What’s the wi-fi? It’s one of the main concerns for millennials who account for about a quarter of all passengers of Norwegian Cruise Line. Tech-savvy guests are the company’s fastest growing segment.
The new Cruise Norwegian app is geared to help guests stay easily connected from the time they book to the day they disembark. The service includes calling and messaging among passengers onboard the cruise and calling to shore from the ship without having to buy ship internet package. Norwegian sells the communication package for $9.95 for the entire cruise.
It’s been designed to offer a fluid experience, says Nick Kyriakides of netTalk, the company that developed the technology for passengers using iOS and Android. It includes app-to-app messaging and calls, app-to-cabin calls and ship and public spaces calls to the app, as well as links to stay up-to-date on what’s happening on board and make reservations for dining, entertainment and shore excursions.
Groups can organize meetups, stay in contact and share their photos with everyone in their party with group messaging. “Passengers in the same cabin are automatically grouped together in the address book so they can easily be reached. Kids can call their parents and vice versa. Groups can co-ordinate meeting points and meet-ups. Missed calls go to voicemail. If you meet new passengers, they can easily add them to their address book as a friend list so they can stay in touch,” Kyriakides says.
The entire Norwegian fleet is due to be live by December. “We have a lot more really neat functionality being developed for phase II. Stay tuned,” he adds.
