Is there a way to text phone to phone on ship without internet?

We aren't getting an Internet pkg....is there an app we can get to just text each others Samsungs while on board without incurring roaming charges?

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If you look just down this board (at the Whatsapp ) thread, or the board for the cruise line you are on, you will find lots of info.

Of course, specifying the cruise line/ship would also help answer your questions.

How are you planning on your phones communicating?

Phones can communicate through the internet (through would need the internet package for that) or through cellular service which will incur roaming charges when you are out of your providers area.

You can get an international package to cover you in port but I don't think it will work on the ship; would have to contact your carrier for that. Some lines, like norweigan have texting apps you can use onboard for a low fee; but depends on what cruise line you are using.

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If you're on Carnival, you can just get the Hub app and pay for the messaging. $5 per device for the duration of your cruise. Then you can chat one another via their app.

This one advertises not needing internet, though I have seen little feedback on it:

http://www.ripple-connect.com/

We aren't getting an Internet pkg....is there an app we can get to just text each others Samsungs while on board without incurring roaming charges?

 

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Satellite phone- rentable but still need data plan.

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Princess offers texting between passengers while on the ship for no charge. Only problem I have heard with it is that the recipient is not alerted to the incoming message, so must check for one.

We are on Celebrity

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On Celebrity you text at a cost of $.50 to send and $.05 to receive per text. That can add up. Plus, if you keep data roaming on, your phone will be searching for things like email, and you could come home with a big bill for download/roaming charges. You aren't using wifi, but the ship's satellite system, at a rate of $2.49 a minute.

Viber free app to use when international calling is needed. We are planning on using that and letting our carrier know we are or may be in international areas from time to time.

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We are on Celebrity

 

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As far as I know, celebrity doesn't have one of the texting apps you can use on the ship without an internet package. You can either pay for internet to text via wifi or pay roaming charges to text via SMS.

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I'm a little confused by the responses here. I just got off the Celebrity Equinox yesterday, with my Samsung phone, and did a LOT of researching before leaving on my cruise. The phone charges I incurred amounted to $0.60 (and that was for sending one text).

Here's what I found out in advance, and what worked for me:

I did not get an internet package. I was not planning to use the internet on the ship at all, so I made sure data and data roaming were turned off (in my phone settings) for my whole trip. Instead, while leaving data turned off, I just turned WiFi on when in port, and took advantage of free WiFi wherever I found it on land.

As for texting, even though the signal goes through the Celebrity ship tower (I'm guessing to the satellite), texting is not charged by Celebrity. Texting is managed/charged by your cell phone provider. Go to their website (or call them if you have a lot of time to wait on hold) and confirm this with them. My cell phone provider charges nothing for me to receive a text (either on land or at sea), but DOES charge me to send a text. That cost is $0.60 for any international (including at sea) texts. However, I could have purchased a texting package in advance for $15, which would have allowed me to send something like 1000 texts. Because I was not planning on making a lot of texts, I chose to just pay-per-text.

As it turned out, I received one text (unfortunately someone (not close to me) died and I was informed by text). And I sent one text (in response).

You don't need an app to send and receive texts - that function is already on your phone. And you don't need to go through the internet to send texts (so data and WiFi don't even have to be turned on when you send/receive a text). And you don't need to have data turned on in order to get WiFi.

Be sure to triple check your phone settings BEFORE you leave home. If you do it once you leave your home base you will start to incur roaming charges and that can get ugly. If you want to save having to recharge your phone so often, you can even leave WiFi off (seeing as you won't be using it) until you find a WiFi location in port (but be sure to leave your phone on, to send and receive texts).

This worked for me.

I'm a little confused by the responses here. I just got off the Celebrity Equinox yesterday, with my Samsung phone, and did a LOT of researching before leaving on my cruise. The phone charges I incurred amounted to $0.60 (and that was for sending one text).

Here's what I found out in advance, and what worked for me:

I did not get an internet package. I was not planning to use the internet on the ship at all, so I made sure data and data roaming were turned off (in my phone settings) for my whole trip. Instead, while leaving data turned off, I just turned WiFi on when in port, and took advantage of free WiFi wherever I found it on land.

