Has anyone experienced being the only poster on a roll call

[Mimg Pao]

We are sailing on Dec. 18 on the Ocean Princess from Shanghai to Bangkok.

 

The roll call was started over a year ago but there has been no action since Sept. 08 until we recently booked this cruise and I have since posted twice. The last posting was August 7th. Total amount of postings are eight.

 

Since I discovered cruise critic a couple of years ago, I love being part of a roll call group. It is really helpful when planning independent touring and also there is so much fun in sharing information about the various ports and plans.

 

Princess has told me the ship still has a lot of unsold cabins and since the ship only holds 680 pax, probably this is the reason for the nonaction.

 

For now, it looks like I will be the only cc member on board. ANY ADVICE:confused:

 

Princess Elite Passenger

[arizonaperson]

Sorry, I have always been part of a large roll call. Wish I could join you on your cruise, I would be very active. Not sure on how long of a cruise you are on, but maybe if it is a long one, most Cruisers are not on the CC board? Hope some more CC'ers join you. Have a great cruise.:)

[Toto2Kansas]

We are sailing on Dec. 18 on the Ocean Princess from Shanghai to Bangkok.

 

The roll call was started over a year ago but there has been no action since Sept. 08 until we recently booked this cruise and I have since posted twice. The last posting was August 7th. Total amount of postings are eight.

 

Since I discovered cruise critic a couple of years ago, I love being part of a roll call group. It is really helpful when planning independent touring and also there is so much fun in sharing information about the various ports and plans.

 

Princess has told me the ship still has a lot of unsold cabins and since the ship only holds 680 pax, probably this is the reason for the nonaction.

 

For now, it looks like I will be the only cc member on board. ANY ADVICE:confused:

 

Princess Elite Passenger

 

I have noticed, especially the smaller ships of the fleet, the roll calls are more on the slight side this year for many sailings. We are on two Pacific Princess roll calls, one has one other person on it, and the other has only about 5 (the one with 5 is a totally sold out cruise also). I too was used to the larger roll call groups, but maybe now I can actually remember others names, since there are so few (as I am terrible with names in a huge group). lol

Edited to add, some of our roll calls for the Pacific were actually larger at one point, but many cancelled because of airfare costs. :(

 

Good Luck, hopefully others will join if there is still that much availability on your sailing.

[Colo Cruiser]

I have never experienced that few. :eek:

[Rockymountainsparky]

Look at it this way. You'll know everyone at the meet and greet.

[Av8tor]

Is the Shanghai-Bangkok cruise you are on a portion of a longer cruise, for instance, say, the western North American coast to Australia, India, or around the African horn or through the Suez? Check that out and look to see if there are any roll calls for the longer voyages you could join...

[2 to cruise]

We were booked on a Mexican Riviera cruise last year in September. I could not believe the roll call...........hardly anyone at all, which I thought a bit unusual.

 

As it turned out, we cancelled as I had the opportunity to go to Malawi, Africa right around that same time.

 

We have booked the Mexican Riviera this year in November and the roll call seems to be coming along.

[bjkTX]

Most of our Roll Calls have been large and active. I started one a few months ago for a 14 day cruise on the Royal Princess next May and I think two other couples have joined in so far - but it's still early (although at this point our 14 day Panama Canal roll call had 54 pages). I imagine that the more exotic cruises, combined with the smaller ships, tend to attract passengers that probably aren't as active on the computer as some others. Hope your roll call picks up - it's always nice to have friends before you ever get on the ship!

[DonnaK]

So far, I'm the only poster for our upcoming cruise on the Caribbean Princess for July 29, 2010

[caribill]

For a cruise this September--Over 110 posters. 3885 posts

For the next cruise this September on the same ship -- 15 posters, 113 posts

[Times Prince]

We are sailing on Dec. 18 on the Ocean Princess from Shanghai to Bangkok.

 

The roll call was started over a year ago but there has been no action since Sept. 08 until we recently booked this cruise and I have since posted twice. The last posting was August 7th. Total amount of postings are eight.

 

Since I discovered cruise critic a couple of years ago, I love being part of a roll call group. It is really helpful when planning independent touring and also there is so much fun in sharing information about the various ports and plans.

