ganastor Posted March 29, 2023 Report Share Posted March 29, 2023 (edited) Edit 4/1: thank you everyone for your comments below, it's enough for me to get started on this project. For anyone with technical chops: I was thinking of using ListingPro Wordpress template, which apparently there's also a React Native template for making into an app, something I've zero experience with. Down the road, if anyone could help with this, that'd be awesome. --------------- I've been thinking about building a review website (independent of this forum) and I've been wondering a) would others find this useful and b) if so, would love any ideas. Below is what I was thinking for a start. I've been thinking about this because I think it'd be nice to have an actual star rating for some of the RC excursions, and I'd also love a place to discuss each one indivdually. This would be for Royal Caribbean cruises only, as I've now booked my 4th, it looks like I'll be using them for some time to come. Would love any input! - Star rating (1-5) - Value - Experience - ?? - Would you recommend - Excursion Size (how large the group is) - Food/bev (what meals and/or drinks are included) - Activity Level - Minimum and maximum recommended age groups - Duration - Type (or tags) - Cultural/historical - Pool/beach - Sail/boat/catamaran - Active - Etc. - Free form notes - Pictures Edited April 1, 2023 by ganastor Added additional and technical notes jbrinkm, smost and She Sails Away 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xaa Posted March 29, 2023 Report Share Posted March 29, 2023 A checkbox for "Would you recommend this excursion to others?" Then obviously an opportunity to freeform and post pics etc. ganastor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganastor Posted March 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2023 26 minutes ago, Xaa said: A checkbox for "Would you recommend this excursion to others?" Then obviously an opportunity to freeform and post pics etc. Added, thanks much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MO & LO on the go! Posted March 29, 2023 Report Share Posted March 29, 2023 duration broken down to travel time and actual excursion time DDaley, FloatyBoaty, Ryan79 and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FionaMG Posted March 29, 2023 Report Share Posted March 29, 2023 Availability of bathrooms both on any form of transport used during a tour and at the stops. ChessE4, She Sails Away, USCG Teacher and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan79 Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 What about adding “Name of tour guide”? Yes, you cannot pick your guide but the guide many many times is what makes the difference between a decent experience and a very memorable one. DDaley and ChessE4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChessE4 Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 I think you need categories. Beach excursions different from walking tours or drive-around tours, etc. The category changes evaluation criteria. smost and EasyTarget83 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganastor Posted March 30, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 Thanks everyone for the ideas so far! So I guess the real question is, would y'all use it, especially if I incorporated these ideas? I put this same post on on reddit and didn't get half this much attention. FYI I intend on open sourcing it, so things like categories, etc. can be added when I don't think of all of them (thank you ChessE4 for a few of them though. I would have never thought of bathrooms, what a great great idea!! VeggieFruit and DDaley 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloatyBoaty Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 I just said on one of my excursions last week that there should be reviews available in the cruise planner or MUCH MORE DETAIL. The descriptions are all very marketing-y and you often do not get a real sense of how much time you'll be spending somewhere & especially, how much time you'll be driving around vs doing stuff. Sure, you can get additional information from the Excursions desk, but by then any pre-purchasing discounts are long gone. This seems like such a huge project - there are so many excursions listed for some of my cruises, and I would imagine they change them up a bit. I would be very likely to look for reviews and comments on excursions I'm considering. ChessE4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbrinkm Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 21 hours ago, Xaa said: A checkbox for "Would you recommend this excursion to others?" Then obviously an opportunity to freeform and post pics etc. I actually tend to dislike that question on surveys because it is hard to answer if you are anywhere in the middle with your opinion. If the excursion was ok but had a few issues, it can be hard to say if you recommend it or not. I like the star rating much better and feel like it encompasses whether you would recommend it or not. Also it is so subjective - I love the monkeys on Roatan but others hate them. ChessE4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xaa Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 I hear ya @jbrinkm I would have it in addition to star ratings which of course are also subjective. A simple pass fail, you have to pick one. I'm asking you about the trip you just took, should I take it? The five star people will presumably say yes and the 1 star people no, but where do the 3's and 4's lie if they have to give their personal stamp of approval? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smost Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 3 hours ago, ganastor said: So I guess the real question is, would y'all use it, especially if I incorporated these ideas? I would absolutely use and be thankful for something like this. I have a cruise in 2024 that excursions are starting to populate for and some of them sound very similar but with vastly different price ranges. A site like the one you're proposing would be most helpful in deciding which option to choose. birdie1410 and ChessE4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emfagan Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 I think this is a gap that needs to be filled and would use it birdie1410 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckruetze Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 I would also use such a site. When you create it please add a date filter to it. So that the user can filter by review date as things change over time. birdie1410 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan79 Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 I would absolutely use it!