CruiseFlow

About CruiseFlow

CruiseFlow helps families plan, experience, and relive their cruise vacations. Import a booking email, build a day-by-day schedule, keep travel documents in one secure spot, capture every memory with photos, and stay in sync with your family — all offline-first so cruise Wi-Fi can't slow you down.

Contact Support

Having trouble or have a question? We're happy to help.

We typically respond within 24 hours.

Getting Started

The first time you open CruiseFlow you'll see a welcome screen with three options:

• Plan My Cruise — set up a brand-new cruise from scratch
• Try a Demo First — explore the app pre-filled with a sample Caribbean cruise
• Restore backup or Receive sync (small links at the bottom) — import existing data from a backup file or a sync file someone shared with you

Tap Plan My Cruise and you'll move through three steps: a quick welcome, your trip details (cruise name, ship, start and end dates), and finally adding the family members travelling with you.

Importing from a Booking Email

CruiseFlow can read your cruise-line confirmation email and auto-fill almost everything for you.

Where to find it

• The new-cruise screen has a blue "Have a booking email?" card at the top
• Settings → Import from email

How to use it

1. Open your booking confirmation email in Mail (or anywhere you can copy text).
2. Select all of the email body and copy it.
3. Switch to CruiseFlow and tap Paste from clipboard, or paste the text into the textarea manually and tap Extract details.
4. Review the extracted details. Anything we couldn't find shows a yellow warning icon and you can fill it in by hand.
5. Tap Add to my trips to save.

What it extracts

• Cruise name, ship, start and end dates
• Stateroom number, dining time, confirmation number — saved as trip notes
• The full day-by-day itinerary, with port names already filled in (Cozumel, Sea Day, Castaway Cay, etc.) — these become your day labels

Supported sources

• Norwegian Cruise Line
• Royal Caribbean
• Carnival
• Disney Cruise Line
• Celebrity Cruises
• Travel-agency confirmations like Costco Travel that wrap any of the above

If your email isn't recognized

You'll see a yellow "Couldn't recognize this email" message and a button to set up the cruise manually. Send the email subject line and which fields were missed to support and we'll add a parser for it.

The Home Screen

Home is the central hub. What you see depends on whether you have an active cruise:

• Currently sailing — the active cruise card appears at the top with today's day number, event count, and a quick link to Schedule
• Trip coming up — a countdown card ("30 days to go") plus a pre-cruise checklist nudge with your next two overdue or upcoming items
• Between trips — past cruises in a horizontal carousel, an "On This Day" memory from a previous trip, aggregate stats, and a "Play Your Story" button to relive your most recent voyage

The bottom navigation bar takes you to Home, Schedule, Memories, Ducks, and More. The More tab houses the pre-cruise checklist, documents, notes, and full Settings.

Daily Schedule

The Schedule tab is where most of your day-to-day planning happens.

Navigating between days

• Tap the chevron arrows on either side of the date label to step one day at a time
• Tap the date itself to open the iOS date picker and jump to any day
• Swipe left or right anywhere on the page to navigate days

Two viewing modes

• Timeline (default) — every event for the day in chronological order
• By Person — events grouped by family member, with a card for each person showing their day at a glance. Useful when the family splits up

Search and filter

Tap the magnifying-glass icon to search across all events on the current day. You can also filter by category (dining, entertainment, etc.) or by family member.

Live status

Events that are happening right now show a pulsing "Happening now" badge. Past events are dimmed; upcoming events are fully bright.

Adding & Editing Events

Add a new event

1. From Schedule, tap the floating + button in the bottom right.
2. Fill in the four tabs: Basics (title, category, venue), Time (date, start, end, reminder), Details (notes, deck, confirmation #), and People (which family members are going).
3. Tap Add Event to save.

Edit or delete an event

• Tap an event card to open it. From there: Edit (pencil), Mark complete, Add photo, or Delete (trash)
• Long-press an event card for quick actions like duplicate or share

Event Categories

Each event has one category that drives its color, icon, and default times.

On-ship activities

• Dining — restaurants, breakfast, brunch, dinner reservations
• Entertainment — production shows, comedy, music, headliners
• Excursion — shore excursions, port tours
• Kids Club — youth programmes, drop-off sessions
• Reservation — spa, salon, specialty bars
• Personal — gym, pool time, anything else just for you
• Reminder — a non-time-anchored to-do for the day

Travel logistics (for pre/post-cruise days)

• Flight — outbound and return flights
• Hotel — pre- or post-cruise hotel nights
• Transfer — airport-to-port shuttles, taxis
• Car Rental — pickup and drop-off
• Parking — port parking reservations

Ship-Aware Venue Picker

When you tap the Venue field on an event, CruiseFlow shows venues for your specific ship organized by category and deck.

