Do Cruise Line Apps Leave Some Cruisers Out in the Cold?

As more cruise lines move pre-cruise registration and onboard cruise planning onto their mobile apps, a small section of the cruising population may find themselves left behind. While the vast majority of cruisers are able to use mobile apps – or find alternative options online – travel advisors tell Travel Market Report that for some clients the frustration is real, leading to more headaches for the advisor.

“I have some older clients and they have flip phones,” said Gwen Bourgeois, owner of Texas-based Dickinson Travel.

Bourgeois was the first advisor to reach out to TMR to ask us to look into whether the migration to app-based everything is a widespread problem for the advisor community. As it turns out, she’s not the only advisor we spoke with who has struggled with the same issue.

There are two subsets of clients for whom this is an issue, said Christy Scannell, owner of a San Diego-based Dream Vacations franchise, who added that if TMR is hearing from “some” advisors, it’s surely a problem for more.

“One group is seniors and I hate to say just seniors because some of my seniors are pretty tech-savvy. The other is that group that’s just not tech savvy.”

Even for those who are tech savvy, the apps don’t always work, added Darci Upham, owner of a North Carolina-based CruiseOne franchise.

“These apps are relatively new and some have significant bugs and glitches. Most are not yet user-friendly. I consider myself to be very comfortable with technology and if I’m struggling to get the apps to work, I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for older travelers.”

Upham, who has clients located nearby, told TMR she’s had to meet with clients in person to walk them through the process of using the apps.

“I have met with many clients in the last year to help them with these apps, scanning passport, uploading vaccination cards and photos. My clients simply do not know how to do these tasks with their phones.”

In her case, Bourgeois said she’s had to spend hours on the phone with clients going through the process with clients.

“One lady, I had to do it for her and it takes my time. Others mess it up, so we’re talking hours of time that I’m wasting because nobody can figure it out.”

(Technically, because some of the apps have legal implications – users have to accept the terms of the cruise ship contract – advisors have to be careful about what they fill out or click on in the app.)

Scannell, too, has had to help her clients through their confusion.

“I don’t run into ‘I don’t have a smart phone,’ too often but what I do run into is ‘I’m not understanding what I need to do.’ Or ‘This app is locking up’ … technology problems that I don’t know if it’s the client or the app. Because I’m not sitting right next to them, I can’t take it from their hands and say let me figure this out for you, I have to do it over the phone and that gets dicey.”

Frustration Erodes Customer Service
Both Bourgeois and Upham told TMR the entire frustrating experience erodes their ability to give their clients superior customer service, while Scannell said it can be a bad start to a vacation.

“The bigger issue for me,” Scannell said, “is giving my clients the best experience. When they’re already frustrated and feeling unsure before they even leave on their vacation, that’s not starting out as the best experience.”

In many cases, clients want their advisor to book their excursions and dining reservations for them. While most cruise lines still give advisors access to their clients’ bookings to this on the back-end cruise planner, both Bourgeois and Upham said depending on the cruise line they might not be able to do that.

“Some cruise lines have removed our access to their cruise planner,” Upham said. “Some [clients] want or need my assistance with all aspects of their trip. We should have access to book excursions, dining, shows, etc. for our clients.”

Bourgeois added, if her clients are doing all their own planning on the app, “Why do they need me? It’s part of the customer service that we do.”

Backdoor Access
Upham and Bourgeois also told TMR they want the cruise lines to give them access to their clients’ pre-cruise registration progress.

“There may be one section that our clients missed, causing their check-in to be incomplete,” Upham said. “I want the ability to review their progress so I can help them figure out what’s missing. Or sometimes, they aren’t sure if they completed everything correctly and they want me to look over it for them. With most cruise lines, we no longer have the ability to access this, so our only option is to instruct clients to call the cruise line on their own.”

According to Scannell, that technology is there for most cruise lines, but she doesn’t think most advisors are aware of it. She blames that lack of knowledge on the cruise lines.

“I think a lot of agents aren’t aware that those things are provided, so a suggestion for the cruise lines would be to make that more prevalent on the agents’ sites, so people see these backdoor tricks… The cruise lines need to provide a step-by-step document that shows with pictures [how to access their clients’ registration].

She said she’s been able to use these backdoors to track her clients’ progress and tell them if they forgot to upload a picture or didn’t check off a box that’s required.

Paper In Hand
For some clients, a barcode on their phone isn’t enough, advisors said. They want paper in hand, just in case something goes wrong with the app. Or their battery dies.

