Royal Caribbean has a great app, but it could use a few upgrades.
While I think the Royal Caribbean app has come a long way and is one of the best in the cruise industry, there's always room for improvement.
I was using the app while I was sailing on Star of the Seas, and was frustrated by a few of its shortcomings. These aren't major problems or bugs with the app. Rather, they're necessary upgrades to make the app far more useful.
The cruise line has delved more into the digital realm by relying more on its app rather than a printed Cruise Compass.
So in the interest of making things better, I came up with a list of 6 features Royal Caribbean should add as soon as possible to its app to make it even better.
Ability to add custom events
An app feature I've heard many cruisers ask for years is the option to add their own events to the calendar.
When you scroll through the daily events, you can select an event and add it to your own calendar. Then Royal Caribbean reminds you with a push notification 30 minutes before it starts.
I really wish they'd add an option to create your own events within your calendar.
This would be useful for things like "Meet the kids at the slides", or "Go to Playmakers to watch the Yankees game".
It serves both as a reminder and means to block out time in your calendar for things happening on the ship that aren't listed in the app.
While I could always use my own calendar app on my phone, leveraging Royal Caribbean's app prevents double booking myself.
Search function
I really can't believe there is no way to search for an activity within the Royal Caribbean app.
While on Star of the Seas, I spoke to a member of the activities staff that were was going to be a WWE wrestling theme song trivia event but he didn't know when it was.
I had to scroll through every single day, looking carefully to spot it.
There should be a search function where I can search for a keyword in the activity title or description to make it simpler. I think many guests are aware certain events may be occurring, but unsure when exactly.
This would make it so much easier to plan out favorite events, or filter certain events by themes.
See all events in a certain venue
Similar to the search function, I think you should be able to have a way to show all the events happening in a certain lounge, area, or room.
As an example, I love Two70 on the Quantum Class ships because of how innovative and fun it is. So I'd love to see just the events coming up in Two70.
Or perhaps guests that love trivia would want to see all the trivia happening in the Schooner Bar on a given day.
Cruise countdown widget
I'm really surprised there isn't a proper countdown widget in the Royal Caribbean app that easily shows how many days until your next cruise.
I think it's safe to say everyone with a Royal Caribbean cruise booked is excited for the start of their vacation, so there should be a very prominent countdown option within the app.
Heck, I'd go one step further and add a way to have that countdown appear as a widget on your home screen.
The excitement of an upcoming cruise is almost as good as the cruise itself, and having an easy to find list of how many days are left until the cruise begins seems like an easy win.
Ability to track Diamond drink vouchers
While the use case is the least of all my app feature requests, I think there's value in tracking how many drink vouchers you have left each day.
Diamond members in Royal Caribbean's customer loyalty program get 4 free drinks per day, every day of the cruise. They can be used at any bar, restaurant or lounge, and it's good for any drink up to $14 in value.
Diamond Plus members get 5 drinks per day and Pinnacle Club members get 6.
As of now, the only way to know how many drinks you have left per day is to look at the bottom of the receipt or ask the bartender.
The reason why the receipt isn't trustworthy is sometimes a waiter or bartender doesn't actually use your voucher. They could accidentally charge your SeaPass card or simply give you a freebie.
It would be lovely to be able to see how many drink vouchers I have left each day without bugging a crew member. And since it's all tracked digitally already, it seems like it would be an easy lift to pull that data into the app.
Order food from the app
Once upon a time, Royal Caribbean said it would bring mobile food ordering to its app. They even tested it on Symphony of the Seas on at least one sailing.
But then other features got prioritized, and the idea fell to the wayside.
I think it's time to revisit this idea.
The concept is you can be somewhere on the ship in a public area and order food or drink.
At the very least, being able to order a drink from your lounge chair would be a huge win. It means less wandering for bartenders and less waiting for guests.
I know there are many times I spend more time trying to flag down a waiter than for the drink to be delivered.
Sure, I'd love for them to add pizza, Playmakers food, or sushi to a mobile delivery option. And room service, while we're at it.
But let's at least begin with drinks.
