iPhones yay or nay???

I am going on allure of the seas in November!!! I am going with my partner and 18 year old son. I was wondering if anyone has rented the iPhones and thought they were worth it? Any tips? Did they work well? Thanks for the replies.

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We used it for our 10 year old who was looking for some independence. You won't need it for an 18 year old. Post notes on your door to each other or use any of the phones you can find on the ship (check the elevator banks in particular) to leave messages for each other on your room answering machine.

I wouldn't do it again, for our next trip, I might just use our walkie talkies.

I am going on allure of the seas in November!!! I am going with my partner and 18 year old son. I was wondering if anyone has rented the iPhones and thought they were worth it? Any tips? Did they work well? Thanks for the replies.

 

 

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I assume you will be outside of a nationwide calling area.

Cell phones can be used on most ships, including Allure. Cell phone calls, however, are priced differently than you may be used to, so that cell phones used for calling are an expensive way to keep in touch. Figure about $2 per minute; ask your provider. Moreover, your 18 year old son does not want to be called by his Mom while he is chatting up some girl (or guy) at the pool. He is in a closed environment and not much can happen to him.

On the other hand, you can buy a package from most carriers (I use Verizon) for data for $25 for 100 mb. That was more than enough for a recent 15 day TA. You can not only send endless e-mails back and forth to each other, but also read e-mails from home. This connects through a different system that wi-fi; RCI gets a cut of what Verizon charges. RCI charges you nothing. Connection is seamless. You do not need to sign in to anything. Try to limit sending pictures; that is what chews up the MBs. My wife and daughter are on the same plan so they only paid $25 for both of their phones. E-mails are easier to ignore while said son is chatting up whoever at the pool. And 18 year old girls are already used to boys endlessly checking e-mail.

And on the other hand, for several days I could not send or receive e-mail on the iPhone. My wife experienced 8 hour delays in sending/receiving on her Blackberry. This was a Verizon problem fleet wide, having nothing to do with RCI. The cell phone system is more fragile at sea than on land. (I had my laptop as well, at $.30 per minute. I'm not permitted by my firm to be out of touch.)

I assume you will be outside of a nationwide calling area.

 

Cell phones can be used on most ships, including Allure. Cell phone calls, however, are priced differently than you may be used to, so that cell phones used for calling are an expensive way to keep in touch. Figure about $2 per minute; ask your provider. Moreover, your 18 year old son does not want to be called by his Mom while he is chatting up some girl (or guy) at the pool. He is in a closed environment and not much can happen to him.

 

On the other hand, you can buy a package from most carriers (I use Verizon) for data for $25 for 100 mb. That was more than enough for a recent 15 day TA. You can not only send endless e-mails back and forth to each other, but also read e-mails from home. This connects through a different system that wi-fi; RCI gets a cut of what Verizon charges. RCI charges you nothing. Connection is seamless. You do not need to sign in to anything. Try to limit sending pictures; that is what chews up the MBs. My wife and daughter are on the same plan so they only paid $25 for both of their phones. E-mails are easier to ignore while said son is chatting up whoever at the pool. And 18 year old girls are already used to boys endlessly checking e-mail.

 

And on the other hand, for several days I could not send or receive e-mail on the iPhone. My wife experienced 8 hour delays in sending/receiving on her Blackberry. This was a Verizon problem fleet wide, having nothing to do with RCI. The cell phone system is more fragile at sea than on land. (I had my laptop as well, at $.30 per minute. I'm not permitted by my firm to be out of touch.)

I believe the OP is asking about the Royal Connect iPhones for rent on the ship:

http://www.royalcaribbeanincentives.com/docs/rccl-pdfs/connect-brochure.pdf

We did on the Oasis last year. They were great & you could get reception anywhere on the ship.

We will be on th Allure in October. These ships are way to big to 'just run back to your room & leave a note'.

You can call, text or the very best....GPS.

You can actuall see where the other person is ! It also has the daily planner progammed in so you do not have to carry the paper copy with you.

Those are the ones we had. I think it was $50 for the week on the Oasis for two of them last August. All you could really do with them was call or text the other phone. They only worked on the ship, too.

My son also "misplaced" his at one point and we went for a mad dash through the ship to find it. The other phone was able to give an approximate location, so there may be some sort of feature like that to track a person with it. Not exact, we looked through three floors of the MDR for it.