“It’s hard sometimes for people who aren’t tech savvy to understand they don’t need to have that hard copy in hand anymore,” Scannell said.

If there’s no boarding pass to print out, she’ll sometimes print out a copy of their invoice to carry or she’ll walk them through screenshotting their boarding pass and printing that out.

Some lines make it easier than others.

“With Carnival, it’s the boarding pass. Each person gets a boarding pass and they’re [clients] are fine with that,” Bourgeois said. “They don’t need a whole big thing. But when I have to tell them I can’t give you anything, they look at me like I’m crazy.”

While both Upham and Bourgeois called out Princess for making this near impossible, a Princess spokesperson said that’s not the case.

“With the online OceanReady capability on princess.com, agents can assist their clients in completing all of the OceanReady steps, as well as taking and printing out a screenshot of their OceanReady boarding pass and providing it to their clients to use on embarkation day.”

Short-Lived Issue or Not, Advisors Want Alternative Options
Scannell admits that as certain cruisers age out of vacationing, this is probably a short-lived problem. But for now, it

Frustration Erodes Customer Service
Both Bourgeois and Upham told TMR the entire frustrating experience erodes their ability to give their clients superior customer service, while Scannell said it can be a bad start to a vacation.

“The bigger issue for me,” Scannell said, “is giving my clients the best experience. When they’re already frustrated and feeling unsure before they even leave on their vacation, that’s not starting out as the best experience.”

In many cases, clients want their advisor to book their excursions and dining reservations for them. While most cruise lines still give advisors access to their clients’ bookings to this on the back-end cruise planner, both Bourgeois and Upham said depending on the cruise line they might not be able to do that.

“Some cruise lines have removed our access to their cruise planner,” Upham said. “Some [clients] want or need my assistance with all aspects of their trip. We should have access to book excursions, dining, shows, etc. for our clients.”

Bourgeois added, if her clients are doing all their own planning on the app, “Why do they need me? It’s part of the customer service that we do.”

Backdoor Access
Upham and Bourgeois also told TMR they want the cruise lines to give them access to their clients’ pre-cruise registration progress.

“There may be one section that our clients missed, causing their check-in to be incomplete,” Upham said. “I want the ability to review their progress so I can help them figure out what’s missing. Or sometimes, they aren’t sure if they completed everything correctly and they want me to look over it for them. With most cruise lines, we no longer have the ability to access this, so our only option is to instruct clients to call the cruise line on their own.”

According to Scannell, that technology is there for most cruise lines, but she doesn’t think most advisors are aware of it. She blames that lack of knowledge on the cruise lines.

“I think a lot of agents aren’t aware that those things are provided, so a suggestion for the cruise lines would be to make that more prevalent on the agents’ sites, so people see these backdoor tricks… The cruise lines need to provide a step-by-step document that shows with pictures [how to access their clients’ registration].

She said she’s been able to use these backdoors to track her clients’ progress and tell them if they forgot to upload a picture or didn’t check off a box that’s required.

Paper In Hand
For some clients, a barcode on their phone isn’t enough, advisors said. They want paper in hand, just in case something goes wrong with the app. Or their battery dies.

“It’s hard sometimes for people who aren’t tech savvy to understand they don’t need to have that hard copy in hand anymore,” Scannell said.

If there’s no boarding pass to print out, she’ll sometimes print out a copy of their invoice to carry or she’ll walk them through screenshotting their boarding pass and printing that out.

Some lines make it easier than others.

“With Carnival, it’s the boarding pass. Each person gets a boarding pass and they’re [clients] are fine with that,” Bourgeois said. “They don’t need a whole big thing. But when I have to tell them I can’t give you anything, they look at me like I’m crazy.”

While both Upham and Bourgeois called out Princess for making this near impossible, a Princess spokesperson said that’s not the case.

“With the online OceanReady capability on princess.com, agents can assist their clients in completing all of the OceanReady steps, as well as taking and printing out a screenshot of their OceanReady boarding pass and providing it to their clients to use on embarkation day.”

Short-Lived Issue or Not, Advisors Want Alternative Options
Scannell admits that as certain cruisers age out of vacationing, this is probably a short-lived problem. But for now, it is a problem.

For the foreseeable future, she said, cruise lines should offer alternatives to making everything app based as a way of “honoring these seniors and people who aren’t techy savvy who are still great cruise customers but don’t want to do it that way.”