Gem - keeping in touch with preteens - whatsapp maybe?

We have twin 12yr old girls (13yrs old in May) & will be leaving on the 11 day cruise on the Gem tomorrow!

Still trying to figure out how to stay in touch on board! Many folks have said the NCL app is not very reliable for messaging each other on the ship.

I thought about walkie talkies but I honestly hate them so much. I think they are really annoying to people around you. Plus they don't always work too.

So then I thought about Whatsapp, but pretty sure that needs wifi. Looking online I think the basic wifi package is $137.50 per person, for the length of the cruise.... or actually per device. So we could maybe get away with having me having the wifi package & then one of my girls having the wifi package (as they will generally always be together). But still, around $270 for just messaging each other, to keep in touch for 11 days seems really expensive!!!!

I really hate Carnival, but here is where CCL beats NCL, with the app!

Any other suggestions I am missing??

what about the old fashioned way of checking in at certain times in certain places? that way you actually SEE your child and you can know for certain they are where they say they are.

Depending on your carrier's roaming/int'l plan, you might be better off using good old SMS or texting to keep in touch ... they aren't that expensive - just make sure everyone's cellular DATA are turned off. Texting is as little as 5 cents or 25 cents to receive, maybe 25 cents or 50 cents or $1 to SEND.

Do the math, you could do this for $10 a day ... or less, for a few outgoing messages; and, have them call in from any "house" phone in the public areas of the ship for free, if you are in the stateroom (or, if they are in the cabin or wish to find you). Exchanging a few short messages for each "round" is $1.50 or $2 x few times a day.

Once in ports, you are traveling together & will be too far away from ship's WiFi anyway.

It has been reported (from our regulars on the Roll Call) that lately, the Gem's WiFi has improved and more responsive ... uninstall the older App if you have it, install the newest version before sailing, and, also the newest "Cruise Norwegian" App, also free - in case NCL decided to launch it for the ship.

NCL's optional text messaging function on the iCon App was (is ??) buggy but that could be considered as a backup - for a nominal fee, much less than $270 for 2 devices (or, whatever, with the social media limited plan) ... if it doesn't work well or at all, speak to the iCafe manager nicely for a refund via OBC adjustment, early on (and, they know it, if ...)

Lastly, calls to stateroom within the ship are free & you can leave VM - just cannot retrieve them remotely. Keep in mind, smartphones/iPhones roaming will drain the battery much faster as it's pinging the cellular signal "tower" more often, it might not last a long day.

You can also pay a 1 time fee for the app to open it and it allows ap to ap messaging and calls for I believe $9.95

what about the old fashioned way of checking in at certain times in certain places? that way you actually SEE your child and you can know for certain they are where they say they are.

Bingo![emoji106][emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

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what about the old fashioned way of checking in at certain times in certain places? that way you actually SEE your child and you can know for certain they are where they say they are.

One of our twins is extremely mature & responsible for their age. So they know they are to stay together at all times. Honestly, to have to stop activities to go meet somewhere at certain times, is going to be disruptive for all of us. We want to have a vacation, that is what we paid for.

But we do want to be able to check in just a few times, see how they are doing. Or if they have questions or issues, they can contact us right away, no matter where we are on the ship.

If we were meeting at a set time, like 2pm in the atrium... then we all go off & at 2.30pm one of my girls has a stomach ache. How are they meant to get in touch with us then? Meeting later at 4 or 5pm doesn't work as well for that. Maybe she may be okay, maybe she might not. I would probably want to see her myself to know.

One of our twins is extremely mature & responsible for their age. So they know they are to stay together at all times. Honestly, to have to stop activities to go meet somewhere at certain times, is going to be disruptive for all of us. We want to have a vacation, that is what we paid for.

 

 

But we do want to be able to check in just a few times, see how they are doing. Or if they have questions or issues, they can contact us right away, no matter where we are on the ship.

 

If we were meeting at a set time, like 2pm in the atrium... then we all go off & at 2.30pm one of my girls has a stomach ache. How are they meant to get in touch with us then? Meeting later at 4 or 5pm doesn't work as well for that. Maybe she may be okay, maybe she might not. I would probably want to see her myself to know.

Because you should go over the Freestyle Daily the night before and if you are going to any activities you'll let them know where you will be. Or when you meet at "2:30" you can say you'll be on the pool deck until 4, etc. it is not that hard. You can tell them if they aren't feeling well to go to the cabin. Won't they be in the kids club most of the time anyway?

Because you should go over the Freestyle Daily the night before and if you are going to any activities you'll let them know where you will be. Or when you meet at "2:30" you can say you'll be on the pool deck until 4, etc. it is not that hard. You can tell them if they aren't feeling well to go to the cabin. Won't they be in the kids club most of the time anyway?

