants and a lot of lurkers. For the last several, I've been the organizer of an on-board meetup. The last cruise, in October of 2021, for the Bliss's first sailing after shutdown, we had a pretty big meet and mingle. 

I'm on a sailing on the Sun in Alaska next month and there are only about 5 posts in our roll call and half are probably mine! Is it just the sailing I'm on, or are roll calls just not active any more? I know a lot of people are on other social media platforms, has that killed the Cruise Critic roll call?

  

  The roll call for our upcoming October cruise currently has 85 posts. 51 of them, or 60%, come from three posters. 4 have 1 each, 2 have 2 each; the other 26 divided among 4 others. A total of 13 participants, some who have not posted in months. 
   We had the same non-activity on our April cruise. So yeah, I think roll calls in general, outside of a few really active ones, are becoming a dinosaur here on CC.

   I certainly wouldn’t want to call NCL to set up an M+G with our level of participation. They would probably laugh at me !!

[shof515]

even in the before times, this sites seems to be slowly fading away

[Oxo]

Noticed that over the past 6 months. When addressed the issue in CC, they removed the posting. 

CC did it to themselves. They became to controlling and showed to much favoritism to a select few.

People moved on.

JMHO!

[LGW59]

23 minutes ago, Oxo said:

Noticed that over the past 6 months. When addressed the issue in CC, they removed the posting. 

CC did it to themselves. They became to controlling and showed to much favoritism to a select few.

People moved on.

JMHO!

I also believe as the cruising demographics are starting to trend younger (FYI I am 62 and still like the roll calls) FB et al, are their go to media choices.  Just a tad more freedom there... 

[PATRLR]

30 minutes ago, Oxo said:

Noticed that over the past 6 months. When addressed the issue in CC, they removed the posting. 

CC did it to themselves. They became to controlling and showed to much favoritism to a select few.

People moved on.

JMHO!

I agree with this statement, especially the favoritism.

[marktwothousand]

Yup

[dcipjr]

I remember that as recently as 3 years ago, the CC roll calls and M&Gs were lively, had big crowds, slot pulls, etc.

 

 

In the two cruises I've taken in the last 2 years (one in Feb 2020, one in May 2022), the roll calls were way smaller, and the Meet & Greet was full of FB group participants.

 

I deleted my Facebook halfway through 2017, so I was sort of mystified as to the nature of these groups, but they've pretty much completely dominated the Meet & Greets. 

 

On my last cruise's M&G, I only found 3 or 4 people that were from the roll call. One lady asked me, "What's CruiseCritic?" 🤦🏻‍♂️

 

It's a real bummer, since those roll calls would often keep me going in the months before the cruise, and provide helpful information on the cruise. One time, we even had a bridge tour!

 

I'll continue to post to the roll calls for my cruises, as long as they're there, and will attend M&Gs if I meet people on the roll calls that I'd like to meet with in person.

 

It's just unfortunate that the roll calls aren't what they once were. Unfortunate for us CC members, and really, for all cruisers, since NCL did listen to us once in a while.

 

[Dthomas1]

3 minutes ago, dcipjr said:

I remember that as recently as 3 years ago, the CC roll calls and M&Gs were lively, had big crowds, slot pulls, etc.

 

 

In the two cruises I've taken in the last 2 years (one in Feb 2020, one in May 2022), the roll calls were way smaller, and the Meet & Greet was full of FB group participants.

 

I deleted my Facebook halfway through 2017, so I was sort of mystified as to the nature of these groups, but they've pretty much completely dominated the Meet & Greets. 

 

On my last cruise's M&G, I only found 3 or 4 people that were from the roll call. One lady asked me, "What's CruiseCritic?" 🤦🏻‍♂️

 

It's a real bummer, since those roll calls would often keep me going in the months before the cruise, and provide helpful information on the cruise. One time, we even had a bridge tour!

 

I'll continue to post to the roll calls for my cruises, as long as they're there, and will attend M&Gs if I meet people on the roll calls that I'd like to meet with in person.

 

It's just unfortunate that the roll calls aren't what they once were. Unfortunate for us CC members, and really, for all cruisers, since NCL did listen to us once in a while.