• Start typing to filter — matches name, category, or deck number
• Tap a suggestion to select it; the deck number fills in automatically
• Or tap Custom venue at the bottom of the list to type any name CruiseFlow doesn't know about

Thousands of venues are pre-loaded across Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Disney, Celebrity, Princess, MSC, Virgin Voyages, and more. If your ship isn't in the catalog, you can still log every event by typing custom venue names — the rest of the app works the same.

Smart Reminders

Each event can have a notification that fires before it starts. On the Time tab, choose None, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 1 day before.

• On iPhone, you'll be asked for notification permission the first time you set a reminder
• Reminders fire from the device — they work without internet (cruise Wi-Fi friendly)
• If you change an event's time after setting a reminder, the notification re-schedules automatically

Day Names & Port Labels

Underneath the date on the Schedule view, you'll see a small label like Day 3 · Cozumel, Mexico or Day 5 · Sea Day.

Where they come from

• Auto-filled when you import a cruise from a booking email
• Or added manually — tap the label to open the rename sheet

Editing one

1. Tap the day-name label under the date.
2. Type a new label (e.g. "Cozumel (rerouted to Costa Maya)").
3. Tap Save.

Empty days inside a cruise show a faint "+ Add day name" affordance in the same spot — tap it to add a label from scratch. Saving with an empty value clears that day's name.

Pre & Post-Cruise Travel Days

The schedule isn't limited to your sailing dates — you can navigate up to 14 days before the start date and 14 days after the end date to plan flights, hotels, transfers, and return travel.

• Day -1 (the day before sailing) shows a "Travel day · Get to the port today, board the ship soon" banner
• Day +1 (the day after disembarkation) shows a "Return travel · Travel home from the port" banner
• Use the travel-logistics categories — Flight, Hotel, Transfer, Car Rental, Parking — for these events

Pre-Cruise Checklist

The day you create a cruise, CruiseFlow seeds a 15+ item checklist with sensible due dates ("90 days before," "3 days before"). Find it at More → Pre-cruise Checklist.

Buckets

• Overdue — past their due date and not yet checked off (highlighted in red)
• This week — due in the next 7 days
• Next 30 days — due within the month
• Completed — items you've checked off (collapsed by default)

Default items

Includes things like: confirm passport validity, buy travel insurance, reserve specialty dining, book shore excursions, complete online check-in, reserve evening shows, book parking, refill prescriptions, free up phone storage, pack reef-safe sunscreen, notify your bank of travel, get small bills for tips, print boarding passes, and pack carry-on essentials. The list is tailored to your cruise dates and ship.

Adding your own items

1. Scroll to the bottom and tap Add custom item.
2. Enter a title, optional description, and how many days before sailing it's due.
3. Tap Add item.

Home-screen nudge

When a cruise is upcoming (not currently sailing), the Home screen shows a checklist card right under the countdown. It surfaces overdue counts and the next two items so they don't slip through the cracks.

Documents Vault

A private, encrypted spot for the travel docs you'll actually need at the pier. Find it at More → Documents.

What to keep here

• Passports
• Boarding passes
• Hotel and flight confirmations
• Vaccine cards / health records
• Travel insurance policies
• Excursion vouchers

Uploading

1. Tap Upload a document.
2. Pick an image or PDF from your photo library or Files app (max 25 MB).
3. Confirm the title, choose a type (Passport, Boarding Pass, etc.), and optionally tag it to a family member.
4. For passports and vaccine cards, you can add an expiration date — within 90 days of expiry, a yellow "Expiring" badge appears on the row.

Auto-grouping

• Required for boarding — passports, boarding passes (pinned at the top with a red label)
• Bookings — flights, hotels, excursions, insurance
• Health — vaccine records, medical documents
• Other — anything else

Privacy

Files are stored encrypted on your device and synced privately through your iCloud (if you're signed in). Other apps cannot see them, and they're inaccessible while your device is locked.

Trip Notes

A free-form notes field per cruise. Find it at More → Notes or Settings → Trip details → Notes.

What goes here

• Stateroom number
• Dining time
• Confirmation numbers
• Allergies, dietary restrictions, special requests
• Packing reminders
• Anything you want to remember for this trip

Auto-population

If you imported your cruise from a booking email, the stateroom, dining time, and confirmation number are filled in automatically.

Saving

Notes auto-save when you tap away from the textarea. There's also a Save button you can hit explicitly. The header reads "saving…" while a save is in flight and "unsaved" if you have changes that haven't landed yet.

