Can't access discussion boards

Hello Bill,
We have added you as a member of your discussion board for your upcoming trip to Panama so you can begin speaking with others in your group. We apologize for the delay and are available if you need any further assistance.

All the best,
Your Friends at Road Scholar

Still barred from access to the discussion board for the Alaska trip Sept 3. Have spoken twice to RS staff about this. Perhaps there is no one discussing the trip!

I'm going to Switzerland in Oct, emailed them about the message we get and was told: you may access this from your upcoming trips page in your account. One of the items listed there is "Trip Discussion". If nothing shows, it's because no one has posted yet. If you have a specific question or comment, you can start the discussion! However the weird message we get sounds like there's something wrong with the site. When I took my first trip with RS a few years ago the website was so easy and friendly to use.

Hi mollysydney012712,
Thanks for reaching out. You are actually already a member of the discussion board for your trip to Alaska.

Please follow these steps to access it now --

1. Log into your Road Scholar online account.
2. Click on your username at the top of the page then from the drop down menu select "Upcoming Trips".
3. Your Trip Card will appear. On that Trip Card is a blue link that says "Trip Discussion". Click it then your discussion board will appear.

Let us know if you need any further assistance.

All the best,
Your Friends at Road Scholar

Hi betsyhart011102,
We apologize for the error on our part, it appears you were not a member of your trip specific discussion board. We have added you today so you can begin to communicate with others in your group now.

Feel free to reach out if you need any further assistance.

All the best,
Your Friends at Road Scholar

Why does any one feel the need to discuss their trip before hand with fellow travelers!! Just go and be surprised!! Who cares!! That's the fun of it! If you have an important question call RS.

I sometimes go early to see things in trip start city not being visited on trip. RS call center does not know all that information but people who have been on a trip do. I personally like being surprised by people I will meet on the trip but travel details can come in handy.

I have several times planned to stay an extra day or two after the trip. As a solo traveler, I would be glad to share a room if there were others that also wanted to stay on. But because the discussion boards are so poorly organized, this is almost never possible.

On my last trip, I tried to post a message to say I had booked a double room for one more night in case anyone else wanted to share after the trip was over. I knew that several people wold likely stay, because flights to the Midwest and East Coast weren't available without taking the redeye. Sure enough, another woman was not only staying over solo, but taking the same flight as me! But because we could coordinate, we each paid for a room when we could have shared.

And some RS trips involve getting to a starting location that is hard to access without a car. If others are coming from the same airport or city, we could coordinate travel.

And then there is just the chance that people actually want to talk about the trip in advance. That makes it fun.

I have several times planned to stay an extra day or two after the trip. As a solo traveler, I would be glad to share a room if there were others that also wanted to stay on. But because the discussion boards are so poorly organized, this is almost never possible.

On my last trip, I tried to post a message to say I had booked a double room for one more night in case anyone else wanted to share after the trip was over. I knew that several people wold likely stay, because flights to the Midwest and East Coast weren't available without taking the redeye. Sure enough, another woman was not only staying over solo, but taking the same flight as me! But because we could coordinate, we each paid for a room when we could have shared.

And some RS trips involve getting to a starting location that is hard to access without a car. If others are coming from the same airport or city, we could coordinate travel.

And then there is just the chance that people actually want to talk about the trip in advance. That makes it fun.

Yes. In 2014 when I did my first trip with RS -- back-to-back programs -- I was able to use the old discussion board to find someone to join me on the 3-day drive between programs. That is no longer doable with this discussion board. It's been several years now on this new platform and there does not seem any movement toward facilitating communication among people signed up for the same program/dates. Disappointing.