Is the cruise critic app genuine?

[photopro2]

While browsing cruise critic using a browser I saw a banner for the cruise critic app and used the link to install it on my android phone. I launched the app logged in, and it worked perfectly.

It was only when I discovered that other people didn't know anything about the app that I became concerned that it might be a scam.

My password is unique to cruise critic, so I was not too worried about it being hacked. Just to be sure though, I changed my password using the cruise critic portal on a browser on a different device.

When I went back to the app, I could not login using the old password or random ones, but the new one worked fine. This shows that the app is certainly linked in someway to your database and suggest it is genuine.

The app works brilliantly and I hope it is genuine, but thought it would be sensible to run all this by you and I am looking forward to your response

[Essiesmom]

I don’t think what you found is an app.  I think it is the link described in the first pinned topic at the top of this page, placing a shortcut to CC on the Home Screen of your phone.  EM

[Charles4515]

51 minutes ago, photopro2 said:

While browsing cruise critic using a browser I saw a banner for the cruise critic app and used the link to install it on my android phone. I launched the app logged in, and it worked perfectly.

You added Cruise Critic to your home screen. It is not an app. The banner you saw expained how to add an Cruise Critic to an iPhone home screen. It is a link not an app. It probably works similarly on Android and that is what you did. 

 

 

[photopro2]

Sorry to disagree with you, but it really is an app. Please see the attached screenshot from my settings.

[Charles4515]

49 minutes ago, photopro2 said:

Sorry to disagree with you, but it really is an app. Please see the attached screenshot from my settings.

That is a link to the Cruise Critic forums web page. It is not a real app. See post #8 by broberts on the topic How to add Cruise Critic to….that I linked to. 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Charles4515

[1025cruise]

There used to be an app for Cruise Critic. It is no longer supported.

[Host Kat]

3 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

There used to be an app for Cruise Critic. It is no longer supported.

 

Yes, both the Tapatalk app as well as the old Cruise Critic app no longer exist. See Laura's post waaaay back on March 17, 2021.

 

[Charles4515]

1 hour ago, Host Kat said:

 

Yes, both the Tapatalk app as well as the old Cruise Critic app no longer exist. See Laura's post waaaay back on March 17, 2021.

 

A slight correction. Tapatalk still exists. What you mean is that Cruise Critic is no longer available on the Tapatalk app. I use Tapatalk all the time to participate in two forums that are on the app. Tapatalk remains a great way to participate in forums on smartphones. 

[Host Kat]

2 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

A slight correction. Tapatalk still exists. What you mean is that Cruise Critic is no longer available on the Tapatalk app. I use Tapatalk all the time to participate in two forums that are on the app. Tapatalk remains a great way to participate in forums on smartphones. 

 

Yes, as Laura says, "... both our version and inclusion in the Tapatalk comunity app..."

[photopro2]

14 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

That is a link to the Cruise Critic forums web page. It is not a real app. See post #8 by broberts on the topic

Thanks to your help I think I am getting to the bottom of what happened.

I knew that I hadn't installed a simple link to the site on my homepage.  I have done that for other sites and the link icon for those includes a small chrome logo which the cruise critic "app" icon does not.

So looking again at the post by @broberts I noticed that they add at the end: "If you don't see Add to home screen, there is an app for the page so select Install app. That fits much better with my experience and I'm sure now that I've linked to the site from my home screen using that alternative "install app" process. 

I'll see if I can get a bit more clarification by posting to that thread.

[photopro2]

It seems that I really do have an app as I always thought 😁

Apparently cruise critic have just started sending out emails to announce it.

I understand that this is a link but have not tested it

http://click.email.cruisecritic.com/?qs=b8774010bf9cd1355d8011a5857d086070291bab880b4dcbec5f95910390f5eb2503cff043b03950b68124aa09d4d8d13fcd605c27b064c4abd2a2c954e10940

[Charles4515]

15 minutes ago, photopro2 said:

It seems that I really do have an app as I always thought 😁

Apparently cruise critic have just started sending out emails to announce it.

I understand that this is a link but have not tested it

http://click.email.cruisecritic.com/?qs=b8774010bf9cd1355d8011a5857d086070291bab880b4dcbec5f95910390f5eb2503cff043b03950b68124aa09d4d8d13fcd605c27b064c4abd2a2c954e10940

I never got an email about it. Surprised there has been no announcement. I had to log in to the app using my email not my handle and then log in again to the community. I will test it out and see if it is better for me than the current mobile experience on my smartphone. 

