UTRIP-AFAR test website

[JennysUncle]

One slide at the Big News conference was a screenshot of a UTRIP-AFAR destinations info webpage. It looks like it is formatted to become part of the HAL website, but currently is at http://HAL.UTRIP.COM It seems to be just a mock-up without much real content, but it has a slick design.

[3rdGenCunarder]

One slide at the Big News conference was a screenshot of a UTRIP-AFAR destinations info webpage. It looks like it is formatted to become part of the HAL website' date=' but currently is at http://HAL.UTRIP.COM It seems to be just a mock-up without much real content, but it has a slick design.[/quote']

 

how did you get to this page? through HAL's site or by googling?

 

I tried it. I asked for Northern Lights as a region and Reykjavik as a port and it gave me Venice. I tired Baltic and Stockholm and it gave me Venice.

[JennysUncle]

I saw it on the slide and thought "let's try it" and typed it into my browser - and the site came up. But I it is undoubtedly just a sample, with a couple of pages to bring up in a demo. It might not reflect the final design. One thing it lacked, as a sample, was any indication of a way to print any of the info. For example, I would want to print off the list of suggested restaurants with a little map.

[SilvertoGold]

It is stuck on Venice.

 

I clicked on the one thing on offer, Europe, then Med, then Rome , Barcelona, Istanbul and got Venice all three times.

 

The Venice one looked useful.

[CowPrincess]

I found the actual utrip site last night, and used Victoria BC Canada as the destination. I was pleasantly surprised at some of the information I got. I've been looking at Victoria already, and many of the suggestions were places/things/stuff I had not encountered in my own research.

 

So..... possibly there is hope ;)

[holacanada]

Hi fellow cruisers !

 

IMHO They should have put their new logo and tag line to provide us a better browsing/looking experience ! Don't they ?

 

Holacanada from Quebec City

[tatabea]

I went to the AppStore on my cellphone and searched for it. The reviews are not real good.

[POA1]

It'll be interesting to see how CC treats Utrip, seeing how it's a start up competitor to TripAdvisor, CruiseCritic's parent.

[3rdGenCunarder]

It'll be interesting to see how CC treats Utrip, seeing how it's a start up competitor to TripAdvisor, CruiseCritic's parent.

 

Does Utrip have a review/rating system? I don't follow the TripAdvisor ratings all that closely, as they can be skewed by the number of ratings as well as the number of "dots," but I do read reviews and find comments to be very helpful.

[chefestelle]

I tried utrip from its website. It is quite limited with respect to number of locations. However, there are lots of options within the locations that are listed. If the HAL combined link actually lists all its ports, it could be a pretty useful tool. For now, I will stick to Viator and tripomatic which both have way more options - presently anyway!

[cruisemom42]

I tried utrip from its website. It is quite limited with respect to number of locations. However, there are lots of options within the locations that are listed. If the HAL combined link actually lists all its ports, it could be a pretty useful tool. For now, I will stick to Viator and tripomatic which both have way more options - presently anyway!

 

I seem to recall that they mentioned at the media event that they would be building out the content over the next year for all of HAL's ports of call.

[holacanada]

I seem to recall that they mentioned at the media event that they would be building out the content over the next year for all of HAL's ports of call.

 

I agree with you cruisemom42,

 

Give them little time/chance to set up correctly the «site».

They annonce their first really interaction for next january in 2016..!

 

Holacanada

[Fouremco]

I seem to recall that they mentioned at the media event that they would be building out the content over the next year for all of HAL's ports of call.

Which begs the question of why they chose to announce it now. It seems to me that making a big hoopla over something that won't be fully functional for many, many months isn't helpful for anyone. Apple doesn't make its splashy announcements until a very short while before their products are available, a marketing strategy that HAL might want to consider for the future.

[kazu]

Which begs the question of why they chose to announce it now. It seems to me that making a big hoopla over something that won't be fully functional for many, many months isn't helpful for anyone. Apple doesn't make its splashy announcements until a very short while before their products are available, a marketing strategy that HAL might want to consider for the future.

 

by jove, I think you have it :)

 

HAL needs to hire some common sense marketers - like you :)

[POA1]

I wouldn't get too hung up on the site's current state. It's a design demo site, so it's not unusual for it to only have limited functionality. These types of sites only need to have enough pages / screens to get through the presentation. The actual build out is a whole different animal.

[PatsyAnne]

Which begs the question of why they chose to announce it now. It seems to me that making a big hoopla over something that won't be fully functional for many, many months isn't helpful for anyone. Apple doesn't make its splashy announcements until a very short while before their products are available, a marketing strategy that HAL might want to consider for the future.

 

 

Two months until start -- not all that long.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Two months until start -- not all that long.

 

Long enough for interest (what little there seems to be) to cool off. If they'd said "And you can try it starting next week!" people would remember and go to the site to check it out. They'll have to put out another "announcement" to remind us when it's ready to go.

 

I hope they spend the next two months well, adding a lot of content. If people go to check it out and their ports aren't covered, it's a turn-off.

[cruisemom42]

Which begs the question of why they chose to announce it now. It seems to me that making a big hoopla over something that won't be fully functional for many, many months isn't helpful for anyone. Apple doesn't make its splashy announcements until a very short while before their products are available, a marketing strategy that HAL might want to consider for the future.

 

by jove, I think you have it :)

 

HAL needs to hire some common sense marketers - like you :)

 

You guys are a tough group. :D

 

The Apple watch was announced about 7 months before it was available for pre-order.... I think HAL will have that beat.

[Fouremco]

You guys are a tough group. :D

 

The Apple watch was announced about 7 months before it was available for pre-order.... I think HAL will have that beat.

Utrip has very few cities on the current website and even fewer that are HAL ports. They have a huge task ahead of them and I'd be very (pleasantly) surprised to see all of the ports curated and added to the HAL website in the next few months.

 

Tough group? Maybe, but HAL's IT record isn't great, so forgive me if I'm a tad sceptical about delivery dates. :D