They will probably not be in the kids club 90% of the time. They are 12yrs old, but 13yrs old in May, so right at the top end of the age bracket for their club. They don't want to be with the younger kids & the activities are normally more geared towards the younger ages. So they are hoping they meet some like-minded friends (we have a meet & greet set up with some kids around their age attending) that they can hang out with & play games, do some of the daily activities etc.

Sorry, should also have mentioned one of my daughters (the less mature one) does have a medical condition. She has POTs, not serious, but can get dizzy/light headed & if she doesn't sit or lay down she will faint. She is pretty good about feeling it coming on & knowing to just sit down or tell someone she needs to sit down. But 3 times she has passed out & hit her head on items..... luckily no concussions & no injury (well black eye one time & big ol' bump on her head another time!).

We just want to have some kind of texting contact, mainly so her sister can contact us if there is a minor emergency & that way we can go help out. Or to just check in & make sure they are okay. Also of course, we will talk ahead of time about some code words/sentences to use if they are with people & feel uncomfortable, that they can text us & the people would not be able to tell.

Wondering actually, as one of the girls has a medical issue (which we did let guest services know about already, as we didn't want her having to stand on line for too long for boarding or muster drill) if guest services on board could help us out with just having something to keep in touch with them for emergencies??

We had good luck with the iconcierge app with our 5 teens last May. There are a finite public places to be on the ship, usually our kids would find us (at spinnakers...). Our paths would cross all of the time.

I agree with frequent physical "check ins"...tell them where YOU'LL be...and have them come and find you. Of course, you'll know where they are, too....right? If YOUR plans change, go and find them and tell them the plans for the next hour or two.

Your kids are still young...I would NOT allow roaming without purpose. Especially if one has a medical issue. Frequent PHYSICAL checks is the way to go. You're on vacation...plenty of time for that!

You can also pay a 1 time fee for the app to open it and it allows ap to ap messaging and calls for I believe $9.95

We did this and it worked great

yeah, 12 is young to roam alone especially if one has a medical. yes you are on vacation, but bad things can and do happen on ships. dont forget, you are a floating city with 2500 strangers and 1500 crew.

We have always had good experiences with NCL's app. As long as you remember that it isn't like regular texting to which you are accustomed, so things don't always instantly show up. Sometimes you have to manually open and refresh the app to see messages. To me that isn't a big deal, but some people consider that a deal breaker. I'd certainly never pay for wifi just to message my kids. I'd communicate the old fashioned way by actually finding each other and speaking face to face. It's amazing how well that works.

People can be so judgmental. You know the maturity levels of your twins, and you're their parent -- practice what you feel is right.

I agree with the poster that said to just use basic SMS text messaging. Much cheaper. And, if you all have iPhones, iMessage works for free with the free ship wifi (at least it did for me on both the Getaway and Breakaway while using the ship wifi to connect to the IConcierge app).

People can be so judgmental. You know the maturity levels of your twins, and you're their parent -- practice what you feel is right.

 

I agree with the poster that said to just use basic SMS text messaging. Much cheaper. And, if you all have iPhones, iMessage works for free with the free ship wifi (at least it did for me on both the Getaway and Breakaway while using the ship wifi to connect to the IConcierge app).

The Apple iMessage work-around has been blocked on most of the NCL ships, or at least the ones with the upgraded internet systems.

NCL's iConcierge app is the easiest and best way. No need to buy an internet minutes package. Load the app before you leave. On the ship, activate the app on each phone for $9.95 each device. Texting between devices works reasonably well, although there can be delays in delivering texts...just be aware of that possibility.

The problem with any texting solution that uses an internet package is that only one device at a time can be signed into a single internet account. Therefore, to provide real time texting functionality between two or more devices on the ship, you'd have to buy multiple internet packages, one for each person.

If you go the route of using SMS messaging, then you have to have your cell phone on. Now you may start incurring cell charges if someone calls one of your phones on board. Also, your young ladies may be tempted to continue their normal texting habits with all their friends back on shore, which even at SMS rates will rack up the charges.

We

 

Still trying to figure out how to stay in touch on board! Many folks have said the NCL app is not very reliable for messaging each other on the ship.

 

??

Not sure where you got this info. We used iconcierge to stay in touch on our last cruise and it worked well. We paid $10 per phone for a 10 day cruise (not per day, total) for 3 phones. 1 phone liked to disconnect from the intranet and when it's disconnected it won't receive or send messages, but any internet messaging platform will be the same. But, when that person noticed she was disconnected and connected all the messages came through fine. I would just plan on using that and fall back on the internet if it doesn't work well enough for you.

We have twin 12yr old girls (13yrs old in May) & will be leaving on the 11 day cruise on the Gem tomorrow!

 

Still trying to figure out how to stay in touch on board! Many folks have said the NCL app is not very reliable for messaging each other on the ship.

