"Word of Mouse" Gives Power to Passengers Home > Features > Trendwatch > "Word of Mouse" Gives Power to Passengers
As Hurricane Ike approached the Texas coast last fall, two Galveston-based cruise ships -- Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Ecstasy and Carnival Carnival Conquest -- were stranded at sea and unable to return. Ultimately, Ike devastated Galveston, and not only did passengers wind up spending a few extra days at sea, they also diverted to New Orleans -- the nearest cruise dock, some 350 miles away.
At that point, Carnival told passengers -- many of whom drove to Galveston to board their ships (meaning their cars were wrecked) or flew into Houston, the nearest major airport -- that they had two options. They could get off in the Big Easy and figure out how to get themselves home or stay on until the ship returned to Texas, date and port unknown. (Those who booked the cruise line's air/sea package did receive help.) Some of the passengers were furious.
In media interviews, Carnival made a strong case that the line had done everything it could for its customers.
In the old, pre-Internet days, when information was much more limited, we'd probably have thought that the line, indeed, was generous and benevolent in the face of an unpredictable situation. Not now. With the advent of Web sites like CruiseCritic.co.uk, which offer forums for travellers to express opinions and share experiences, the real story that emerged from numerous passengers wasn't quite as rosy as the picture Carnival had painted.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Web 2.0 and its so-called user-generated content, where “word of mouse” rules supreme, and where people can share their opinions and experiences with the world.
Cruise Critic's heart and soul reside within its vast community -- a place where travellers can post experiences and reviews (currently, more than 20,000 reader-written critiques), ask questions and connect with other cruisers heading out on the same trips and ships.
Cruisecritic.co.uk is the first country-specific site, created by U.S.-based Cruise Critic. CruiseCritic.com, an established leader in the Internet cruise travel arena, was launched in 1995 by Kathleen Tucker, the site's founder and current president. When creating a travel channel for AOL, she noticed then that cruisers were uniquely passionate about their holidays.
It's even more true now that, especially sociable, these holidaymakers like to keep in touch (before and after cruises and, often, in the midst of them). Ultimately, Cruise Critic grew to attract five million unique visitors a year (at last count), and features professionally written reviews of more than 300 ships and profiles some 75 ports of call. Cruisecritic.co.uk, calls on its parent site for some features, but it has its own flavour, too, with U.K.-centric reviews, news and features, along with cruise deals that are available only to U.K. residents. It's also a great place to ask fellow cruisers for tips and opinions.
If a first-time cruiser, heading out on an Island Cruises voyage, is nervous about a dozen things -- from the cost of shore tours and smoking policies to the best onboard eateries -- the answers she'd get from Island veterans would fill a Jilly Cooper novel.
Those interested in trips aboard MSC's newest ship, MSC Fantasia, don't have to wait for a traditional-style guidebook to publish a review; along with the official Cruise Critic take, three U.K. readers have already written about their experiences since the ship's maiden voyage last month.
The information, coming not from slick marketing brochures, but from real traveller recommendations, puts power in the hands of the people who pay the bills in the first place -- those who buy cruises.
Fans of Norwegian Cruise Line wanted the company to offer New York-based cruises; they were so persistent, creating petitions and raising a ruckus, that NCL, indeed, now homeports two ships in the Big Apple. The anti-smoking brigade has also been quite active in pushing bans on onboard smoking. All of these issues, raised on Cruise Critic's boards, resulted in an outpouring of opinions that were major influences on cruise policies, says Laura Sterling, Cruise Critic's community manager.
That's not to say that all hot-button issues have the effect desired by Cruise Critic community members. Easily, the most sensitive among them is the move by nearly all big-ship cruise lines to prohibit passengers from bringing alcohol (and even, oddly enough, non-alcoholic beverages) onboard. Despite serious opposition to the restrictions (people resent being forced to buy all their drinks on the ship), cruise lines say it's a safety issue -- that such bans curb dangerous binge-drinking and the smuggling of alcohol onboard for underage passengers.
At one point, the contentious issue became so ridiculous that Carnival tried to ban passengers from bringing bottled water onboard. (That didn't last long.) But, it's still sensitive on both sides; just this month a reader, travelling on Royal Caribbean, wrote to tell us that he'd packed two bottles of fine burgundy wine in his checked luggage; the bag was screened, and the wine was detected and confiscated for the duration of the cruise.
Still, "Cruise Critic members have facilitated some changes that led to cruise lines sitting up and taking notice that our readers have something to say -- and that they'll say it with their wallets, if necessary," says Sterling, who has managed the communities for both CruiseCritic.com and CruiseCritic.co.uk for more than a decade.
"Cruise lines have taken notice and monitor what our members say very closely," Sterling says. "We know this because we get calls from cruise line executives, complaining about various thread topics and asking us to remove negative postings." Sterling is responsible for deciding whether or not such requests are appropriate. She notes that, while such complaints are lodged fairly often by cruise lines -- Carnival recently objected to reader comments about its Personal Vacation Planners, and another line was upset about a thread offering tips on how to smuggle alcohol aboard -- she rarely removes anything.
In some cases, Cruise Critic's most alert readers are cruise line CEO's, and some of our readers have learned that they'll get a better response to major complaints by posting on the boards -- rather than by writing a letter to the company president. A few years ago, a passenger, booked on an Oceania cruise, was told (literally days before departure), "oops, we've overbooked; you'll have to cruise another time." The hapless passenger posted a message on Cruise Critic's Oceania forum about the conundrum.
Within hours, Frank del Rio -- Oceania's president and a well-known visitor to the boards -- had been alerted. Angry with his own team for such a bumbling error, he immediately remedied the situation, and the passenger boarded as planned (with a cabin upgrade and extra onboard credit, to boot).
Of course, by blending editorial content with user-generated feedback, CruiseCritic.co.uk is more than just another rant-and-rave platform. Never before has there been such a huge variety of ships, themes, ports and price points available. Hopefully, CruiseCritic can guide passengers to making the right choices in ships and trips -- with the aim of making the journey along the way as much fun as the holiday itself.
As Hurricane Ike approached the Texas coast last fall, two 
Cruisecritic.co.uk is the first country-specific site, created by U.S.-based Cruise Critic. CruiseCritic.com, an established leader in the Internet cruise travel arena, was launched in 1995 by Kathleen Tucker, the site's founder and current president. When creating a travel channel for AOL, she noticed then that cruisers were uniquely passionate about their holidays.
That's not to say that all hot-button issues have the effect desired by Cruise Critic community members. Easily, the most sensitive among them is the move by nearly all big-ship cruise lines to prohibit passengers from bringing alcohol (and even, oddly enough, non-alcoholic beverages) onboard. Despite serious opposition to the restrictions (people resent being forced to buy all their drinks on the ship), cruise lines say it's a safety issue -- that such bans curb dangerous binge-drinking and the smuggling of alcohol onboard for underage passengers. 
