Cruise Buddy

Appearance

Journal Tab ​

The Journal tab is your personal diary for a cruise. Write entries, add photos, record your mood and location, and tag the people you're with — all stored locally on your device.

📷 Screenshot needed: Journal tab (/images/cruises/journal.png)

How journal entries work ​

Each entry is a self-contained record that can include:

  • Text — written in Markdown, so you can use headings, bold, bullet points and links.
  • Photos — one or more images attached to the entry. The first photo is shown as a cover image on the card.
  • Mood — pick from: Happy, Excited, Relaxed, Tired, Stressed, Unwell, Grateful.
  • Location — your GPS coordinates at the time of writing, automatically reverse-geocoded to a place name where possible.
  • People — tag anyone from your People list to associate them with the entry.

The entry list ​

Entries are shown as cards in the order they were created, newest first. Each card shows:

  • The cover photo (if one was added), displayed at 16:9 across the card.
  • The date, mood and location label on a single metadata line.
  • A text excerpt — a preview of the Markdown content, up to a few lines.
  • People chips for anyone tagged on the entry.

Exporting a PDF booklet ​

Tap Export PDF at the top of the Journal tab to create a printable journal booklet for the cruise.

The export includes:

  • The cruise name, sailing dates, cruise line and ship.
  • Every journal entry, newest first.
  • Each entry's date, mood, location and tagged people.
  • The journal text, converted from Markdown into printable plain text.
  • Photos attached to each entry.

Once the PDF has been generated, Cruise Buddy opens the device share sheet so you can save, print or send it.

Adding an entry ​

Tap + to open the entry sheet. Fill in as much or as little as you like — the only requirement is either some text or at least one photo.

Photos ​

Tap the photo grid to add images from your device's photo library or file picker. You can add multiple photos to a single entry. The first photo in the grid becomes the cover image on the card. Drag to reorder or tap the × to remove a photo.

Writing ​

The text area supports Markdown. A toolbar above the field provides shortcuts for bold, italic, headings, bullet lists and links — or type the Markdown yourself. There's no length limit.

Mood ​

Tap a mood chip to select it; tap again to deselect. Only one mood can be active per entry.

Location ​

Tap the locate button to capture your current GPS position. Cruise Buddy asks for location permission the first time. Once captured, the location is reverse-geocoded to a place name (e.g. "Bergen, Vestland, Norway") where a network connection is available. If geocoding isn't possible, the raw coordinates are stored and shown instead.

You can re-capture the location at any point while editing the entry. To remove a location, save the entry, then edit it and capture a new location or leave it.

People ​

Tap Add Person to pick from your People list. Each tagged person appears as a chip. Tap the × on a chip to remove them.

Editing and deleting entries ​

  • Swipe right → left on an entry card to edit it. The same sheet opens, pre-filled.
  • Swipe left → right on a card to delete the entry. A confirmation dialog appears before anything is removed. Deleting an entry also removes its stored photos.

Journal and sharing ​

The Journal is not included in cruise share links — it's personal to your device. When you share a cruise with a Traveller link or a Follower link, journal entries are not copied to the recipient.

Journal for Follower cruises ​

If you imported a cruise via a Follower link, you still have a Journal tab for that cruise — you can write your own personal entries while following along. Those entries stay on your device only.

Day-by-day journaling

For the richest record, write an entry each day at sea or in port. With location capture on, Cruise Buddy will store the GPS point and attempt to reverse-geocode it to the port name automatically.