Rci app

What's needed before the app is up and working on another ship?

-signage onboard ship

-ship staff training

-upload specific ship data to app servers

-app update (user interface and background changes)

What else?

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What else?

Most of this is probably driven by the shore side operation and their priority seems very random. The pace has certainly picked up since August (three ships added after a long pause since March) and the texting/chat option has finally come out in beta, but I'm sure there's a long way to go for other ships and features.

App bumped to V 1.10.3 with further mention of the Anthem chat function.

Allure. Not Anthem.

Allure. Not Anthem.

(y)

I'll be on the Allure tomorrow for 3 weeks and will report back on the chat feature within days.

I think this slow role out one ship at a time for the app is one of the more mature things that Royal (or Disney) IT could do...working out the kinks for a small change compared to a massive releases across the fleet all at once.

Hopefully they have addressed all issues from the Allure Chat beta and the next week is a problem free week!! Wishful thinking but maybe? My gut feeling tells me that they will need another week or two to work out the bugs and then will start applying it to the ships they already have in the app.

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My gut feeling tells me that they will need another week or two to work out the bugs and then will start applying it to the ships they already have in the app.

The app came out 14 months ago and RCI said it will take till the end of 2019 for the whole fleet (with no mention of feature completeness) - it might take more than a week of two.

Is there a schedule of when the ships will receive the new app?I found the list of 9 ships that currently have it.

I'll be on the Liberty in early Nov. this year. and wondering if she will have the app by then.

Is there a schedule of when the ships will receive the new app?I found the list of 9 ships that currently have it.

 

I'll be on the Liberty in early Nov. this year. and wondering if she will have the app by then.

The cruise line has not publicly released an implementation schedule.

Is there a schedule of when the ships will receive the new app?I found the list of 9 ships that currently have it.

 

I'll be on the Liberty in early Nov. this year. and wondering if she will have the app by then.

They are very tight lipped with that information. I was on a webinar for travel agents and they made a big deal about going through the 5 ships that had the app and the features that were activated on each ship. 2 days later they added a couple more ships and a new feature.

Thanks. I guess it makes sense for them to not publicly release the schedule just in case there are further delays. Don't want to be making promises that can't be kept.

The app came out 14 months ago and RCI said it will take till the end of 2019 for the whole fleet (with no mention of feature completeness) - it might take more than a week of two.

Yes - but I believe they now have ships in all classes on the app? And I think a few different generations of hardware as well? Is that right? That *should* make future additions go smoother...and dev ops should make the updates fairly regular.

It is most interesting to me that they choose to Allure to go first for chat..maybe that’s the ship that had he most room for some IT peeps on board this week?

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And I think a few different generations of hardware as well? Is that right?

I don’t think the hosting hardware has any affect on roll out of the app.

Who builds a messaging app with no notification features. There is absolutely no notification of any kind when you receive a message.

Also, as one users screen goes dark they appear as offline but messages still go through but they're not notified so you need to keep checking you phone. Offline doesn't really mean offline. If their app isn't open then the message doesn't go through.

If you try to link to someone in another cabin you need their name, b-day and reservation number. Then they need to complete the same info using your data to complete the link.

We had IT folks from corporate on this cruise but I wasn't impressed as they spent more time defending the app rather than looking for improvement suggestions. I told one that they should send her on a Carnival cruise to see what a useful app looks like. She just smiled.

I guess you get what you pay for and since this is free don't have high expectations.

Who builds a messaging app with no notification features. There is absolutely no notification of any kind when you receive a message.

Also, as one users screen goes dark they appear as offline but messages still go through but they're not notified so you need to keep checking you phone. Offline doesn't really mean offline. If their app isn't open then the message doesn't go through.

If you try to link to someone in another cabin you need their name, b-day and reservation number. Then they need to complete the same info using your data to complete the link.

We had IT folks from corporate on this cruise but I wasn't impressed as they spent more time defending the app rather than looking for improvement suggestions. I told one that they should send her on a Carnival cruise to see what a useful app looks like. She just smiled.

I guess you get what you pay for and since this is free don't have high expectations.

That's pretty similar to the offering on Princess unfortunately. The no notifications really does make it pretty useless.

I guess you get what you pay for and since this is free don't have high expectations.

The paid texting option in the Royal IQ app functions about the same and they charge $8 for that.

A new ship is available in the app. I think it's Majesty.

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Has anyone sucessfully loaded the app on a Moto G6? My son is upgrading his cell to that phone .

Speaking to investors, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Chairman and CEO Richard Fain provided guidance on the cruise line's plans for roll out of its new smart phone app across all brands.

"Today, I thought it would to show you just how aggressively we are rolling out these capabilities to our guests. I would emphasize that our guest capabilities represent just one dimension of the program, but it's a highly visible one."

"The guest app, in its current form, includes features such as accelerated check-in, the daily planner, onboard accounts, shore excursions, as well as the ability to book various items such as shore excursions, specialty restaurants and other onboard activities."

"You can see in the slide that we've highlighted three milestones that represent the way we make the app available to our guests. We call them, crawl, walk, run.

The first phase, crawl, refers to testing mode. In crawl, mode, the app is up and running, but we keep it very quiet so we can test it out with a small group of participants. When we are comfortable that the functionality has reached an acceptable level, we shift to the walk stage.

