Question 1

What is The Original Duck Tracker?

Accepted Answer

It is a way to give a rubber duck a permanent story. Every duck gets a QR code tag, and each time someone scans that code to record a hide, a find, a keep or a rehide, a new chapter is added to that duck's Journey. The Journey is append-only. Nothing is ever overwritten or deleted, so whoever finds your duck two years from now sees everything that happened before them, in order, including the moment you let it go. Cruise ships are where this started and still where most ducks live. But the Tracker itself is not cruise-only — a duck can be hidden in a port, in a car park, at home, or in another country, and it is the same continuous Journey the whole way.

Question 2

Does the duck have GPS or a tracking chip?

Accepted Answer

No. There is no chip in the duck and nothing is transmitting. A duck is only ever somewhere because a real person scanned its tag and recorded a moment. That is why a Journey can go quiet for months and then start up again. The duck was not lost — it just was not scanned. What you see on the map is the most recent moment somebody logged, not a live position. Location comes from whoever is holding the phone. On a ship that is a deck and a zone; on land it is a pin on a map.

Question 3

Do I need an app to scan or track a duck?

Accepted Answer

No, and you do not need an account either. Point your phone's built-in camera at the QR code and it opens an ordinary web page. There is nothing to download. You can read a duck's entire Journey that way as a complete stranger, on any phone, without signing in. That is deliberate — the story has to work for whoever picks the duck up, not just for members. A free account only matters for the parts that are yours: hatching ducks of your own, and keeping a Pond to manage them. Following a duck for alerts does not need one either.

Question 4

Is this only for cruise ships?

Accepted Answer

No. Cruising is where duck hiding took off and it is still the heart of the community, but nothing in the Tracker requires a ship. A duck can be hatched at home, hidden in a port, found in a car park, carried across a border, and hidden again on a completely different cruise a year later. All of that is one Journey, on one tag. Two things are genuinely cruise-specific: Deck Journey, which places a hidden duck by deck and zone on a ship's real deck plan, and the ship deck plans behind it. Everything else — hatching, hiding, finding, keeping, the Journey itself, the map — works anywhere in the world.

Question 5

I found a duck — what do I do?

Accepted Answer

Scan the QR code on its tag with your phone camera. Before you decide anything, you get to read where that duck has already been: where it was hatched, who hid it, and everyone who found it before you. Then record your Find, so your chapter joins the story. After that there are three good answers and no wrong one: Keep it. It is yours. That is a real chapter, not cheating. Rehide it for the next person — same ship, a port, or somewhere else entirely. Follow it and get a message whenever it turns up again. No app and no account are needed to scan and read, and following a duck for alerts does not need one either.

Question 6

Do I need an account to scan a duck or read its Journey?

Accepted Answer

No. Scanning and reading are completely open — no account, no payment, no app. Anyone who finds a duck sees its full Journey straight away. That is on purpose. Most people who find a duck were not looking for one and have never heard of any of this, so the story has to make sense to a total stranger holding a wet rubber duck on a pool deck. A free account covers the things that belong to you: hatching your own ducks and your Pond. And if you would rather not attach your name to a duck you hatch, you can appear as a Mystery Hatcher. Anonymous hiders, finders and keepers are recorded the same way, so the Journey never has a hole in it.

Question 7

Can I see where a duck has been, and how exact is it?

Accepted Answer

Yes — and how precise it gets depends on what the duck is doing right now. While a duck is still hidden, its deck and zone aboard the ship are free for everyone to see, with no account and no payment. That turns "somewhere on this ship" into somewhere you can actually start looking. The exact Pin is held back on purpose, so the first person to look does not end the hunt for everybody else. One CRAI Token privately unlocks that exact Pin for you alone — it never becomes public and never appears on the duck's Journey for anyone else. If you hatched the duck, its exact Pin is always free to you while you are signed in. Once a duck has been found or kept, its recorded location opens up and becomes visible to anyone, including the map pin if it was hidden on land. The hunt for that moment is over, so holding the spot back no longer protects anything. That last part is worth knowing before you drop a pin somewhere you would rather not share — a hiding spot near your home does not stay private once the duck is found.

Question 8

Can I keep a duck I found?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Keeping is a normal, welcome outcome — not a loophole and not cheating. Record the Keep so the Journey stays accurate, and the duck is yours. The person who hid it will almost certainly never meet you. What they get instead is the chapter: they can see that their duck was found, and by whom, and where it goes next. For most hiders that is the entire point. If you would rather pass it along, rehide it instead. Both are good endings to your part of the story.

Question 9

If someone keeps a duck, is its Journey over?

Accepted Answer

No. A kept duck still has a live Journey and a working QR code. Keeping is a chapter, not the last page. Because the Journey is append-only, nothing about it gets closed off or archived. The record simply pauses until the next thing happens. Months later that same duck can turn up on a different ship, in a different country, and the story picks up exactly where it left off — same tag, same code, same Journey. The Tracker records moments, not ownership. A duck sitting on a shelf is between chapters.

Question 10

Can a kept duck be hidden again later?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it happens constantly. Rehiding a kept duck is just hiding it again — same tag, same code, same Journey, one more chapter. It does not have to be a cruise. People rehide kept ducks in their home town, at airports, on road trips and across borders, and the Journey carries all of it without caring which was which. You do not need to do anything special to release it first. Record the new hide and the Tracker handles the transition out of being kept on its own, so the record reads cleanly instead of jumping.

Question 11

What is cruise ducking?