Family Members

Family members are global — once you add someone, they're available to assign to events on every cruise. Manage the list at Settings → Family Members.

Adding

1. Tap + Add member.
2. Type a name, pick an emoji avatar, and toggle Child on or off.
3. Tap Add.

Editing

Tap any existing member to rename them or change their emoji. Tap the trash icon to remove someone (their old event tags stay, just without the avatar).

Why the Child toggle matters

• The default checklist gains "kids" items (kid passports, formula, favourite stuffed animal) when at least one child is on the trip
• Reservation and dining suggestions take ages into account where relevant

By-Person Schedule View

On the Schedule tab, the toggle next to "Timeline" lets you switch to By Person. Each family member gets a card showing:

• What they're doing right now
• What's coming up next
• How many events they have today
• Any conflicts (two events overlapping)

Useful when the family splits up — at-a-glance "where is everyone right now?"

Memories & Photos

The Memories tab is your travel journal across every cruise.

Adding a photo to an event

1. Tap an event card to open its detail view.
2. Tap the camera icon.
3. Take a photo or pick from your library — multiple per event are fine.

Quick-capture from the schedule

For events happening right now, a "Quick photo capture" button appears at the bottom of the day's timeline. One tap, one photo, attached to the current event.

Browsing memories

• Filter by category, date range, family member, or cruise
• Switch between gallery, list, and map views
• Tap a photo to open the full-screen lightbox with pinch-to-zoom, pan, and double-tap to fit
• Use On This Day on the home screen to revisit a photo from a previous cruise on the matching calendar day

Cover photos

Inside the lightbox, tap Set as cover to make a photo represent that day. The cover shows up on the daily date picker, the cruise carousel, and exported recaps.

Daily Bulletin Photos

Most cruise lines slip a printed schedule under your stateroom door each evening — Freestyle Daily, Cruise Compass, FunTimes, Patter, etc. CruiseFlow has a dedicated spot for those.

1. On the Schedule tab, look for the Daily Bulletin card (just below the date and view-mode toggle).
2. Tap to snap a photo of the front. If there's a back side too, you'll see a "+" to add it.
3. Tap either side to view it full-screen with pinch-to-zoom.

The photo is linked to that specific date, so you can always go back to "what was on the schedule that morning?"

Cruise Recap (Stories)

At the end of a sailing — once you have at least three events with photos — the home screen shows a colorful Play Your Story button.

How it works

• Auto-builds a full-screen photo story from your events, day by day
• Each card shows the photo, event title, time, and venue
• Tap to advance, or let it auto-play (about 5 seconds per card, with a progress bar at the top)
• Swipe left or right to jump cards manually

Sharing

From within the recap, tap the share icon to send the story as an image or video to Photos, Messages, or any social app.

Duck Hunt

The cruise rubber-duck tradition, built right into the app. Find it at the Ducks tab.

Logging a find

1. Tap + Log a duck.
2. Snap a photo of the duck.
3. Add the location (e.g. "Deck 12 pool area").
4. Type the tag message left by the previous cruiser if there is one.
5. Note who hid it (if you can tell from the tag — e.g. "Amy from Dallas, TX").
6. Tap Save.

Tracking

• Your ducks appear in a grid on the Ducks tab, newest first
• Tap a duck to see its full detail with map of where it was found
• The leaderboard shows family-member finds across all your cruises
• Badges unlock at milestones (first find, 5 ducks, 10 ducks, etc.)

Multiple Cruises

CruiseFlow handles back-to-back voyages and trips spread across years. Each cruise keeps its own events, photos, ducks, notes, checklist, and documents.

Adding another cruise

• Settings → New cruise
• Or import another booking email — see Importing from a Booking Email

Switching between cruises

• Home tab — past and future cruises in the carousel; tap any to make it active
• Settings → Switch cruise — full list, sorted by date

Browsing past trips

When you tap an old cruise from the home carousel, a "You're browsing a past cruise · Back to Home" banner appears at the top so you don't get lost.

iCloud Sync Setup

CruiseFlow uses sync groups stored in your iCloud Drive to keep your data in sync across devices. This works just like Baby Tracker — create a group on one device, join it from your other devices, and changes sync automatically.

On your first device — create a sync group

1. Open CruiseFlow and go to Settings.
2. Scroll to the Synchronization section and tap Sync groups.
3. Under "Create new group," enter a name (for example, Family Cruise).
4. Tap Create & Join. Your device is now syncing to iCloud.

