Another Royal Champ article

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruis...=64050869.blog

A little more info on the Royal Champions program.

Scroll down into "comments" and you will see a couple of things....

1) A comment by dave280 showing the letter Royal Caribbean recently sent to
all RC members about the program.

2) A comment from Paul Motter that rec.travel.cruises is a "disaster" and
how his CruiseMates forum is "one of the nicer ones".


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com

Cruise Specials Weblog http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/

May 10, 2009 ALASKA http://www.cruisemaster.com/moagc4.htm
January 10, 2009 Southern Caribbean
http://www.cruisemaster.com/caribprin.htm
October 16, 2010 OASIS http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com

On Mar 16, 10:59�am, "George Leppla" wrote:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruis...log&ak=6405086....

A little more info on the Royal Champions program.

Scroll down into "comments" and you will see a couple of things....

1) �A comment by dave280 showing the letter Royal Caribbean recently sent to
all RC members about the program.

2) A comment from Paul Motter that rec.travel.cruises is a "disaster" and
how his CruiseMates forum is "one of the nicer ones".

--
George Leppla � �http://www.CruiseMaster.com

the whole thing about all this is
ROYAL CARIBBEAN never ever asked anyone to BECOME a Royal Champion,
nor to go on any ONLINE community and POST all POSITIVES about their
company.
None of us that are RC ers asked for it now applied for it. and I
think it terrible that those who were not chosen have made a mockery
out of all this.... Jelous I would say....

Susette
www.Cruiseoutlets.com
Join us on the Westerdam 12-6-09

"George Leppla" wrote in message
...
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruis...=64050869.blog

A little more info on the Royal Champions program.


And here is another article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29685207/

I think it is a hoot. Royal Caribbean (RCL) probably has maybe 2 million
passengers a year and they gave a freebie to between 50 and 75 people....
and from the way some people react, you would think that THIS IS THE END OF
CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT!!!!!!

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Royal Caribbean has had to do less
discounting to keep their ships full than any of their competitors.
Insiders at Royal Caribbean are buying stock by the buckets and will
probably end up laughing all the way to the bank.


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com

Cruise Specials Weblog http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/

May 10, 2009 ALASKA http://www.cruisemaster.com/moagc4.htm
January 10, 2009 Southern Caribbean
http://www.cruisemaster.com/caribprin.htm
October 16, 2010 OASIS http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com

Susette wrote:
On Mar 16, 10:59�am, "George Leppla" wrote:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruis...log&ak=6405086...

A little more info on the Royal Champions program.

Scroll down into "comments" and you will see a couple of things....

1) �A comment by dave280 showing the letter Royal Caribbean recently sent to
all RC members about the program.

2) A comment from Paul Motter that rec.travel.cruises is a "disaster" and
how his CruiseMates forum is "one of the nicer ones".

--
George Leppla � �http://www.CruiseMaster.com

the whole thing about all this is
ROYAL CARIBBEAN never ever asked anyone to BECOME a Royal Champion,
nor to go on any ONLINE community and POST all POSITIVES about their
company.
None of us that are RC ers asked for it now applied for it. and I
think it terrible that those who were not chosen have made a mockery
out of all this.... Jelous I would say....

Susette
www.Cruiseoutlets.com
Join us on the Westerdam 12-6-09

Let me get this straight.
Company Z noticed that a couple of satisfied customers regularly say
good things about their products to anyone who would listen on the internet.
Company Z contacts these folks and gives them free samples of new
products along with the opportunity to act as a sort of focus group and
give their opinions about these products to the company.
These satisfied customers continue to say good things about company Z
and tell people how great the new products are.

This has been done with everything, from soda-pop to cereal. Open a box
of something and out falls a coupon for that companies sister product.
The company is hoping that if you bought and liked "A" that once you try
"B" , you will like that also and if you tell a few friends about it,
even better.

