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#11
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Cruise Critic Censorship
In article
, wrote: You may have heard of this, sorry if it's a re-do. Cruise Critic is now deleting anything and everything that mentions 'Royal Champions' or an article that connects CC to a campaign where RCI is giving certain select people percs for positive post about RCI, hence their name 'Royal Champions. Cruise Critic, a very well known and used cruise forum, really seems to be doing whatever it takes to sweep this under the rug, making them look like co-horts with RCI, which really deminishes their standing with cruisers, and is giving anyone who is a 'Royal Champion' a bad name and making even them look like they are not to be trusted, even though some have been very helpful posters at CC, even before this program. Cruise Critic is a moderated forum. To some people moderation is a feature. Many left unmoderated Usenet newsgroups like this one for web forums like Cruise Critic for that feature. I prefer deciding myself what to read. Thus I use kill files in this newsgroup to ignore posters I don't want to read and others are free to read those same newsgroup posters if they so choose do so. Cruise Critic is well known for having a heavy hand in their moderation of their forums. In my opinion they delete too many posts and threads for unknown reasons. However it is their forum, their web site. They own it (actually Tripadviser), and since they own it, they have the right to do what they please in what they allow. If I don't like what they are doing, I don't have to be a part of it, I can go elsewhere or start my own discussion forums. As far as the threads on the Royal Champions, the thread I read a few posts of before getting bored with it, the gist of it seemed to be whining that Royal Champions were getting perks at the expense of Diamond Plus members. I detected jealousy. As far as Cruise Critic and RCI being cohorts, there had to be collaboration between Cruise Critic and Royal Caribbean about the Cruise Critic members who became Royal Champions. I don't know who did the selection, but think about it, Cruise Critic members don't post with e-mail addresses, they post with screen names. Cruise Critic had to give Royal Caribbean a way to contact those people who were chosen. -- Charles |
#12
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Cruise Critic Censorship
On Mar 9, 6:32*pm, D Ball wrote:
NWLB, What do you mean by this? "The thing is, some of these people couldn't see to disclose their status as most people are taught." Just wondering. Royal Caribbean has never 'taught' or otherwise told me to do anything. Diana Diana I was simply saying in my honors English classes of High School, college, and ethics class during the graduate course work in business I took, all touched on disclosing at various points. And as for RCI, no, they have no obligation to tell you or me, or anybody anything. Mostly common sense would tell somebody not to be so dumb as to post a review on a cruise RCI provides you with, without also noting that the cruise line did so. So if people were out on CC blasting these uber-positive and glow reviews, on cruises they were offered for free, I would say people have reason to be unhappy. To Peters point, they've been totally above board in my interactions with "them." Them being RCI specifically, not the marketing firm that did any original research. My being on Liberty wasn't an offer made with any expectations in advance. Charles notes a couple of things I'll agree with. CC has a heavy hand, I know CM does as well, and I have insight from a couple of their people about how things shifted after the buy-out a year ago. The new owner is hyper sensitive to anything which could at all be considered to take away from "value" to their advertising partners. That is less the lines as it is the smaller fish. And yes, there are "Diamond" members who are livid about the Royal Champions. The thrust of the complaints I've had express tended to be that RCI was listening to RC's more than the Diamond Plus members. Some of the views are more enlightened than others, but a few views I've had passed my way sound like debutantes kvetching over somebody having the same dress. It is a big fuss over nothing. As George notes, RTC isn't private, and |
#13
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Cruise Critic Censorship
So if people were out on CC blasting these uber-positive and glow
reviews, on cruises they were offered for free, I would say people have reason to be unhappy. NWLB, Thanks for explaining. I agree, but don't think it's an issue, as from what I've observed, every person invited on the complimentary LOTS pre-inaugural 2-nighter was quick to crow about the fact they'd been invited as RCI's guest--it was just too exciting and novel not to share! (Can't win for losing: disclosure breeds the jealousy threads.) Did RCI *promise* you anything for spreading the word? Peter, no. The actual contact with RCI has been minimal. I received a form email out of the blue inviting me to the Liberty sailing. It was followed by snail mail paperwork and then the sailing itself. AFAIK, there hasn't been another sailing offered to any "Royal Champions," although there was a land-based Oasis preview party invite (several RTCers who live in/near Manhattan attended). The recent flurry of discussion was prompted because Royal Champions received an email in Feb. asking for updated contact information, which naturally caused speculation/hope an Oasis pre-inaugural invite might be on the way. Diana |
#14
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Cruise Critic Censorship
"George Leppla" wrote in message ... "peter" wrote Did RCI *promise* you anything for spreading the word? Someone close to me is on the Royal Champions list and quite a few r.t.c. people are also and if they are being directed by Royal Caribbean as to what they should post or that they would receive anything for their positive posts I have never heard of it. I've never been asked, or told, what to post about RCI, nor have I ever been promised anything. I'm not even sure why I was selected as a Royal Champion. At the time I was selected, I wasn't even an RCI diamond member because of RCI, I was a diamond member because of Celebrity. At the time I had probably gone one 3 times as many Celebrity sailings as RCI sailings (I wonder if my pro-Celebrity posts contributed to being a Royal Champion??? - don't know). The only reason I've gone on so many RCI sailings lately is because a) the Vikings like RCI, and b) Celebrity pulled out of the NYC to Bermuda run, so instead of taking Zenith every year to Bermuda I take Explorer. I love the RCI Voyager class ships, and I've brought a lot of family and friends on RCI ships, but personally, the elegance of Celebrity and Cunard are more my "cup of tea". What I have found though, is by taking Zenith out of the NYC-Bermuda run, I do almost no Celebrity anymore. The Bermuda run was a trigger of sorts to do other Celebrity sailings. Without Zenith going to Bermuda, I'm doing more RCI, but I've also migrated to the likes of Cunard. The QM2 is now my new favorite ship. --Tom |