As for texting, even though the signal goes through the Celebrity ship tower (I'm guessing to the satellite), texting is not charged by Celebrity. Texting is managed/charged by your cell phone provider. Go to their website (or call them if you have a lot of time to wait on hold) and confirm this with them. My cell phone provider charges nothing for me to receive a text (either on land or at sea), but DOES charge me to send a text. That cost is $0.60 for any international (including at sea) texts. However, I could have purchased a texting package in advance for $15, which would have allowed me to send something like 1000 texts. Because I was not planning on making a lot of texts, I chose to just pay-per-text.

As it turned out, I received one text (unfortunately someone (not close to me) died and I was informed by text). And I sent one text (in response).

You don't need an app to send and receive texts - that function is already on your phone. And you don't need to go through the internet to send texts (so data and WiFi don't even have to be turned on when you send/receive a text). And you don't need to have data turned on in order to get WiFi.

Be sure to triple check your phone settings BEFORE you leave home. If you do it once you leave your home base you will start to incur roaming charges and that can get ugly. If you want to save having to recharge your phone so often, you can even leave WiFi off (seeing as you won't be using it) until you find a WiFi location in port (but be sure to leave your phone on, to send and receive texts).

This worked for me.

This is pretty much what I do. Turn off data. Send & receive txt like normal (at a higher rate) and use WiFi in port. If you aren't going to send that many txt this is the most economical.

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Wait.... I'm confused...... If I'm on the ship,at sea, no 'net package, and data etc shut off, does texting service work at all? Is there an on onboard system to allow text between phones,even if i have no cell service?

Data is just data. Even on land if you have data you can still make phone calls and text. You are using the ships mast. This agreement is between NCL & phone company. They have agreed a tariff and this is what phone company charge you. The same as if in different country.

Your phone company has agreed a tariff with foreign provider & this is what you are charged by you phone company.

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Data is just data. Even on land if you have data you can still make phone calls and text. You are using the ships mast. This agreement is between NCL & phone company. They have agreed a tariff and this is what phone company charge you. The same as if in different country.

Your phone company has agreed a tariff with foreign provider & this is what you are charged by you phone company.

 

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Not exactly. Though no tech expert by any means, I'm in the ranks of those folks who learn how (and often why) gadgets/gizmos work. So, here's as simplified an explanation as I can muster.

A better word than "data" would be "info." Basic cellular communications info travels as voice, text or data. Until recently (pre-wifi calling), the differences were more clear cut. But, the bottom line remains that voice and text do NOT REQUIRE the internet for transmission. On a ship at sea, the "normal transmission of voice and text does need certain bands of satellite connectivity and, even with "cellular data" and "wifi" on your phone turned off, you can call and text using that satellite's voice/text connect for which you either paid (via your regular carrier's billing) or received "free" as part of your carrier's package and/or via a ship perk (based in part perhaps on the agreement of cruise line with cellular carrier like AT&T).

Where this has "recently" (actually years ago) changed is that, with the right phone (e.g., iPhone 6 or 7) you can opt to use a wireless data connection (either cellular data and/or wifi) rather than a voice/text connection for calls and texting.

For example on land, unless you turn off your late model iPhone's wifi and cellular data off, it will use the data based iMessage (over wifi or cellular data) to connect with other iPhones. If those functions are turned off, the iPhone looks for a voice/text cell tower. Of course, you do need to have a data package as part of your cellular service to use iMessage (or use other internet based communications (like Skype). Otherwise, you at least need cellular service to use regular SMS texting (and when abroad, an appropriate "world" capable cell phone).

On a ship at sea, it's the same thing: the ship's internet based wifi texting OR the ship's cell "tower" based regular SMS texting. In either case, you still need some version of "info connectivity" that you either pay for or receive as a perk. Note that this applies as well to proprietary "intranet" (onboard only communications), which the cruise line may make available to passengers (either paid for or included in your cabin price).

