DEANNA McKenna Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Hi I am new to this cruising with technology. If I want to just communicate with other cruisers through my cell phone..... do I need to purchase phone package? Someone said, connect to their Wifi and use I messanger... ??? Thank you:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notyouravgjt Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Yes you can call through your phone if yourself and other person you are calling has these 2 things, assuming you are not at a port. 1. You'll need a phone that can do wifi calling, I know it is pretty common now, or have an app such a WhatsApp or skype. 2. You must be connected to the wifi which does require purchase of an internet plan to use on board. Personally I haven't ever had a need to call someone one boat i usually will run into them eventually. I have seen people do it and I'll be doing facetime on my star class cruise to rub it in my sister's face that she didn't want to come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlantix2000 Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 58 minutes ago, DEANNA McKenna said: Someone said, connect to their Wifi and use I messanger... ??? If you and everyone you want to talk to have an iPhone, there's an odd loophole that allows iMessenger to work for free on two specific ships (I think Harmony and Symphony, but don't quote me on it). There's something weird about the old Royal Caribbean app that requires a certain port to be open which just happens to be the same port iMessenger uses. However, that app is going away as they spread the new app to more and more ships. This loophole does not exist on any other ships and once the new app replaces the old app on those ships, this loophole will be gone. It's probably better to assume it won't exist by the time you cruise so plan on purchasing wifi access so you can use wifi calling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Check out this blog post, all about communicating onboard: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/07/27/how-stay-touch-someone-your-royal-caribbean-cruise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrznTxn Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Just remember, both phones have to have the internet package. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeSD Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Make sure you disable the cellular service/data on your phone (i.e. airplane mode) or you could inadvertently get hit with huge roaming fees. The RC app does have a text/chat feature that you can use with free wifi. Check out the other discussion threads for "communicating while on board". for more insight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJCruisers Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Can I jump in and ask if I have the Voom 1 device, what's the best way to communicate back home? Should I have my kids download the WhatsApp or is calling or using Facetime just as good? (We all have iphones) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJones Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 48 minutes ago, NJCruisers said: Can I jump in and ask if I have the Voom 1 device, what's the best way to communicate back home? Should I have my kids download the WhatsApp or is calling or using Facetime just as good? (We all have iphones) No need for them to download extra apps. Voom internet will allow you to call/text/facetime as you would on land (though might be a little slower, with some lag). NJCruisers 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12thman Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 1 hour ago, Matt said: Check out this blog post, all about communicating onboard: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/07/27/how-stay-touch-someone-your-royal-caribbean-cruise Thanks @Matt! What happens if you are in port where you have service but you are on the ship and try to use your data/cell service? Do I connect to my provider or would I pay that insane amount of $6-8 per minute? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshleyDillo Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Just turn your phone off airplane mode and it will connect to the local cell towers, not the ship's cellular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 11 minutes ago, 12thman said: What happens if you are in port where you have service but you are on the ship and try to use your data/cell service? Do I connect to my provider or would I pay that insane amount of $6-8 per minute? If you are in a country where you have non-roaming service, you just switch your phone out of airplane mode. That will cause the phone's antenna to be activated again and connect to a land-based tower. Be sure to put the phone back into airplane mode when you get back onboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12thman Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Thanks @AshleyDillo and @Matt. When I was on Allure still in FLL port I forgot to turn on my airplane mode and used the internet and got a text from Sea something about if I continued I'd be charged rates from them. So I turned on airplane mode. That's why I was asking because my phone showed cell service as I had full bars. Just curious why my cell service wouldn't work in port on a ship? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshleyDillo Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Odd..maybe it was recognizing the cellular at sea tower because you were closer or lost the local cell service? I have Sprint and it doesn't connect to the Cellular at Sea ever when I'm at the home port or even a foreign port..it tends to jump on the local cell towers. It does text me welcoming me to the service in that particular country with the data, voice, and txt rates. Maybe they don't normally turn on the Cellular at Sea until they leave the port and they accidentally did that time you connected to it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12thman Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 12 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said: Odd..maybe it was recognizing the cellular at sea tower because you were closer or lost the local cell service? I have Sprint and it doesn't connect to the Cellular at Sea ever when I'm at the home port or even a foreign port..it tends to jump on the local cell towers. It does text me welcoming me to the service in that particular country with the data, voice, and txt rates. Maybe they don't normally turn on the Cellular at Sea until they leave the port and they accidentally did that time you connected to it? Oh this is something Royal turns on? Well next time I'll turn on airplane mode while boarding. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 The Cellular@Sea tower on the ship is deactivated when close to land. They can't operate an unlicensed transmitter or the FCC would fine them significantly. Every cell tower in every area is tightly controlled for the frequencies it can operate using. They do extensive analysis to ensure one operator doesn't interfere with another operator. Same with every country a ship visits. Every country has governing bodies that regulate cell towers. So the system is coded to turn off the cell tower until they are in international water and away from land so they couldn't possibly interfere with a land tower. Cellular@Sea is a 3rd party. They have cell towers on some NCL and Carnival brands as well. That company has the roaming agreements with different cellular companies to facilitate billing and usage. Each cell company negotiates their own rates with Cellular@Sea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12thman Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Well that doesn't make sense. The ship hadn't even castoff yet. So the only thing I can think of was it was "just" a text "welcoming" me to their service? As I said before I should have just asked the Oracle @twangster! Haha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted November 5, 2019 Report Share Posted November 5, 2019 @12thman Perhaps the text message was delayed from a previous instance where you were roaming. When I return to the US and connect back to the cell service for the first time, I regularly get a bunch of text messages sent to me while my phone was in airplane mode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12thman Posted November 5, 2019 Report Share Posted November 5, 2019 6 minutes ago, Matt said: @12thman Perhaps the text message was delayed from a previous instance where you were roaming. When I return to the US and connect back to the cell service for the first time, I regularly get a bunch of text messages sent to me while my phone was in airplane mode. Now that it was mentioned it was a text from Cellular@sea didn’t know what that was. Then I realized that my phone wasn’t in airplane mode. Didn’t get a bill, just curious what that was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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