Leave a Review Disney Cruise Line Navigator
Very helpful but room for improvement
This is fantastic for providing daily schedules and activities and dining menus as well as deck plans. The chat function is great for keeping in touch but unfortunately it only vibrates and does not have a sound alert and so I missed many messages. Also, for some reason, at times I would get a notification saying that the person is "away" and the message would not be delivered even though they had their phone on. It would be very nice to be able to view future days' menus and activities as only the current day is displayed. As others have said, it would be very helpful to be able to view your room charges and also to make new reservations in it. Although we were told by cruise personnel it would work in the ports (as we left children in day care while we went to shore) it does not work on land in ports. Also, the "Help" section is worthless as it's just a few basic instructions and there's no search function and in order to get help you have to go to the IT desk which only has limited hours. However, I can't imagine functioning on board without this app--our last Disney cruise was years ago on The Big Red Boat before Wi-Fi or cell phones even existed and this provided a tremendous improvement in the cruise experience. This review is from our January, 2018 cruise.Show lessAncient TV Mouseketeer Fan
Great DCL App!
I discovered this app one year ago and I made my entire family download it for the next Disney Cruise. The best use for this app is when you are on the cruise, you can communicate through the app with your stateroom mates. DCL provides 2 “wave phones” per stateroom for your family to communicate with each other. The wave phones are out-of-date, a very short battery, and if you lose it, there is ~$150 replacement fee. The app also gives you notifications about events that are going on in the ship. Those are great if there is a BINGO game that you do not want to miss. The 2nd use that this app is good for are the deck maps. If you are not familiar with the Disney Cruise ships, you can go on this app to see each deck map. My first cruise I did not have this app and I was disoriented most of the time. The 3rd reason is when you book a cruise, you can enter the date of you cruise and you are able to see a countdown to your next cruise. I cannot recommend this app enough. If you are a 1st Time DCL cruiser or if this is your 10th, this app will help you relax a little bit more during your vacation.Show lessDjckdjdnjcmdmx
Very useful - great reference
The app is very beneficial to know what is happening when and where. The location and hours of everything is a definite plus. It is fairly easy to use. However it would be better if it was more adaptable. For example, would be great to be able to message certain areas - spa, guest services, kids club. This would help with questions that don't need an immediate answer. You definitely should be able to add in your scheduled appointments for the spa, princess gathering, sports simulator, etc. It should give you more flexibility with the schedule so you can add in your individual events. Messaging you serving staff would be a nice option too. That case if you were not going to dinner, needed to special order a menu, etc you could message them. I think that would make it easier on guests and staff.
The only issue we encountered was lack of signal or connection at times. There is a delay sometimes in receiving the messages too.
The app is much better than using the paper navigator. I love the app but would love it even more with the improvements I mentioned.Show lessMom Jana
Phenomenal, must have App
Once you’re aboard ship and connected to the ship WiFi, this App becomes active. It gives you access to the daily Navigator, with all of the daily activity schedules aboard ship. It also gives you access to the dining menus, hours for onboard locations and so on. It’s great to be able to find out the current happenings wherever you are aboard ship. You may also forget where something is taking place or want to know what’s next at the venue you’re in. It also is nice to sneak a peak at your dining options for that day.
I’d love to see this App more integrated with Web site content. Being able to handle your Port Adventures through it would help. Also being able to access the Navigator while ashore would be a huge help. These are small issues. It’d be nice to see your running bill as well. Yes, it’s supposed to be the Navigator, but seeing this more closely connected with the entire ship experience would make this a 6 Star ... above and beyond Disney service.Show lessAnaheimDude
Good, but an overhaul with new features is overdue
We first sailed in April 2015 and found the app very useful, but hoped to find new features by our next cruise. I am disappointed to say that after completing our second cruise in August 2017, nothing has changed in the app.
1. No alert tone when new chat message is received while out of app. Vibrate only. I miss messages constantly because of this.
2. Ability to call or text a wave phone from the app and vice versa would be tremendously helpful.
3. Ability to view folio balance and ship purchases in the app should exist by now.
4. Ability to communicate with guest services via a chat would be nice for when they are crowded.
5. Let us link the reservation in the app prior to the sailing date. We want to get everyone's phones setup prior to sailing, and would like to see the calendar of events before we sail to make plans.
6. Ability to obtain/purchase tickets to special events (character appearances, alcohol tastings, etc) and pick up tickets from the front desk, or present the app at time of event would be great.
