a mostly accessible cruise experience

My Thoughts on the Royal Caribbean App

intro

Hello everyone,

I hope this beautiful day finds you all well. A few weeks ago, I promised a review of the Royal Caribbean app my apologies for the delay; work got busy and had to come first.

Thank you for subscribing! I haven’t introduced any paid tiers yet, since I want everything to be freely accessible. Most of my posts will be reviews, and I know how frustrating paywalls can be.

The story

About 3 to 4 weeks ago, I set sail with Royal Caribbean. Everything was wonderful the staff, the atmosphere, even the Braille signage in the elevators, which was a pleasant surprise. On a previous cruise with another line, the lack of Braille meant I couldn’t confidently navigate the ship on my own. Royal Caribbean got it right there.

The only downside was the app. Since I can’t share screenshots from my trip and want to avoid exposing personal information, I’ll describe the experience I had using VoiceOver on my iPhone.

After downloading the app, I went through the account creation process without issue. Once my reservation appeared, the notifications began for example the one about mandatory safety briefing, which I completed onboard. No problem there.

Issues found

The trouble started when I switched from cellular data to the ship’s Wi-Fi. I logged in and tried to accept cabin-mate invites. No joy. I tapped, swiped, used screen recognition, and even restarted VoiceOver, but I couldn’t complete the action without sighted assistance.

Next, the app took forever to refresh messages. This wasn’t strictly an accessibility barrier everyone had the same lag but if someone couldn’t pull down to refresh, they’d be stuck. Relaunching the app sometimes worked, but not always.

Viewing the onboard calendar also proved tricky. It would load, but I had to random-tap the screen to make it appear. To return to the home screen, I needed to quit and reopen the app.

Finally, I ran into a major problem with billing. I could explore charges for drinks, room service (shoutout to the wonderful towel-animal creators), and other purchases but the total balance was invisible to VoiceOver. A sighted friend confirmed the number was there, but hidden from me. For me, that undermined my independence, since I didn’t want my balance announced at the front desk.

Here’s what worked well:

• Ship time displayed in the app, so we could calculate return times if we went ashore.
• The overall cruise experience the music, the staff was fantastic.

In conclusion:

Overall, I had a wonderful time, but the app’s accessibility gaps were notable. I’d love to compare app accessibility across different cruise lines. Could you navigate your cruise app independently? Could you check your balance without sighted help? Share your experiences in the comments.

Also, does anyone know the best way to contact Royal Caribbean’s accessibility team? I’d like to share this feedback so future visually impaired travelers can enjoy more independence.

Looking forward to your thoughts