Accepted Answer

Cruise ducking is hiding small rubber ducks around a ship for strangers to find. Somebody tucks a duck somewhere findable, walks away, and never learns who picked it up. That is the whole hobby. It spread by word of mouth rather than by any rulebook, which is why no two people describe it quite the same way. There is no governing body, no scoring, and no way to do it wrong beyond being inconsiderate about where you leave things. What makes it work is that it costs the hider nothing and asks the finder for nothing. It is a small, generous thing done for a person you will not meet. The Original Duck Tracker adds one thing to that tradition and changes nothing else: a tag, so the duck can tell you where it has already been.

Question 12

What is a cruise duck?

Accepted Answer

An ordinary rubber duck that somebody decided to send out into the world. There is no official kind — people use bath ducks, novelty ducks, themed ducks, tiny ones that fit in a pocket and large ones that definitely do not. What usually makes one a cruise duck is a small tag attached to it. On a plain tag that is a note saying "you found me, keep me or hide me again". On a Duck Tracker tag it is a QR code, which does the same job and then tells you the duck's whole history as well. Nothing about the duck itself is special or electronic. It is a rubber duck with a story attached.

Question 13

Who can take part — do I need to be on a cruise?

Accepted Answer

Anyone, anywhere. You do not need to be booked on a cruise, to have ever taken one, or to know anybody else who ducks. There are two ways in and neither has a gate on it. Finding needs nothing at all — no app, no account, no payment. Scan the tag on a duck you came across and you can read its whole story. Hatching a duck of your own needs a free account, and then you print its tag at home. Cruising is where the community is biggest and where most ducks are hidden, so it is the natural place to start. It is not the entry requirement. Ducks are hatched, hidden, found and kept on land every day, and those are ordinary Journeys, not a lesser version of one.

Question 14

Are there different kinds of ducks?

Accepted Answer

The ducks themselves are just rubber ducks — buy whatever you like. Where there is a real choice is the tag you print for it. A classic tag is the standard design. It is clean, it prints well in black and white, and it is the safe pick. An AI tag generates custom artwork from a photo of your actual duck, so the tag looks like the thing it is tied to. You get three tries at generating one and can use whichever you prefer. Both carry the same QR code and behave identically once the duck is out in the world. The choice is aesthetic, not functional. Tags are free to create and you print them yourself at home. If one gets lost or ruined, you can print the same duck's tag again — the code does not change.

Question 15

What is a Duck Journey?

Accepted Answer

A Duck Journey is the complete life story of one duck, in order, from the moment it was hatched to whatever happened to it most recently. Every recorded moment adds a chapter: the hatch, each hide, each find, each keep, each rehide. It reads as a timeline, so scanning a duck you just picked up tells you where it started, everywhere it has been, and who was part of it before you. Two things make it worth trusting. It is append-only, so nothing already written can be changed or removed. And it is tied to the code on the tag rather than to any person, so it survives being kept, given away, or forgotten in a drawer for a year. A Journey is not a cruise itinerary. It follows the duck — onto a ship, off at a port, home, across a border, and onto a completely different ship later. All of that is one Journey.

Question 16

What counts as a chapter in a Journey?

Accepted Answer

A chapter is a completed action somebody recorded — not merely a moment somebody looked at the duck. These are chapters: the hatch, when the duck is created and its Journey begins; each hide, including a rehide later on; each find; each keep; sharing the duck's Journey. A chapter can carry a location, a photo and a note, or it can be bare. Either way it is permanent once written. The Journey also narrates itself a little. When a duck that was being kept moves on, that transition is written in for you so the timeline reads properly instead of jumping from "kept" straight to "hidden" with no explanation. You do not record that step yourself. Anyone who takes part without signing in still gets a chapter — recorded as a Mystery Hatcher, Mystery Hider, Mystery Finder or Mystery Keeper, so the story never has a gap where a person should be.

Question 17

Does scanning a duck add to its Journey?

Accepted Answer

No. Scanning opens the Journey; recording an action is what adds to it. You can scan a duck, read everything about it, and walk away having changed nothing. That is deliberate. Plenty of people scan out of curiosity, or scan the same duck twice while deciding what to do, and none of that belongs in a permanent record. The chapter appears when you tell the Tracker what actually happened — that you found it, that you are keeping it, that you have hidden it again. One deliberate tap after the scan. So if you scanned a duck and its Journey looks unchanged, nothing is broken. It is waiting for you to say what you did.

Question 18

Can a duck's history be edited or erased?

Accepted Answer

No. A Journey is append-only. New chapters are added underneath what is already there; nothing already written is overwritten or deleted. That includes chapters you might rather not keep. A duck that sat untouched for two years, or was found somewhere unglamorous, keeps that part of its story. The record is only worth anything if it cannot be tidied up after the fact. It also means the person who hatched a duck does not control its story once it is out. They wrote the first chapter. Everyone who finds it afterwards writes their own, and nobody can revise anybody else's. What you can control is your own visibility — you can take part without your name attached, and appear as a Mystery Hatcher, Hider, Finder or Keeper instead.

Question 19

How long does a Duck Journey last?

Accepted Answer

For the life of the duck, with no expiry date. The QR code stays active and the Journey stays readable. There is no clock running on it. A duck can go completely quiet — kept on a shelf, packed in a suitcase, forgotten in a drawer — and its Journey is not archived, closed or cleaned up in the meantime. Whoever scans it next picks up exactly where the story left off. Long gaps are normal and not a sign anything went wrong. A duck that was found in one year and turns up on the other side of the world three years later is the hobby working as intended, not an edge case. The practical limit is physical, not digital: the tag has to survive. If it wears out, print a new one for the same duck and the same code carries on.

