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Social Media Onboard VOOM vs. Surf


MrKyle

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We are currently on Freedom and have regular Surf Voom.  It’s pretty slow and sending pictures is hit or miss. 
 

It’s fine for our needs, but I suspect someone depending on it to share pictures would get frustrated quickly. 
 

As twangster said, text is fine. 

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Voom pricing does go up and down depending on the phase of the moon squared to the power of the king tides in the Bay of Fundy.

No one knows when or if Voom pricing will go on sale for a particular cruise during a specific holiday sale.  Check for price drops often.  If you buy it and the price drops refund your purchase and buy it at the lower price.  

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My Wife is on Oasis of the Seas as I'm now posting.

 

Voom, for us, is always hit or miss.  On this cruise, it's mostly miss.  I am receiving some photos from her, but she sees almost none of my replies.  The ship told her, I-Phones are problematic, and she should upgrade to Stream.  She did so, but she still is receiving almost none of my correspondence, either to her tablet or her I-phone.☹️

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2 hours ago, WAYNO said:

 

My Wife has an I Phone.  And just that fast, tonight, she's received my emails.  Go figure.😎

If you BOTH do not have iPhones then when you communicate you are using SMS and MMS messaging or cellular texting which relies on the cellular carrier to complete the exchange.

If you BOTH do have iPhones then when you communicate you are using Apple's proprietary message service that only works between Apples devices to complete the exchange and your cellular carrier is not involved.

When on board a ship a cell phone using a cellular carrier that supports WiFi calling can complete cellular texting using SMS and MMS only when the carrier and phone establish the WiFi calling connection that essentially makes the internet into a cell tower.  Depending on the carrier involved and how they implement WiFi calling that may be intermittent over more latent internet connections such as satellite internet including Voom.

If YOU don't have an iPhone her iPhone cannot leverage Apple's native messaging service so her phone must fall back on and attempt to use cellular SMS/MMS with you.  I'm betting that when WiFi calling has working connection on her phone your messaging completes but when her phone doesn't have the WiFi calling connection established your messaging doesn't go through because her phone isn't connected to the cellular network.   

On my last cruise my phones WiFi calling capability often stopped working overnight or anytime the Voom service wasn't great such as during heavy rain.

I am trying a new cell company right now and the way this new cell company has implemented WiFi calling doesn't work as well as my last cell company.  

Over many years TMobile has yielded the best WiFi calling experience for me while Spectrum, Verizon and AT&T have worked most or some of the time.  

With Spectrum when it should have been working I often had to reboot my phone to force WiFi calling to establish the WiFi calling connection over the ship's internet.  

Apple's native messaging service that only works between Apple devices is much more tolerant of latent internet including satellite internet but it only works when everyone involved has an Apple device.  

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3 hours ago, twangster said:

I'm betting that when WiFi calling has working connection on her phone your messaging completes but when her phone doesn't have the WiFi calling connection established your messaging doesn't go through because her phone isn't connected to the cellular network. 

Yes, exactly what I suspected.

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All I know... We're attempting to share emails.  My Wife has both  an iPhone and tablet on the ship.   I'm using my  computer at my home.  On the ship, she has Voom, surf and stream.  It works sometimes, and sometimes not.  The first 3+ days, she was able to send emails but not receive them.  As of yesterday, now she's receiving  emails. 

 

We've experienced the same thing on other cruises, and that was when she was still using an Android phone. 

 

As I said originally, our Voom experience is hit or miss. 

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I was on the Oasis (now the Anthem) and I always get surf and stream. I have an Android and my landlubber family back on dry land have iPhones. We send simple text messages and videos back and forth. Sometimes there is a delay, especially if the ship is in heavy weather…but it could also be that they are not in a WiFi zone (thanks for that @twangster). We have used WhatsApp for calls, but found it’s not very reliable. However, we found using Messenger was much more consistent for calls, both audio and video calling. I think Messenger works with them outside of WiFi because we video talk as they are riding in a car. We can also send text messages via Messenger. I have uploaded videos and photos to Facebook without a problem. Sometimes it takes a little while, but it works fine.

I also use surf and stream to stream movies from Netflix and Prime to my iPad. Works normally. Tip…….in the event there is a problem with the ship’s WiFi, and it takes them a little while to fix it…I always download a few movies before I leave home.

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1 hour ago, BrianB said:

I was on the Oasis (now the Anthem) and I always get surf and stream. I have an Android and my landlubber family back on dry land have iPhones. We send simple text messages and videos back and forth. Sometimes there is a delay, especially if the ship is in heavy weather…but it could also be that they are not in a WiFi zone (thanks for that @twangster). We have used WhatsApp for calls, but found it’s not very reliable. However, we found using Messenger was much more consistent for calls, both audio and video calling. I think Messenger works with them outside of WiFi because we video talk as they are riding in a car. We can also send text messages via Messenger. I have uploaded videos and photos to Facebook without a problem. Sometimes it takes a little while, but it works fine.

I also use surf and stream to stream movies from Netflix and Prime to my iPad. Works normally. Tip…….in the event there is a problem with the ship’s WiFi, and it takes them a little while to fix it…I always download a few movies before I leave home.

That is why I download movies/shows ahead of time for that very reason.

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