Amy Flicker, our cruise director, found the phone and turned it in to guest services. Thank goodness, I couldn't imagine paying for a replacement.

All the more reason to stick to walkie talkies or those handy public phones!

I had no idea this was even an option. Great idea!

iPhones have an app called Find My iPhone which, if downloaded and set up, will identify the general area in which the phone is located.

I do not know of the program to rent phones on the ship. I don't know why that would be useful if, for $25 from your carrier, you could have your e-mail and communicate that way.

I am going on allure of the seas in November!!! I am going with my partner and 18 year old son. I was wondering if anyone has rented the iPhones and thought they were worth it? Any tips? Did they work well? Thanks for the replies.

 

 

 

 

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I would only suggest that you take off a week and use the internet a few times. I used to have a job where a phone did allow me to get away (somewhat).

I now go to a beach area in FL and we have NO phone(land line), no newspaper, no TV, no radio, no internet connection, poor wireless phone reception and I love it. I always think of it as our Summer of '42 destination.

I do bring beer with me!:)

We used it for our 10 year old who was looking for some independence. You won't need it for an 18 year old. Post notes on your door to each other or use any of the phones you can find on the ship (check the elevator banks in particular) to leave messages for each other on your room answering machine.

 

I wouldn't do it again, for our next trip, I might just use our walkie talkies.

Thanks for the reply! It is a first time cruise experience for my partner and son. I know he will be off gallavanting all over the ship, it will help ease my mind if I could get a hold of him. Thanks again for sharing :)

I assume you will be outside of a nationwide calling area.

 

Cell phones can be used on most ships, including Allure. Cell phone calls, however, are priced differently than you may be used to, so that cell phones used for calling are an expensive way to keep in touch. Figure about $2 per minute; ask your provider. Moreover, your 18 year old son does not want to be called by his Mom while he is chatting up some girl (or guy) at the pool. He is in a closed environment and not much can happen to him.

 

On the other hand, you can buy a package from most carriers (I use Verizon) for data for $25 for 100 mb. That was more than enough for a recent 15 day TA. You can not only send endless e-mails back and forth to each other, but also read e-mails from home. This connects through a different system that wi-fi; RCI gets a cut of what Verizon charges. RCI charges you nothing. Connection is seamless. You do not need to sign in to anything. Try to limit sending pictures; that is what chews up the MBs. My wife and daughter are on the same plan so they only paid $25 for both of their phones. E-mails are easier to ignore while said son is chatting up whoever at the pool. And 18 year old girls are already used to boys endlessly checking e-mail.

 

And on the other hand, for several days I could not send or receive e-mail on the iPhone. My wife experienced 8 hour delays in sending/receiving on her Blackberry. This was a Verizon problem fleet wide, having nothing to do with RCI. The cell phone system is more fragile at sea than on land. (I had my laptop as well, at $.30 per minute. I'm not permitted by my firm to be out of touch.)

Hi So cal traveler! Thanks for your reply. The iphones you can rent on RC for a flat fee during the week. You can text, message and call other passengers for a 30 dollar flat fee for the week. It sounds like a good idea!

Thanks again for the reply...

I believe the OP is asking about the Royal Connect iPhones for rent on the ship:

 

http://www.royalcaribbeanincentives.com/docs/rccl-pdfs/connect-brochure.pdf

Hi Clarea...thanks for the reply and the attachment! I'm amazed how many people don't know about the iphones! :)

We did on the Oasis last year. They were great & you could get reception anywhere on the ship.

We will be on th Allure in October. These ships are way to big to 'just run back to your room & leave a note'.

You can call, text or the very best....GPS.

You can actuall see where the other person is ! It also has the daily planner progammed in so you do not have to carry the paper copy with you.

Hi Shippy...Thanks for the reply!! It does sound like a great idea!

Hi Shippy...Thanks for the reply!! It does sound like a great idea!

These work only on the ship.In fact they advise you not to take them off the ship where they might get lost.

You cannot make regular calls with them outside of the ship location.

When you get them, they program them for only the people in your group so you cannot accidentally call ...disturb...other people.

I think you will be happy with them.

I have heard people with walkie talkies say you cannot get reception in certain parts of the ship plus sometimes you hear them yelling into them when the reception is bad.

A prior poster seemed to have trouble with the GPS. I was able to pretty accurately tell where my husband was. this is a great feature when you do not want to disturb others around you, like in the theater.

What a brilliant idea and one which my sister has been asking for and one which she will most definitely use