Question 20

What is the difference between Duck Journey, Deck Journey and Map Journey?

Accepted Answer

One story, two extra ways of looking at it. Duck Journey is the whole thing — the full timeline of everything that has happened to a duck, in order. This is the one that matters most, and it works the same wherever the duck is. Deck Journey is the cruise-specific view. For a duck hidden aboard a supported ship, it shows which deck and which zone, drawn on that ship's real deck plan. This is the one feature here that genuinely only makes sense on a ship. Map Journey is the world view. It places the duck's most recent pinned moment on a map — the port, city or place its story last checked in. Deck and Map are windows onto the Duck Journey, not separate records. A duck hidden on land simply has nothing to show on a Deck Journey; nothing is missing from its story. One thing Map Journey deliberately does not do is draw a travel route between points. It shows where the duck last checked in, not a line tracing how it got there — because nobody recorded the in-between, and inventing it would be fiction.

Question 21

How do I hide a duck?

Accepted Answer

Physically, you put it somewhere a stranger will come across it and walk away. The recording part takes about a minute. Open the duck's page — scan its own tag, or open it from your Pond — and record the Hide. You will be asked where: On a supported ship, pick the ship, the deck, and the zone, then place the duck on that deck's actual plan. Anywhere else, drop a pin on the map. A port, a town, your own street — all equally valid. You can add an optional hint or a photo, and then you are done. The Hide becomes a chapter in that duck's Journey straight away, and anyone hunting can see it is out there. You do not need an app. If you are rehiding a duck you found, this is the same step — there is nothing extra to do first.

Question 22

Can I add a hint or a photo when I hide a duck?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Both are optional, and both are worth doing. A hint is a short line in your own words — "by the big window near the coffee place" — that turns a general area into something a person can actually search. It is the difference between a hunt and a wander. A photo does the same job faster. A picture of the duck where you left it is usually clearer than any description, and it becomes part of that chapter permanently, so the finder sees exactly the scene you left behind. Two things worth knowing. Anything you write or photograph is part of the Journey and cannot be edited out later, so write it as something a stranger will read. And keep people out of the frame — a photo of the hiding spot is the point; other passengers are not.

Question 23

How is my hiding location recorded, and who can see it?

Accepted Answer

The Pin that goes into a duck's Journey is one you place — the spot you mark on a ship's deck plan, or the pin you drop on a map. Recording a Hide is a deliberate step, so a Journey Pin is never dropped for you quietly in the background. That is separate from your device's own location. Some parts of the site may ask your browser for it — to centre a map near you, for instance — and that is an ordinary permission prompt you can decline. Declining does not stop you hiding a duck; you place the Pin yourself either way. Who sees what depends on where the duck is in its life: While the duck is still hiding, the deck and zone are public so people have somewhere to start. The exact spot is held back — one CRAI Token privately unlocks it for a single hunter, and that unlock is never shown to anyone else. A duck you hatched is the exception: while you are signed in you can always see its exact Pin without spending a Token, and so can a co-hatcher who has accepted their invite. Once the duck is found or kept, the recorded location becomes visible to everyone, including the map pin if you hid it on land. The hunt for that moment is over, so there is nothing left to protect. That second point is the practical one. A pin you drop on a ship is a spot on a public vessel among thousands of people. A pin you drop at home is your home. Both behave the same way once the duck is found, so hide near your own front door only if you are content for that spot to be readable later. Nothing forces precision. A pin dropped on the street corner rather than your doorstep is a perfectly good hide, and the duck is just as findable.

Question 24

Where on a ship can I hide a duck?

Accepted Answer

Public areas people already walk through: bars, lounges, the pool deck, the promenade, near the shops, by a window with a view worth stopping for. Keep away from anywhere it becomes somebody's problem. Nothing in a restaurant place setting, nothing on gym or medical equipment, nothing in crew-only areas, nothing that could fall overboard or into a pool, and nothing balanced where it might trip someone or get swept into a bin. Guest cabin corridors are a grey area worth avoiding — a duck outside somebody's door reads as directed at them rather than left for anyone. When you record the Hide, the ship is divided into decks and zones, and you place the duck on that deck's actual plan. Zones run Forward, Midship and Aft — the front, middle and back of the ship — which is enough for a finder to know which end to walk to. Deck plans are not available for every ship yet. Where a ship is not supported, hide as normal and drop a map pin instead; the Journey records it exactly the same way.

Question 25

How do I hide a duck safely and respectfully?

Accepted Answer

The whole hobby depends on nobody ever having a reason to mind. A few habits cover almost everything. Leave it in reach. If somebody has to climb, stretch or move equipment, it is hidden too well. Do not make it staff work. Anything left where a crew member has to clean around it, or that ends up in a bin, is a small cost imposed on somebody at their job. Nothing that can fall or float away. Railings, balconies, and anywhere above water. Nowhere it looks like litter or a lost item. A duck with a visible tag reads as intentional; a bare duck in a corner reads as rubbish. Respect the venue. Cruise lines vary and individual staff vary. If someone asks you not to, that is the end of it — there is always another spot. On land the same instincts apply, with one addition: private property is not a hiding place. Shops, restaurants and offices are somebody's premises, not public space. None of this is enforced by anything. It is just what keeps the practice welcome, and it is why ducking has survived on word of mouth for as long as it has.

Question 26

Should I rehide the duck or keep it?