#15
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Cruise Critic Censorship
"D Ball" wrote in message ... So if people were out on CC blasting these uber-positive and glow reviews, on cruises they were offered for free, I would say people have reason to be unhappy. NWLB, Thanks for explaining. I agree, but don't think it's an issue, as from what I've observed, every person invited on the complimentary LOTS pre-inaugural 2-nighter was quick to crow about the fact they'd been invited as RCI's guest--it was just too exciting and novel not to share! (Can't win for losing: disclosure breeds the jealousy threads.) Did RCI *promise* you anything for spreading the word? Peter, no. The actual contact with RCI has been minimal. I received a form email out of the blue inviting me to the Liberty sailing. Same with me... in fact, it simply was an e-mail that said in the title, "Royal Caribbean has an offer for you". Then it asked to call a number that was provided. I almost tossed it thinking it was something like a "free credit card" type thing... but it had a person's name, so that was the only reason I looked more carefully instead of simply deleting it. I called and that's when the person described the opportunity to take a pre inaugural sailing out of either Bayonne or Miami. --Tom |
#16
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Cruise Critic Censorship
Charles wrote:
As far as Cruise Critic and RCI being cohorts, there had to be collaboration between Cruise Critic and Royal Caribbean about the Cruise Critic members who became Royal Champions. I don't know who did the selection, but think about it, Cruise Critic members don't post with e-mail addresses, they post with screen names. Cruise Critic had to give Royal Caribbean a way to contact those people who were chosen. This is suggesting that CC disclosed email addresses to RCI From the CC Privacy Policy, URL he http://www.cruisecritic.com/aboutus/index.cfm?ID=11 Quote:
to ask RCI specifically how they got their email address? Of course, if one happens to use a unique email address for each website registration, etc ... then you would know without having to ask. -hh |
#17
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Cruise Critic Censorship
"-hh" wrote in message ... This is suggesting that CC disclosed email addresses to RCI From the CC Privacy Policy, URL he http://www.cruisecritic.com/aboutus/index.cfm?ID=11 Quote:
It would appear that the $64K question would be for a 'Royal Champion' to ask RCI specifically how they got their email address? Of course, if one happens to use a unique email address for each website registration, etc ... then you would know without having to ask. -hh Here's an easier way. You go on an RCI cruise. You do the pre-registration on line. You have an e-mail address registered with. You register for the Cruise Critic party on board. Now.... They have your CC name from that CC registration, and your e-mail address from their data... VOILA... connection made. --Tom |
#18
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Cruise Critic Censorship
On Mar 10, 9:45*am, "Tom K" wrote:
Here's an easier way. You go on an RCI cruise. *You do the pre-registration on line. *You have an e-mail address registered with. *You register for the Cruise Critic party on board. They would need to reconcile email differences. I use a different email address for online forums and this newsgroup than my private email which I use for cruise embarkation registration and cruiseline websites.My Royal Champion email comes to the address I use for public forums/RTC - not the one associated with Crown&Anchor. Warren |
#19
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Cruise Critic Censorship
"Warren" wrote in message ... On Mar 10, 9:45 am, "Tom K" wrote: Here's an easier way. You go on an RCI cruise. You do the pre-registration on line. You have an e-mail address registered with. You register for the Cruise Critic party on board. They would need to reconcile email differences. I use a different email address for online forums and this newsgroup than my private email which I use for cruise embarkation registration and cruiseline websites.My Royal Champion email comes to the address I use for public forums/RTC - not the one associated with Crown&Anchor. Warren RTC is different from CC... your e-mail isn't hidden at RTC. I was trying to figure an easy way to make the CC connection. --Tom |
#20
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Cruise Critic Censorship
On Mar 10, 3:57*pm, "Tom K" wrote:
"Warren" wrote in message ... On Mar 10, 9:45 am, "Tom K" wrote: Here's an easier way. You go on an RCI cruise. You do the pre-registration on line. You have an e-mail address registered with. You register for the Cruise Critic party on board. They would need to reconcile email differences. I use a different email address for online forums and this newsgroup than my private email which I use for cruise embarkation registration and cruiseline websites.My Royal Champion email comes to the address I use for public forums/RTC - not the one associated with Crown&Anchor. Warren RTC is different from CC... your e-mail isn't hidden at RTC. *I was trying to figure an easy way to make the CC connection. --Tom It's on CC now. The moderator was asked for the emails of certain posters but refused due to privacy rules. She was then asked to email the posters and get their OK for release of their information. The ones that said OK were given, hence CC played their part in helping a cruiseline, which doesn't surprise me, they are part of a business afterall and it's no shock to me that they, as other businesses i.e, PR firms, TAs, the media, etc may be offered perks from the lines once in a while, thats pretty much common knowledge but, for people who are just 'regular' posters to be offered perks because of this RC thing AND not disclose them association with a PR program is wrong. RCI did hire a PR firm to start and oversee this program and while RCers for the most part don't think they have or would ever be influenced to change their opinion and they may not, this program is pretty much basic Psych 101. While RCers really have nothing to be sorry about, who wouldn't mind being a part of a program where you MAY be offered a perk once in a while, RCI does for not being open about this right from the start, even to RCers who say they had no idea what it was or what was involved, but it doesn't surprise me that a business would try to do something under the cloak of darkness. Any other businesses that were involved in this PR ploy and tried to hide it and/or their part in it, before or after the fact should be sorry also but at least one seems to want to deny, deny, deny still instead of just saying we could have and possibly should have handled it differently. |
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