photopro2

Enjoying your report so far and looking forward to your impressions of the ship. You should be boarding anytime now ,,,,, 🙂

That makes some sense and I am using Chrome. The "app" is not just a conventional shortcut to the browser though You will see from the screenshot that I have a shortcut BA lounges which I know launches in Chrome. That shortcut includes the Chrome logo. The item on my desktop for the cruise critic "App" is different and has a a logo which looks just like all my other apps. I also have an app in my apps folder called "Cruise Critic" Creating a shortcut does not create an item in the app folder. This does beg the question if the "app" is exactly the same as creating a shortcut why have cruise critic or whoever put it out there?

We have left the tour part way round in several cities and made our own way back to the ship. Obviously you need to make sure that the guide is aware that you are leaving the group so no one spends time looking for you! In Valencia we took the shuttle bus provided free by Viking from the ship to Pont dels Serrans (a bridge leading into one of the gateways into the old town) and did our own exploration of the city starting there.

And I am on 🤖 in the UK. Reminds me of the quote about us being two countries divided by a common language 🙂

That's a pity. I thought I had a helpful answer for you😞 I think we are bumping into issues where the app works differently depending on the operating system. There may be also differences depending on the country we are logging in from. All I can say is that it is working well for me - hence my more frequent posts 😁👍

I totally agree with you and you will see from my comments above that I, for one, am very pleased with it 🙂

That function is still in the app, you can get to using the drop down list on the upper part of the cruise critics section of the app. To the right of where it says "Cruise Critic Community"

I find the same on my Android phone.

This was my experience exactly. I think the link from the cruise critic site opens the app in the forums section. The link in this thread I think goes to the homepage which has mainly adverts. I didn't know what everyone was talking about at first when they said that it was purely a 3rd party marketing tool because I had not seen that section of the app. Now that I have explored I have found my way back to the home page which is, indeed, full of advertisements for cruises. However by scrolling down into the cruise critic section of the home page there is a link saying something like "go to forums" and once I have clicked on that the app looks just like the cruise critic site. It comes back to the same section when I close and reopen the app which is why I had never seen all that marketing stuff before. Like you I'm using an Android device and maybe we are getting a better experience and those with Apple products?

Thanks for your responses - I love to learn. It seems likely that the difference in our experiences stems from the fact that we're using different operating systems. Would you agree? I'm interested to know if there's any way that I can check if my version of the app is working via the browser as you suggest, or is pulling data directly from the software as the old app did? If it were pulling data directly then that might explain the snappier feeling I get from using the app rather than the browser.

I don't believe that is true. The app accesses the data in the same way your browser does, directly from cruise critic via the cloud, so is not adding another layer. In my experience apps can sometimes handle specific data in a more efficient way than an all-purpose browser. That may be a limitation of the iPhone or, much more likely, something on your personal settings. The app does display larger type in landscape on my Android device. They will continue to work as before but may open in the app rather than on your browser. Either way there is no disadvantage in using the app from that point of view.

I think I may have stumbled across a banner link that had been put up early in error. It almost makes me wonder if my inquiries on the boards forced management's hand into starting to send out the email announcement sooner than they planned. Glad the link worked for you. I am generally pleased with the app as it seems a little "snappier" than the browser experience.

And the answer is....... It seems that I really do have an app as I always thought 😁 and it is brand new which is why I had not heard about it and could not find anything on the web. Apparently cruise critic have just started sending out emails to announce it. My guess is that I stumbled across a banner link on the UK website that may have been put up early in error. I understand that this is a link but have not tested it http://click.email.cruisecritic.com/?qs=b8774010bf9cd1355d8011a5857d086070291bab880b4dcbec5f95910390f5eb2503cff043b03950b68124aa09d4d8d13fcd605c27b064c4abd2a2c954e10940

It seems that I really do have an app as I always thought 😁 Apparently cruise critic have just started sending out emails to announce it. I understand that this is a link but have not tested it http://click.email.cruisecritic.com/?qs=b8774010bf9cd1355d8011a5857d086070291bab880b4dcbec5f95910390f5eb2503cff043b03950b68124aa09d4d8d13fcd605c27b064c4abd2a2c954e10940

It seems what I have really is an app and cruise critic have just started emailing information about it to users. I understand that this is a link but have not tested it http://click.email.cruisecritic.com/?qs=b8774010bf9cd1355d8011a5857d086070291bab880b4dcbec5f95910390f5eb2503cff043b03950b68124aa09d4d8d13fcd605c27b064c4abd2a2c954e10940

Thank goodness this is now public! I stumbled across the app through a banner link that briefly appeared on the cruise critic UK website and installed it a few days ago. My guess is that the link was put up early in error. (Sorry @janetcbl I have no way of getting back to it) Then I couldn't understand why I couldn't find any reference to it online. When I tried asking about the app on other threads I was told what I had was not really an app when I was perfectly sure that it was!!! It is great to discover that it does exist and is not just a figment of my imagination 🤪 That feature is currently marked as disabled on my version, maybe this is because I'm in the UK.

