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Cellphone Usage


RVROw

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4 minutes ago, RVROw said:

How, if any, does airplane mode impact receiving calls and/or text messages?

Airplane mode disables your phone's cellular antenna. Placing your phone in airplane by default will render your phone's phone and texting abilities disabled.

If you connect to wifi and your phone/carrier supports wifi calling, you can still place calls/texts

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5 minutes ago, Matt said:

Airplane mode disables your phone's cellular antenna. Placing your phone in airplane by default will render your phone's phone and texting abilities disabled.

If you connect to wifi and your phone/carrier supports wifi calling, you can still place calls/texts

For example:  My phone and carrier (Verizon) both support WIFI calling.  When onboard I switch to airplane mode, then re-enable WIFI.  Once connected to Voom, I make and receive calls and texts as normal.

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2 hours ago, Matt said:

One more note on wifi calling, you can test it out at home by placing your phone into airplane mode and then connect to your home wifi.  Then ensure wifi calling is on and give it a test.

Great suggestion, Matt! I'm going to try that out. I had issues with my carrier from my last cruise because even though I had enabled wifi calling. For some reason, my phone decided to use Cellular at Sea. Ugh. Now I know how to fix the problem. 

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My last cruise was on the Norwegian Breakaway, but I did the exact same thing. After the muster drill, I put my phone into airplane mode. I purchased one of the Wifi plans and it worked fine. Just be sure to first do Airplane mode and then turn Wifi back on. If you have iMessage you can still send texts over Wifi. If you don't, then Facebook Messanger will work just fine. iMessage/Facebook messages didn't eat up a whole lot of my Wifi plan. 

If you're in port, you can always find a coffee shop or something that will have Wifi. In Bermuda, we found one near the cruise port at the recommendation of one of the crew members. 

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17 minutes ago, SC2020 said:

If you're in port, you can always find a coffee shop or something that will have Wifi.

One note is to always, always be careful with publicly open WiFi as it's very susceptible to hacking. This is true in developed AND developing countries, and is a constant risk. Using things like free tourist WiFi can be great, but also a risk. Just read up on it and surf accordingly. 

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3 minutes ago, Coach9 said:

Is it true that if you are connected to free WiFi that the ship offers to use their app.  That if you have an iPhone and are in airplane mode you still can use Imessenger to text other iPhones on board and also on land.  Please confirm this. Thank you

I would not count on this at all. I think it was possible for a while during beta testing of the old app, but no longer.

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10 hours ago, Coach9 said:

Is it true that if you are connected to free WiFi that the ship offers to use their app

You connect to the ship's wifi to use the app and do not have to pay for a package in order to use just the app, yes.

10 hours ago, Coach9 said:

That if you have an iPhone and are in airplane mode you still can use Imessenger to text other iPhones on board and also on land.

This has been a loophole that has come and gone. Do not plan on it being available.

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On ‎1‎/‎29‎/‎2020 at 1:27 PM, AshleyDillo said:

No..chat is only currently available on Harmony and Allure.

Going on the Harmony Oct 2020 with a moderate Wedding Party (35) and this feature will help for keeping in touch with others.  Can you tell me how this will work for our "shipmates" so I can help others plan ahead? :79_smiley_cat:

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31 minutes ago, CruisingKitty said:

Going on the Harmony Oct 2020 with a moderate Wedding Party (35) and this feature will help for keeping in touch with others.  Can you tell me how this will work for our "shipmates" so I can help others plan ahead? :79_smiley_cat:

Everyone needs to download the Royal Caribbean app to their smartphone.  Once you're on the ship they just connect to the ship's wifi and the chat will be available through the app.  It allows you to send messages to other passengers onboard the ship.  You have to know the passenger's legal first and last names to find them to add them to your list of chat users.

There's a pretty good explanation of how it works here:  https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2019/04/10/royal-caribbean-adds-group-chat-feature-app

Sometimes the app isn't great about letting you know there are waiting messages, so you'll have to open up the app and check it every once in a while.  But it's a good option on Harmony and Allure if you have people who aren't opting to purchase the VOOM online internet package.

 

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Also, check with your carrier and see what countries are included in your plan and what the cost is to use it per day internationally.  For example our specific Verizon plan is free in Mexico, Canada and the Bahamas.  Other places it is only $10 a day.  We usually go back onto regular phone in port.  On the ship we all have Voom so we put in airplane mode and use RC wifi for text and calling.  For some reason my daughter who has an iPhone cannot text using the ship's wifi.

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@SpeedNoodles thanks for the link.  I guess I got overly excited when I saw Navigator added to the app list. (Not realizing that doesn’t mean the chat feature works yet ?)

Does anyone know if the the iMessage loop hole works on Navigator?  I have tweens that I want to let wander, but I don’t feel great about that without a way to communicate.  

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