Terms of Service

Agreement to these Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of https://cruisestar.org and the CruiseStar mobile applications (the "Service") operated by CruiseStar ("we," "us," or "our").

By accessing or using the Service, creating an account, or clicking to accept where presented, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy at https://cruisestar.org/privacy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may use the Service only with permission of a parent or legal guardian who accepts these Terms on your behalf.

You may not use the Service if you are barred from doing so under applicable law or if we previously suspended or terminated your account for violations.

Your account

• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials and for all activity under your account.
• Provide accurate information and keep your profile information current.
• You may sign in with email/password, Google, or Facebook where available. Your use of those providers is also subject to their terms.
• One person may not maintain multiple accounts to evade moderation or manipulate the Service.
• Notify us promptly at [email protected] if you believe your account was compromised.

Communications

By creating an account, you agree that we may send operational communications needed to provide the Service, including account, security, support, and order messages.

Where permitted by applicable law, or after you provide any consent required where you live, we may also send CruiseStar product updates, news, guides, recommendations, community highlights, and promotional messages. You can turn off emails by category in Settings or unsubscribe using the link in any promotional email. Unsubscribing from promotional email does not stop essential operational messages.

A change to these Terms does not create retroactive marketing consent where applicable law requires separate express or implied consent.

The Service

CruiseStar is a community platform for logging cruise ships, sharing ratings and reviews, connecting with friends, and participating in ship and roll call group chats. Ship identities and descriptive content may come from Wikidata and Wikipedia; rating scores and reviews are first-party user contributions and are not written to Wikipedia.

We may add, change, or discontinue features at any time. The Service is provided on an evolving basis without guaranteed uptime or uninterrupted availability.

Your content

"User Content" means text, images, ratings, reviews, messages, and other material you submit through the Service. You retain ownership of your User Content.

You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, display, perform, distribute, and adapt your User Content solely to operate, improve, promote, and secure the Service — including showing your reviews on ship pages, delivering chat messages to group members, and generating share images you request.

You represent that you have the rights to post your User Content and that it does not violate these Terms or anyone else's rights.

Community rules and acceptable use

You agree not to misuse the Service. Prohibited conduct includes:

• Harassment, hate speech, threats, bullying, or targeted abuse of other users.
• Posting illegal content or promoting illegal activity.
• Spam, scams, phishing, impersonation, or deceptive practices.
• Posting unsolicited personal contact information of others, advertising, or commercial solicitation in chats or reviews without authorization.
• Sexually explicit content, gratuitous violence, or content that endangers minors.
• Automated scraping, crawling, or bulk collection except as allowed by our robots.txt or written permission.
• Reverse engineering, interfering with security, or attempting unauthorized access to accounts or systems.
• Circumventing moderation, chat bans, or report/kick systems.
• Using invite or contact features to spam people who have not consented to hear from you.

Moderation

CruiseStar chats are community-moderated. Users may report messages and vote to remove members who harm the community. Reported messages may be hidden after multiple unique reports. Members may be removed from a chat after multiple kick votes and may be temporarily banned from rejoining that chat.

We may investigate violations, remove content, restrict features, or suspend or terminate accounts at our discretion — especially for serious or repeated violations, legal risk, or harm to users. We are not obligated to monitor all User Content but may do so.

Contacts and messaging features

If you use contact import or SMS invite features, you represent that you have a legitimate personal relationship with the people you contact and that your messages comply with applicable anti-spam and telecommunications laws. The app opens your device's messaging client with prefilled content; you are responsible for sending messages and any charges from your carrier.

Third-party links and services

The Service may link to third-party websites or services (including affiliate booking links). We do not control and are not responsible for third-party content, policies, or practices. Your dealings with third parties are solely between you and them.

Our intellectual property

The Service, including its design, branding, software, and compilation of data, is owned by CruiseStar or its licensors and protected by intellectual property laws. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or create derivative works of the Service except as allowed by law or with our written permission.

Wikipedia and Wikidata content remains under their respective licenses; see our About page for attribution.

Copyright complaints

If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice to [email protected] with: (1) identification of the copyrighted work; (2) identification of the material and its location on the Service; (3) your contact information; (4) a statement of good-faith belief; and (5) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act for the rights holder. We may remove or disable access to material and terminate repeat infringers where appropriate.

Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Ratings, reviews, and chat messages reflect user opinions and experiences, not professional travel advice. We do not guarantee accuracy, completeness, or suitability of any user content or third-party information. Cruise itineraries, safety, and booking decisions are your responsibility.

Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE AND OUR AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AND LICENSORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) USD $100 OR (B) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US, IF ANY, IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations; in those cases our liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless CruiseStar and its affiliates from claims, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your User Content, your use of the Service, or your violation of these Terms or applicable law.

Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service at any time and may request account deletion by emailing [email protected].

We may suspend or terminate your access immediately if you violate these Terms, create risk or legal exposure, or for prolonged inactivity where permitted by law. Provisions that by nature should survive termination (including licenses granted for operational records, disclaimers, limitations of liability, and dispute terms) will survive.

Dispute resolution and governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the State of Delaware, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where mandatory consumer protection laws in your country of residence apply.

Before filing a claim, you agree to contact us at [email protected] and attempt to resolve the dispute informally within 30 days.

Except where prohibited, you and CruiseStar agree that disputes will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there.

Changes to these Terms

We may modify these Terms from time to time. We will post updates at https://cruisestar.org/terms with a revised "Last updated" date. Material changes may be communicated in the app. Continued use after changes become effective constitutes acceptance.

Contact

Legal: [email protected]

Support: [email protected]

Website: https://cruisestar.org