 

I thought about walkie talkies but I honestly hate them so much. I think they are really annoying to people around you. Plus they don't always work too.

 

So then I thought about Whatsapp, but pretty sure that needs wifi. Looking online I think the basic wifi package is $137.50 per person, for the length of the cruise.... or actually per device. So we could maybe get away with having me having the wifi package & then one of my girls having the wifi package (as they will generally always be together). But still, around $270 for just messaging each other, to keep in touch for 11 days seems really expensive!!!!

 

I really hate Carnival, but here is where CCL beats NCL, with the app!

 

Any other suggestions I am missing??

Hi there! I was hoping to get a follow up on what you decided to do for your girls? We will be cruising in June to Alaska with my 13 year old son and am in the same situation.

Thanks!

The iconcierge app although not perfect does work well and if you all have iPhones then imessaging using the ships wifi works almost all the time.

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The iconcierge app although not perfect does work well and if you all have iPhones then imessaging using the ships wifi works almost all the time.

 

 

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Thanks, I'm sorry if this is redundant..but with imessaging, to use it - didn't you have to still purchase a wifi package? We do have iPhones, so would love to use whatever is most reliable to keep in touch easily and quickly!

I plan on getting the social media plan just for my phone so that we can keep in touch with our pet-sitter back home...but if iMessage works without buying a plan then I certainly want to use it :)

Thank you!

Thanks, I'm sorry if this is redundant..but with imessaging, to use it - didn't you have to still purchase a wifi package? We do have iPhones, so would love to use whatever is most reliable to keep in touch easily and quickly!

 

 

 

I plan on getting the social media plan just for my phone so that we can keep in touch with our pet-sitter back home...but if iMessage works without buying a plan then I certainly want to use it [emoji4]

 

 

 

Thank you!

All NCL ships allow you to connect to the intranet for free. Some NCL ships have a bug where while connected to the free intranet, it allows apps inadvertent connection to the internet so iMessage can work. I think they are fixing this bug so I wouldn’t plan on that working. But you can certainly try it when you get onboard before you purchase an internet plan.

On my last NCL cruise an occasional iMessage and weather/news update came in but no iMessages went out. The connection was nowhere near regular enough for communication purposes.

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Thanks, I'm sorry if this is redundant..but with imessaging, to use it - didn't you have to still purchase a wifi package? We do have iPhones, so would love to use whatever is most reliable to keep in touch easily and quickly!

 

I plan on getting the social media plan just for my phone so that we can keep in touch with our pet-sitter back home...but if iMessage works without buying a plan then I certainly want to use it :)

 

Thank you!

No WiFi package needed to run the IConcierge app on your phones, just the 1x charge per phone of $9.95 But you can only talk to people on the ship. I think it was .80 per minute for outside calls, it didn't work all the time on the Gem, had better service at times, disconnected at others. If you are in a suite, there is a cordless phone that you can take with you anywhere on the ship. Teens can call "room" from any house phone on ship and your cordless will ring.

Even without the cordless phones in regular rooms, your children can call the room number from any house phone and leave a voice message for you as well. The pen and paper works great in your cabin as well...our DD would leave us notes telling us where she was heading and when she'd be back. To get in touch with people back home, used facebook messenger with the wifi and texted. I've also used skype, but from ports, never from the ship. It was the way we got in touch with our dog sitter at home as well.:D

We used the iconcierge app... paid per device... Dd doesn’t have a phone, it worked great on her iPod. I learned from someone else’s experience to have her let us know when she was changing venues or coming back to the room. If you happen to be having alone time and locked your door, your kiddo’s key will open it even if it is “locked”... hence the text warning if coming back to the room too. It worked great for us, we would let her know where we were too and vice versa. We plan on doing the same on the Spirit in a couple months.

Thanks, I'm sorry if this is redundant..but with imessaging, to use it - didn't you have to still purchase a wifi package? We do have iPhones, so would love to use whatever is most reliable to keep in touch easily and quickly!

 

 

 

I plan on getting the social media plan just for my phone so that we can keep in touch with our pet-sitter back home...but if iMessage works without buying a plan then I certainly want to use it [emoji4]

 

 

 

Thank you!

No. There is a loophole that if you connect to the ships WiFi you can use imessage, although you don’t have internet access. I believe it works even if you don’t pay for the messaging through iconcierge, but we have always just bought that anyway.

So don’t buy the social media package until you have tried imessaging. I’m sure it’ll work fine without that extra cost.

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No. There is a loophole that if you connect to the ships WiFi you can use imessage, although you don’t have internet access. I believe it works even if you don’t pay for the messaging through iconcierge, but we have always just bought that anyway.

 

So don’t buy the social media package until you have tried imessaging. I’m sure it’ll work fine without that extra cost.

This loophole didn't occur on all ships, and some have reported that it no longer works on the ships it once did. In other words, don't count on it.