Crystal Cruises “Storyteller” iPhone app lets guests share photos

Crystal Cruises, a leader in luxury cruises, today launched a very user-friendly iPhone app which enables their cruise guests to keep in touch with online social connections while traveling. Once the “Storyteller” app is downloaded, all you need to wow your family and friends is an iPhone and a wifi connection. The app is available for free at iTunes. 

Once you open the Storyteller app, this is where you decide to shoot a new photo or use an existing one.

Passengers on a Crystal Cruise need only to shoot a photo with their iPhone and they will be able to “tell” their story to friends and family by customizing their photos with the app. By adding captions, borders, colorizing tones and fonts, travelers will have a wide range of effects to customize their photos before sharing them with the family and friends.

According to the instructions on the app, which of course I immediately downloaded to test for this article, users can customize their photos several fun and creative ways.

There are four color Filters in black and white, sepia, high-contrast, or de-saturated color options to control the look and feel of the photo.

There are four different choices of frames ranging from rough-drawn black in two sizes, a retro Instamatic camera-type white border, and a classic no-border look.

For captioning the photo, there’s four handwriting fonts and a choice of black or white. Once you’ve typed your caption or greeting, then you choose the font and color.

On this screen, you choose the placement for the caption/greeting.

With a wifi connection, users can forward the photo to their own Facebook page, Crystal Cruises’ Facebook page or even send a postcard back home.

Once the photo saving is complete, an option is available to create an actual postcard that can be computer-signed and mailed. It’s done through another app, “PostcardOnTheRun.” This is where it gets really cool.

Follow the instructions to get to a screen where you can actually “sign” you’re name using your fingernail or a stylus. When asked, I chose “don’t allow” location services. You may need to do so upon completion. Simply follow each page’s instructions and you’re on your way to sending a real postcard.

“This app provides the perfect venue for contemporary storytelling, combining photography, technology and creativity in an easy and intuitive way,” says Crystal’s Vice President of Marketing, Nitsa Lewis. “It’s also a lovely nod to classically vintage travel correspondence and photos past, while celebrating the modern era of vacation storytelling…not to mention the added benefit of expanding communication channels for our loyal Crystal community.”

A video with step-by-step app instructions can be viewed on Crystal’s website and Facebook page. The application is compatible with 3GS, 4, and 4S iPhones. Guests will receive app brochures with their cruise tickets, so they can be ready to share their travel stories as soon as their trip begins.

Crystal fans can also look forward to other extensions of the “Begin a New Story” campaign soon, including animated Aurasma videos. If you are clueless as to what “Aurasma” is, be sure to click on my “Aurasma” link. Hint: it has to do with Augmented Reality. Once Crystal Cruises “Begin a New Story” is launched with Aurasma, look out – it will be the most cutting edge cruise line app anywhere.

The only slight glitch I encountered was an inability to swipe backwards on screens that didn’t have a forward/backward arrow. Probably I was trying to do something that wasn’t available.

Remember, a wifi connection will be necessary to post your photos, so plan on finding wifi cafés in some of the ports. The minutes usage is much less expensive  and will most likely be a lot faster on the photo upload. The Storyteller is a very fun app, easily integrates with Facebook and a terrific way to let friends and family know where you’ve been on your luxury Crystal Cruise voyage.