When we get to walk, we allow everyone who wishes to do so to use the app, but we don't aggressively push it. This is roughly equivalent to the beta stage of most apps. It gives us a chance to test it under real-life conditions, but only with a limited group of users.

Lastly, when we get to the run phase, we want as many guests engaged as possible. The app is then available to anyone and we vigorously publicize it, so that as many guests as possible use it. When we get to the run stage, the app has been thoroughly vetted and most of our guests use it and love it.

Our initial priority for the app capabilities has been on easing the process of boarding and disembarking. We've also prioritized other things that our guests most want. Next will come more bells and whistles, such as facial recognition, the ability to easily book your onboard activities before sailing, new chat capabilities, and an innovative digital stateroom key. Again, I want to repeat that this only refers to the capabilities our guests use. A lot of focus has also been on the capabilities on making our employees more efficient and more effective.

Now, one question I am sometimes asked is how we can scale this so quickly out to our fleet. The reason is that over the years, we have built and maintained our fleet to take maximum advantage of technology. As a result, we already have a lot of technology on the ships that can be used to provide some of these capabilities. We need to add more, but this gives a definite leg up."

Royal Caribbean Chief Financial Officer Jason Liberty also spoke of the rapid pace the cruise line is taking to get these new technology initiatives online sooner than later, "We are very much trying to accelerate our Excalibur efforts to the point that we can...to have certain capabilities come online a little bit quicker than we had expected them to."

Royal Caribbean is actively working to roll out new features to its smartphone app that will eventually be available across the fleet.  In the meantime, they are testing a new chat feature between guests that is available only on Allure of the Seas.

Guests simply need to download the new Royal Caribbean app from the iTunes App store or the Google Play store.  The app and its use are completely free.

Once onboard the ship and logged onto Royal Caribbean's Wi-Fi  network (no internet package required to use the app), other guests will show up as offline or online but are only online if they have the app opened and to the “chat” window. If your travel agent linked your reservation before sailing with a friend or family the will automatically show up.

To add another guest, you need to have their last name, birthday, and reservation number.  If you add someone that was not on a linked reservation by your travel agent, then they must add you as well as you adding them for privacy reasons. 

Messages will show as “Sent” and also “Delivered” to give you an idea if it was seen. To be delivered it seems like you need to have opened the Royal app.

At this time, there are no push notifications of messages at all. You have to open the Royal app and it will have a numbered badge on that chat bubble.

The app is currently available on 10 Royal Caribbean ships, although the chat feature is only available on Allure of the Seas at this time.  

• Adventure of the Seas
• Allure of the Seas
• Brilliance of the Seas
• Enchantment of the Seas
• Independence of the Seas
• Majesty of the Seas
• Mariner of the Seas
• Oasis of the Seas
• Serenade of the Seas

Royal Caribbean has not shared any kind of timeline for when other ships will be added to the app, nor when a particular feature will become available for use.

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Royal Caribbean is actively working to roll out new features to its smartphone app that will eventually be available across the fleet.  In the meantime, they are testing a new chat feature between guests that is available only on Allure of the Seas.

Guests simply need to download the new Royal Caribbean app from the iTunes App store or the Google Play store.  The app and its use are completely free.

Once onboard the ship and logged onto Royal Caribbean's Wi-Fi  network (no internet package required to use the app), other guests will show up as offline or online but are only online if they have the app opened and to the “chat” window. If your travel agent linked your reservation before sailing with a friend or family the will automatically show up.

To add another guest, you need to have their last name, birthday, and reservation number.  If you add someone that was not on a linked reservation by your travel agent, then they must add you as well as you adding them for privacy reasons. 

Messages will show as “Sent” and also “Delivered” to give you an idea if it was seen. To be delivered it seems like you need to have opened the Royal app.

At this time, there are no push notifications of messages at all. You have to open the Royal app and it will have a numbered badge on that chat bubble.

 

The app is currently available on 10 Royal Caribbean ships, although the chat feature is only available on Allure of the Seas at this time.  

• Adventure of the Seas
• Allure of the Seas
• Brilliance of the Seas
• Enchantment of the Seas
• Independence of the Seas
• Majesty of the Seas
• Mariner of the Seas
• Oasis of the Seas
• Serenade of the Seas

Royal Caribbean has not shared any kind of timeline for when other ships will be added to the app, nor when a particular feature will become available for use.

It's about STINKING time.  I will happily test this on Allure in March.  Maybe I'll even be able to cancel the Voom 4 device plan I purchased as we were planning to revert to iMessaging to stay in contact.

I cannot believe how painfully slow RCI is at pushing out new features.  In the internet age we live in today, they have to adapt and become more expedient on getting features out.

20 minutes ago, schmeed said:

  I will happily test this on Allure in March.  Maybe I'll even be able to cancel the Voom 4 device plan I purchased as we were planning to revert to iMessaging to stay in contact.

I sure hope it's out of beta by March, but given the lack of notification, you may want to hang on to the VOOM package for a bit.

Just now, Biker19 said:

I sure hope it's out of beta by March, but given the lack of notification, you may want to hang on to the VOOM package for a bit.

Yes, for sure.  I won't cancel until much closer.  I just cancelled/purchased today since the prices went down quite a bit.

Hope it improves by January when we're on the Allure!

App updated to v 1.11. Changes listed:

Ability to link reservations - I assume this will help with chat feature 

View main dining preferences 

View reservations on calendar