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Wait.... I'm confused...... If I'm on the ship,at sea, no 'net package, and data etc shut off, does texting service work at all? Is there an on onboard system to allow text between phones,even if i have no cell service?

Some ships offer a phone app that allows texting between phones on the ship using WiFi only, no internet needed. I know that Royal Caribbean's app is called Royal IQ, and works on Quantum class ships and Harmony.

I'm a little confused by the responses here. I just got off the Celebrity Equinox yesterday, with my Samsung phone, and did a LOT of researching before leaving on my cruise. The phone charges I incurred amounted to $0.60 (and that was for sending one text).

Here's what I found out in advance, and what worked for me:

I did not get an internet package. I was not planning to use the internet on the ship at all, so I made sure data and data roaming were turned off (in my phone settings) for my whole trip. Instead, while leaving data turned off, I just turned WiFi on when in port, and took advantage of free WiFi wherever I found it on land.

As for texting, even though the signal goes through the Celebrity ship tower (I'm guessing to the satellite), texting is not charged by Celebrity. Texting is managed/charged by your cell phone provider. Go to their website (or call them if you have a lot of time to wait on hold) and confirm this with them. My cell phone provider charges nothing for me to receive a text (either on land or at sea), but DOES charge me to send a text. That cost is $0.60 for any international (including at sea) texts. However, I could have purchased a texting package in advance for $15, which would have allowed me to send something like 1000 texts. Because I was not planning on making a lot of texts, I chose to just pay-per-text.

As it turned out, I received one text (unfortunately someone (not close to me) died and I was informed by text). And I sent one text (in response).

You don't need an app to send and receive texts - that function is already on your phone. And you don't need to go through the internet to send texts (so data and WiFi don't even have to be turned on when you send/receive a text). And you don't need to have data turned on in order to get WiFi.

Be sure to triple check your phone settings BEFORE you leave home. If you do it once you leave your home base you will start to incur roaming charges and that can get ugly. If you want to save having to recharge your phone so often, you can even leave WiFi off (seeing as you won't be using it) until you find a WiFi location in port (but be sure to leave your phone on, to send and receive texts).

This worked for me.

This,was awesome info as I too have Samsung S7 and sailing on Equinox in April. THANK YOU

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The biggest (potential) downside to keeping your phone on to receive texts, even if your package allows receiving for free and you have data roaming off, is that if anyone calls you you'll be charged a couple of dollars (up to six dollars if you have T-Mobile) even if you don't answer. Whatever the per-minute cost is for cellphone calls on a ship with your carrier you'll be charged the one minute minimum. If you don't answer and your call gets forwarded back to the US for your carrier's voicemail you'll incur another minute's charge (again, another couple of dollars up to six dollars for T-Mobile).

The biggest (potential) downside to keeping your phone on to receive texts, even if your package allows receiving for free and you have data roaming off, is that if anyone calls you you'll be charged a couple of dollars (up to six dollars if you have T-Mobile) even if you don't answer. Whatever the per-minute cost is for cellphone calls on a ship with your carrier you'll be charged the one minute minimum. If you don't answer and your call gets forwarded back to the US for your carrier's voicemail you'll incur another minute's charge (again, another couple of dollars up to six dollars for T-Mobile).

Thanks for mentioning that. I should have also added that I had turned off my voice mail.

Wait.... I'm confused...... If I'm on the ship,at sea, no 'net package, and data etc shut off, does texting service work at all? Is there an on onboard system to allow text between phones,even if i have no cell service?

A few cruise lines offer this service; but outside of this, no. Your phones will either need to be connected to the internet via a wifi plan or cellular service for your phones to text. Now, there is sometimes connection to cellular at sea via the satellite communication system but you will be paying per text to your phone provider when you get home (usually in the neighborhood of 50 cents to send and 10 cents to receive) - so over two phones, if you were to do 10 texts back and forth a day it would cost $6 or so.

Most major lines will offer Cellular at Sea or the equivalent service.

On my cellphone plan (T-Mobile US) I receive texts at sea for free but sending is 50 cents. Its the only reasonably priced part about turning on the phone at sea. :)