R.T. Posted August 19, 2021 Report Share Posted August 19, 2021 My family will be sailing on Freedom of the Seas next year. I would like to be able to text message my family members while on board the ship and am not convinced that an internet package is the best way to accomplish that. Does anyone have an experience or suggestion in regards to this issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted August 19, 2021 Report Share Posted August 19, 2021 Simply put Voom works and as long as your cellular provider supports wifi calling Voom works very well for texting just like at home. If your cellular provider doesn't support wifi calling then chat apps such as FB Messenger or WhatsApp also work over Voom. If your family is all iPhone users then iMessage works very well over Voom. Beyond that... Royal has a chat feature in their app that doesn't require the internet but does have a fee associated with it. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/07/06/royal-caribbeans-chat-feature-now-available-every-cruise-ship As far as the cost of internet on board: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/07/27/royal-caribbean-wifi-worth-it Here is some more information about cellular on board: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/06/30/how-use-your-cell-phone-royal-caribbean-cruise-and-not-come-home-big-bill Pattycruise 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted August 19, 2021 Report Share Posted August 19, 2021 @twangster, you just won't go away !! I have clicked on this posting 5 times and it keeps coming back again and again. doo doo doo doo....doo doo doo doo.... (Twilight Zone) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted August 19, 2021 Report Share Posted August 19, 2021 29 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said: @twangster, you just won't go away !! I have clicked on this posting 5 times and it keeps coming back again and again. doo doo doo doo....doo doo doo doo.... (Twilight Zone) Trying to get rid of me? WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steverk Posted August 19, 2021 Report Share Posted August 19, 2021 I used the chat feature on celebrity millennium. I assume it's the same as royal's. It worked well cruisellama 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted August 19, 2021 Report Share Posted August 19, 2021 24 minutes ago, twangster said: Trying to get rid of me? Once I posted you went "poof" ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vancity Cruiser Posted August 19, 2021 Report Share Posted August 19, 2021 6 hours ago, R.T. said: My family will be sailing on Freedom of the Seas next year. I would like to be able to text message my family members while on board the ship and am not convinced that an internet package is the best way to accomplish that. Does anyone have an experience or suggestion in regards to this issue? You didn’t specify. As you wanting to be able to message family members who will be on board with you? If so you can do so through the messaging feature on the app which you don’t need to purchase voom for. It is a couple bucks a day for the messaging feature though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allancy Posted August 19, 2021 Report Share Posted August 19, 2021 We tried the message on the app which did not work for us. Messages were late if they went through. My wife thought I was avoiding her SpeedNoodles 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spellman Posted August 20, 2021 Report Share Posted August 20, 2021 We used the messaging feature on the RCI app on Anthem (without Voom package) and it worked really well when there was no cell service. The only downsides were the messages don't generate notifications on your phone, so it was easy to miss new messages as you have to have the app open to see if anyone has messaged you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunwoodyDad Posted August 20, 2021 Report Share Posted August 20, 2021 21 hours ago, twangster said: Simply put Voom works and as long as your cellular provider supports wifi calling Voom works very well for texting just like at home. If your cellular provider doesn't support wifi calling then chat apps such as FB Messenger or WhatsApp also work over Voom. If your family is all iPhone users then iMessage works very well over Voom. Beyond that... Royal has a chat feature in their app that doesn't require the internet but does have a fee associated with it. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/07/06/royal-caribbeans-chat-feature-now-available-every-cruise-ship As far as the cost of internet on board: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/07/27/royal-caribbean-wifi-worth-it Here is some more information about cellular on board: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/06/30/how-use-your-cell-phone-royal-caribbean-cruise-and-not-come-home-big-bill Not only does Voom work seamlessly for texting with family members onboard and back at home, if you enable WiFi calling that works like you are right at home as well…I mean almost too well. I got calls from work while on Jewel in the middle of the Mediterranean and decided to answer and the other person had no idea I wast back at home. twangster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teddy Posted August 20, 2021 Report Share Posted August 20, 2021 As far as our experiences with VOOM and messaging....In January 2019 we bought VOOM on our first ever cruise (on Mariner). Our cell carrier at the time did not support wifi calling, but I was able to use Facebook video through VOOM to talk to my son and walk them through a hydraulic line repair in the middle of a snowstorm. It worked very well. As twangster mentioned, iMessage works great as too...whether we text each other onboard or someone back home. A few slow spots depending on where we were on the ship, but we experience that here at home with cell service. On a side note, we had never heard of wifi calling until we sailed for the first time. We now use a carrier who supports it. It's great in our house where cell service can be spotty regardless of carrier. twangster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allancy Posted August 21, 2021 Report Share Posted August 21, 2021 21 hours ago, spellman said: We used the messaging feature on the RCI app on Anthem (without Voom package) and it worked really well when there was no cell service. The only downsides were the messages don't generate notifications on your phone, so it was easy to miss new messages as you have to have the app open to see if anyone has messaged you! That's what we discovered after trying to explain to delay/missed messages. Pointed this out later in one of their after cruise surveys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyro Posted August 22, 2021 Report Share Posted August 22, 2021 You do not actually need to purchase the internet package to use iMessage on IOS, this works for people on board with you and on shore. I was on just on the Adventure and using it daily, you just can’t really send or receive pictures. All you need to do is connect to the internet as you would if you were using the on board app for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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