Navigator Debate is in the survey

[Doingitagain]

I like the app to favorite things and see future days and menus. I found it easy to filter and I liked how it showed my plans. It also can be updated more easily if things change (can’t remove a highlight on a paper navigator!).

I like the format of the paper navigator so you can see events next to each other. Maybe they could make it available as a pdf and then we could have that format as paperless and expand the size by stretching on our screen (I find the print on paper navigators to be small). A pdf could be saved and printed at home for scrapbooking and you wouldn’t have to worry about it getting crumpled.

 

[Kennywood]

I guess this is, perhaps, a generational issue, more than anything else. I belong to the older generation where we appreciate tactile experiences; books vs pads, records/CDs vs streaming, photographs vs screen shots, etc.

To me, an experience is more real and enjoyable, if I'm able to experience it with my senses. We're discussing nothing more than a Navigator with information that can, for the most part, be viewed on an electronic device. I still prefer the printed version, as it helps to make experiences, for me anyway, more authentic. Years from now, my wife and I will be able to go back through the scrapbook she'll eventually make, and have a printed Navigator as part of our vacation memories. The Navigator will go in the scrapbook along with other, more tactile memories such as photographs.

My generation can certainly appreciate the advantages and usefulness of today's technology. I'll never be one to deny that. The younger generations will eventually do away with much of the things my generation appreciates. That's not a criticism, it's simply the way of things. But until then, please allow us to enjoy and appreciate those things that still matter to us.

 

[WishUponAStarryNight]

My son is 8. He doesn't have a phone. My parents are 70+. One has a smartphone (and limited ability to use it) and the other doesn't. I do all the planning to get us on the ship (which is fine and I love doing it), but I have no interest in being their cruise director once we've set sail. We'll need a paper Navigator for each of our staterooms.

 

[TestingH2O]

They might do so but you may also have to accept that the guest feedback may be the opposite of what you want. Presumably why they're doing a survey. We didn't use paper ones at all for the last two cruises and I would have preferred not to have one delivered to my stateroom since it was a waste IMO. We solely used the app which I found considerably more convenient and I liked that I could look at other activities later in the cruise as well as the menus. Just having the one day printed one was less than useless as far as I was concerned. I know lots of people feel differently on these boards but that may not be reflective of everyone. DCL is not the only cruise line to go this way.

No one is asking DCL to remove the app. The desire is to have the information available to everyone including those who do not have a smartphone.

 

[bbagnall]

Can I just request the navigator and refuse all of the other paper they give me???? I hope they aren’t saying they are trying to save paper.

 

[Doingitagain]

I am OK with this change, as long as you can request to have a copy if you want one. I know for us we probably will want one copy but it will reduce the number of copies-we used to get multiple copies for different people in our family or we forget it in the room and get another one - we won’t have to do that anymore by using the app.

 

[Laundress]

sent my survey in Monday. I was asked about the paper navigator. The adults in My family liked the format of the paper navigator. The teens liked the app.

 

[Spotthecat]

With our family of 5, our paper navigators had multiple colours of highlighters going on, with arrows in every direction, trying to keep track of where everyone was or wanted to be at different times of the day. this had to be planned ahead of time, the night before, or there would be chaos at breakfast. I couldn't imagine the app being useful for this. DH and I would scroll through the app to see if we could resolve conflicts for tomorrow by seeing if the same thing was available later in the cruise (like wanting to see a specific movie, but it was conflicting with Pluto's PJ party, stuff like that). I know you can't do everything, and perhaps with the APP knowing that something MAY occur again, well it just adds to the confusion really. Sometimes too much information isn't helpful. Didn't help me relax any knowing I had to plot like a fiend, lol, but NOT having the paper navigator the night before would have killed us this past February for our cruise, lol.

 

[ChicosWife]

 

[g_ppetto]

We did a B2B on the Dream at the end of April, beginning of May. At check in we received the first day Navigators on both legs. When we first met our cabin attendant, we requested paper Navigators. Two copies were waiting on the bed every evening.

I found I only looked at the app to see what menus were available each evening in the other MDRs.

In the post cruise online survey I indicated the app did not get a lot of use and no further questions regarding it were presented.