Accepted Answer

Whichever you actually want. Both are real chapters and neither disappoints anybody. The person who hid it has already got what they were after the moment you found it. They will see their duck was found, and where. Nothing you choose next takes that away. Keep it if you like it, if it is for a child who has claimed it, or if you simply want to. That is a legitimate end to your part of the story, and the duck can still travel again later. Rehide it if you would rather pass the moment along. You get to be the one who sets up somebody else's surprise, and you get to watch the Journey keep going. The one thing worth doing either way is recording what you chose, so the Journey stays true. A duck that vanishes from the record is the only genuinely unsatisfying outcome.

Question 27

Can I rehide a duck on land, or at home?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A rehide does not have to happen on a ship, and a duck that came off a cruise does not have to go back onto one. People rehide ducks in their home towns, at airports, in parks, at rest stops on road trips and in other countries entirely. Record it by dropping a pin on the map instead of picking a deck, and it becomes a chapter exactly like any other. This is not a lesser version of a cruise hide. A duck whose Journey runs ship to port to a park two states away to a different ship a year later is a better story than one that never left the Lido deck. The usual sense applies about where: somewhere public, somewhere findable, and not on private property. And since a hiding spot becomes publicly visible once the duck is found, pick a spot you are happy to have readable later — the end of the street rather than your own doorstep.

Question 28

Can I take a duck home and rehide it on a future cruise?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it is one of the nicer things you can do with a duck. Keep it, take it home, and put it back into circulation on your next sailing — a different ship and a different cruise line are both fine. Nothing expires while you have it. The tag stays valid, the Journey stays open, and a gap of a year or two is not a problem — it is just a quiet stretch in the timeline. When you do hide it again, record the Hide as normal. The duck goes back to Hiding and anybody hunting on that ship can see it is out there. Its whole earlier life travels with it, so whoever finds it next sees where it came from — which is usually the moment the whole thing clicks for a new finder. Do check the tag before you sail. A worn or peeling tag is the one thing that actually breaks the chain, and reprinting it for the same duck keeps the same code.

Question 29

What happens to a kept duck's Journey when I rehide it?

Accepted Answer

It continues. Same tag, same code, same Journey — the rehide is simply the next chapter after the keep. Nothing restarts and nothing is lost. Everything that happened before you is still there, your keep is still there, and your rehide is added underneath. The next person to find it reads the whole run, including the stretch where it lived with you. You do not have to do anything to release the duck first. Record the new Hide and the Journey handles the transition out of being kept on its own, so the timeline reads properly rather than jumping. The duck goes back to Hiding, and it is findable again immediately.

Question 30

How do I hatch a duck?

Accepted Answer

Hatching is how a rubber duck becomes a tracked one. You fill in a short form, choose a tag, print it, and attach it. You will need a free account — this is the one step that does, because the duck has to be connected to somebody. The form asks for very little: A name for the duck. Optional — leave it blank and it gets an auto-number instead. Where it is from. A town, a state, a ship — whatever you want its origin story to say. How you want to be credited, as a name and a title. This is what finders see. A photo, optional, of the actual duck. Then you pick a tag design, print it, and attach it. The duck is live from the moment you hatch it: it gets its own code, joins the Registry, and its Journey begins immediately with the hatch as chapter one — before it has gone anywhere at all. You can hatch ducks ahead of time; they do not have to be hidden immediately.

Question 31

What should I name my duck, and what is the "origin" for?

Accepted Answer

Neither is a decision you can get wrong, and the name is optional — leave it blank and the duck gets an auto-number, which some people prefer. The name is what a finder sees first. Something with a bit of personality travels better than something descriptive, because the finder is meeting a character rather than reading a label. The origin is where the duck is from — a town, a state, a ship, a trip. It is the line that makes a duck found three thousand miles away feel like it came from somewhere, so it is worth a moment's thought. "Lake Worth, Texas" tells a better story than "USA". You also choose how you are credited: a display name and a title. That is what appears on the Journey beside the hatch. If you would rather not be named at all, you can take part as a Mystery Hatcher. These details are checked automatically before they go live, since a finder could be anyone — including a child.

Question 32

What happens after I hatch a duck?

Accepted Answer

Three things happen straight away, before the duck has gone anywhere. It gets its own code — the number on the tag, and the thing everything else hangs off. The code never changes. It joins the Registry, the public list of hatched ducks, where anybody can find it. Its Journey begins, with the hatch itself as chapter one. The duck sits as Registered until you hide it. That is simply "exists but is not out in the world yet" — there is no time limit on it and nothing expires while it waits. From there it is yours to run: print the tag, attach it, and hide the duck whenever you are ready. It appears in your Pond so you can find it again, reprint its tag, and follow what happens to it once it is out.

Question 33

Can two people hatch a duck together?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A duck can have a co-hatcher alongside the person who created it, which suits a duck made by a couple, a family, or a parent and child together. The person who hatched the duck sends the invite, by email or text. The invited person opens it and accepts, and from then on both names are part of that duck's story. A co-hatcher who has accepted gets the same standing as the hatcher for that duck — including being able to see its exact hiding Pin without spending a Token, which matters if you are hiding ducks as a pair. Only the person who originally hatched the duck can send invites, and an invite has to be accepted before it counts. Until then nothing changes.

Question 34

Should I choose a classic tag or an AI tag?

