The cruise itself was nice. The Middle School Daughter and I had a few adventures hiking, kayaking and zip-lining. We saw whales and glaciers from the deck of the cruise liner which was cool (though a bit surreal, what with looking at receding glaciers from the deck of this diesel and hollandaise fueled behemoth). And we were force-ably unplugged. Or mostly.
Incoming Rant
Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) does offer connectivity during the course of the voyage. But a little research showed that, while not in port, the data through-put was not good (all handled by ship-to-shore radio), and expensive ($219 per device for the length of the cruise). I opted to not. After all, most of what we would need connectivity for were things that we had planned on doing in port, where we had cell service. No need.
But NCL has an app. An app that promises some level of intra-ship connectivity: restaurant reservations, tour bookings, etc. It even had in-app messaging and VoIP capabilities, albeit for $10 per device. I immediately thought of airline apps and how useful they can be for the frequent traveler. Especially customer service and delays and connections and reminders and what-are-we-flying-over kinds of things. All of that sounds useful, so I installed it. Yeah!
Nay! The NCL app is not any of that. It only works when connected to the on-ship WiFi, and only kind of then. It does not stay connected. I had to manually reconnect to the ship network every time I woke my phone up. The reservation system timed out every time I tried to use it. The only thing that did work was the in-app messaging and VoIP stuff. But only to other people who had paid the fee for that capability and happened to have their phone connected to the network at that time.
Meanwhile, all of the iPhone people on the boat were using iMessage through the ship network without the app. Not only was the app crap, but their ability to manage their own network for their own profitability was crap.
What It Could Be
Never one to highlight a problem without presenting a solution, I spent some of the cruise thinking about what I would really want this thing to do. What would actually make the cruise more enjoyable, properly promote this expensive luxury event and maybe make NCL a bit of cash on the side?
The obvious example are the airline apps. While on the ground, they give you reminders about flight delays, gate changes and other information, including your boarding pass. Then, when connected to the in-flight WiFi, they change, still offering connection information, but also offering flight tracking and, in most cases, on-board movie and TV streaming (most with a fee, though that is changing). All without having to actually purchase the expensive internet option.
A cruise is a little different, but not much. Most of it is a matter of degree. Instead of being locked into a tube for two to six hours, you are locked on to the hull for seven days. For us, three of those days were 'at sea' meaning that there was no port and we were far enough from shore that we could not see anything. Admittedly, the liner has other amenities: plenty to eat and drink, a pool (though kind of cold when there is a 20+ knot wind coming over the bow), a theater and casino.
But why not have an on-board server with a bunch of movies available to stream? That would not take up much space and provide another revenue stream. How about some clips from the various attractions on board and in port? What about letting passengers take pictures and share them in-app, with the understanding that NCL would have the rights to use them in promotional materials?
Where Am I?
The opportunity that bugged me the most was the lack of a map. I like knowing where I am. I like knowing what I'm looking at out the window of whatever conveyance I'm in. Not in this app. What made this worse, was that the data was available to the passengers. You could see where the ship was in your stateroom on one of the TV channels. But not on the deck where I can see how the map correlates to the shore when I can see it.
Heck, there is barely any development cost to something like this. Instead of building something from scratch, contact GoGoAir and have them setup the the ship. They won't do it for free, but it will most likely be a revenue sharing agreement so there won't be much upfront cost. And almost instantly, you have a better customer experience.
Make the call NCL. Call GoGoAir yourselves, or if you're looking for a marketing manager to lead the project, reach out to me. But do something. What you have is hurting your business.
End Rant.
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