Championship Rules

1. Who runs the championships

Port Hopper World championships are run by Cruise Crawler LLC, a Florida limited liability company, 8051 N. Tamiami Trail, Ste E6, Sarasota, FL 34243 (“Cruise Crawler”, the “organiser”). They are predominantly skill-based competitions inside a free game, with digital rewards only. These rules form part of the Terms of Use. By playing you agree to them and to the organiser’s decisions, which are final on everything to do with a championship.

The championships are not sponsored, endorsed or run by any cruise line, port, app store or social network, and none of them has any responsibility for them.

2. No purchase necessary

Entry is free. Nothing can be bought in the game. Booking travel with Cruise Crawler, asking for a quote, or opting in to travel offers does not improve your score, rank or chances in any way, and declining to do so never counts against you. Travel Coins used for retries or upgrades are earned only inside the game, including small bonuses for logging a real duck, having your duck found and bringing a new player aboard, a daily gift from a friend, and friendly challenges. They cannot be purchased.

One optional activity touches the real world: “Ducks at sea” points, for listing a cruise you are taking and for your ducks being found on it. They are limited to 150 of the 1,250 Season Points available each day, and nobody needs them to compete. Because they involve being on a cruise, they do not count in any championship that offers a real-world prize: for such a championship they are switched off, and any already earned in it are removed. The official rules for any real-world prize will also exclude Travel Coins earned from real duck finds and new prestige from recruits during that championship.

3. Who can take part

• You must be 18 or older and have a Port Hopper World account in good standing.
• One account per person. A person who plays on more than one account can have all of them removed from the results.
• You may take part only where doing so is lawful. Championships are void where prohibited or restricted by law.
• Owners, staff and contractors of Cruise Crawler, and members of their households, may play and may appear on leaderboards, but are not eligible for any real-world prize.

4. When championships run

Championships run back to back in 14-day blocks. Each starts at 12:00 midnight US Eastern time and ends 14 days later at the same time, when scores are frozen and the next championship begins. The dates of the current championship are shown in the game and on the leaderboard. Our servers’ clock is the official clock.

5. How to take part

There is no separate entry step. Every player with an account is entered in the current championship as soon as they earn a Season Point, and can stop at any time. Points start from zero in each championship.

6. How scores are earned

Most Season Points are earned through play that rewards skill, knowledge and exploration. A smaller share comes from simply taking part, such as the daily check-in. Each kind of activity has a daily limit, and no player can earn more than 1,250 Season Points in a day (days run midnight to midnight US Eastern time):

A retry paid for with Travel Coins adds points only if it beats your earlier score that day, so coins give a second attempt but never extra points beyond the daily limit. Ship upgrades change voyage times and coin or XP rewards. They never raise a daily Season Point limit. Listing a real cruise for your ducks earns 50 Season Points once per championship, and each of your ducks logged as found on its sailing earns 50, within the daily limit shown. Finds between accounts that appear to belong to the same person earn the duck’s owner nothing. Some Travel Coin rewards, such as the daily chest, vary by luck. Coins are never converted into Season Points.

Collecting a duck at sea involves an element of luck. Ducks are a separate collection: finding one in the game does not earn Season Points and does not affect championship rank. The full guide is on the How to play page. If that guide and these rules ever differ, these rules apply.

7. Ranking, prestige and ties

Rank is decided by a ranking score: the Season Points you earned in the championship, multiplied by one plus your prestige. There is an overall leaderboard and separate leaderboards for each cruise line and each ship.

Prestige is a small permanent boost. When a championship closes, players who finish in the top half earn prestige, from 0.001 (a 0.1% lift) for first place down to 0.0001 (0.01%) at the halfway mark. A player can also earn 0.0001 prestige for each new player who joins through their duck tag or invite link and reaches Explorer Level 3, for at most five new players per championship. Each new player counts for one person only, and accounts that appear to belong to the same person do not count.

If two players have the same ranking score, the player who reached that score first ranks higher.

8. Rewards

Championships award digital rewards only, all shown inside the game:

• The player ranked first on the overall leaderboard when a championship closes is its champion and receives the Champion badge.
• The players ranked first, second and third overall receive the Podium badge.
• Every player who finishes in the top half overall receives the Contender badge and the prestige described above.

Cruise line and ship leaderboards show standings only and carry no separate reward. Digital rewards have no cash value, cannot be transferred or exchanged, and are not prizes of monetary value. Results appear on the leaderboard when each championship closes.

If we ever offer a real-world prize, for a championship or for a separate prize draw, we will first publish separate official rules for it on this website. Those rules will set out the prize and its approximate value, who is eligible, how to enter without any purchase, how the winner is chosen and confirmed, the odds where chance is involved, and any tax or other conditions. A skill championship and a random prize draw will always be run as separate promotions with their own rules. No real-world prize is offered unless and until such rules are published.

Crews have their own leaderboard, scored on the Season Points of each crew’s ten best members. It shows standings only and carries no reward. Gifts between friends, head-to-head challenges, the Verified Sailor mark and bonus duck casts never add Season Points.

9. Daily games

Five daily games sit beside the championship: Long Haul, the Daily Pot, Deck Shuffleboard, Duck Sorter and Buffet Balance. They are played with Travel Coins only. Travel Coins cannot be bought, sold or exchanged, and have no cash value, so nothing of monetary value is staked or won. None of these games adds Season Points or changes championship rank. A day runs from midnight to midnight US Eastern time.

Long Haul is an endurance run. You may play as often as you like, and your best distance of the day is your score. Ties go to whoever set the distance first. When the day ends, the players ranked first, second and third receive 150, 90 and 60 Travel Coins. Your first run of 50 metres or more each day earns 20 Travel Coins. The duck flies 5% faster at every 200 metres, with no top speed. A distance that could not have been flown in the time the run took is recorded as nought.