On your other devices — join the group

1. Wait about 30 seconds after creating the group on the first device, so iCloud Drive can propagate the new group.
2. Open CruiseFlow on the second device and go to Settings → Synchronization → Sync groups.
3. If you don't see the group right away, tap Refresh groups.
4. Find your group in the "Available groups" list and tap Join.
5. The device will pull down all data from the group. Repeat on any additional devices.

What syncs

• Cruises and trip details
• Events with their photos
• Family members
• Ducks
• Pre-cruise checklist items
• Documents (encrypted)
• Trip notes and day labels

What doesn't

• App settings (theme, AI key) — those stay local per device
• Daily bulletin photos — local only by design (they're large and ephemeral)

Where is my data stored?

Sync data lives in your private iCloud Drive container under CruiseFlow. You can verify usage in Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Account Storage → CruiseFlow. Files are not visible in the Files app — they live in the app's private container, which is the recommended Apple pattern for app data.

Leaving a sync group

To stop syncing on a particular device, open the Sync Groups sheet and tap Leave group. Your local data stays on that device. Other devices in the group continue syncing with each other.

Sync troubleshooting

• Group doesn't appear on my second device: Make sure both devices are signed into the same iCloud account, iCloud Drive is enabled, and you have an internet connection. Tap Refresh groups after a minute.
• Changes aren't syncing: CruiseFlow merges changes when the app is open. Pull down to refresh, or tap the sync row in Settings to force a sync.
• "iCloud is not available": Open the iOS Settings app, tap your name at the top, then iCloud → iCloud Drive, and make sure it's turned on. CruiseFlow must also be in the list of apps allowed to use iCloud Drive.
• Conflicting edits: CruiseFlow uses a "last writer wins" merge strategy. The most recent edit on any device is kept.

AirDrop Sync Files

If you're cruising with someone on a different Apple ID — say, a friend or extended family member — sync groups won't reach them. AirDrop sync files do.

Sending

1. From the home screen, long-press a cruise card.
2. Tap Share cruise.
3. Pick the recipient via AirDrop, Messages, or Mail.

Receiving

The other person taps the .cruiseflow file. CruiseFlow opens, shows a Merge preview screen explaining what will be added, and they tap Merge to land it.

Sync files are one-shot snapshots — they don't keep updating. Send a fresh one if plans change.

Backup & Restore

You own your data. Settings → Backup & Restore lets you export everything as a single JSON file and put it back later.

Export

• Tap Export Backup
• Save the file to Files, iCloud Drive, or share it via any app
• The export includes every cruise, event, photo, member, duck, document, and setting

Restore

• Either tap Restore backup from the welcome screen, or in Settings → Restore from file
• Pick the JSON file from your device
• Confirm the preview (number of cruises, photos, ducks)
• Tap Restore — existing data is replaced wholesale

Themes & Appearance

Settings → Theme lets you pick:

• System — follows your iOS Light/Dark Mode setting
• Light — always light
• Dark — always dark

The app respects iOS accessibility settings — Reduce Motion disables decorative animations, Reduce Transparency removes the blurry sticky headers, and dynamic-type scales most labels.

AI Concierge (Optional)

CruiseFlow has an optional chat assistant that can answer questions about your itinerary, suggest activities for sea days, or help you write a packing list. It uses Google Gemini and requires your own free API key.

Setup

1. Go to aistudio.google.com/apikey and create an API key (free tier is plenty for personal use).
2. In CruiseFlow: Settings → Gemini API key → Save.
3. The Concierge chat tab appears in the More menu.

Privacy

The key is stored only on your device. When you ask the concierge a question, your prompt and a small slice of relevant cruise context are sent directly to Google's Gemini API — not through CruiseFlow's servers.

If you don't set up a key, the AI Concierge is hidden and you'll never see anything related to it.

Offline Use

CruiseFlow is built for cruise Wi-Fi reality. Everything works offline:

• Plan, edit, and view your schedule
• Take and view photos
• Log ducks
• Edit notes, checklist, documents

iCloud sync queues changes locally and uploads them whenever the device is back online. There's no spinner blocking your work and no "offline mode" to toggle — it just keeps going.

Privacy & Data

• No accounts. CruiseFlow doesn't have a sign-up flow, password, or user database.
• No tracking. No analytics SDKs, no advertising IDs, no third-party trackers.
• No ads. Ever.
• Your data stays on your device unless you explicitly export it, share it, or sync it through your own iCloud.
• Email parsing happens on-device. Pasted booking emails never leave the phone.
• The AI Concierge is opt-in and uses your own Google Gemini key when enabled.

For the full privacy policy, see Privacy Policy.

