Ways To Get Useful Info Specific To Your Cruise

We are less than 7 days away from leaving Port Everglades on our transatlantic cruise and our preparations are on schedule.  Back in December, we realized that there wasn’t a Facebook group for this sailing, so we created a private group to share information.  Today, the group passed 150 members.  A Facebook group for the sailing is a great place to interact with fellow passengers before, during and after sailing.  We answer each other’s questions, fill up group tours so that we get better pricing, etc.  It is a good idea to look online to see if such a group exists for any cruise you plan to take.  In our case, there will be a meet and greet early in the cruise that has more than 100 people signed up.  We will get the meet our new FB “friends” in person.  An example of the type of info you get in the group is that a frequent cruiser on our sailing knows the band that will be playing in the Rolling Stone Rock Room and posted a video of them performing.  We will definitely be hitting that venue on a frequent basis.

Cruise Critic has a roll call for each sailing on each cruise ship, generally started by an enthusiastic passenger 2 years or so before sailing. You can find yours on the Cruise Critic discussion board.  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/ 

A Facebook group, in my opinion, is better than the Cruise Critic Message Board Roll Call.  Why?  Because you can exchange information about specific tour providers, travel agents, insurance companies, etc.  Cruise Critic won’ t let you do that.  Moreover, many of the frequent posters on Cruise Critic (some posting more than 30,000 times in their “careers”!) can be a bit testy.  If you have any constructive critique of their favorite cruise lines, the claws can come out.  They take this stuff personally.   But there is no reason you cannot participate in both the roll call and the FB group.  There is good information to be uncovered in both places.