Community guidelines

How to interact on Cruiseline.com/Shipmate

Cruiseline.com and Shipmate are a place for people to share cruise reviews, tips and photos, meet fellow cruisers, and discuss anything and everything about cruises. Within the community, we have a set of rules and guidelines that must be followed by all members to ensure a pleasant experience for everyone. Violating these guidelines may result in your content being edited or removed. Repeated or flagrant violations can lead to the suspension of your account.

Be polite

As a diverse community of people with differing opinions, it's important to respect those differences and be courteous to one another. Name-calling or verbal abuse will not be tolerated. Everyone has different expectations of their cruise, and a different experience onboard the ship. We encourage everyone to share their cruise experience - good, bad or ugly. If you had a better cruise than they did, be grateful.

Be a good samaritan and share what you know

If you read a great review or tip, vote it as helpful so that it shows up at the top of the list for others searching for the same thing. When you're knowledgeable about a subject, answer questions and share what you know to help out your fellow cruisers. We want you to make a positive contribution to the community.

Don't be obscene

Children as young as 13 participate in the Cruiseline.com and Shipmate app community. Use of vulgar and/or sexually explicit language and photographs are prohibited, including via Direct Message. Violation of this is grounds for immediate suspension of your account without warning.

Share appropriate photos

Photos shared on Cruiseline.com or Shipmate app should be from a cruise that you participated in, taken either onboard the ship or in a port.

The types of photos are prohibited:

• Photos of non-cruise items like pets, vehicles and your home
• Cruise countdown screenshots
• Selfies - a photo where the majority of the frame is occupied by a person or people
• Screenshots of photos
• Screenshots of other websites
• Professional photos and/or portraits
• Watermarked photos are prohibited
• Photos that include nudity, drug paraphernalia and/or rude/inappropriate conduct.

Photos should be tagged with the ship, venue and/or port where they were taken so other cruisers can easily find the pictures that are relevant to them. We reserve the right to add or edit any photo tags. We reserve the right to delete/remove photos that violate these guidelines and any/all photos at our sole discretion. Repeated or flagrant violations of our photo policies may result in the suspension of your account.

Don't create duplicate accounts

As we want our community to reflect a real-life, positive environment, Cruiseline.com and Shipmate request that users do not create duplicate accounts and there is only 1 account per 1 person. Community members are responsible for what they post and hiding behind additional usernames will not be tolerated. Those with suspected duplicate accounts will be contacted and duplicate accounts will be banned or deleted.

Don't violate copyrights

Don't share photos or information you found on another website, don't screenshot another website or copy/paste any copyrighted content to Cruiseline.com or Shipmate.

Don't solicit or spam

We want the Cruiseline.com and Shipmate app community to be a friendly, objective cruise resource. Travel agents, tour operators and other travel industry employees are encouraged to participate in discussions and share their knowledge, but advertising and self-promotion are strictly prohibited. Members are not allowed to post their business names, websites (including blogs or social media sites), phone numbers or company addresses on their profile, in reviews, forum and chat posts, comments, via watermarked photos or via Direct Message. Stay on topic, don't promote your agenda and be respectful of other community members. To advertise on Cruiseline.com or Shipmate, email our sales team at sales@cruiseline.com

Don't break the law

Don't post anything that violates the laws of your city, state or country. Don't try to trick people into sharing their personal information, steal anything, or harass anyone. Don't invade people's privacy.

Don't share personal information

Cruiseline.com and Shipmate app are public communities. Refrain from posting personal information including your phone number, credit card number, email address, street address, travel confirmation numbers and cruise line loyalty program numbers on the site or in the app, as the content will be visible to anyone on the internet. Use caution when responding to Direct Messages from strangers, and think twice before you share personal information.

Report violations

The best way to report content that violates these Community Guidelines is to use the 'Flag' or 'Flag as Inappropriate' button. If you can't find the Flag button or you wish to escalate offensive content directly to our Community Management team, email the URL and/or a screenshot of the content to hello@cruiseline.com and we'll review it as soon as we can.

Age restriction

Children under the age of 13 are not permitted to create a profile, post content/photos or interact on Cruiseline.com and Shipmate.

Enforcement

We use a combination of automation and human moderators to enforce these Community Guidelines, and do our best to enforce them fairly and consistently. For more information, please see our terms of use. For any questions regarding these Community Guidelines or their enforcement, email our Community Manager at hello@cruiseline.com.