[photopro2]

14 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

Surprised there has been no announcement.

I think I may have stumbled across a banner link that had been put up early in error. It almost makes me wonder if my inquiries on the boards forced management's hand into starting to send out the email announcement sooner than they planned.

Glad the link worked for you. I am generally pleased with the app as it seems a little "snappier" than the browser experience.

[Charles4515]

23 minutes ago, photopro2 said:

I think I may have stumbled across a banner link that had been put up early in error. It almost makes me wonder if my inquiries on the boards forced management's hand into starting to send out the email announcement sooner than they planned.

Glad the link worked for you. I am generally pleased with the app as it seems a little "snappier" than the browser experience.

I do not find it to be snappier. Since what it takes you to is the web it just adds another layer.  Since it goes the web pages it should have the same snap. Also the type is very small. On the mobile web browser pages I turn my iPhone to landscape and the type is a little larger. This app does not display in landscape. I also have several shortcuts on my homepage besides to the community forums page to my custom streams. I will probably stay with the browser experience. 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Charles4515

[photopro2]

15 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

Since what it takes you to is the web it just adds another layer.

I don't believe that is true. The app accesses the data in the same way your browser does, directly from cruise critic via the cloud, so is not adding another layer. In my experience apps can sometimes handle specific data in a more efficient way than an all-purpose browser.

15 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

This app does not display in landscape.

That may be a limitation of the iPhone or, much more likely, something on your personal settings. The app does display larger type in landscape on my Android device.

15 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

I also have several shortcuts on my homepage besides to the community forums page to my custom streams.

They will continue to work as before but may open in the app rather than on your browser. Either way there is no disadvantage in using the app from that point of view. 

[Charles4515]

4 hours ago, photopro2 said:

I don't believe that is true. The app accesses the data in the same way your browser does, directly from cruise critic via the cloud, so is not adding another layer. In my experience apps can sometimes handle specific data in a more efficient way than an all-purpose browser.

That may be a limitation of the iPhone or, much more likely, something on your personal settings. The app does display larger type in landscape on my Android device.

They will continue to work as before but may open in the app rather than on your browser. Either way there is no disadvantage in using the app from that point of view. 

It is just using an in-app browser. That is another layer. It is not more efficient in this app. The old discontiued app Cruise Critic was more efficient and got data directly from the forum software by a plug in to the forum software. The old app was great if you had a typical slow internet connection on a cruise. 

 

There is no limitation to iPhone apps displaying in landscape nor any personal settings. The developer of the app has not coded it to display in landscape on iPhones. They can change that. Maybe they will in a future version.

 

Home screen shortcuts will continue as before because the app can't change those so there is no disadvantage to using the app. It won't change my home screen shortcuts. There is no advantage to using the app but there is an advantage to reading Cruise Critc on my web browser direct over an in-app browser so I will continue to do so direct in Safari. 

 

Edited August 27, 2023 by Charles4515

[photopro2]

36 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

It is just using an in-app browser.

Thanks for your responses - I love to learn.

It seems likely that the difference in our experiences stems from the fact that we're using different operating systems. Would you agree?

I'm interested to know if there's any way that I can check if my version of the app is working via the browser as you suggest, or is pulling data directly from the software as the old app did? If it were pulling data directly then that might explain the snappier feeling I get from using the app rather than the browser.

[Charles4515]

8 minutes ago, photopro2 said:

Thanks for your responses - I love to learn.

It seems likely that the difference in our experiences stems from the fact that we're using different operating systems. Would you agree?

I'm interested to know if there's any way that I can check if my version of the app is working via the browser as you suggest, or is pulling data directly from the software as the old app did? If it were pulling data directly then that might explain the snappier feeling I get from using the app rather than the browser.

The apps could be completely different. Also Apple is very strict about privacy and tracking. Since the app is intended to sell cruises perhaps there was code that could not be used on the Apple version. Since I don’t have any Android devices and all my family members and friends have iPhones I can’t check. In the US unlike the rest of the world Apple is dominant. The iPhone has 57% of phone market share in the US. 
 

The app 

[LauraS]

I'm a bit late to this party and I appreciate your patience.

 

So, the app that is available (for both iPhone and Android) is titled:  MyKindofCruise, powered by Cruise Critic.   I'll keep this simple.  Cruise Critic supplies the knowledge base in terms of professional reviews, member reviews and of course our forums are linked as well.  The MyKindOfCruise folks provide the booking engine.