Cruise Buddy

Sharing a Cruise ​

Cruise Buddy lets you share a cruise with anyone through an encrypted, expiring link. There are two kinds, depending on how much you want to share. Sharing is free on both sides.

📷 Screenshot needed: Share section (/images/cruises/share-dialog.png)

Open the cruise's Share section. There are two cards, each with a Create link button.

"A private copy for someone travelling." For someone travelling with you. They get their own full, editable copy of the cruise:

  • Cruise details — name, dates, ports, cabin, price and booking references.
  • Itinerary days and excursions.
  • Packing list, to-dos, notes and reminders.
  • Payments and onboard spend.
  • Flights, hotels, parking, car hire and other travel.

Journal entries and documents are never included.

"A read-only overview and itinerary for someone at home." For a family member or friend following along. They see:

  • The cruise name, cruise line, ship, dates and ports — no booking references, cabin or prices.
  • The itinerary days — no excursions, travel bookings or money.

A followed cruise shows only Overview and a read-only Itinerary, and its header says Following.

Tap Create link. Once it's ready, Copy link copies it, and Share opens your device's share menu so you can send it by message or email.

Each Create link makes a new link. Earlier links keep working until they expire.

Expiry ​

Links expire seven days after they're created. After that the encrypted copy is deleted from our server and the link no longer opens. Create a new one if you need to share again.

How encryption works ​

When you create a link, Cruise Buddy:

  1. Builds a snapshot of the cruise and encrypts it on your device with a new, random key.
  2. Uploads only the encrypted copy. Our server never sees what's in it.
  3. Gives you a link containing the share's ID and the key, after the #. Browsers never send that part of an address to a server, so the key never reaches us.

Anyone with the full link can open it until it expires, so treat it like a password.

The recipient needs a Cruise Buddy account — creating one takes a minute and needs only an email address. If they aren't signed in when they open the link, Cruise Buddy asks them to sign in first; once they have, they should open the original link again, because the key in it isn't carried through the sign-in email.

Cruise Buddy decrypts the share on their device and shows the cruise's name, ship and what's included, with Import copy (traveller) or Follow cruise (follower).

The shared cruise becomes a new cruise on their account, separate from yours. Later changes on either side aren't passed across — send a new link if things change.

If the link says Could not open share, it may be incomplete — some apps cut long links short — or it may have expired.

Traveller imports count toward the free limit

An imported traveller copy becomes the recipient's own cruise to plan and manage, so it uses one of their two free cruise spaces. A follower cruise does not — they're following your trip rather than planning their own.

Privacy summary ​

  • On our server: only the encrypted copy and its expiry date.
  • In the link: the key, after the # — never sent to our server.
  • Your cruise: unchanged.
  • Journal and documents: never included in a share.