Ever walk in a mall and while buying candy, cinnamon-roll or a cookie
have the person offer you a free sample of something else. You are
already a customer, because of all the options of things to buy in the
mall, you chose their store. You buy what you came in for and maybe one
of whats being sampled. You get back to the office and tell your office
mates that company M at the mall is giving out really good samples of X
and they'd better get down their if they want to get some at the sale price.

Does eating the free sample and telling someone that it was good make
you a shill?
Does using the coupon and telling a friend about the product make you a
shill?

As long as people are not pressured to give good reports or not paid to
give good reports " i.e. give us a good report on this product and we
will give another free sample/ money /etc." I don't see what the
problem is. After all, this is the anonymous internet, not consumer reports.

I do believe that the advertising company was just being stupid. It
sounds like they wanted to make it look like to their audience as if
they had more power over the people giving opinions then they actually
did. Almost like they were trying to sell viral marketing as something
that they do well instead of explaining how it works on the internet vs.
the store front.

As any good business person will tell you, there is no better
advertisement then a satisfied customer who likes to spread their
opinions. While a quiet satisfied customer is good for repeat business,
a loud satisfied customer will tell and refer everyone they know to you.

If they send a referral or two your way, it would be rude not to send a
thank you their way.

Linnie

George Leppla wrote:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruis...=64050869.blog

A little more info on the Royal Champions program.

Scroll down into "comments" and you will see a couple of things....

1) A comment by dave280 showing the letter Royal Caribbean recently
sent to all RC members about the program.

2) A comment from Paul Motter that rec.travel.cruises is a "disaster"
and how his CruiseMates forum is "one of the nicer ones".

It sounds to me like some folk are shilling for their bulletin board/web
sites more than complaining about RCCL. There's an obvious number of
the self-righteous "sniffing" that takes place when some of the
self-important posters to any board discover that they weren't some of
the anointed people. The funniest part is that the two competing
boards are trying to both advertise their own significance in the
industry while trying to knock/sway the other.

Again, I recall that dipstick from long ago who actually had a pretty
darn good web site about cruising. However, he'd follot r.t.c closely
and then post a, "To see the answer to this, visit xxxx.com for the
answer." The xxx.com was never a direct link to the answer, but just
his home page, as I recall.

I've wondered why some TA hasn't contacted some private individual who
posts to r.t.c., CC or some of the other boards, saying: Look, if
you'll promote going on this cruise on such and such a date, I'll give
you a cabin.
--
Nonny
If you think health care is expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs when it's free!

- P.J. O'Rourke

"Nonnymus" wrote in message
news
If you think health care is expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs when it's free!

Healthcare is free or at very low cost (paid for out of taxes) throughout
most of the civilised World.

--
JohnT

In article , George Leppla
wrote:

2) A comment from Paul Motter that rec.travel.cruises is a "disaster" and
how his CruiseMates forum is "one of the nicer ones".

Motter is trying to build his forums. He has posed his forums against
Cruise Critic and other forums with a holier than thou line. It is just
a pose. Motter in the past defended Ann Campbell who his site used to
include in the name of the site, it was Ann Campbell's Cruisemates or
something like that, until they had a falling out, and other travel
writers like himself, who claim to be journalists, who write cruise
reviews, on cruises they were given free by the cruise lines, without
disclosing that the cruise was provided by the company they are
reviewing.

Motter's commercial site is a distant second to Cruise Critic in the
same space, and it is the same space, and is likely to remain a
distant. Not because it is a bad site. Cruise Critic was born out of
the AOL boards and came out of AOL with a massive membership. Inertia
is on Cruise Critic's side.

--
Charles

wrote:

Let me get this straight.
Company Z noticed that a couple of satisfied customers regularly say
good things about their products to anyone who would listen on the
internet.
Company Z contacts these folks and gives them free samples of new
products along with the opportunity to act as a sort of focus group and
give their opinions about these products to the company.
These satisfied customers continue to say good things about company Z
and tell people how great the new products are.

