Comments on: A contagious virus? Marketing campaign sinks Cruise Critic

By: Quietofermin

Quietofermin — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:07:00 +0000

MSC has a group of “bloggers” that immediately discredit whoever porsts criticism of MSC. And they obviously influence the “admin” of the blog, and your threat is closed…and you get suspended…Cruisecritic is a sham ! They are obviously making a living off advertisement, and their clients get upset if you tell your negative experiences.

By: JO

JO — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:22:44 +0000

I posted some information, and asked for more, on CruiseCritic about the violence in Mexico and the risks to cruise passengers as my wife and I are going there on 7 day cruise. They deleted my posts and even some of the threads. To me they have fake posters and the site is designed to market and sell and to eliminate any information that may be in any way negative to that. The problem is that they attract many people, including new cruisers, who accept the information as true, reliable, and complete. They, of course, become at risk. I suggest that everyone avoid that site, avoid Trip Advisor, Expedia, and other entities affiliated with them (you can find them all at http://www.expediainc.com/business-Media.cfm), and flock to true information sites. Shame on you Expedia.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:44:06 +0000

Cruise Critic is absolutely the worst place to get honest information.
Bad comments about tour operators are often deleted. So you don’t really know they are rotten. Most people asking to share tours in the Roll Calls are not even on a ship, never been near a ship because they are the tour operators trying to sell you a tour.

Cruise Critic covets the 1000+ posters. The problem is most have an agenda. Do you know what a professional cruiser is? Do you know why some people seem to be on an endless voyage at sea?

Cruise Critic knows these answers and they covet the dishonest.

My advice: Avoid Cruise Critic like the plague and Expedia. They are dishonest companies.

Read about how Expedia was recently slamming it’s customers and sharing your credit card information:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35221235/ns/business-consumer_news/page/2/

FYI – expedia owns Cruise Critic and Trip Adviser

By: Royal Caribbean Cruises its way into a Social Media Mess « Travel into a PR World

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:21:31 +0000

[...] company’s research results; it also makes for a horrible excuse. According to an article on Tripso.com, when the associate Vice-President of marketing at Royal Caribbean International was asked if he [...]

By: The man who notices things

The man who notices things — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:59:54 +0000

And I posted a blog on Cruise Critic under RCCL simply stating that transparency is necessary, to please disclose any perqs they got from RCCL, and opining that Cruise Critic failed its basic responsibility in not informing people once they became aware of it. I also asked that the members of Royal Champions who post identify themselves when they post so their opinions could be given the appropriate weight.

Seems reasonable = no bad language, no accusations of nefarious conduct, no curse words, no ad hominem attacks.

Yet, my thread was pulled – without being told or any notice – and it does not even appear in my history of posts.

Cruise Critic is ANYTHING but critical. It is seemingly run by a bunch of cruise cheer leaders who just love their cruises and love their asian cabin attendants and just love everything about cruising and assume that anyone who disagrees with them is mean spirited and just plain mean. Go see they treat anyone with a significant complaint . . .

By: michala

michala — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:54:48 +0000

sorry, need to add another comment — I understand that Steve is taking the “company” line with his post here, and may be confused because in the TRIPSO article the word “post” is used, rather than “thread” — although “post” isn’t used in Jaxon41′s quote. To know the “company” line, at all, means that Steve has read the cruise critic thread, so he knows Jaxon41 was talking about THREADS disappearing, not posts. One does have to wonder, however, why in the sticky thread on cruise critic, posts that attacked those who had a problem with the ethics of a non-transparent viral marketing campaign were not deleted.

By: michala

michala — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:46:19 +0000

Perhaps, Steve thinks that the only person who saw what was on the THREADS which disappeared on November 9th, was Jaxon 41. THREADS remain, if an individual post is deleted.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:46:09 +0000

Quote:

Pennie Wessels started accessing the posts about the Royal Champions and found they had disappeared in the middle of reading them. “I wrote the moderators and told them I was appalled that they had participated in this shilling and even more appalled that they were evidently banning the discussions as soon as they made the board,” she says.

End of quote:

Nice post there for Jaxon41 or better known as Pennie von Bergen Wessels. Too bad that Pennie did not tell you that the posts were removed due to copyright issues and personal attacks. I have watched both sides of the story and could care less. If anyone takes what another person writes on an anonymous board as the gospel then they deserve what they get.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:19:29 +0000

It is clear that RCCL’s Royal Champions initiative has created an uneven playing field, not only on the Cruise Critic bulletin boards, but, quite possibly, in regard to user reviews in their main content area. What makes this particularly egregious is Cruise Critic’s responsibility for facilitating the program. Cruise Critic provided RCCL, a Cruise Critic Advertiser and Marketing Partner, with the contact information of Cruise Critic “members” to be invited to join the program and receive such inducements as free cruises. In addition, according to a post on Cruise Critic by its Community Manager, both the Community Manager and the Editor of Cruise Critic met with the “Royal Champions” onboard one of the free incentive cruises, thus giving their imprimateur to the program. By giving such an advantage to RCCL, Cruise Critic has displayed a callous disregard for its users. This program commenced in 2007. In 2008 the Trip Advisor division of Expedia acquired Cruise Critic. Trip Advisor relies on the integrity of its user generated content. Did Trip Advisor gain knowledge of the Royal Champions program when they did due dillegence prior the closing the acquisition? Does this clandestine program, faciliated and with the full knowledge of Cruise Critic’s management, violate the policies and ethical standards of Trip Advisor? The ramifications of this Cruise Critic – RCCL program go beyond Cruise Critic and effect the very credibility of all Web 2.0 media that rely on user content, one of the largest being Trip Advisor. Let’s hear what Trip Advisor’s management hasto say about this.

By: Ross

Ross — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:47:36 +0000

I’m wondering why no one has sought to file a complaint with the FTC,since CC seems to be in violation of their rules. If I posted this on CC do think it would be
removed? I think this might settle the argument.