Troubleshooting

"Can't import this email" warning

The email format isn't one CruiseFlow recognizes yet. Tap Set up cruise manually, then send the email subject line to support so we can add a parser.

Reminders not firing

• Check iOS Settings → Notifications → CruiseFlow and make sure notifications are allowed
• Verify Time Sensitive is on if you want full-screen alerts
• Make sure the device's clock is accurate (Settings → General → Date & Time)

Photos taking up too much space

CruiseFlow compresses photos to ~1200px and ~70% JPEG quality on capture. Open the Memories tab, sort by photo count per event, and delete events or individual photos you no longer need. Photos in deleted events are removed from disk immediately.

Lost data after a restore

Restore overwrites the device's current data. If you lost something, look for a more recent backup file in Files or iCloud Drive — CruiseFlow doesn't auto-delete old backups.

App opens to onboarding even though you have cruises

This usually means the app couldn't read its database (rare — typically after a failed iOS migration). Force-quit and relaunch. If onboarding still appears, tap Restore backup on the welcome screen and pick your latest export.

Date/time pickers look weird on iOS

Make sure you're on the latest version (More → bottom of the page shows the version and build). Earlier versions had layout issues with side-by-side date pickers on smaller iPhones — these are fixed in current builds.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does CruiseFlow work offline?

Yes! All your data is stored on your device. You can view your schedule, add photos, and write journal entries without an internet connection — perfect for days at sea.

Is CruiseFlow free?

Yes — the app is free with no ads and no in-app purchases. You bring your own free Google Gemini API key if you want the optional AI Concierge.

How do I back up my data?

Go to Settings and tap "Export Backup." This saves all your cruises, events, family members, and photos as a file you can restore later from the same screen.

Can I plan multiple cruises?

Absolutely. CruiseFlow supports multiple cruises. Switch between them from the home screen or manage them in Settings.

What is the Demo Cruise?

The demo cruise is a pre-populated sample cruise that lets you explore all of CruiseFlow's features before adding your own trip. You can delete it at any time from Settings.

How do I add family members?

Go to Settings and tap "Family Members." Add each person with a name, emoji, and color. You can then tag family members on events to see who's doing what.

What is Duck Hunt?

Hiding and finding rubber ducks is a beloved cruise tradition! The Duck Hunt feature lets you log every duck your family finds, including where you found it and the tag message left by the previous cruiser.

How do I delete my data?

You can delete individual cruises from Settings, or use "Reset All Data" to start fresh. All data is stored locally on your device and is permanently removed when deleted.

Can I share data between my iPhone and iPad?

Yes! CruiseFlow uses iCloud sync groups to keep multiple devices in sync. See the iCloud Sync Setup section for step-by-step instructions.

Can my family share the same cruise?

Yes — anyone signed into the same iCloud account (such as Family Sharing members who share an Apple ID for the app) can join the same sync group and see all cruise data. Each device must have CruiseFlow installed and iCloud enabled. For travel partners on a different Apple ID, use AirDrop sync files instead.

Does it work on Android?

Not yet. CruiseFlow currently ships as a Progressive Web App in any modern browser and as a native iOS app. An Android build is on the roadmap.

What ships are supported?

The venue catalog covers most current ships across Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Disney, Celebrity, Princess, MSC, Virgin Voyages, and others. Even on a ship not in the catalog, you can type any venue name by hand.

What if I cruise with someone on a different iPhone account?

Use AirDrop sync files — see AirDrop Sync Files.

Where does my data live?

On your device. iCloud sync stores a copy in your private iCloud Drive container (visible only to you and CruiseFlow). Backup files live wherever you save them.

I deleted a cruise by accident — can I recover it?

If you have a recent backup file or iCloud sync turned on, yes. Without either, no — deletes are immediate and permanent.

Does the AI Concierge see my data?

Only when you ask it a question. CruiseFlow sends the relevant slice of your itinerary along with your prompt to Google's Gemini API. The transcript isn't stored on any server we control.

Can I print or PDF my itinerary?

Yes — open the cruise on the home screen, tap the share icon, and pick "Save as PDF" or print. The recap player also exports as a video.

How do I change the day name when the ship reroutes?

On the Schedule tab, tap the "Day N · Port" label under the date and edit it inline. See Day Names & Port Labels.

Will my checklist items sync between phones?

Yes, if iCloud sync is on. The checklist is part of the cruise and syncs along with everything else.

Requirements

• iOS 17.0 or later
• iPhone or iPad
• No account or internet connection required for core features
• iCloud account with iCloud Drive enabled (only required for multi-device sync)