7. Kids club has RFID and wristband system to track kids in the club. It would be nice to install RFID throughout the ship, so I can see where my kids are from the app.
8. App does not communicate with the ship while off the DCL-Guest network (i.e. at port of call). Chat messages and notifications from onboard staff (nursery/kids club) do not come through when on land.Show lesssl6t9
Unreliable
App stopped working on the 3rd day of my cruise. It was crashing every time I tried to open it. The rest of my review is for the days it worked.
App was not consistently providing notifications. It was nice to have visibility to all available activities and times in the app. Selecting favorite activities and the ability to list them helped with getting a quick glance at the schedule for the day, although I would have preferred for it to actually have an agenda or schedule feature. Connecting with guests in other staterooms for text messaging seemed more difficult than it should, as it required passing a long ID number associated with each other accounts to connect. You could be included in a group conversation but not be able to contact individual members of the group without first getting their long ID number. I understand it is a safety feature, but it would be nice if the app allowed the person in charge of the room to set the available contacts for everybody in the room. We had 4 staterooms and we desisted on trying to set this up for everyone as it felt very time consuming. Overall, it has potential, but we had to go back to the clumsy wave phones for now.Show lessAeonShark
Fantastic for all ages
As someone who belongs to the 18-20 society now this app was incredibly useful for the 15+ of us to keep connected! We all were able to exchange numbers and create group chats to talk in! The only request we may have is that you can add people to group chats after one is created, or else you must gather everyone's numbers again and start a new one.
The group chat also made it easy for me to keep in contact with my parents. With a map of the ship and specific show times they can send a quick text to have me meet them at the disney theater at a specific time. If i did not know where the theater was located a few quick taps on my phone showed me the way and I was set!
It's also fantastic that you can find activities to do on the ship based on your age group, so if you have kids in edge or vibe you can see what activities they can take part in at specific times!
The app also has blogs and information about the ports you enter each day as well as other useful things and even a shoutout to the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink of the day!
As someone is who is a long time member of the disney vacation club and goes on maybe of these trips, it was fantastic to be able to use the app instead of the sort of phones they used to provide. There is always room for improvement, but all in all it made the trip a lot easier!Show lessHaleyC_
Appreciating the app
I concur with La-La-LaShay that ones should not get carried away with the "wants" as the Crew Members are knowledgeable about ev-er-y-thing of the cruise, and even will approach you if you have a quizzical look with a question mark inside a floating thought bubble. Having young ones whom were given first rights to roam at will, the application was a cushion of ease. Having the "away" feature is simply something nice to know ahead of time so all concerned are aware. It was great for our family and for - pardon the pun - navigating areas of the ship after receiving and reading the Navigator sheet each day. Something to consider for capturing memories: the application and all information/conversations are inaccessible once your cruise is finished. Along the way, I used my phone to screen-shot certain things so as to print and preserve (e.g., scrapbook); though I did not think of the idea until the third day. All in all, a great feature.Show lessLi'l Mickey
I'm all seriousness
This app is great for planning activities, talking to anyone that is on the cruise, and well getting rid of your kids👍🏿but in all seriousness the only reason this app didn't get all five stars is because it needs to be updated the pools that i guess used to be there are no longer there and the app shows the old ones and old times that things close and open. Like everyone thought that the ice cream was 24 hours hate to break your heart but it's not the app does not say that it also doesn't give you notifications when you get a message on the app which is very hard especially if you're lost😂it also is great about sending you notifications about the activities you've liked but what about the activities you can't like so you don't get the notifications which make the trip %5 harder than it needs to be. With all these fixes then this app will be the BEST app for you Disney cruise tripShow lessMr.larson
Useful but limited
It works well onboard but no connection as you exit the ship. There is no search feature for people, activities, and crew. No way to send an emergency message and no emergency contact numbers for the port master or guest services. It has most information from the Daily newsletter of activities but does not always match the printed version. Don't know which one was right. Information is incomplete--such as where to get a mid-day snack which are often available in Cove, keys, the pub, and promenade. It would also be useful if your shore excursions and spa/Palo reservation reminders appeared on the app or allowed you to add them. Would also have liked to see the names of my servers, host, etc. so I could remember them faster. Yet it does have activities categorized by interest or restriction (e.g.,adults only) which is quite useful, you can save items as favorites--for which you receive 15 min reminders, and you can see all the upcoming activates and dining dress for the entire cruise . It's a huge advance from having to use walk abouts like we did 15 years ago, but it still has some maturing to do before I would call it a great tool.Show lessCyberkashi
