Roll Calls and Social Media

[realnice46]

Not sure if I’m allowed to ask this question, the roll calls seem to be so dead so I’m assuming people are connecting in other ways. I don’t do Facebook, twitter etc, but thinking I may have to start to keep up with rolls calls. Which seem to be most popular

[jelayne]

Cc rules do not allow recommending or promoting other social media sites.

[clairebearinaus]

In my experience with an upcoming Millenium cruise, it's more or less the same people on both. 

 

 

 

[CaroleSS]

Our last cruise had 26 people on the CC roll call and over 250 on the "social media" roll call.

[Travelling2Some]

4 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Cc rules do not allow recommending or promoting other social media sites.

Which is part of the reason that people prefer other social media sites to CC Roll Calls more and more.  I don't do any of the popular social media myself but understand that many find the CC censorship too restrictive.  People would like to be able to contact either other directly via personal messaging and be able to recommend their travel agent to someone looking for a good one.  I think CC is going to have to loosen up or the use of their roll calls will continue to decline.

[mayleeman]

Anyone else watch the original "Miracle on 34th Street" this Christmas. Kris Kringle as the substitute Santa at Macy's started recommending other stores if Macy's didn’t have certain toys. It became a huge news story, and Macy's got lots more business because of their honesty and great customer service.

 

One guy wanted to fire Mr Kringle because other stores were not to be mentioned. Fill in the blanks.

[realnice46]

Thank you all!

[2theship]

Thank you for starting the topic because I think it’s something that Cruise Critic needs to consider. For our next cruise, a social media roll call is much more active than CC but I find it harder to access it when I want to read it. I have mentioned CC often on social media but, obviously, not the other way around.

 

Semi-related, a gentleman posted a cruise review on social media today saying that he had submitted it to Cruise Critic two weeks ago and it had yet to be published. I wonder what the problem was there. 

Edited January 18 by 2theship

[clairebearinaus]

I agree with social media it's difficult to go back and see what's already been said, people drop in with a question rather than continuing a conversation in the way CC roll calls do.  For the same reason the social media groups become quite tedious in the lead-up to the cruise because the same questions are asked over and over again, often multiple times a day.

[jelayne]

We were in a social media group for a long sailing last fall, by departure there were over 1,000 members.

[Lastdance]

22 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We were in a social media group for a long sailing last fall, by departure there were over 1,000 members.

Did your group of 1,000 share private tours, cabin crawls, slot pulls, or any other groups doing things?  I have really been disappointed with these activities, but they were for the Caribbean, so I guess not a lot going on for my cruise in December.  I really miss the great roll calls from before C, wondering if those will ever return, or just go by the wayside.  I remember so many wonderful parties on TA’s, not to mention meeting so many people onboard.

Edited January 18 by Lastdance

[Jim_Iain]

I have to say I hang out in both places.   On many of my Roll Calls they are both dead.   Many seem to join but they really don't get active until a month or so before the cruise. 

 

One thing I do see is that on the FB site the individual Roll Calls are controlled by an individual and some of these are  Travel Agents.  They each set the rules and approve and toss people off at will.  This is one of the reason for CC restrictions.   As many of you may know.    CC is owned by Tripadvisor which is probably the reason for their restrictions.  

[hcat]

our CONNECTIONS roll call for ASCENT Jan 28th is very active...

 

Nice roll call.list,  Countdown posts,,  Sailaway get together, Sea Day party, signs , name tags etc.

 

.Folks connecting for Excursions and meeting others...  Def not a dud..

 

Wish Cruise Critic  would participate more on board

 

 

[Z'Loth]

If anything, I would recommend two CC gathers on sea days at the beginning and end of the cruise. 

[Andy_P]

A real advantage of CC is that there is a huge searchable archive.

[georgiaguy]

What folks have said about travel agents running them and being more active with more people finding it is all true. My next cruise the, coming up on six weeks away, is a trickle with very little activity. 

[mahdnc]

On 1/18/2024 at 5:37 PM, Jim_Iain said:

I have to say I hang out in both places.   On many of my Roll Calls they are both dead.   Many seem to join but they really don't get active until a month or so before the cruise. 

 

One thing I do see is that on the FB site the individual Roll Calls are controlled by an individual and some of these are  Travel Agents.  They each set the rules and approve and toss people off at will.  This is one of the reason for CC restrictions.   As many of you may know.    CC is owned by Tripadvisor which is probably the reason for their restrictions.  

Jim, I’ve been on Cruise Critic and its forerunners since about 1996 when it was a moderated AOL board accessed via dial up. I can say that the current posting restrictions naming travel agents and travel providers were in place back then and certainly way before Tripadvisor took over Cruise Critic. Btw, TripAdvisor acquired Cruise Critic in 2007 if that helps you remember the pre-Tripadvisor days. 
 

I cannot remember exactly when roll calls became a thing. My guess is around 2000, maybe a tad earlier. I remember when they first came out, they were posted in this forum—Celebrity Cruises forum—mixed in with other regular posts. It’s possible that roll call threads were being posted earlier than that in other boards such as Royal Caribbean because I don’t watch the other boards).  Back then people were posting “is anyone on such and such sailing?”  After the number of roll call posts grew large enough, they were given their own separate forum which is how we know it today.  
 