 

The Meet & Greet has been stopped by staff for almost all cruise lines. It's a great way to

meet other's before a cruise.

[Dthomas1]

2 minutes ago, Dthomas1 said:

The Meet & Greet has been stopped by staff for almost all cruise lines. It's a great way to

meet other's before a cruise.

Sorry, The Meet & Mingle

[cruiserbear55]

11 minutes ago, Dthomas1 said:

Sorry, The Meet & Mingle

Meet and Mingle? New to me. Always known it as Meet and Greet.

[Dthomas1]

16 minutes ago, cruiserbear55 said:

Meet and Mingle? New to me. Always known it as Meet and Greet.

Meet and Mingle is what shows at the top below the line in blue.

Edited July 25, 2022 by Dthomas1

[Paula_MacFan]

There was just a somewhat lengthy thread about this same topic a few weeks ago, but it was deleted, presumably because there were too many references to social media overtaking CC.  

 

I'll make the same comments here that I did in that thread -- there are so many more active social media sites to get information these days and people are using them.  I've been a member here for 18+ years and the activity seems to be declining, especially on things like roll calls.  

[schmoopie17]

Our November TA on the Escape currently has 788 roll call posts. Okay...787 are from me...😁

[Shellbelle28]

26 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

There was just a somewhat lengthy thread about this same topic a few weeks ago, but it was deleted, presumably because there were too many references to social media overtaking CC.  

 

I'll make the same comments here that I did in that thread -- there are so many more active social media sites to get information these days and people are using them.  I've been a member here for 18+ years and the activity seems to be declining, especially on things like roll calls.  

Yes, I've tried to be cautious in my choice of words in this post to avoid focusing on other platforms. I've participated in both and have always found the CC group to be better, the people participate and interact vs. just signing up to attend a meet and mingle and disappearing. 

[PTC DAWG]

I’m not using Facebook, why let the world know when you’ll be gone x amount of days? 

[Paula_MacFan]

15 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I’m not using Facebook, why let the world know when you’ll be gone x amount of days? 

There are private FB groups you can join so the whole 'world' doesn't have to know you're gone X amount of days.  Meanwhile I've seen many roll calls with spreadsheets so people can put their full names, cities, and other information for participation -- none of which is secure and is open to anyone to view.  Any unscrupulous person could easily do a Google search for addresses, etc that are all readily available online.  

[Turtles06]

5 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

There are private FB groups you can join so the whole 'world' doesn't have to know you're gone X amount of days. 

 

If you actually believe that FB truly has any privacy...Not to mention that you lose control of who can do what with the identify info you have posted.

 

6 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

Meanwhile I've seen many roll calls with spreadsheets so people can put their full names, cities, and other information for participation -- none of which is secure and is open to anyone to view.  Any unscrupulous person could easily do a Google search for addresses, etc that are all readily available online.  

 

I've seen this too, and I think it's very foolish for folks to post all of that info on a public social media travel site.  

[Buford T Justiice]

Alaskan cruise roll calls are generally slower.

[warb]

A Great Vegas Info Sight I hadn't heard from for a while has

 

Gone the same way as Meet & Greet.

[casofilia]

I have found that Caribbean, Mediterranean and similar short cruises that are port heavy have little communication on Cruise Critic and it is difficult to get enough to make a M&G worthwhile.

 

However longer cruises have a number of active participants and it leads to a decent M&G.   Actually I like the numbers on these cruises now and it allows people to really Met and MINGLE or Meet and GREET and not just sit on their backsides as happened previously when the M&G had over 100 attendees.

When I arrange one I make every effort to get people on their feet talking, a "Who Are You" "Bingo" type game helps.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

I remember two cruises in particular that were huge and so active they had to eventually break it into a part two.   I think what others have said about social media is true but I like the longtime come acquaintances here on CC.

[deniseatnycs]

Our TA on the Prima this September has been very active from the day the itinerary was released.   Its now standing at just under two thousand posts and as we get nearer its expected to liven up even more.  The one on social media is active but nowhere near the CC critic one