This has been done with everything, from soda-pop to cereal. Open a box
of something and out falls a coupon for that companies sister product.
The company is hoping that if you bought and liked "A" that once you try
"B" , you will like that also and if you tell a few friends about it,
even better.

Ever walk in a mall and while buying candy, cinnamon-roll or a cookie
have the person offer you a free sample of something else. You are
already a customer, because of all the options of things to buy in the
mall, you chose their store. You buy what you came in for and maybe one
of whats being sampled. You get back to the office and tell your office
mates that company M at the mall is giving out really good samples of X
and they'd better get down their if they want to get some at the sale
price.

Does eating the free sample and telling someone that it was good make
you a shill?
Does using the coupon and telling a friend about the product make you a
shill?

As long as people are not pressured to give good reports or not paid to
give good reports " i.e. give us a good report on this product and we
will give another free sample/ money /etc." I don't see what the
problem is. After all, this is the anonymous internet, not consumer
reports.

I do believe that the advertising company was just being stupid. It
sounds like they wanted to make it look like to their audience as if
they had more power over the people giving opinions then they actually
did. Almost like they were trying to sell viral marketing as something
that they do well instead of explaining how it works on the internet vs.
the store front.

As any good business person will tell you, there is no better
advertisement then a satisfied customer who likes to spread their
opinions. While a quiet satisfied customer is good for repeat business,
a loud satisfied customer will tell and refer everyone they know to you.

If they send a referral or two your way, it would be rude not to send a
thank you their way.

Linnie

Let's look at this from the other side of the coin.

The same company which has provided free cruises and other known and
unknown perks to people who have regularly gushed positive about them in
online groups has also banned a certain couple from going on any of
their cruises, paid for or not, because they had the nerve to say not so
nice things about the cruise line on the same forums. What gives a
public company the right to arbitrarily ban someone from purchasing
their product just because they say bad things about?
Does this mean if I go out and buy a Ford and have issues with it that I
make public, Ford can then deny me they option of ever buying another
Ford again? If I don't like something I bought from WalMart and say so
in a public forum, does WalMart have the right to deny me entrance into
a WalMart store?
I still believe that RCI did the wrong thing when it *hired*
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hired
the people employed as Royal Champions.
"to engage the services of (a person or persons) for wages or other payment"
and it appears that it is coming back to bite them in the ass.

Nonnymus wrote:

It sounds to me like some folk are shilling for their bulletin board/web
sites more than complaining about RCCL. There's an obvious number of
the self-righteous "sniffing" that takes place when some of the
self-important posters to any board discover that they weren't some of
the anointed people. The funniest part is that the two competing
boards are trying to both advertise their own significance in the
industry while trying to knock/sway the other.

Again, I recall that dipstick from long ago who actually had a pretty
darn good web site about cruising. However, he'd follot r.t.c closely
and then post a, "To see the answer to this, visit xxxx.com for the
answer." The xxx.com was never a direct link to the answer, but just
his home page, as I recall.

I've wondered why some TA hasn't contacted some private individual who
posts to r.t.c., CC or some of the other boards, saying: Look, if
you'll promote going on this cruise on such and such a date, I'll give
you a cabin.

Who is to say they haven't?
Who is to say that a certain travel agent who has posted 21,000 times on
this group doesn't also use aliases to pump up his agency, or alises to
denigrate his agency in order to enable him to post more?
Talk about your viral marketing.

JohnT wrote:
"Nonnymus" wrote in message
news
If you think health care is expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs when it's free!

Healthcare is free or at very low cost (paid for out of taxes)
throughout most of the civilised World.


There is no free, or even very low cost health care anywhere without
excessive taxes or some other such support. Even then, it isn't decent
care. If one wants something trashed quickly, then simply leave total
control to government.

http://townhall.com/columnists/Walte...nt_health_care

Marsha