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChessE4 Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 Yes. Here is example. We had a poor Cinque Terre experience last fall due to massive crowds in November, when high season should have been over. But another tour of Portofino and one nearby village got good reviews. We had no way of evaluating the two options before we booked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorCruiser Posted March 31, 2023 Report Share Posted March 31, 2023 I wish this excursion page would organize them by port. It’s like stream of consciousness in here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganastor Posted April 1, 2023 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2023 Adding here what I also added above: Thank you everyone for your comments below, it's enough for me to get started on this project. For anyone with technical chops: I was thinking of using ListingPro Wordpress template, which apparently there's also a React Native template for making into an app, something I've zero experience with. Down the road, if anyone could help with this, that'd be awesome IRMO12HD and DDaley 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
She Sails Away Posted April 8, 2023 Report Share Posted April 8, 2023 Love this idea. I would also appreciate info on how walkable/accessible it is, as in: how hard is it to walk to from port (if applicable) and back. For us folks over 50, any info about the physicality of tours is always welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
She Sails Away Posted April 8, 2023 Report Share Posted April 8, 2023 I've noticed on the Princess website, when browsing port excursions offered by the ship, each excursion has a star value and reviews left by previous cruisers. So you can right away look at a Port excursion and see whether or not people who have taken the excursions in the past really liked it or really didn't. I find that so helpful. And then there are written reviews you can browse right there on the spot as well before you decide whether or not to book that excursion while you're there on the website. I would love to see something like that either on Royal's website or somewhere independently like you are planning to do. The additional comments people have the option of leaving aside from the star reviews are so helpful. People point out things that are important to know and that come in so handy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montemy2419 Posted April 8, 2023 Report Share Posted April 8, 2023 It would be really nice to be able to look at the site without having to create an account. If I get too many pop ups or the whole page is blocked unless I create an account then I just drop the tab and don't visit the website. She Sails Away and RafaellaCG 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FionaMG Posted April 8, 2023 Report Share Posted April 8, 2023 5 hours ago, She Sails Away said: I've noticed on the Princess website, when browsing port excursions offered by the ship, each excursion has a star value and reviews left by previous cruisers. So you can right away look at a Port excursion and see whether or not people who have taken the excursions in the past really liked it or really didn't. I find that so helpful. And then there are written reviews you can browse right there on the spot as well before you decide whether or not to book that excursion while you're there on the website. I would love to see something like that either on Royal's website or somewhere independently like you are planning to do. The additional comments people have the option of leaving aside from the star reviews are so helpful. People point out things that are important to know and that come in so handy. I agree. I've never sailed with Princess but any time I'm interested in a Royal excursion I always visit the Princess site to see if there's anything similar since their excursion information is light years ahead of Royal's. DDaley and She Sails Away 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottD Posted April 8, 2023 Report Share Posted April 8, 2023 This will be nice...but for now, if you type an exact excursion name (ie: Royal Caribbean blue lagoon beach break) into google, a lot of times you'll get a trip advisor or viator review on that excursion. USCG Teacher 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeggieFruit Posted April 8, 2023 Report Share Posted April 8, 2023 I would absolutely use and participate in a resource like this. Would be great to have non-marketing reviews and information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindanuf Posted April 11, 2023 Report Share Posted April 11, 2023 I think it's a great idea. Even a simple site that people could give a star rating and review like trip advisor would be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbrinkm Posted May 2, 2023 Report Share Posted May 2, 2023 The other thing that might be helpful and I don't know how to do, is it might be nice to have a place for people to rate/review each of the dining choices available so there is a star or number point system assigned to each item, now that dinner menus have been standardized across the fleet. Not individual narrative reviews - we have a lot of those! but just a system like tripadvisor where you just rate on a scale, how much you liked each of the menu items that you tried. Do you think I could try to do something like this just here on the forums using a poll? Can you do multiple polls in one thread? That would be just a "did you like it" and yes/no answers, not as detailed as what @ganastor is working on, but would be something I could set up on my own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Burd Posted May 2, 2023 Report Share Posted May 2, 2023 I would absolutely use the site you are creating. I already google the excursion and look for videos, but this would probably be my first site to check. Thanks for doing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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