Accepted Answer

Both carry the same QR code and behave identically once the duck is out. The choice is purely how it looks. A classic tag is the standard design. It is clean, it prints reliably in black and white, and it is the sensible pick if you are making a batch. An AI tag generates custom artwork from a photo of your actual duck, so the tag matches the thing it is tied to. It is the nicer keepsake and the better one to photograph. The generator currently gives you three tries per tag, and you can use whichever result you like best — including an earlier one. If none of them is quite right, the classic design is always there. Neither costs anything. Both are printed by you, at home.

Question 35

How do I print my tag, and what sizes are there?

Accepted Answer

You print at home, on whatever printer you have. Nothing is posted to you and there is nothing to buy. There are three things you can print for a duck: its tag, a certificate, and QR stickers. Stickers come in three sizes: Small — 0.75 inch. Medium — 1.5 inch. Large — 2 inch. The sizes line up with common round label sheets, and the print screen names the matching sheet for each one. Plain paper works too — people cut tags out and attach them with tape or a small loop of string. Two practical notes. Test one before doing a batch, because printer scaling settings vary and a QR code that prints too small can be hard to scan. And because tags can be handled repeatedly and exposed to travel conditions, adding some protection over the top can help.

Question 36

My tag is lost or damaged — can I print a new one?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and this is the fix for the most common way a duck goes quiet. Reprint the tag and the code stays the same, so the Journey carries on exactly where it was. Nothing is lost and nothing restarts. You can reprint from your Pond at any time, for any duck you hatched. There is no limit and no cost. This is also worth doing pre-emptively. A tag that has been on a duck through a cruise, a suitcase and a few months on a shelf is usually the weakest link in the whole chain — not the software. Checking it before you hide a duck again takes a moment. If the duck is out in the world and its tag has failed, there is unfortunately nothing to be done remotely; whoever has it cannot scan what is not readable. That is simply the cost of a system that needs no app and no battery.

Question 37

Can I email my tags to print somewhere else?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can have a duck's printables emailed to you, which is the usual way people print from a different machine than the one they hatched on. What arrives is a set of links rather than attachments — one for each printable, plus a link to the duck's Journey page. Opening a link regenerates that printable fresh. That is deliberately better than attachments for this job: the links do not expire, so the same email still works months later, and nothing large gets stuck in an inbox. Send it to yourself, open it on whatever machine has the good printer, and print from there.

Question 38

What is the Duck Registry?

Accepted Answer

The Duck Registry is the public home of ducks in The Original Duck Tracker — from ducks traveling aboard cruise ships to ducks hidden, found, and kept on land. The moment a duck is hatched, it joins the Registry — with its own name, its own code, and a Journey that begins the instant it is created and grows with every recorded moment. Each duck in it has a hatcher, and — as its Journey unfolds — the hiders, finders and keepers who have been part of its story. Anyone who takes part without being identified still appears, as a Mystery Hatcher, Mystery Hider, Mystery Finder or Mystery Keeper, so the record never has a gap in it. It is public and needs no account to browse. Think of it less as a directory and more as the shelf where all the stories are kept.

Question 39

What can I do in the Registry?

Accepted Answer

Browse and read. The Registry is where you explore ducks you have no connection to, which is a surprisingly good way to understand the whole thing. Each duck appears as a card with its name, its code, its origin and where it currently stands — Registered, Hiding, or Found. Open one and you get its full Duck Journey: everywhere it has been and everyone who has been part of it. You can search by name, code, origin or creator, and filter by status to see, for example, only the ducks currently out there hiding. No account is needed for any of that. Reading is completely open — which is the point, since most people meet the Registry by scanning a duck they found rather than by signing up for anything.

Question 40

Does my duck go into the Registry automatically?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A duck joins the Registry the moment it is hatched, before you have printed anything or hidden it anywhere. There is no separate step to publish it. That is intentional. The Registry is what makes a code mean something — a finder scanning a tag needs the duck to already exist and already have a story, however short. If you would rather a duck you hatched not appear publicly, you can tuck it away from your Pond, which also takes it out of the public Registry listing. That is reversible at any time and does not touch the duck's Journey.

Question 41

What is my Pond?

Accepted Answer

Your Pond is your own space for the ducks you hatched. The Registry is the public shelf; the Pond is your desk. It needs a free account, because it is specific to you. From it you can: See every duck you have hatched and where each one currently stands. Reprint tags, certificates and stickers, any time, at no cost. Email a duck's printables to yourself for printing elsewhere. Keep track of ducks you are following. Tuck a duck away, and untuck it again. The Pond is a view, not a container. A duck being listed there does not hold it back from anything — the duck is out in the world living its own Journey, and the Pond is simply how you keep hold of the thread.

Question 42

What do Tuck and Untuck do?

Accepted Answer

Tucking a duck puts it away from view. Untucking brings it back. It is a tidying control, and it is always reversible. What it does depends on your role on that duck: If you hatched the duck, tucking it takes it out of your Pond and out of the public Registry listing. This is the way to make a duck you created stop appearing publicly. If you are a co-hatcher, tucking affects only your own Pond view. The duck stays in the Registry and stays in everybody else's Pond. Tuck has nothing to do with hiding a duck. Hiding is the physical act of putting a duck somewhere to be found; tucking is housekeeping in your account. A tucked duck can still be out in the world, still findable, still scannable, with its Journey still running. Untuck at any time and everything comes back exactly as it was.

Question 43

Does tucking a duck delete it or erase its Journey?