Deck Shuffleboard, Duck Sorter and Buffet Balance are high-score games. You may play each as often as you like, and your best score of the day in each game is your score for that game. Ties go to whoever set the score first. When the day ends, the players ranked first, second and third in each game receive 100, 60 and 40 Travel Coins. Your first game each day that scores at least one point, duck or plate earns 10 Travel Coins, once per game. In Deck Shuffleboard the score is the value of the pucks resting in the scoring triangle after the tenth puck (10, 8, 7 or minus 10 by where each rests, never less than nought in total). In Duck Sorter it is the number of ducks sent to the matching door before the third mistake. In Buffet Balance it is the number of plates on the tray when the stack falls. Each game gets harder the longer a run lasts, without limit. A score that is higher than the game allows, or that could not have been reached in the time the run took, is recorded as nought.

The Daily Pot is a knockout. Entering costs 5 Travel Coins, once a day, and those coins go into that day’s pot together with 250 added by the organiser and any coins carried over from the day before. Each round lasts 30 seconds, in which a player may toss as many times as they can. Each toss is scored 4, 3, 2, 1 or 0 by how close to the middle of a timing meter it is released, and the meter changes speed after every toss; the round’s score is the total, worked out on our servers from the moment of each release. A round cannot be paused or replayed, and a round that is left unfinished scores nothing. Your round is matched with the round of another player who has won the same number of rounds. The higher total wins, and a tie sends both players on. If no other player’s round is waiting within two minutes, your round is matched against a house score generated by the game. A player who loses a round is out until the next day.

When the day ends, players who won at least one round are ranked by rounds won, then by total points, then by who entered first. The pot is shared by finishing place: 20% to first, 12% to second, 8% to third, 20% divided equally among fourth to tenth, 20% among eleventh to twenty-fifth, and 20% among twenty-sixth to one hundredth. Each share is rounded down to a whole coin. Shares for places nobody took, and players’ coins left by rounding, are carried into the next day’s pot. Entry fees are not refunded.

10. Golden ducks

The organiser may hide one official golden duck on a listed sailing. Where it has, that sailing’s page says so. The golden duck carries its own tag. The first eligible player to scan the tag and claim it in the game, on or after the day the ship sails, is its finder. Each golden duck can be claimed once, and the finder’s display name is shown on the sailing’s page.

The reward for a golden duck is digital only: the Golden Duck badge and 500 Travel Coins, with no cash value and no effect on championship points. Because a golden duck can only be found by someone on board, no real-world prize is attached to one unless separate official rules for that prize, including a free way to take part, are published on this website before the sailing departs.

Owners, staff and contractors of Cruise Crawler cannot claim a golden duck. Anyone looking for one must follow the ship’s rules and the safety guidance in the Terms of Use. Golden ducks are not sponsored, endorsed or run by any cruise line, and a duck may be moved, removed or lost before anyone finds it. The account checks below apply before a claim is confirmed.

11. Fair play

Quiz answers are marked on our servers. Other mission scores are sent by your device and checked on our servers for timing and plausibility, and every daily limit is enforced there. The following are not allowed:

• bots, scripts, macros, modified software or any other automation;
• playing on more than one account, or using email aliases or other people’s accounts to gain an advantage;
• letting someone else play on your account;
• exploiting bugs or tampering with the game, its requests or its scores;
• working with other players to manipulate rankings, recruits or duck finds;
• anything else that breaks the Terms of Use.

12. Account checks and how results are confirmed

To keep results fair, we look for accounts that may belong to the same person, for example email addresses that reach the same mailbox or sign-ins from the same network, and for scores that could not have been earned by normal play. The Privacy Policy explains the information used for this.

Where we reasonably believe these rules have been broken, we may remove points, correct a leaderboard, withhold or withdraw a reward, place an account on hold while we look into it, or suspend or close the account. Suspending an account removes it from the current championship, and points removed are not restored if the suspension is later lifted. A shared network on its own, such as a family home or a ship’s Wi-Fi, is not treated as proof of anything. Before any real-world prize is awarded, we may ask the potential winner to confirm their identity, age and eligibility, and a prize may be awarded to the next eligible player if they cannot.

If you think a decision about your account or a result is wrong, write to us through the contact form within 14 days of the championship closing. A person will review it and reply. After that review, our decision is final.

13. Technical problems and changes

We are not responsible for lost, late or incomplete play caused by connection problems, device or browser faults, outages or errors. If a bug, an attack, a fault or anything else outside our reasonable control affects the fairness or running of a championship, we may correct the scores affected, extend, pause, restart or cancel that championship, or decide its result from valid play recorded before the problem. We may change the scoring or these rules for future championships, and will publish the change here before the championship it applies to begins.

14. Leaderboards and your display name

Taking part means your display name, level, cruise line, ship, points and rank are shown publicly on leaderboards, and may be mentioned in the game and in Cruise Crawler posts about championship results. We do not publish your email address or real name. See the Privacy Policy.

15. Responsibility

The limits on our liability and the governing law and dispute sections of the Terms of Use apply to championships. Nothing in these rules limits rights you have under the law of the place where you live that cannot be limited.

16. Questions

Questions about a championship, a score or these rules? Use the contact form, which goes straight to the Cruise Crawler team, or email info@cruisecrawler.com, or call (813) 441-3966. We answer within 30 days, and usually much sooner.

Postal address: Cruise Crawler LLC, 8051 N. Tamiami Trail, Ste E6, Sarasota, FL 34243.