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SMM799

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Hi All.....

I am sailing on the Allure in June 2018, and was wondering what everyone does for texting on board.  I have a teenager that I would like to be able to contact when he is off exploring.  I am trying to avoid paying for Vroom.   I heard that RC has an app in the works that will be available on the Allure, but I am not sure if the texting feature is up and running.    Any suggestions?

 

Thanks.

-Sue

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If you don't want to pay for Voom and the new app wont be ready in time that really just leaves roaming texting with your cell carrier.  Check with your carrier, but it can be fairly inexpensive.

Here's an overview of how to stay connected on a cruise https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/07/27/how-stay-touch-someone-your-royal-caribbean-cruise

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50 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

If you have iPhones you can use iMessage by just connecting to the wifi on the ship. Don't have to pay for anything. If you have android you can download the Royal IQ app and pay I believe $7.95/device to be able to text. At least this worked for me on Harmony a couple weeks ago. 

I keep seeing the iMessage thing come up as a tip, and it's a great one for iOS users - BUT - please keep in mind this is not a document "feature" or perk.  It's a hole that was left open (probably because the level of effort of closing it while allowing something else through was too great at the time) but will almost certainly be closed.  I'd hate for someone to plan on this and not have a backup.

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11 hours ago, LandstromCruise said:

If you have iPhones you can use iMessage by just connecting to the wifi on the ship. Don't have to pay for anything. If you have android you can download the Royal IQ app and pay I believe $7.95/device to be able to text. At least this worked for me on Harmony a couple weeks ago. 

Welcome to the message boards!

The free iMessage trick (hack?) works on Harmony and Quantum class but not Allure or any other ship at this time.  RoyalIQ only works on those four ships as well, not Allure.  Royal Caribbean has suggested the new Royal app may one day provide free texting between people on the same reservation but so far no ships using the new Royal app have the texting feature enabled.

 

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10 hours ago, monorailmedic said:

I keep seeing the iMessage thing come up as a tip, and it's a great one for iOS users - BUT - please keep in mind this is not a document "feature" or perk.  It's a hole that was left open (probably because the level of effort of closing it while allowing something else through was too great at the time) but will almost certainly be closed.  I'd hate for someone to plan on this and not have a backup.

I believe it's an artifact to allow notification to work on the RoyalIQ app.  iMessage uses the same ports so it piggy backs on notifications for RoyalIQ.  Any texting feature is somewhat useless without notifications because you would need to have the app open and the phone unlocked to see that someone sent you a text within the RoyalIQ app.  I believe this is why the promised texting feature for the new app has been delayed and possibly scrapped all together.  They haven't said much about the texting feature since the initial tech announcement for the new app.

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On 4/18/2018 at 8:26 AM, Matt said:

If you don't want to pay for Voom and the new app wont be ready in time that really just leaves roaming texting with your cell carrier.  Check with your carrier, but it can be fairly inexpensive.

Yes that's true for normal people but this is a teenager! :10_wink:  It would blow your mind the number of texts a teen sends and receives in a day...the texts sent in 10 minutes would pretty much pay for Voom.  Even if you can force your teen to not make any texts back home you still have to deal with incoming. I know for some carriers incoming texts are free but not all...Verizon charges $.05 for a standard text and $.25 for pictures/videos of incoming texts. I can't even imagine the headache I'd have to deal with especially if my teens could see texts from friends but not respond. 

For me its an all or nothing approach...either buy Voom and make everyone happy or turn the phone to airplane mode and no texts but no communication with you either. 

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Thanks everyone for the input.    I just want to be able to contact him when he is at the teen club hanging out until all hours and let him know that we are there for seven days!    Seems like Voom is the best options for our iPhones.

 

Thanks again!

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2 hours ago, melski94 said:

Yes that's true for normal people but this is a teenager! :10_wink:  It would blow your mind the number of texts a teen sends and receives in a day...the texts sent in 10 minutes would pretty much pay for Voom.  Even if you can force your teen to not make any texts back home you still have to deal with incoming. I know for some carriers incoming texts are free but not all...Verizon charges $.05 for a standard text and $.25 for pictures/videos of incoming texts. I can't even imagine the headache I'd have to deal with especially if my teens could see texts from friends but not respond. 

For me its an all or nothing approach...either buy Voom and make everyone happy or turn the phone to airplane mode and no texts but no communication with you either. 

If you turn it to airplane mode, you go into wifi and turn it back on.  It will work with the wifi connection.