Accepted Answer

No. Nothing is deleted, and the Journey is not touched at all. Tucking changes one thing only: whether the duck is listed. Everything else carries on exactly as before — The duck's code still works, and its tag still scans. Its Journey stays complete and readable, and keeps recording new chapters. Its status does not change. A duck that was hiding is still hiding. Anyone who finds it can still read its whole story. Because Journeys are append-only, there is no mechanism anywhere that erases one — not tucking, and not anything else. A tuck is a shelf, not a bin. Untuck whenever you like and the duck reappears as it was.

Question 44

What does following a duck do?

Accepted Answer

Following a duck means you get told when something happens to it. It is the answer to "I hid this duck and now I will never know what became of it". Following is completely passive. It does not change the duck, does not add anything to its Journey, and is invisible to whoever finds it next. Nobody can tell you are watching. You can follow a duck from its Journey page — the page you land on when you scan its tag or open it from the Registry. It is free, and you can stop following at any time. One thing that surprises people: hatching a duck does not automatically subscribe you to it. Following is a separate, deliberate step, even for a duck you hatched yourself. If you want to hear about a duck you hatched, follow it.

Question 45

What will I actually be told about?

Accepted Answer

The three moments that mean a duck has moved: It was hidden — it is out there and findable again. It was found. It was kept — somebody has taken it home. That is the whole list, on purpose. Alerts are for the moments you would actually want interrupting for, not for every small thing recorded against a duck. Somebody sharing a Journey, for example, does not send anybody a message. Alerts are currently sent by text, and they only go to people who have confirmed their follow and separately agreed to receive texts. Two deliberate steps, because a text is an interruption in a way an email is not. Every message includes a link to the duck's Journey, so you can go and read what happened rather than just being told that it did.

Question 46

How do I stop following a duck, or stop the messages?

Accepted Answer

Both are one step, and neither needs a support request. To stop following a particular duck, open its Journey page and unfollow. That is reversible — follow it again later and you pick up where you left off. To stop text messages entirely, reply STOP to any of them. Every alert says so at the end. That is handled by the carrier layer, so it works immediately and does not depend on you being able to log in. Unfollowing does not affect the duck. Its Journey carries on being recorded exactly as before; you simply stop hearing about it. And nothing you have already been part of is removed — if you found or hid the duck, that chapter stays in its story regardless.

Question 47

What is free, and what actually costs anything?

Accepted Answer

Almost all of it is free. There is exactly one thing you can spend money on, and you will probably never need to. Free, with no catch and no trial period: hatching ducks, printing tags and stickers, hiding, finding, keeping, rehiding, following a duck, and reading any Journey in full. The one exception: while a duck is still hidden, its exact Pin is held back. The deck and zone are free for everyone — enough to know where to start looking — but narrowing it to the precise spot costs one CRAI Token. That is the entire paid surface. There is no subscription, no premium tier, and no feature that quietly stops working. Even that exception has a limit: once a duck has been found or kept, its location opens up to everyone at no cost — and if you hatched the duck, its exact Pin is always free to you while you are signed in.

Question 48

What are CRAI Tokens?

Accepted Answer

CRAI Tokens do one job: they privately unlock the exact hiding Pin of a duck that is still hidden. One Token, one duck. The unlock is yours alone. It never becomes public, never appears on the duck's Journey, and nobody else can see that it happened — which is the point. If unlocking a Pin made it public, the first person to pay would end the hunt for everybody else. Unlocking the same duck twice never charges you twice. Once you have unlocked a duck, it stays unlocked for you. Tokens do not expire. There is nothing to use up before a deadline, and a balance sitting untouched for a year is exactly the balance you left. They are not used for anything else. Hatching, printing, hiding, finding, keeping and following all cost nothing and never draw on your balance.

Question 49

How do I get Tokens — and do I have to buy them?

Accepted Answer

You do not have to buy any. Most people never do. Tokens arrive three ways: When you join. A new account currently starts with 5 free Tokens. By referring friends. You can currently earn 5 more for each friend who joins from your share, for your first two qualifying verified referrals. That is a lifetime cap on the referring account, not a recurring allowance. By buying them, if you want more. The two grant amounts above are what they are today rather than a permanent guarantee, so treat them as current rather than fixed. Tokens you already hold are yours and do not expire. If you do buy, the pricing is deliberately boring: 1 Token = $1, in packs of 4, 8 or 20. No discounts, no bundles, no subscription. Checkout is handled on a secure Square payment page, and your Tokens are credited once the payment completes. Buying requires being signed in, since Tokens attach to an account rather than to a device.

Question 50

Who is Blingy?

Accepted Answer

Blingy is the world's first AI concierge purpose-built for duck tracking — the concierge for CruisingWithAI and The Original Duck Tracker, and the duck in the corner of every page. Tap her and ask whatever you were about to go looking for. There is only one Blingy — the same concierge across CruisingWithAI, not a different helper on each page. On experiences that give her page context, including this FAQ, she can use it to understand what you are asking about, so "how does this work?" means something specific rather than nothing at all. She is genuinely useful on two fronts: how the Duck Tracker works — hatching, hiding, Journeys, Tokens, anything on this page — and cruising itself, including detailed knowledge of the deck layouts for the ships that are supported, which is what makes "where should I hide this?" answerable rather than generic. She is upfront about being AI, and she will not invent a venue, a deck or a port she does not know. When she is unsure, she says so and points you at the cruise line or a human instead.

Question 51

What can I ask Blingy, and what is "Ask Blingy about this"?

