Terrible app but cornered the market – Norwegian iConcierge Review

One star, tops! Could be VERY cool for $14.99/pp/cruise, given that no radios work--radios DO NOT work, even common and professional radios. But, sometimes, giving way to your highly susceptibly dropped connectivity and sign-in status, this DOES make your smartphone an on-ship information source of imperfect accuracy, a text-capable and a phone-capable device. However: this app is horrible much of the time, but for $14.99/pp/cruise (on NCL Getaway) it has the market cornered. Suffer your constant dropping and reconnecting, 100's of irritating, can't-be-shut-off notifications which cheerfully advise you that you've been dropped and reconnected, repeatedly dropped again then reconnected; AND with 10's of times you'll need to re-sign-in to the ship's registered cabin # access (not internet unless you want to pay the ~$200/cruise--this is just their local on-ship intranet) and suffer the interminable ship's-metal-interfered WiFi mesh network. *** When it works, your device gets "What's Going On" and other info status (see screenshot), plus a direct-dial ship-only phone # from any room or house phone, plus your device can call any room or shipboard service (dining reservations, operator, room service, etc.), plus your device can send and receive text messages, even when the recipient is offline/not on the ship, plus see text message delivery status to that recipient ("sent" means it's pending; "delivered" means just that; regretfully there are no read receipts available). It's clunky, poorly designed, poor user interface, it's hard to understand, doesn't try fiercely enough to get reconnected and re-signed-in without technical user intervention, and it's clear that a human being types in the data each day from their "daily newsletter" rather than an all-electronic master copy. It does not provide an electronic .PDF of the daily newsletter, does not provide messages from the spa or the sales on the shopping floor like it's designed to. The list of "What's going on" is often missing things, and the restaurant hours and menus are almost always missing. "See your daily PRINTED newsletter" is an all-too-common abdication of the electronic era that could be oh-so-good. If everyone BUYS external internet, you could all use WhatsApp, SnapChat or other messenger applications that use external networks to route messages. If you have T-Mobile plan "One", then you'll also have free texting available in Belize, Honduras and Mexico plus only 20¢/minute phone calls. We used it, hated it, and felt trapped to use it as the severe struggle was better than suffering with nothing at all, devolving to sticky notes and voice mails.
Review by TheTimK on Norwegian iConcierge.