Frequently asked
questions

Port Pal Pro is your cruise companion. Add your cruise — cruise line, ship and sail date — and see your real itinerary: every port of call, sea days, and arrival and departure times. You can also check which ships are in port on any date, browse ports by continent and country, explore cruise line profiles, and view deck plans for 330 ships across 26 cruise lines.

Tap My Cruises, then + Add Your First Cruise. In the single search field, type your cruise line or ship name — matching lines and ships appear as you type, and picking one fills it in. Then pick your sail date; the itinerary searches automatically. No button to press.

When you pick your sail date, Port Pal Pro checks your ship's real sailing schedule online to confirm the cruise exists. If it's confirmed, you get that sailing's actual itinerary — ports, times and sea days. If the sailing can't be found, the app tells you to check your cruise details.

Yes. Pick a past sail date and Port Pal Pro makes every attempt to locate that cruise — when it finds a match, it auto-fills the ports of call from verified sources. Some older cruises need to be added manually. Port Pal Pro never invents ports.

Port Pal Pro only shows an itinerary when it can confirm the sailing exists in the live schedule. If the ship name or date is slightly off — or the sailing isn't published yet — the app asks you to check your cruise details. Double-check the ship name and your exact departure date, then try again.

Day 1 of your itinerary is embarkation — the day you board, shown with the departure port and the ship's departure time. The last day is disembarkation — when you get off, with the arrival port and time. Days between ports are shown as Sea Day.

Yes. From a saved cruise or the ship search, tap Deck Plans to view every deck. Coverage is 330 ships across 26 cruise lines — including Royal Caribbean, Carnival, TUI and National Geographic/Lindblad — rendered portrait and fully zoomable.

Find a port (search or browse by continent), open the port page, then tap Ships in Port — Pick a Date and choose a date. You'll see every ship scheduled in port that day. Tapping any port inside a saved cruise itinerary also shows the ships in port for that exact day.

Yes. Most port pages include a Contact section with the port authority's name, address, phone and email where that information is publicly available — 650+ ports have full or partial contact details. If nothing is on file, the page says “No contact information available”.

The local time at the port right now, using the port's real time zone including daylight saving adjustments — very handy when your ship is running on a different time than the port you're standing in.

On any port page, tap Directions Back to Port. Port Pal Pro offers several methods of directions to help you return to the port from wherever you are — walking, transit or driving, whichever suits you.

Yes — in the ships-in-port list, tap Ship Info on any ship to open its Wikipedia article with photos, history and specifications.

Tap any cruise line to open its profile page: the line's logo, a short description, founding year, headquarters, fleet size, a link to their official website, the forum for that line, and an A–Z list of all their ships — tap any ship to open it directly.

The Cruise Lines page lists 52 major cruise lines — ocean, expedition and river — each with a link to their official website. Deck plan coverage currently spans 26 of those lines.

The home search bar searches everything at once: ports, ships and cruise lines. Type part of a name — e.g. “santor”, “icon” or “ncl” — and matching results appear grouped by type. Tap a port to open it, or a ship/cruise line to go straight to its page.

Your cruise itinerary comes from live cruise schedule data checked at search time, so ports and times reflect the real published sailing. Some data is also compiled from open-source sources and internet research. Ship-in-port schedules are aggregated from public port sources — generally reliable, but they can change. We make every attempt to keep everything accurate, but we cannot guarantee it — always confirm with your cruise line or the port authority, especially close to your sailing date.

Open the cruise in My Cruises, tap Fix order, then use the up and down arrows to move any port or sea day to the correct day. Your embarkation and disembarkation days are locked. When it looks right, tap Confirm itinerary — the corrected order is saved on your device and sent to us so the itinerary improves for everyone. Watch how it works:

Open the demo video in a new tab

You'll see a Forum button (or a circular forum bubble icon) on port pages, ship pages and cruise line pages. Tap it to open the forum for that specific port, ship or cruise line — where cruisers share tips, photos and questions. Each topic has its own thread, so a post about Santorini stays in the Santorini forum.

Open the forum for any port, ship or cruise line and tap the comment box. You can write a comment, attach a photo from your phone, or both. You'll need a free Port Pal forum account to post — sign up right from the app with a username, email and password. Once logged in, your posts appear under your username.

The bell icon at the top of the app shows how many unread forum posts there are since you last checked, with a number badge. Tap it to see the latest new posts and jump straight to the topic. Reading the list clears the badge automatically.

Your cruises stay on your device by default. If you create a free account, you can choose to back up your saved cruises to our servers so they aren't lost if you switch phones — and if you join the Forum, your account details are stored encrypted (AES-256) with your password kept only as a hash. We never sell, rent or trade your data, and it is never shared with third parties. You can clear your device's cruises by signing out, and delete your account any time by contacting us.

Port Pal Pro only uses your location when you tap Directions Back to Port — to route you back to the ship. It never stores or shares your location.

Once you save a cruise, its itinerary and port info are available offline. Live features — ship tracking, ships in port and weather — need an internet connection.

Port Pal Pro starts with a 3-day free trial so you can explore everything. After the trial, unlock the full app with a one-time in-app purchase of $4.99 — no subscriptions, no recurring fees, no ads.

Port Pal Pro was created by an avid cruiser who develops the app part-time — read the story on the About page. Your support is greatly appreciated. If you hit an issue or have a feature suggestion, reach out at info@portpalapp.com or via the contact form.