In some ways “Live from” threads remind me of roll calls in the old days when they were mixed in with other posts in the Celebrity board.  We used to see them on occasion, but with the growth of mobile usage and improvements with ship WiFi, we are seeing them more frequently and occasionally we see more than one “Live from” thread from the same sailing. It remains to be seen whether they grow large enough in number to require special treatment. 

Edited January 21 by mahdnc

[T.O.cruisers]

On 1/16/2024 at 5:07 PM, realnice46 said:

Not sure if I’m allowed to ask this question, the roll calls seem to be so dead so I’m assuming people are connecting in other ways. I don’t do Facebook, twitter etc, but thinking I may have to start to keep up with rolls calls. Which seem to be most popular

I agree. My roll call on CC is dead. There is a Facebook group for the sailing that is quite a bit more active. 

[Jim_Iain]

3 hours ago, mahdnc said:

Jim, I’ve been on Cruise Critic and its forerunners since about 1996 when it was a moderated AOL board accessed via dial up. I can say that the current posting restrictions naming travel agents and travel providers were in place back then and certainly way before Tripadvisor took over Cruise Critic. Btw, TripAdvisor acquired Cruise Critic in 2007 if that helps you remember the pre-Tripadvisor days. 
 

I cannot remember exactly when roll calls became a thing. My guess is around 2000, maybe a tad earlier. I remember when they first came out, they were posted in this forum—Celebrity Cruises forum—mixed in with other regular posts. It’s possible that roll call threads were being posted earlier than that in other boards such as Royal Caribbean because I don’t watch the other boards).  Back then people were posting “is anyone on such and such sailing?”  After the number of roll call posts grew large enough, they were given their own separate forum which is how we know it today.  
 

In some ways “Live from” threads remind me of roll calls in the old days when they were mixed in with other posts in the Celebrity board.  We used to see them on occasion, but with the growth of mobile usage and improvements with ship WiFi, we are seeing them more frequently and occasionally we see more than one “Live from” thread from the same sailing. It remains to be seen whether they grow large enough in number to require special treatment. 

 

Agree.... I remember setting up a Roll Call 23 years ago.  While there were not as many participants everyone was very active and We had a party in our RS for about 30.   For some reason that Roll Call all the participants really became close both before and after the cruise.     I look back to those days with fondness.

 

While CC doesn't permit us to discuss TA (even back in the Good Old Days) there are ways to communicate outside the restrictions and I receive a couple emails a week from people asking for a reference. 

 

Having said that I'm surprised at how many personal e-mail I receive when doing a Live Post from people that respond to something I say.   All too many no longer post on CC or Facebook because of being attacked, demeaned and insulted by others and now refuse to post publicly. 

[Giraffes]

I only joined the social media site for the sole purpose of travel, for both cruising and flying. My roll call on here is about 5 people. Sailing in a month. 

[Luvcrusn]

The social media Roll Calls require users to post under their name. That gives information about when they'll be away from home as opposed to CC, where you post under your CC screen name. I'm surprised that the social media site Roll Calls keep gaining in popularity.

[realnice46]

2 minutes ago, Luvcrusn said:

The social media Roll Calls require users to post under their name. That gives information about when they'll be away from home as opposed to CC, where you post under your CC screen name. I'm surprised that the social media site Roll Calls keep gaining in popularity.

 

2 minutes ago, Luvcrusn said:

The social media Roll Calls require users to post under their name. That gives information about when they'll be away from home as opposed to CC, where you post under your CC screen name. I'm surprised that the social media site Roll Calls keep gaining in popularity.

That’s a good point, I think I will skip social media sites for now.

[mahdnc]

We only cruised once a year, so it's not like I have been on a gazillion CC roll calls.  But my observation before the COVID shutdown was the roll calls that were the most active were the fan favorites like the 14 night Caribbean sailings and the Transatlantics.  Maybe the Transpacifics, too.  

 

Also roll calls seem a little different before the COVID shutdown and now.

[hcat]

We started posting on another site when we first began cruising..It was fairly rudimentary but had good exchange of info...less bashing  and personal snipes.  They either ceased operation and or we found Cruise Critic which has served our needs for info and reading reviews.   Andy was our fav moderator,...he was on the ships quite a bit.

 

The roll calls and Connections parties have been helpul..Some join only to organize pvt excursions or to have their own little group,  but for the most part we have had  great experiences with the get togethers, cabin crawls, etc,  Right now we have a good one for ASCENT  1/28.

 

We do not use any other soc media sites other than read some linked reviews. But we never  join  other media roll calls or groups.  Having those groups  have diluted things but CC is best for us..

 

Just our thoughts

[AndyCapn]

20 minutes ago, Luvcrusn said:

The social media Roll Calls require users to post under their name. That gives information about when they'll be away from home as opposed to CC, where you post under your CC screen name. I'm surprised that the social media site Roll Calls keep gaining in popularity.

I assure you there are many accounts on that Social Media site that are not using their real name.