Princess Cruises

Very proud of what my team has been able to accomplish with the platform that we rolled out across the princess fleet over the past couple years.  More great things to come!

After first demoing the app and speaking directly with Nate Craddock, project lead for guest experience applications, it’s a treat to see that Princess Cruises’ ace Princess@Sea mobile app has recently won a well deserved 2016 Acquia Engage Award.

Also liked this bit quite a bit as it is exactly what we have been working toward.

From my own personal experience using the app, I can attest that it is indeed user-friendly and marks one of the best cruise line endeavors for digitizing and bettering the guest experience, one that is a model that more should mimic. 

Short write up on all the initiatives going on in seagoing hospitality.  Of course I'm adding a quote from myself :D

But Wi-Fi isn't the only way to get online. Princess Cruise Lines has recently deployed an app to its entire fleet of 17 ships so passengers can communicate with each other on board for free—a boon on a ship that is a thousand feet long. The Princess app includes menus, an option for rating on-board restaurants, and real-time information updates on excursions and events on the ship, said Nate Craddock, project lead for guest experience applications for Princess Cruise Lines.

Nice overview of our project.  I'll always put quotes of myself:

"There has always been a need to deliver value to passengers, and this is a way to further enhance the experience," Craddock says.

And my co project leads, Hillary:

The Drupal development platform was a key to building the system, says co-project lead Hillary Neaf. The company began using the open-source framework in 2007 to develop its corporate Internet framework. "It provides a high level of flexibility and the level of security we required," she explains. "We have also benefited from the community support, and have used a lot of the Drupal forum and group input to develop the initiative."

And Subbu

"Princess@Sea delivers digital transformation in a disconnected environment," says co-project lead Subbu Hariharan. "It's an exciting and challenging proposition."

This was the specific reason we went to a web app rather than a native app, speed to market. e can update and deploy

One of the few lines to make its app available fleet wide is Princess Cruises, in part because Princess@Sea is a website accessible through a browser rather than a downloadable program. That approach made it easier to implement, and it is accessible on laptops, at terminals in the ship's Internet cafe and for devices other than mobile phones and tablets.

There are other considerations when working with an environment like a cruise ship as well, particularly that we can deploy to the ships multiple times per week to add features and fix bugs.  On a ship with limited internet bandwidth, we just couldn't ask our passengers to download a new app every time we wanted to add something or fix something.

Good overview of the platform that my team has built at Princess to drive our guest experience.

With a complex system for migrating data to and from ships causing new challenges every day, Princess Cruises sought support from digital experience firm Acquia to ensure the process of using Drupal to build its onboard digital platform went smoothly.

The open-source content management platform was chosen for its flexibility and ability to create customised content. Nine months later, the [Princess@Sea](http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/activities/princess-at-sea/) app was fully developed and accessible on any device, from mobile phones to desktop computers.

More quoting myself:

With other cruise lines, ones even within the Carnival Corporation family, offering mobile apps specifically for iOS and Android devices, it may at first seem peculiar that the Princess equivalent is not a native app, but Craddock explains, “I think one of the big differentiators for us, in thinking about that mobile experience, was that we really wanted to provide this foundation for the guest experience first and then look at the platform as something we then can use to expand how we do our offerings onboard.” That means it is also accessible from traditional internet cafe terminals, laptops and tablets and can be inexpensively updated more frequently.

Some notes from a talk I gave recently at Acquia Engage 2015. Short talk, but a great group.

The Princess@Sea app first launched on one ship in 2013, the Royal Princess, and will be available on all 17 ships in the Princess fleet by the end of the year, said Nate Craddock, project lead and architect for Princess@Sea product team, speaking at Acquia Engage in Boston last week.

A pretty fun webcast we did with Lingotek and the Drupal Association.  Mainly focuses on one aspect of the platform, mainly the onboard evaluations and their instant translation workflow through Drupal and Lingotek .

I was fortunate to be able to host a session at DrupalCon Los Angeles.  Great showcase for our product, but also a peak behind the curtain at how we're able to make a platform like Princess@Sea on Drupal and how to rethink what you're building and who your team is.

"Princess Cruises is a very forward-thinking company. Mario's team is comprised of truly innovative and creative thinkers," stated Rob Vandenberg, President and CEO of Lingotek. "Lingotek is proud to be a major part of the Princess Cruises 'Translation at Sea' solution and looks forward to working with them on continued projects."