New Cruise Detail Page on RSSC.com

[CruisetheCs]

It is still a very awkward process to find which exact suites are available for a specific cruise.  There should be an easy and evident link between each cruise and a list of available cabins without having to go down a number of rabbit holes to find availability by suite number.  For example, when "see availability" appears for the first time, there should be a link that says "see available suite categories" and a link that says "see available suites by suite number".  

 

For users who do not frequently use the website it would not be evident that one can even find a list of available suites by suite number rather than just be category.

 

[Mike Moore]

32 minutes ago, CruisetheCs said:

It is still a very awkward process to find which exact suites are available for a specific cruise.  There should be an easy and evident link between each cruise and a list of available cabins without having to go down a number of rabbit holes to find availability by suite number.  For example, when "see availability" appears for the first time, there should be a link that says "see available suite categories" and a link that says "see available suites by suite number".  

 

For users who do not frequently use the website it would not be evident that one can even find a list of available suites by suite number rather than just be category.

 

Thank you for your feedback - we'll definitely be addressing that issue with a future enhancement!

[cruisegal919]

The option to email the shore excursion list (the complete list including departure times) appears to be gone.  The only option is to download each location but the details are not included.  Did I miss it?  Is the option to receive an email with all excursions listed still going to be there?

Edited January 20, 2022 by cruisegal919

[Mike Moore]

24 minutes ago, cruisegal919 said:

The option to email the shore excursion list (the complete list including departure times) appears to be gone.  The only option is to download each location but the details are not included.  Did I miss it?  Is the option to receive an email with all excursions listed still going to be there?

Excellent question - thank you for bringing it up. Assuming that the PDF included the tours for ALL of the ports on the cruise, is having it download immedediately preferable to having it sent via email? Or if the only way to receive all of the tours for all of the ports is via e-mail, waiting a few minutes for it is preferable? I welcome any and all thoughts on the subject from the group!

Edited January 20, 2022 by Mike Moore

[Snackdaddy]

Hi Mike,

I couldn't get into it using Firefox. Could it be a cookies issue?   I switched to Chrome and it worked. Looks good.

[Mike Moore]

4 minutes ago, Snackdaddy said:

Hi Mike,

I couldn't get into it using Firefox. Could it be a cookies issue?   I switched to Chrome and it worked. Looks good.

Yes, that’s almost certainly it and that won’t be a problem once we open traffic to the new experience to all visitors.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

2 hours ago, Mike Moore said:

If you still have the same issue in private browsing mode or after your clearing your cache, I'm afraid I don't have any other suggestions. We are looking into the issue with Safari so if we find something I'll be sure to update this thread.

Okay, I see it when I'm incognito.  Didn't know I had to do that.

 

First impressions are it's a bit big and awkward.  Not sure what the benefit is to this change.

[ShropshireCritic]

Hi Mike

No issues logging in from UK - Safari 15.2 -  macOS Monterey 12.1

Delighted to see these first changes being made, to be brutally honest it's about time.......!!

Whilst the old site was stable, it was beginning to creak around the edges too much. I expect being a web developer in today's multi platform age just trying to accommodate so many variations on the old web pages must been a nightmare for people like yourselves.

Love the more natural flow of viewing the current changed pages.

I appreciate you opening up the new site in advance on this forum & allowing us to suggest additional ideas.

Re your above request on Tours, my preferred option would be a download link of ALL Tours in the standard .pdf format.

 

I am sure I will be back tomorrow with some suggestions.👍

[BBfromCA]

The only thing I miss on the redesign is a map of the cruise.

[Mike Moore]

5 minutes ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

Okay, I see it when I'm incognito.  Didn't know I had to do that.

 

First impressions are it's a bit big and awkward.  Not sure what the benefit is to this change.

Thank you Wendy. Can you be a bit more specific about what is awkward?

 

As with many things, there are trade offs and concessions to be made, and what works for one person will not work for others. Some of the thought process behind the changes were things like making special offers be visible without having to click, instead of showing every category and all the details in a chart format that can be a bit taxing to read, group like suite categories together in a more digestable format with easy access to the suite diagrams/pictures/amenities, the creation of an interactive map that's a more engaging experience, etc.

[Mike Moore]

1 minute ago, BBfromCA said:

The only thing I miss on the redesign is a map of the cruise.

You can click the small globe icon to the right at the top of the day-by-day itinerary to get to the map. We're currently working on adding it to the mobile experience if you are reviewing the new page on your phone. 

 

[jeb_bud]

I followed your link and the new design looks pretty good.  I clicked "Plan my Cruise" and that appears not to have been updated yet.

 

When you do get to work on that part I hope you make it possible to see all of the suites in a category instead of just the eight or so you currently display.  I am always frustrated by the default display of upper deck suites.  I like lower decks and searching for available suites is complicated by the need to select a deck, then further select port or starboard to get a better idea of availability.  I'm fine with searching deck by deck but then please show all available suites in my category on that deck.

 

For some reason after I left Plan my Cruise and went back to the beginning I can only access the old format, even if I close the tab and start over.

[SWFLAOK]

I tried it and the perforormance just now was so bad that I wouldn't want to use it again. Not something that makes me feel like going on my next 2 booked cruises, and I would definitely not use it to book another cruise.

[macbest]

2 hours ago, Mike Moore said:

Excellent question - thank you for bringing it up. Assuming that the PDF included the tours for ALL of the ports on the cruise, is having it download immedediately preferable to having it sent via email? Or if the only way to receive all of the tours for all of the ports is via e-mail, waiting a few minutes for it is preferable? I welcome any and all thoughts on the subject from the group!

I have to contact my TA to get it; which is a lot of people involved in something that would be great to click on and download on the spot. If there was some reason not to make it available to the general public, at least make it available to those that have booked the cruise in the my account section. 