Accepted Answer

Anything about CruisingWithAI or the Duck Tracker, and a good deal about cruising. Where to hide a duck on a particular deck, what a status means, how Tokens work, what to do with a duck you just found. She is at her best on the questions a written answer cannot cover, because they depend on your situation — which ship you are on, which deck you are standing on, what you are actually trying to do. A page can tell you that zones run Forward, Midship and Aft. Tell Blingy your ship and deck and she can talk about that deck with you. "Ask Blingy about this" is the shortcut, where a page offers it: rather than opening her and re-explaining what you were reading, the page can hand her the topic so you go straight to the follow-up. Same Blingy, same conversation — she has simply been told what you were looking at. Your conversation stays with you as you move around the site, so you do not start over on every page.

Question 52

Do I need an account to use Blingy, and can she talk?

Accepted Answer

No account is needed to try her. Open Blingy and start asking — nothing to sign up for first. Creating a free account is what keeps the conversation going, so if you are getting real use out of her it is worth doing. It costs nothing, and it does not use CRAI Tokens — talking to Blingy is not a Token thing at all. She can talk out loud, and listen. Turn the speaker on and she reads her answers aloud; tap the microphone and you can talk instead of typing, which is considerably easier one-handed on a moving ship. Both use the speech features built into your own phone or browser, so neither costs anything. Support varies by browser and device, the microphone may ask permission the first time, and typing always works. If she cannot help, there is a "Talk to a human" option in the chat that reaches an actual person.

Question 53

What location information does the Tracker actually hold?

Accepted Answer

Two different things, and it is worth keeping them apart. The Journey Pin is the one that matters. It is the spot you place yourself when you record a Hide — a point on a ship's deck plan, or a pin you drop on a map. It is a deliberate action, not something taken quietly in the background, and it is what other people may eventually see. Separately, some parts of the site may ask your browser for your device location, for example to centre a map near you. That is an ordinary permission prompt, you can decline it, and declining does not stop you hiding a duck. Nothing follows you around between visits or tracks you continuously. Who can see a Journey Pin depends entirely on where the duck is in its life — that is set out in full under Can I see where a duck has been. The short version: while a duck is hiding, the exact Pin is held back; once it has been found or kept, the recorded location opens up.

Question 54

Is it safe to hide a duck near my home?

Accepted Answer

Move it away from your front door. Not because anything is broken, but because of one specific behaviour worth understanding before you drop a pin. While a duck is hiding, its exact Pin is held back. Once it has been found or kept, the recorded location becomes visible to anyone. That is deliberate — the hunt for that moment is over — and on a ship it is unremarkable, because the spot is a public deck on a vessel carrying thousands of people. On land the same behaviour lands very differently. A pin dropped at your own address is your address, readable later by anyone who looks at that duck's Journey. The architecture treats both the same; the real-world consequence is not the same at all. The fix is small and costs you nothing. Hide at the end of the street, in a nearby park, by a shop or a bench — somewhere public, a short walk away. The duck is exactly as findable, and the pin points somewhere you are happy for a stranger to look at. The same thinking applies to a friend's house, a school, a workplace, or anywhere a person could reasonably be identified by the spot.

Question 55

What do other people see about me?

Accepted Answer

The name and title you chose to be credited with, and nothing you did not choose. When you hatch, hide, find or keep a duck, what appears on its Journey is the display name and title you picked. Your email address and phone number are never displayed publicly. If you would rather not be named at all, you can take part anonymously and appear as a Mystery Hatcher, Mystery Hider, Mystery Finder or Mystery Keeper instead. The chapter still exists — the Journey never has a hole in it — it simply is not attributed to you by name. Two things to remember. Following a duck is completely invisible; nobody can tell you are watching. And anything you type or photograph yourself — a hint, a note, a photo of the hiding spot — becomes part of the permanent Journey, so write it as something a stranger will read.

Question 56

Is this suitable for children?

Accepted Answer

Finding ducks is one of the great joys of a cruise for a child, and nothing about scanning one requires an account, an app or any information from them. A few things are worth knowing if a child is doing the hiding and hatching rather than just the finding: Names and origins are checked automatically before they go live, because a finder could be anyone. Anything recorded is permanent. A photo or hint written by a child cannot be edited out later, so it is worth a glance before it is submitted. Hiding spots become visible once a duck is found. The same advice as for adults applies more strongly: nowhere near home, a school, or anywhere identifying. Hatching needs a free account, so in practice a parent sets that up and the child does the fun parts. Co-hatching is designed for exactly this — a parent and child can both be credited on the same duck. For anything involving a child's own account, check the current terms and privacy policy rather than relying on this page.

Question 57

Is hiding ducks actually allowed on a cruise ship?

Accepted Answer

Three separate things get muddled here, so it is worth pulling them apart. The custom. Duck hiding grew up among cruisers by word of mouth. It is a widely enjoyed tradition, and on most sailings it is simply part of the furniture. But a custom is not a permission. Official policy. That belongs to the cruise line, and it varies — between lines, between ships, and over time. Some address it directly, some do not mention it, and staff on the same ship may see it differently. CruisingWithAI does not speak for any cruise line and does not maintain their policies. If you want a definitive answer for your sailing, ask your cruise line or check their current guidance. What actually keeps it welcome. In practice the tradition survives because it stays invisible to anyone who is not playing: nothing left where it becomes a hazard, nothing that makes work for crew, nothing anyone has to clean up or move. That last part is within your control, and it is the part that matters most.

Question 58

Where should I never hide a duck?

