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Majesty of the Seas - amenities?


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My wife and I are celebrating our 20  year anniversary on Majesty of the Seas (which coincidentally is the boat we took on our honeymoon!)

We will have our two teanage boys with us and will need to communicate with them while on board.

Is there any way other than getting the internet package for all four of us?  And on that note, you pay $14 per day - does that mean you pay $14 also for the last day when you're off the boat by 7am??

Thanks in advance for your input!

 

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IIRC, internet access stops working late on the last night of your cruise, not the final day when you're back in port. Also note the pricing is labeled per person, per night; not per day. So if you're paying for an 8-night trip, that covers your embarkation day (night 1) through the night before you disembark (night 8).

Now, this is not to say you have to buy an internet package to communicate. If you're on a major carrier like AT&T or Verizon, you should have access to low-cost text messaging even when out of the continental US. Rates vary from free to $0.50 for outgoing, and $0.50 to a couple of dollars for incoming messages. Depending on how much you expect to be messaging with the rest of your family, just paying for individual texts may work out to be a lot less than the cost of an internet plan for four devices (which runs about $40 - $45 a night). Check with your carrier for the specifics of what they offer.

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1 minute ago, thestocks said:

Thank you for your response.  Will we actually have coverage to be able to send texts when we're at sea?  We are all on Verizon.  I would expect we'll be unable to get a signal once we're away from port, but I don't know.

 

Thanks!

Verizon will roam onto the cell tower on Majesty operated by a 3rd party Cellular@Sea.

From the Vz website:

5aa57237836c7_VzCruiserates.jpeg.ec0d51bcd81eab727314e2de514b9747.jpeg

Or you can turn on airplane mode and purchase Voom wifi plans from Royal.  You can find pricing for multi-device plans in the cruise planner.

 

 

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Pricing for Voom is based on number of nights.  A four night cruise would be 4 x the daily rate.  This starts on boarding day.  The plans usually end mid-day on the day you disembark.  Assuming you board at noon on day 1 on a 4 night cruise the Voom would work until around noon on day 5 (the day you disembark).  Considering you have to be off the ship by around 9-10am it is still usually working on your last day.

You can purchase Voom in advance to save money or you can purchase on-board at higher prices.  Members of the Crown and Anchor Society loyalty program receive a discount for on-board purchases.  On-board full voyage plans are pro-rated and drop in price each day to reflect fewer days remaining.  If you wait until day 2 to purchase the full voyage plans they are one day cheaper, and so on.  However keep in mind on-board prices are higher than plans purchased before the cruise in the cruise planner.

On-board it is available to purchase every 24 hours but is super expensive for a day pass.  You are much better to look at full voyage plans.   

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Most ships have adopted this 2018 on-board pricing:

5aa5761c22174_Voomonboardmultianddaypass.jpeg.9c58a69b07e07cc523e6f9feb4a4f928.jpeg

A 4 device 'Surf' plan would be $12.99 x 4 = $51.96 per day.  For a 4 night cruise this would be $51.96 x 4 = $207.84.

Since you have sailed before you are at least Gold C&A.  Gold would get 10% off this price for a total of $187.06.

Platinum and Emerald get 15% off,  Diamond gets one free day of Surf or $22.99 off.  Diamond Plus gets two free days of Surf or $45.98 off. 

Compare this to what you see in the cruise planner for your sailing. 

If you purchase Voom I'd suggest you all go into airplane mode to avoid any accidental roaming onto Cellular@Sea.

Verizon also has international day passes for when you are off the ship.  Talk to them or visit their website to see if your plan qualifies. 

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An update:  Apparently I can set up WiFi calling on all of our phones (2 iPhone 7 and 2 new Androids) - so if I do get the WiFi package for everyone and make sure we're in Airplane mode (with WiFi turned on) then we should be able to text and call each other over the WiFi as needed.  Sound right?

I just don't know how much we're going to separate and how much we'll want to communicate with our kids or even with family on the mainland.  I'm sure my sons will want to communicate with their friends as well, so I guess I may end up biting the bullet and buying the WiFi package for all four of us.  It's a peace of mind thing, too.

This is kind of a nickel and dime thing IMHO.  I wish they would provide it for free... which apparently they did on Majesty of the Seas a couple of years ago.

 

Thanks once again for all of your input!

 

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24 minutes ago, thestocks said:

An update:  Apparently I can set up WiFi calling on all of our phones (2 iPhone 7 and 2 new Androids) - so if I do get the WiFi package for everyone and make sure we're in Airplane mode (with WiFi turned on) then we should be able to text and call each other over the WiFi as needed.  Sound right?

I just don't know how much we're going to separate and how much we'll want to communicate with our kids or even with family on the mainland.  I'm sure my sons will want to communicate with their friends as well, so I guess I may end up biting the bullet and buying the WiFi package for all four of us.  It's a peace of mind thing, too.

This is kind of a nickel and dime thing IMHO.  I wish they would provide it for free... which apparently they did on Majesty of the Seas a couple of years ago.

 

Thanks once again for all of your input!

 

Once the phones are setup for wifi calling you can try this at home, right now.  Turn on airplane mode, connect to wifi at home and try texting each other.  On my phone with T-Mobile it tells me when it's connected to their internet service.

5aa5973eeb0f8_HarmonySpeedtest-1copy.thumb.jpg.d528c3d63328887734118b4863c70fca.jpg

You can see I'm in airplane mode and the "T-Mobile Wi-Fi" indicates my phone is connected to their internet server and ready to do wifi calling and texting just like I'm at home with a cell signal.  Verizon should be similar. 

As far as free - Like many things on the ship not everyone wants it.  There is no "free", just included in the price.  To make it included base fares go up.  For those cruisers that desire to disconnect and never use it, I'm pretty sure they don't want to pay higher base fares for something they have no intention of using.    Just like specialty dining or drink packages or laundry or <fill in the blank>.  Why should I pay a higher base fare for something I fine doing without just so that someone else gets it for free included?

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49 minutes ago, twangster said:

As far as free - Like many things on the ship not everyone wants it.  There is no "free", just included in the price.  To make it included base fares go up.  For those cruisers that desire to disconnect and never use it, I'm pretty sure they don't want to pay higher base fares for something they have no intention of using.    Just like specialty dining or drink packages or laundry or <fill in the blank>.  Why should I pay a higher base fare for something I fine doing without just so that someone else gets it for free included?

Good point.

 

I did all the WiFi setup stuff and tested it out as you stated (I had already done so), but what is weird is that the texting appeared to work in Airplane mode even though WiFi calling was not yet enabled on my phone.  I enabled it anyway, but weird that texting appeared to work regardless - on all of the phones.

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52 minutes ago, thestocks said:

Good point.

 

I did all the WiFi setup stuff and tested it out as you stated (I had already done so), but what is weird is that the texting appeared to work in Airplane mode even though WiFi calling was not yet enabled on my phone.  I enabled it anyway, but weird that texting appeared to work regardless - on all of the phones.

Apple to Apple iMessage works with just wifi (without wifi calling) but Apple to Android requires wifi calling to make texting work, at least typically.

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I have also found that VOOM continues to work on the day of disembark. We got off Ovation in Sydney and while around the ship I was able to use her Internet access all day until she left again that night. (without us unfortunately).

My ipad does not do roaming so it was very useful to take advantage of this while she was still docked nearby.

 

 

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