Since there’s been some discussion on Facebook regarding the scheduling and mobile apps, I wanted to write up a short summary of Twit-Arr, CruiseMonkey, and tracking schedules. Some of this is already covered by the SeaMonkey primer or other resources, but I understand that is a lot to take in so I wanted to write something short and to the point.

What Do These Apps Do?

Twit-Arr is the SeaMonkey social media network on the ship. We bring a server and (with the help of Royal Caribbean IT) make it available on the shipboard WiFi network. To access Twit-Arr you do NOT need to pay for ship Internet access. When you get on the ship you will be given a URL you can use to access it in your browser.

CruiseMonkey is primarily an app for viewing official and shadow events, marking the events you wish to attend, and creating new shadow events on the fly. It contains deck plans, shipboard amenities, and the music list for karaoke events. Additionally, CruiseMonkey is a mobile Twit-Arr client. In the same way you can use custom clients like TweetDeck with Twitter, you can use CruiseMonkey to read and post to Twit-Arr, including posting on the public timeline and sending “Seamail” (similar to multi-user text messaging). Just like Twit-Arr, you do NOT need to pay for ship Internet access to use it.

FireChat is a peer-to-peer chat client. It works without an Internet connection by creating a local network over bluetooth, and it works better the more people use it. You must sign up ahead of time so you can validate your account, but once you are on the ship you will not need ship Internet access to use it. This is an experiment this year, no one is sure how well it will work across the ship or if it will only be useful in big main-stage events.

What Should I Do Before I Get On The Ship?

• Install CruiseMonkey from your App Store:
  • Apple App Store: http://bit.ly/cruisemonkey-ios
  • Google Play Store: http://bit.ly/cruisemonkey-google-play
  • Amazon App Store: http://bit.ly/cruisemonkey-amazon

  Version 2016.1.0 has been submitted to the app store and should be approved (hopefully) early this week. PLEASE make sure you update from the App Store one more time right before you get on the ship.

• Install FireChat and Create an Account:
  • Apple App Store: http://bit.ly/firechat-ios
  • Google Play Store: http://bit.ly/firechat-google-play

  Create a FireChat account before you get on the ship. You need full Internet access and SMS to register.

Calendar of Events (Official and Shadow)

The Home Office has been using https://jococruise2016.sched.org/ to create and track the official and submitted shadow events. It provides a “mobile app” web view that does local/offline sync and the web site will be kept up-to-date with the latest state of concerts and shadow cruise room reservations. However, to sync added or updated events once you’re on the ship, you will need to pay for ship Internet access. It also may not contain any SeaMonkey-created shadow events that don’t get reported to The Home Office for inclusion in the daily newsletter.

This year CruiseMonkey and Twit-Arr share an event database, and you can view, edit, and update events from either interface. The Home Office will also have administrative access to update official events, so we can make sure Twit-Arr and CruiseMonkey’s event database always matches the daily newsletter.