Comments on: Paid cheerleaders: Does Royal Caribbean’s viral campaign cross the line?

By: perde modelleri

perde modelleri — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:33:05 +0000

Why do those who love cruising find themselves trashed on this site as “rabid cruise fans?” If the person running it isn’t a fan of cruising, then why is she an “expert cruiser?” I’m not a “rabid” fan of anything — “rabid” means disease-ridden and disease-causing. But people who like cruising as a vacation style aren’t any more deserving of being trashed than those who enjoy going to Nascar events over vacations, or to Broadway plays.

By: Tül Perde

Tül Perde — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:42:59 +0000

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:30:11 +0000

One more error I’d like to point out is that these people did not only make positive posts about Royal Caribbean. Reading through their posting history, they complain just as much as they praise. I have read this author’s so-called “story” on several websites. Knowing the truth of how this program came to be, I can only imagine that she is a cheerleader for another cruise line (making her a hypocrite), or she doesn’t believe in seeking out the truth for a fair and balanced story. This is sensationalism at it’s best.

By: PaulAquahound@aol.co

PaulAquahound@aol.co — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:37:30 +0000

After reading through these responses, I have to say that several of you have missed the point, along with the author. These website bloggers existed long before the Royal Champions program was created. These were ordinary people who chatted on CruiseCritic with thousands of other people. Royal Caribbean recognized them as generally being supportive of their brand and dubbed them with the title “Royal Champions.” It is implied here that Royal Caribbean embedded these people with instruction to post positively about the cruise line. That is opposite of the truth. These people were in no way, shape, or form employees of Royal Caribbean. Heck, one of the Royal Champions was a 15 year old boy.

By: Commentary: Royal Champions walk the plank | ExpertCruiser.com

Commentary: Royal Champions walk the plank | ExpertCruiser.com — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:04:35 +0000

[...] March, I broke the story regarding Royal Caribbean International’s “Royal Champion” viral marketing program where fans of the cruise line only posted positive reviews on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor. The [...]

By: sicak video

sicak video — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:29:40 +0000

A lot of Cruisers are very gullible and will join the bandwagon without asking any questions. They repeat the stories without thinking how little they know as to the identity of the poster or the destinations. On the web small tour providers can appear as large and established as an actual established operator. Here the key issue is licensing and insurance. As far as I know only 3 companies out of dozens hold internationally recognized liability insurance. Therefore only those 3 are eligible for bidding on cruise line contracts to provide the shore excursions the ships sell. They need a local operator to sponsor their passengers for visa free entry into the country.

By: perde

perde — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:50:09 +0000

Why focus on the website where cruisers post? That’s a sideways approach. The sites where these “influencers” are posting has nothing to do with the marketing approach taken by Royal Caribbean.

Let’s face it, I participate on three different cruise sites and none of them give two darn farts who I am when I register and don’t ask me if I “love” or “hate” any cruise line when I do.

By: Clubturk.net-2. Seo Yarışması – Kahrolsun İsrail zulmü

Clubturk.net-2. Seo Yarışması – Kahrolsun İsrail zulmü — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:23:51 +0000

It puts Crusie Critic and The Travel Agents integrity into question.

By: Kiralık Daire

Kiralık Daire — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:34:20 +0000

Very insightful article! Thanks for digging to find out more about this.

I like to hear the good, the bad, and the truly ugly about cruise lines and I’ve come to expect that on message boards. You’ve reminded me that I’m being naive.

By: porno

porno — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:29:32 +0000

Cruise lines do NOT generally cover their passengers with liability insurance when off the ship so they require their shore contractors to have it. That is reasonable but why do cruisers not care whether their are risking so much far from home by not even asking about these things?
As for posts, ignore posts from “people” who only post touting one service and no general posts, ignore those which have glowing reports as their first and only posts, ignore posts that not give detailed verifiable reasons they are promoting a particular company. Ignore posts from single issue “experts” with thousands of posts most of which promote one cruise or one shore excursion operator, they are most certainly shills but they get a pass because they post so often for years. One has 6,000 posts and in every one of them they promote a single tour operator yet none of his posts are blocked. With each of these, the odds are very great that the post is fake and used in place of traditional advertising.

This is how it is in this one specific region so you can imagine how widespread it is when the much larger sums of money are at stake with whole cruise lines or major destinations.