 

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8 hours ago, twangster said:

I believe it's an artifact to allow notification to work on the RoyalIQ app.  iMessage uses the same ports so it piggy backs on notifications for RoyalIQ.  Any texting feature is somewhat useless without notifications because you would need to have the app open and the phone unlocked to see that someone sent you a text within the RoyalIQ app.  I believe this is why the promised texting feature for the new app has been delayed and possibly scrapped all together.  They haven't said much about the texting feature since the initial tech announcement for the new app.

I tried to work with the Zoom technician to connect my iPhone this week. Text messages seem to work but everything else is a challenge. My iPhone and iPad are running the latest iOS and Zoom does not work with it on a consistent basis. They said it was in the “terms and conditions”.

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1 minute ago, PrincipalTinker said:

I tried to work with the Zoom technician to connect my iPhone this week. Text messages seem to work but everything else is a challenge. My iPhone and iPad are running the latest iOS and Zoom does not work with it on a consistent basis. They said it was in the “terms and conditions”.

Which ship?

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2 hours ago, SMM799 said:

 Seems like Voom is the best options for our iPhones.

Definitely the way to go

36 minutes ago, PrincipalTinker said:

I tried to work with the Zoom technician to connect my iPhone this week. Text messages seem to work but everything else is a challenge. My iPhone and iPad are running the latest iOS and Zoom does not work with it on a consistent basis. They said it was in the “terms and conditions”.

Surprised to hear that you encountered those issues on Anthem. I've had nothing but exemplary Voom service on Anthem

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1 minute ago, PrincipalTinker said:

I was surprised too. The rest of my family did not download the last iOS update and they have not had as many issues as I have.

Are you using TMO?  I'm not an iPhone user but I read recently that the latest version of iOS introduced a WiFi calling bug primarily affecting TMO customers (though perhaps some others in certain circumstances).  

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38 minutes ago, monorailmedic said:

Are you using TMO?  I'm not an iPhone user but I read recently that the latest version of iOS introduced a WiFi calling bug primarily affecting TMO customers (though perhaps some others in certain circumstances).  

I am not really sure. There are times when I go to my settings and under “Royal WiFi” it says in orange letters: no internet connection. The whole ship has a complete dead zone for all phones: the Schooner Bar. I just did a search for the terms of Zoom but they told me it is reported in the terms. They tried resetting all of my settings and it did not work.

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I upgraded to 11.3 during my Serenade cruise and I noticed more wifi related issues after upgrading.  Apple has become pretty bad with wifi issues over the last couple of years with no signs of it getting any better.  I think it has to do with attempting to sense poor wifi connectivity and switching over to cellular to maintain usable connectivity.  For example you are standing outside your house and while your phone is connected to your wifi it isn't really useable.  The phone then switches to cellular even though you are connected to wifi.

The problem seems to be the way Apple has coded it, when in airplane mode the phone is still trying to over analyze the connection and look for something better.  The latency of satellite internet is causing the phone to think it needs to do something to make it better.  

All assumptions on my part but I do think 11.3 wifi code is worse on iPhones, at least in some circumstances such as on a ship.

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I did purchase Voom for 3 devices for our July cruise.  My H has an android while the rest of us have iphones. I am hoping to use fb messenger as our method of communication on wifi.  I figure that the iphones can imessage but in case we need to contact my H phone, that is how we will reach him, so we may as all use that app instead.  

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1 hour ago, RobinP said:

I did purchase Voom for 3 devices for our July cruise.  My H has an android while the rest of us have iphones. I am hoping to use fb messenger as our method of communication on wifi.  I figure that the iphones can imessage but in case we need to contact my H phone, that is how we will reach him, so we may as all use that app instead.  

Whatsapp is another good option.  My husband has an android and I have an iphone.  We use Whatsapp everywhere we go.

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3 hours ago, PrincipalTinker said:

I had wished I knew about the iOS issue because I have a work cell that is an android and I would have brought that phone with me. Although I do think the issues this week may be beyond an iPhone problem. This was the last 20 minutes in the Grande.

Something to consider is "Reset Networking" on an iPhone.  It will forget any saved WiFi networks such as the back home but sometimes it solves some wifi weirdness on iPhones. 

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1 hour ago, twangster said:

Something to consider is "Reset Networking" on an iPhone.  It will forget any saved WiFi networks such as the back home but sometimes it solves some wifi weirdness on iPhones. 

Unfortunately they tried that...shortly after, “well the terms of service tells you this could happen...”. It is no big deal for me but if it is an iOS 11.3 issue and people have not installed the latest update I think they should wait. We had an amazing cruise and this did not impact me at all!

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