 

Princess has told me the ship still has a lot of unsold cabins and since the ship only holds 680 pax, probably this is the reason for the nonaction.

 

For now, it looks like I will be the only cc member on board. ANY ADVICE:confused:

 

Princess Elite Passenger

We had one cruise where there were only about 8 total posts on the Roll Call. Most visited once and then were never heard from again, including the originator. That was, I believe, on the Sun Princess. Needless to say there was no meet and greet onboard.

 

Roll calls really are luck of the draw.

 

Best advice I can say is to post questions on the ports boards and then look at the answers to see if anyone else is on your cruise - then invite them to join the Roll Call.

[Cruisin' Chick]

I remember a few years ago I had started a roll call for my cruise and noticed that another roll call for a slightly bigger ship wasn't going at all. So I started posting just to keep the OP company (we found out we live just miles apart so we were gabbing about that). Finally someone else had just booked that cruise and started posting. You just never know as not all cruise passengers go on these type of sites, some probably still aren't using computers (their TAs probably input in their info into the CP). You'll find that many onboard will have never heard of Cruise Critic.

[sunluva7]

I started one on a 5-day cruise on Carnival, and only heard from 2 other people, who ultimately vanished from the thread. On another cruise, we had many people, arranged a meet and greet, and only 2 people showed. So, roll calls can really vary across the board.;)

[agabbymama]

Yup, I had the same problem. I posted my Ocean Princess cruise for

Aug 14, 2010 and only one other poster. We chatted a couple of times, but then they dropped off too. We dropped off the board.

 

Now another posted posted, I replied, but they haven't responded back either, so this one will probably drop off the board too.

 

I don't know if being a smaller ship with fewer passengers, or the fact that it's a short 7 day cruise, or if the demographics of people who cruise the smaller ships (maybe older without web access).

 

Doesn't really bother me too much, I've had all different size groups. From about 35 of us on Celebrity Constellation to only 11 of us on Grand Princess. There were 22 of us on the Grand Princess Roll Call, but only 11 of us actually showed up to the Meet & Greet. I know right now there are two other couples on the Ocean Princess. If it doesn't become more active, we probably won't even have a Meet & Greet.

 

Maybe as we get closer to actual sail date, there will be more. Good Luck!

[cruiserjanet]

So far, there are only two of us on our Roll Call but we are traveling together. It has been my experience that the earlier we book, the fewer people there are on our Roll Call because a lot of people on CC don't book as early as we do nor do they start or join a Roll Call at that time either. I find that about 8 months or less until the cruise, more people start joining the Roll Call.

[Ms. Alpha]

The roll call for our upcoming Panama cruise on the Island has only 11 posts (3 posters and the other 2 are travelling together!) while the next sailing has 68 posts and many posters. I had expected more that that since the ship is larger than our last cruise.

 

For our Royal 2008 cruise (small ship) I started the roll call 1 year out but most of the time it was just 2 of us chatting back and forth with an occasional poster that would join us for a short time. Our CC get together on board was just the 2 of us, but it turned out one of our table mates was one of the occasional posters. It was still fun chatting in the build up to the cruise and eventually meeting on board. The beauty of the small ship is we constantly ran into each other over the rest of the cruise to compare notes about shore excursions and share experiences.

[jfv379]

I posted a price drop on our roll call over a week ago. No posts and I don't think the number of times viewed hasn't changed either.:eek:

 

Go figure.:confused:

 

All you can do is put the info out there.:D

[Mimg Pao]

Yup, I had the same problem. I posted my Ocean Princess cruise for

Aug 14, 2010 and only one other poster. We chatted a couple of times, but then they dropped off too. We dropped off the board.

 

Now another posted posted, I replied, but they haven't responded back either, so this one will probably drop off the board too.

 

I don't know if being a smaller ship with fewer passengers, or the fact that it's a short 7 day cruise, or if the demographics of people who cruise the smaller ships (maybe older without web access).

 

Doesn't really bother me too much, I've had all different size groups. From about 35 of us on Celebrity Constellation to only 11 of us on Grand Princess. There were 22 of us on the Grand Princess Roll Call, but only 11 of us actually showed up to the Meet & Greet. I know right now there are two other couples on the Ocean Princess. If it doesn't become more active, we probably won't even have a Meet & Greet.

