Guided Setup
The first time you open Cruise Buddy you're greeted with a short welcome flow, and you can choose to have the app walk you through adding your first cruise step by step. This page explains both — the welcome screens and the guided walkthrough.
📷 Screenshot needed: Welcome screen (
/images/getting-started/onboarding-welcome.png)
The welcome flow
On first launch, Cruise Buddy shows a few introductory screens:
- Welcome to Cruise Buddy — a quick hello.
- All your cruise plans, in one place — how the app keeps dates, packing, excursions and travel companions together.
- Built for every cruise traveller — planning destinations and excursions, setting reminders, and a smoother trip.
- Ready to add your first cruise? — a yes/no question.
Tap Next to move through the screens, or use the dots to see where you are.
When you reach the question:
- Yes → Cruise Buddy offers to walk you through it. Tap Let's get started to begin the guided walkthrough.
- No → tap Explore Cruise Buddy to go straight to an empty dashboard. You can add a cruise whenever you like.
The welcome flow only appears once. It won't interrupt you again after you've completed it.
The guided walkthrough
If you choose to be walked through setup, Cruise Buddy starts a step-by-step tour. A coach card appears over the screen, highlighting the part you're working on and explaining what to do, with a step counter so you can see your progress.
📷 Screenshot needed: Guided coach overlay (
/images/getting-started/guided-coach.png)
The walkthrough covers, in order:
- Creating the cruise — the basics, cabin, price and itinerary steps of the Add Cruise wizard, then saving it.
- Travel — adding a hotel and a flight on the Travel tab.
- Docs — attaching a booking document.
- Packing — starting your packing list.
- ToDo — adding a pre-cruise job.
- Balance — recording your cruise price and a payment on the Balance tab.
- Finish — a wrap-up back on the cruise.
Controls
Each coach card gives you options to:
- Continue to the next step.
- Skip a step you don't need — you can always do it later.
- Back to the previous step.
- Dismiss the walkthrough entirely.
Cruise Buddy remembers where you are, so if you close the app mid-walkthrough it can pick up from the same step next time. Skipped steps are remembered too, so they aren't forced on you again.
Starting over or skipping
You don't have to use the walkthrough — choosing Explore Cruise Buddy at the welcome question skips it completely, and you can build cruises yourself using the Add Cruise wizard. If you dismiss or skip steps, nothing is lost: every tab the walkthrough covers is fully usable on its own at any time.