The Power in Your Pocket: Smartphone Apps for Cruisers

Let’s face it; wi-fi on a ship is not cheap. So if you’re going to spring for it, you might as well make the most of it. Below are some ways you can use your smartphone before you go, and after you cast off and the meter starts ticking.

Note: These are all available for free (unless indicated otherwise) from Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

Before you go

Find your shipmate. The Ship Mate app can tap into your pre-trip excitement. Sign up for roll calls, see photos of where you’re going, get the lay of the ship and track where it is at any given moment.

Get port info, track your ship
and more with Ship Mate.

See the sites. Use Google Street View for a sneak peek at your ports. There are some street views, but where there aren’t, you can often see photos folks have uploaded.

Make it a new custom. The new free Mobile Passport app available for Florida’s Port Everglades (and a number of airports), is designed to speed you through Customs by having you do some work ahead of time, submitting your info in the port and then going through an express line.

Read and reap. The granddaddy cruise site of them all—cruisecritic.com—has an app, Cruise Critic Forums, which you can use to join roll calls and talk ship. If you like reading tips on the website, you’ll love thumbing through them with your phone.

Let the SkyView app help you
see the stars.

Once you’re onboard

Look to the stars. With SkyView®, you can identify the stars in that dark wide open night sky. Simply hold the phone up to the stars and the app tells you what constellation you’re seeing.

Plan your day, connect with your companion. Princess, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, as well as Disney, Celebrity and NCL all have apps—but they’re not all created equal. The best of them do a whole lot, but also allow you to text your cruise companions, so you can ditch the walkie-talkies. Here’s a bit of detail:

Princess@Sea—There’s nothing to download to use this app. Once you’re onboard, put your phone in “Airplane Mode” and bring up the browser to connect to the free shipboard wi-fi. You can get events and activities, info on the ports and your account balance. And text your traveling companions. Available fleet-wide.

Who needs walkie-talkies with this app
from Princess?

Carnival HUB—Unlike with Princess, you do need to download this from Google Play or the App Store. Put it on “Airplane Mode” and use it for free, but the texting feature costs $5 for the voyage (this function is limited to ages 13 and over unless the parents consent). It has searchable deck plans, daily event calendar, account balance and more. It’s not available on all ships, so check the online app stores for details.

Reservations, excursions and texting at
your fingertips with the Royal IQ.

Royal IQ—This also requires downloading from the app stores. You can use it to check out the day’s events; book dinner and show reservations and shore excursions; and see your account balance. Calling/texting onboard comes with a small fee. Currently only available on Quantum, Anthem, Ovation and Harmony of the Seas. 

Staying a bit fit. If you’ve got a Fitbit®, you can track how many steps it takes each day to walk to the buffet and then find out how many calories you’ve burned on your phone app. But then, maybe you’d rather not…

Passing time. Want great seats at the theater, but hate the wait? While the time away reliving the day by looking at your photo gallery, or bringing up the many games at your fingertips.

Drowning out your neighbors. Next door’s party-hardies making you count sheep? If calling guest relations doesn’t work, turn your phone into a noise machine with free apps like Google Play’s Relax and Sleep, with its more than 50 sounds from driving rain to a rhythmic train. And here’s a novel thought: use the app’s ocean sounds to lull you to sleep. No salt spray included.

Cruise Reviews: The Good, The Bad and The Head-Scratcher

Somewhere along the line, this has probably happened to you. You go to a cruise review site to check out how people liked a ship you’re thinking of taking. The first review says it’s the best ever. The second review trashes it.

What a minute, you wonder, weren’t you guys on the same ship?

Ship reviews from cruisers certainly vary in terms of their usefulness. But that two reviews of the

same trip, the same ship at the same time can diverge so much is a down right head-scratcher.
 
I’ve found that for reviews of just about anything, whether they’re helpful comes down to how much you trust the reviewer, and how much the reviewer is just like you.

Know Thy Reviewer

It helps to know the following about the reviewer before acting on what you read:

 

Age—If you’re in your 20s, a review from someone in their 70s will most likely not be very relevant for you, as interests and energy level will not be the same.
 
Veteran or newbie—Because they’ve seen many changes to the industry over the years, veteran cruisers can become jaded. A review from someone after their first trip is likely to be quite different than someone just back from their 30^th.

Time of year—You’ll often see negative reviews from a cruiser who unknowingly went during school vacation season. Sharing confined space with 600 children for seven days can tax even the sunniest disposition.

Stateroom selection—Not surprisingly, those who spring for a suite tend to be in a better mood then those who don’t, and their reviews reflect it. Even the inside, outside and balcony rooms vary so much on every ship that a smaller-than-average room can color the cruiser’s experience.
 
Ship location also matters—a lot. If a cruiser was up every night with disco music pounding over his head, you can bet he’s not going to be kind in his review.
 
So, What’s a Good Review?
For me, a useful review is one that is:

Specific—Don’t just tell me the food is good or bad, tell me why. Does the buffet serve the same cold salads every day? Is there a wide variety of hot entrees? Which ones are the best?

The right length—Be too long and you lose the reader. Be too short and you don’t add value. Stick to what most made an impression.

Break up text—This one’s from a professional writer’s playbook. Use subheads (like my “Know Thy Reader” and “So, What’s a Good Review?” above), bullet points and boldface. It makes for easy skimming.

Share tips—Give readers inside info that will improve their cruise. Like how they should reserve show tickets online before their Oasis trip. Or that they can get made-to-order salmon for lunch at the AquaSpa Café on the Solstice.

Balanced—Maybe it’s the New Yorker in me, but when a review is too good, I get suspicious. And when it’s too negative, I get irritated. I’ve seen too many reviews where people let one small bad experience on a seven-day trip mar how they feel about the entire experience. It’s not fair to the cruise line or to readers. Things happen onboard as in life. See the bigger picture. Be fair. And be helpful.

Cruise Review Sites

Here are my favorite cruise review sites and why:

Cruisecritic.com—There are two types of reviews of the ships and ports; by the website’s authors and by members, organized by cruise line and ship. There’s also a great search tool to get to info quickly. And a robust forum on a wide variety of topics with updates every day, all day long.

 
Cruiseline.com—This has fewer member reviews and they’re shorter, but the site verifies that the authors actually went on the trips they’re reviewing. And Amazon-like, it enables readers to comment on reviews.
 
The Final Word—Yours
I’d love to know—do you review? Why or why not? What do you think makes a great review?

Musing’s Top Tip, An Update: A few weeks ago, I mentioned that shipmate.com had a neat free app for Android and Apple phones and tablets for cruisers. They just announced an update to the app for Android with more features and an improved design. You can download it from Google Play.