[Wendy The Wanderer]

1 hour ago, Mike Moore said:

Thank you Wendy. Can you be a bit more specific about what is awkward?

I appreciate the work you're putting into this Mike.  I'll try to give it a thorough shakedown tomorrow.  I used to be in QA.

[DatawCruiser]

Hi Mike,

 

I'm a long time I/T Technology Manager retired for 5 years now.  I think what you are doing is exactly on track and everyone will be very appreciative with your hard work when things settle down.  Keep up the good work!

[Mike Moore]

2 hours ago, jeb_bud said:

I followed your link and the new design looks pretty good.  I clicked "Plan my Cruise" and that appears not to have been updated yet.

 

When you do get to work on that part I hope you make it possible to see all of the suites in a category instead of just the eight or so you currently display.  I am always frustrated by the default display of upper deck suites.  I like lower decks and searching for available suites is complicated by the need to select a deck, then further select port or starboard to get a better idea of availability.  I'm fine with searching deck by deck but then please show all available suites in my category on that deck.

 

For some reason after I left Plan my Cruise and went back to the beginning I can only access the old format, even if I close the tab and start over.

Correct - the Plan My Cruise and beyond has not been worked on yet. Not being able to get back to the new experience is likely a cookie issue, so you'd either need to clear your cache or launch a new window with private browsing. That won't be an issue once we actually turn it on. 

[Mike Moore]

2 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

I tried it and the perforormance just now was so bad that I wouldn't want to use it again. Not something that makes me feel like going on my next 2 booked cruises, and I would definitely not use it to book another cruise.

Are you referring to the performance on the actual page, or after you leave the page and go into the booking portion? If on the actual page, was there something in particular that loaded slowly?

[Qld13]

Hi Mike

 

First impressions are good but will take a bit of playing with to get used to.

 

As a matter of interest I tried the link on Safari 15.2 Mac 12.1 and it worked straight away. I then tried Firefox 96.0.2 and it would not give the new format only old webpage, I tried it in Private and still the same result. Then tried Chrome 97.0.4692.71 and again no luck also tried Incognito and still no joy.

 

As people have mentioned it would be good to access the suite availability easily and be able to pick your favourite suite.

 

I'm in Australia and it looks like the page picks that up as the suite sizes are all in m2 and not ft. Very clever and much easier to see at a glance.

 

Thanks for your hard work

 

David

 

[2SailingNomads]

6 hours ago, Mike Moore said:

Excellent question - thank you for bringing it up. Assuming that the PDF included the tours for ALL of the ports on the cruise, is having it download immedediately preferable to having it sent via email? Or if the only way to receive all of the tours for all of the ports is via e-mail, waiting a few minutes for it is preferable? I welcome any and all thoughts on the subject from the group!

As someone who has been involved in the design and development of software for many, many years I understand what you are going thru, and appreciate that you are soliciting input from actual users.  (A favorite quote from one of the best UX design people I know, David Platt, is: "Know thy user for he is not you".)

To your question above: I do not want to have to get an email, I would want to be able to download the PDF, which is a pretty standard way of getting data from websites, e.g., deck plans, etc. in the case of the cruise industry.  

[Mike Moore]

6 hours ago, 2SailingNomads said:

As someone who has been involved in the design and development of software for many, many years I understand what you are going thru, and appreciate that you are soliciting input from actual users.  (A favorite quote from one of the best UX design people I know, David Platt, is: "Know thy user for he is not you".)

To your question above: I do not want to have to get an email, I would want to be able to download the PDF, which is a pretty standard way of getting data from websites, e.g., deck plans, etc. in the case of the cruise industry.  

Great quote - thank you for sharing! There are a few moving pieces behind the scenes that make generating that PDF a little more challenging then it would seem on the surface, but we'll certainly do our best. 

[cruisegal919]

17 hours ago, Mike Moore said:

Excellent question - thank you for bringing it up. Assuming that the PDF included the tours for ALL of the ports on the cruise, is having it download immediately preferable to having it sent via email? Or if the only way to receive all of the tours for all of the ports is via e-mail, waiting a few minutes for it is preferable? I welcome any and all thoughts on the subject from the group!

Hi Mike

Either way is good as long as the pdf that is emailed is the one containing all the information (departure times, etc.).  Currently the link sends the file with all the details, for both passengers that are booked, as well as those just looking.

If the link is clicked before the excursions are ready you get the 

message to try again later so I would think that would be the same moving forward.

 

I don't use it but others may still want to use the download feature before the final excursions have been set to get the list of previously offered excursions to take a look, so maybe 2 links?

 

Thanks again for all the effort on improving the website.

[1982CruzStart]

18 hours ago, Mike Moore said:

Assuming that the PDF included the tours for ALL of the ports on the cruise, is having it download immedediately preferable to having it sent via email?

i prefer to be able to download all the excursions immediately though having them emailed is not a big deal. 

The downside to emailing excursions for all ports right now is that i only get the costs in US dollars. if i want the CDN cost of excursions i have to download each port and then it will give me the CDN cost.  If we could get ALL ports downloaded with the applicable currency that would be great. 

 

Thanks for all your hard work trying to please so many people. 

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Hi Mike, I worked through some pages this morning and it feels better to me.  I think the "awkward" feeling I had at first was just the new arrangement of content.  But it didnt take long to adjust.  I did find it kind of "spacey", i.e. a bit less compact, but I adjusted my font size down a bit and it was fine.  I'm on a Windows 10 PC using Chrome.

[SWFLAOK]

22 hours ago, Mike Moore said:

Are you referring to the performance on the actual page, or after you leave the page and go into the booking portion? If on the actual page, was there something in particular that loaded slowly?

On the actual page. The page itself was slow, and what I selected from there was also loaded was slow.