Royal IQ Communications Package

[johnl818]

Will be traveling on the Anthem for our first Royal Caribbean cruise.  I have a question re the Royal IQ communications package.  (A similar question was asked last month but it does not look like the person got a full answer.)  Does the $7.95 fee cover both my wife and I for the entire trip?  Also, it was mentioned that those with iPhones could just use the iMessage feature to communicate.  Would a Voom package be required for both phones to do that?  Thanks in advance.

[Carlos A.]

The App doesn't support Push notifications so if the only thing you are interested in is communications I wouldn't use it. 

If both have an iPhone you could use iMessage just connecting to the WiFi network of Royal Caribbean without purchasing a Voom package and you will be able to send messages. (Note: you will not be able to navigate or use any other internet related stuff without the package, only iMessage)

[twangster]

Welcome to the message boards!

The ability to use iMessage for free is an unpublished feature that guests have discovered.  It's not an official offer from Royal.  I've seen it work myself but since its a side effect the loophole could be closed by Royal at anytime.  No one knows if that is coming or not, or when it might end.  If it still works for your cruise that's great but don't be upset if you board and discover they've fixed it.  

My understanding is that the $7.95 charge for the chat feature in RoyalIQ is per person, not per cabin.  I believe your device is assigned a unique phone number on board and two devices can't share a phone number at the same time.  Having said that I've only cruised solo on Anthem and have no direct experience trying to use multiple devices per cabin to prove my supposition.  

On this cruise I was in cabin 11300.  Note how my extension became 88113001.   The last digit is 1 for the first device.  I believe additional users in the cabin would have a last digit of 2 and so on.  

The section in the app where you purchase the chat options doesn't really address it:

[LadyB]

1 hour ago, johnl818 said:

Will be traveling on the Anthem for our first Royal Caribbean cruise.  I have a question re the Royal IQ communications package.  (A similar question was asked last month but it does not look like the person got a full answer.)  Does the $7.95 fee cover both my wife and I for the entire trip?  Also, it was mentioned that those with iPhones could just use the iMessage feature to communicate.  Would a Voom package be required for both phones to do that?  Thanks in advance.

Excellent question john818!  I think I understand how it works now, however I don't think Jewell has the IQ and that's the ship I'm sailing on. bummer?

[twangster]

8 minutes ago, LadyB said:

Excellent question john818!  I think I understand how it works now, however I don't think Jewell has the IQ and that's the ship I'm sailing on. bummer?

No app for Jewel at the moment.  

Royal has been working on a new app called "Royal Caribbean International" that is expected to eventually be used on all ships.  They haven't released a specific time line for any given ship so we don't know when Jewel will be enabled for the new app.

[jzing]

I was on Anthem of the Seas last week and I can report that iMessage does work without Voom.  I also noticed that Google Voice worked as well.  (My family uses iPhones but my brother and wife are Google folks) My kids reported that iMessage worked with folks off the boat too.  They must block some traffic without Voom, but not all.

[Matt]

14 hours ago, jzing said:

I was on Anthem of the Seas last week and I can report that iMessage does work without Voom

You're correct, but I don't share that info with people, simply because it's a loophole and I expect RC to eventually plug it up.