Cruises are often social vacations, and Royal Caribbean wants to tap into that community energy by creating an online social network for its customers.

Called RoyalConnect, the social network is a way for previous Royal Caribbean customers to get in touch with company staff and other cruisers with similar interests. Cruising enthusiasts already dive into chat message boards and blogs, but this is the first time a cruise line is creating a private social network just for its customers.

The site's first users will be members of the company's Crown & Anchor Society -- a free benefit program where membership requires having been on one Royal Caribbean cruise. About 70 executives, captains, cruise directors and other select ship staff will be among the first employees to create profiles so that customers can engage with them.

With users talking to each other about cruising experiences, ''you begin the cruise vacation from the moment you think about taking the cruise,'' said Bill Hayden, assistant vice president of marketing planning and strategy for Royal Caribbean.

And it goes without saying that the company hopes this site encourages these loyal cruisers to book more vacations in the future -- especially in a time of an economic downturn. Royal Caribbean soft-launched the site for testing last week, alongside news that the company has lowered its profit expectations due to fuel costs.

Online cruise-topic networks for reviews and tips already exist, such as Cruise Critic (cruisecritic.com), but RoyalConnect is different.

''We didn't want to create Cruise Critic again,'' Hayden said. ``We don't want to try to steal people from a community that they already find value in.''

When looking for answers and advice about cruising, many people use search engines to find online forums or communities about the topic in question.

But the idea with RoyalConnect is that you can see which users are most like you based on how well their profile matches yours. Then you can get answers and tips from like-minded cruisers, thus finding the conversations more useful.

So why open it only to Crown & Anchor members?

''We decided when it came down to it, we wanted people with a significant affinity to our brand,'' Hayden said. ``They love Royal Caribbean.''

Hayden said there are about two million active members of the society, and about one million cruised within the previous year. Some cruisers tend to get attached to particular members of the staff, so this is also a tool for people to keep in touch with their favorite crew members.

Royal Caribbean is not ruling out the idea that it could expand to users outside the society, Hayden said. Now it's more about testing the waters of this social network with previous customers. And those that have beta tested it so far have ''took like a moth to a flame to social networking,'' he said.

Royal Caribbean's rival, Carnival Corp., has an online tool, CarnivalConnections.com, where anyone can post reviews of Carnival experiences or create digital scrapbooks by uploading trip photos. The site launched in February 2007 and is still in beta release.

''There are a lot of companies that hear the buzz around social networks and they feel they have to get on it,'' said social media and Web development consultant Brian Oberkirch. He's in support of companies embracing social media, as long as it serves a need.

But RoyalConnect is not serving the need of the outsider who is considering taking a trip and has never been with Royal Caribbean before.

'They're not putting users' larger Web behaviors into this mix,'' and could be missing out a chance to be an extremely useful vacation site, Oberkirch said.

``There probably are a sliver of people who are fanatical about Royal Caribbean.''

And a challenge the site faces is if people want to keep coming back and interact with the site.

''It's at the point of anticipated purchase that I start to immerse myself in the community,'' Oberkirch said.

``It's a limited interaction. At the moment you're really useful to me. But it's not like I need to friend you or subscribe to your profile.''

However, sometimes a hyper-niche network around a particular interest group -- like loyal Crown & Anchor members -- can be a good thing.

''It's probably not bad to invest in a sandbox for them, because they are your best customers,'' he said.

Hayden of Royal Caribbean realizes all too well that the number of users sticking with the site is vital to whether his team's year-long project will be successful.

''It's really about the value of what else is in there that you want to connect with,'' Hayden said. ``It'll sink or swim based on that.''

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