Virtual Cruise Cards
Going on the Atlantis Harmony 2023 cruise? Check out my complete guide to Harmony 2023 for all the advice you need!
A Virtual What Now?
I’ve written before about cruise cards, which are physical cards with your info that you give out to people you meet on the cruise. These came about from a time (not that long ago) when wi-fi on cruise ships was crappy and expensive and people didn’t have their phones with them all the time when they left their stateroom.
Nowadays, your phone does everything, even on a cruise ship. For example, Royal Caribbean is moving the mandatory safety briefing, previously done in person, to their mobile app, and the daily newsletter than used to be printed and dropped off by your stateroom attendant is now a PDF that you download by scanning a QR code. And of course, everyone’s taking tons of photos and videos on their phone.
What is a Virtual Cruise Card?
A virtual cruise card is basically using your phone as a cruise card. The best way to do this is by setting a custom lock screen wallpaper on your phone that has the same info as a traditional printed cruise card. Whenever you wake your phone up, its lock screen will show a photo of you, your name, room number, contact info, etc.
Why Have One?
The best benefit of having your info on your lock screen is in case you lose your phone while on the ship. Whoever finds it will instantly know who it belongs to and how to reach out to you to return it. This alone should be reason enough to make a virtual cruise card for your phone! FYI - Find My iPhone does not work on a cruise ship out at sea.
As the name implies, a virtual cruise card can also replace physical cruise cards, assuming that whoever you want to give your info to also has their phone with them, and in my experience, this assumption is pretty safe nowadays. They can take a photo of your lock screen or (if they have Internet) add you on social media via username or QR code.
How Do I Make One?
The easiest way to make a virtual cruise card is with this Cruise Card Wallpaper Creator tool created by Jeff Prystajko. You just put in your info an upload a photo, and you get a great wallpaper ready to go in no time!
I use a tool like Canva (not sponsored but not opposed to it so hey Canva hit me up lol) to create my digital cruise card, since it gives me full freedom over the entire design while being very easy to use. After you create a free account, you’ll be able to make a custom wallpaper by uploading photos, adding text and QR codes, and then downloading it to your phone to set as your lock screen wallpaper.
I’ve used Google Docs successfully in the past also, but something like Canva is easier.
If you want to cobble together something last minute without Internet access, you can take any photo of yourself and edit the photo on your phone to handwrite in the info. It’s janky but it’ll work!
What to Include
Check out my Cruise Cards 101 post for more info on what kind of content to put on your cruise cards as most of that applies to the virtual version too:
Name
Photos
Room number
Contact info (social media handle, email address, phone number, etc.)
QR code for online links. This makes it easier for those with Internet to link directly to your social media profiles.
How Do I Use It
Simply wake up your phone and show your lock screen to whoever you want to share it with. They have a few options:
Take a photo of your lock screen to grab your info. They can pull up the photo later.
Scan the QR code on your lock screen. For example, if you have an Instagram QR code, scanning it will open the app and load your IG profile.
Tips
I learned that having multiple QR codes is a bit confusing for some people, and can make it harder to scan them, as the phone doesn’t always know which QR code you want.
You can use a “vCard” QR code to add your info to someone’s contacts, instead of the usual linking to social media. This works better for email addresses and phone numbers.
Leave room at the top/bottom of your custom wallpaper for your phone’s clock and notifications area.