Critiquing the Celebrity Cruise Line App

 

As I continue my UAGC journey in pursuit of my B.A. in Human Resource Management, I look forward to graduating in the spring of 2026 and taking a vacation. Earlier this year, I decided that I wanted to gift myself a graduation present. I chose to book a 7-night cruise on the Celebrity Beyond, where I will be traveling to the Grand Cayman, Mexico, and the Bahamas. Because of this, the app I chose to review for this discussion is the Celebrity Cruise app. Since booking my cruise a few months ago, I've had quite some time to explore the app and familiarize myself with its functions. Below is a description of my experience using the app thus far.

 The first image below is the first thing you see when you open the app. For those who have a booked cruise with the company, it displays a birds-eye view of the ship you will be travelling on, along with the port city, your calendar, a daily planner showing your schedule for each day, if available, and tabs to view the app's other features. At the top of this page, you'll see three little dots in the upper right-hand corner. If you click here, you can access a chat where you can communicate with other passengers aboard your ship. This is a feature that is accessible on each page in the app.

The next image above is an extension of the app's homepage. Here, you can visit different sections of the app and explore different features, like current offers, your itinerary, and safety information, as well as purchase add-ons like excursions, drinks, wifi, and food packages.

This next page displays the full list of current offerings, including all the add-ons mentioned above plus much more. You have the option to purchase spa and wellness packages, snacks, and photos ahead of time. You can also add a special occasion like a birthday, graduation, or anniversary package.

One feature not yet discussed is the deck maps feature. Here, you can view every restaurant, spa, swimming pool, shop, and restroom, among other things, throughout the ship. With the option to view a different deck at the bottom of the app by selecting a deck number, you can see where everything is on the ship. You can even see where all of the restrooms and elevators are located throughout the ship. While this map is helpful, it could be enhanced by making it more interactive and allowing users to click on each place to view pictures or videos of the venue or ship area. The last cruise I took, in 2016, was on Norwegian Cruise Line. The app for that cruise had a feature where you could view a live feed of a few of the ship's areas, like the swimming pool deck. This could be helpful to know how packed the pool is or what the weather is like before heading out.

The final image above is of the daily planner and calendar features on the Celebrity Cruise app. Here, you can see some of the things available on the first day aboard, and reserve your spot for different programs and shows going on, as well as book excursions, spas, and gyms, and view the ship's shops. You can also shuffle through different days to book activities. This permits those who like to book things ahead to do so.

Overall, the Celebrity Cruiseline app is quite simple and easy to use. It is user-friendly, and you can do just about everything you would need to do for planning and managing your cruise here. However, in addition to what I mentioned before regarding a more interactive and enhanced map feature and adding a live feed camera of the popular areas, another recommendation for the Celebrity Cruise app includes allowing users to edit details and trip plans via the app, without venturing outside the app to do so. This would add to the app's functionality. Additionally, some features are not available until we are closer to the sail date. Another recommendation would be to allow passengers access to all features once tickets have been purchased.