Accepted Answer

The list is short and mostly obvious once said out loud. Nowhere that could hurt somebody, cost somebody money, or make somebody's job harder. Anything to do with safety. Lifeboats, life jacket stations, fire equipment, alarms, emergency exits and muster signage. Never obstruct, cover or move any of it. Crew-only and restricted areas. If a door, stairway or corridor is not for guests, it is not for ducks either. Anywhere it becomes a trip or slip hazard. Walkways, stair treads, doorways, pool surrounds, anywhere underfoot. Anywhere it can fall. Railings, balcony edges, and anything above open water or a lower deck. Food service areas. Not on a place setting, not on a buffet counter, not among anything anybody is about to eat from. Medical, technical and equipment areas. Including gym equipment and anything a person may need in a hurry. Anywhere that means moving or damaging property to place or retrieve it. One grey area worth naming: outside a guest cabin door. It reads as directed at the person inside rather than left for anybody, and it usually ends up with housekeeping. On land the same instincts hold, with one addition — private property is not a hiding place. A shop, a restaurant, an office and a garden are all somebody's premises.

Question 59

What if a crew member asks me to stop?

Accepted Answer

Then you stop, cheerfully, and that is genuinely the end of it. Crew members are responsible for the ship and for everyone on it, and they have context you do not — a cleaning schedule, a safety requirement, something that happened last week. A request from crew is not a negotiation, and arguing on behalf of a hobby is how a tolerated tradition becomes a banned one. Take the duck with you. There is always another spot, another deck, or another day. Nothing is lost: the duck is unharmed, its Journey is untouched, and you can hide it somewhere else five minutes later. If you are told ducks are not welcome on that ship or that sailing at all, take that as the answer for that trip. Policy belongs to the cruise line, not to us and not to the community, and the person in uniform in front of you is the one who knows what it is today.

Question 60

The QR code will not scan

Accepted Answer

What is happening. Nearly always the tag itself, not the phone. QR codes need contrast and a bit of size, and a tag that has been printed small, printed faintly, or spent a week on a wet pool deck loses both. What to try. More light, and hold steadier — a few seconds, not a swipe past. Move further back; phones often fail on a code held too close, not too far. Wipe the tag. Salt, sunscreen and pool water leave a haze that defeats the camera. Use the normal camera app rather than a QR app; on most phones the built-in camera is better at it. If the tag has a code printed on it, you can look the duck up by that code instead of scanning. If it is your duck and the tag is failing, reprint it — the code stays the same and the Journey carries on. Printing a larger sticker size helps a lot; test one scan before doing a batch. If the tag is genuinely unreadable and the duck is not yours, there is unfortunately nothing to be done remotely. That is the honest cost of a system that needs no app and no battery.

Question 61

I scanned a duck but its Journey did not change

Accepted Answer

What is happening. Nothing is broken. Scanning opens a Journey; it does not add to one. The chapter appears when you tell the Tracker what actually happened. What to do. After scanning, record the action — that you found it, that you are keeping it, that you have hidden it again. One deliberate tap. That is the step that writes the chapter. This is on purpose. People scan out of curiosity, or scan the same duck twice while deciding, and none of that belongs in a permanent record. If you did record something and still see no change, reload the page — you may be looking at a copy your browser cached before the update.

Question 62

I cannot see a duck's exact Pin

Accepted Answer

What is happening. Usually the system working as designed rather than a fault. While a duck is still hiding, its exact Pin is deliberately held back — the deck and zone are free for everyone, and the precise spot is not. What to check, in order. Are you signed in? This is the most common cause. Even for a duck you hatched, the exact Pin only appears when you are signed in to the account that hatched it. Has the duck already been found or kept? Then the location is public and no unlock is needed at all. Do you have a Token? Unlocking a still-hidden duck's exact Pin costs one. If your balance is empty, the unlock will not go through. Have you already unlocked this duck? If so it should stay unlocked for you — try reloading. You are never charged twice for the same duck. Where to go next. If you are signed in, hold Tokens, and a still-hidden duck you hatched is still not showing its Pin, that is worth reporting rather than retrying — Blingy can put you through to a human.

Question 63

My AI tag did not generate properly

Accepted Answer

What is happening. Generation can fail for ordinary reasons — the photo could not be read, the image or wording did not pass the automatic content checks, or the generator simply errored. What you get instead. You are not left without a tag. When generation does not produce artwork, the tag falls back to a coloured design and still carries the same working QR code. It is a perfectly usable tag; it just is not a picture of your duck. Worth knowing: a failed attempt still counts as one of your three tries for that tag, so it is worth giving the next one the best chance. What to try. Use a clear, well-lit photo of the duck itself against a plain background, and keep the description simple and family-friendly. Vague or crowded photos are the usual culprit. Where to go next. If none of the results work for you, choose the classic tag design instead. It costs nothing, carries the identical QR code, and prints more reliably in black and white.

Question 64

I followed a duck but I am not getting alerts

Accepted Answer

What is happening. Alerts have more than one step, and it is easy to complete some but not all of them. What to check. Did you confirm the follow? If you followed without being signed in, a confirmation was sent to you and the follow does not count until you act on it. Did you agree to receive texts? Alerts are currently sent by text, and that is a separate consent from following. Following alone does not switch texts on. Did you ever reply STOP? That stops all texts, and it stays stopped until you opt back in. Has anything actually happened? Only three things trigger an alert — the duck being hidden, found, or kept. A duck sitting untouched generates nothing, and long quiet stretches are completely normal. Did you hatch it and assume that was enough? Hatching does not subscribe you. You have to follow your duck like anybody else. Where to go next. You can always read the full Journey directly — every recorded moment is on the duck's page whether or not you were alerted about it.

The Ultimate Duck Tracking FAQ