 

Maybe as we get closer to actual sail date, there will be more. Good Luck!

 

I don't think the passenger age has anything to do with not being computer savvy as we only sail on the long exotic cruises and most of the passengers are retired (as we are). However, you would not believe the lineups to get into the internet cafes.

 

On our last cruise (32 days on the Star in March), we had a very active roll call abd our cd even invited the captain to one of our meet and greets. So....I guess that spoiled me forever.

 

Princess Elite Passenger

[Woobstr112G]

My current Ruby T/A roll call is off the charts. Very busy with over 9K posts. Many nice people and tons of great ideas. We have several group activities planned during the cruise.

 

On last October's Emerald T/A we also had an outstanding and active roll call. Had a meet & greet that was well attendedd.

 

On January's Diamond Austrailia/NZ cruise, the roll call was a big let down from the October 08 one. While we did have just under 600 posts prior to sailing, there were many periods of inactivity. The M & G was only attended by sbout 12 people. On the Emerald, we had well over 100.

 

Bob

[Mimg Pao]

Is the Shanghai-Bangkok cruise you are on a portion of a longer cruise, for instance, say, the western North American coast to Australia, India, or around the African horn or through the Suez? Check that out and look to see if there are any roll calls for the longer voyages you could join...

 

The Dec. 18 sail is the same itinerary starting Dec. 2 and ending in February. The Ocean will be sailing from Shanghai to Bangkok and vice versa.

 

The interesting part is that I have checked the roll calls for the other dates and they all have some activity (but not much). The op for the Dec. 18 sail switched to another cruise line. I only found this out when I went on the Asia boards.

 

Princess Elite Passenger

[Drews_Cruise]

I started a roll call for the Royal in Sept 2010 and so far only two hits. It seems to be slow on the smaller ships but theres lots of time still.

[KevintheIrishDJ]

We were not the only poster on the Roll Call; however, only about 8 people showed up for the meet and greet.

[paul929207]

I don't know why, but some sailings seem to have real busy roll calls while others are dead. We went to the Amazon on the Pacific Princess in February & March and I don't think there were 10 posts on the roll call. The next cruise, with the identical itinerary had hundreds.

[Kinkacruiser]

We are sailing on Dec. 18 on the Ocean Princess from Shanghai to Bangkok.

 

The roll call was started over a year ago but there has been no action since Sept. 08 until we recently booked this cruise and I have since posted twice. The last posting was August 7th. Total amount of postings are eight.

 

Since I discovered cruise critic a couple of years ago, I love being part of a roll call group. It is really helpful when planning independent touring and also there is so much fun in sharing information about the various ports and plans.

 

Princess has told me the ship still has a lot of unsold cabins and since the ship only holds 680 pax, probably this is the reason for the nonaction.

 

For now, it looks like I will be the only cc member on board. ANY ADVICE:confused:

 

Princess Elite Passenger

 

Last year on the Tahitian Princess (670 pax) we had 5-6 couples for our roll call. I agree that the size of the roll call is determined largely by the size of the ship.

What I find interesting on roll calls especially, is that for every reply/post, there will be a 10-fold number of viewers. Could these viewers also be booked on the same cruise, but choose not to join the group?

I love a buzzing roll call, but unfortunately share your dilemma with our SE Asia cruise in June 2010.

All the best for your Shanghai adventure.

Anna

[agabbymama]

We are sailing on Dec. 18 on the Ocean Princess from Shanghai to Bangkok.

 

The roll call was started over a year ago but there has been no action since Sept. 08 until we recently booked this cruise and I have since posted twice. The last posting was August 7th. Total amount of postings are eight.

 

Since I discovered cruise critic a couple of years ago, I love being part of a roll call group. It is really helpful when planning independent touring and also there is so much fun in sharing information about the various ports and plans.

 

Princess has told me the ship still has a lot of unsold cabins and since the ship only holds 680 pax, probably this is the reason for the nonaction.

 

For now, it looks like I will be the only cc member on board. ANY ADVICE:confused:

 

Princess Elite Passenger

 

Looks like there are 18 posts on your cruise now. If the group is small, you can still have a great time. We met up with our 11 folks a lot. Even had a formal night photo taken. Shared tours, etc. Have a great time.