I think your comment explains something that I've been puzzling over. Last week I saw a banner on the cruise critic UK website which said "install cruise critic app." which I clicked and went through the install process. Sure enough the outcome was that I got what appears to be a cruise critic app in my apps folder and the app icon on my home screen. By the way I am using Android. I was surprised that I could not find reference to a cruise critic app in the Google play store. What confused me was that the "install app" process you mentioned does what it said and created an app in my app folder which behaves exactly as I would expect a cruise critic app to behave. This is very different to putting a simple link on my home screen which I've done before for other sites. I now understand that I am linking to the web-based forums even though, from my point of view, it looks exactly like I am using an app. So two questions: 1 Have I understood this correctly? 2 If I have understood, then the "install app" function you describe allows people to easily have an app style experience of the forums. I was lucky to happen to see the banner on the UK site but I wonder why this simple link is not more widely publicised.

Thanks to your help I think I am getting to the bottom of what happened. I knew that I hadn't installed a simple link to the site on my homepage. I have done that for other sites and the link icon for those includes a small chrome logo which the cruise critic "app" icon does not. So looking again at the post by @broberts I noticed that they add at the end: "If you don't see Add to home screen, there is an app for the page so select Install app. That fits much better with my experience and I'm sure now that I've linked to the site from my home screen using that alternative "install app" process. I'll see if I can get a bit more clarification by posting to that thread.

Sorry to disagree with you, but it really is an app. Please see the attached screenshot from my settings.

While browsing cruise critic using a browser I saw a banner for the cruise critic app and used the link to install it on my android phone. I launched the app logged in, and it worked perfectly. It was only when I discovered that other people didn't know anything about the app that I became concerned that it might be a scam. My password is unique to cruise critic, so I was not too worried about it being hacked. Just to be sure though, I changed my password using the cruise critic portal on a browser on a different device. When I went back to the app, I could not login using the old password or random ones, but the new one worked fine. This shows that the app is certainly linked in someway to your database and suggest it is genuine. The app works brilliantly and I hope it is genuine, but thought it would be sensible to run all this by you and I am looking forward to your response

I am an android user and rather confused one at that......... The banner for the app came up while viewing the cruise critic site through the browser on my phone. It installed as usual and I logged in using my cruise critic password. Now like you, I can't find any recent reference to the app anywhere, not even on cruise critic????? Your and Jim's posts made me want to doublecheck that this was not some sort of scam. Fortunately, my cruise critic password is not used elsewhere, so I was not too worried if it had been hacked. Just to be sure though, I went to the cruise critic portal (using a browser on another device) and changed the password. Going back to the app I checked and, as expected, I couldn't login using the old password or any random ones. However using the new password I could log in on the app just fine. So this app is definitely linked to the cruise critic database strongly suggesting that it is genuine. I also doublecheck that it really is an app and not just a link to the browser as you can see from the screenshot attached. So I seem to have an operational app that no one knows anything about???? The next thing to do is to find a cruise critic admin contact so I can ask what is going on.... Well report back.

It is a specific cruise critic app. I noticed a banner for it on the cruise critic website. The app just feels a bit "snappier" than using the browser on my phone. Great news about your WC by the way. 👍

Not quite sure if you're referring to the comfort check-in or handing in your passport. Comfort check-in is certainly not mandatory but handing in your passport probably is. Others on the board especially the "mariners" might be able to give you a full explanation as to why Viking needs your passport. However my understanding is that it relates to the requirements of your next port of entry where the authorities may need to check all or a random selection of passports before the ship is cleared. If anyone has a more detailed explanation please do chip in.

And to change the subject........ Have you noticed that the cruise critic app has been relaunched? I don't know if this happened a while ago and I have only just noticed but I am using it now and it is great to be able to get on the boards easily via my phone once again. 📲😀

You're quite correct. After all it does no harm and why should a washer/dryer be idle when someone needs to use it? One other tip....... there's nothing (not even in the small print of the Viking contract) to say you can't use a laundry that is on another deck, not that we would ever dream of doing that, of course 😉