Anyone recently on Gem use iMessage to contact family back home?

We sailed on the breakaway in March and Dawn last August and I was able to iMessage home and it didn't use the wifi, had the phone in airplane mode and worked perfectly. I heard that NCL just started blocking this. Anyone off the Gem recently that was able to iMessage without the wifi? Also, I see they sell the internet package but heard that NCL now offers a package for just texting. Would appreciate any feedback.

The tiered packages are being done as a pilot on a couple of the mega ships. The ability to imessage without paying was a bug in the wifi system. You were never entitled to do that. So if they fixed the bug in their system and block the unauthorized network usage, then it is working the way it should have worked all along.

The tiered packages are being done as a pilot on a couple of the mega ships. The ability to imessage without paying was a bug in the wifi system. You were never entitled to do that. So if they fixed the bug in their system and block the unauthorized network usage, then it is working the way it should have worked all along.

Yep... no such thing as a free text or phone call. Somebody has to pay for internet.

Thanks for your response. I always get the internet package just heard a lot of a new block so was wondering if they put a block in place or if they sold a message plan which I was hearing about.

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We were just on the Gem and downloaded the Hub app and was able to to iMessage at no cost. It was awesome.

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We were just on the Gem and downloaded the Hub app and was able to to iMessage at no cost. It was awesome.

 

 

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Hmmm what is Hub app? I need to check that out. Let me know, thanks.

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I just got off the gem his morn. We were able to use iMessage but found that some times it worked and sometimes it didn't. Was unable to send pics but reg messages worked.

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