princess@sea messenger questions

DH & I getting ready to go on our first cruise ever! Island Princess. We are planning to use princess@sea messenger to stay in touch with each other on the ship...they do have that on the Island Princess, right? Does it allow voice-actuated texting, or is it only capable of doing texting-by-fingers? And, will we still see the time of day on our phones? We haven't worn a watch for years.

Princess@Sea is available on all Princess ships & their website has a lot of useful information to explain how it works including pictures of the displays:

http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/activities/princess-at-sea/

DH & I getting ready to go on our first cruise ever! Island Princess. We are planning to use princess@sea messenger to stay in touch with each other on the ship...they do have that on the Island Princess, right? Does it allow voice-actuated texting, or is it only capable of doing texting-by-fingers? And, will we still see the time of day on our phones? We haven't worn a watch for years.

Texting only.

You can see the time, but not sure about accuracy thereof.

My biggest complaint is there is no notification when you get a message.

I was anxious to use it also but it would not work for me. It kept disconnecting the wifi. The mgr of the Internet cafe said that it doesn't work with a Samsung phone. It was on the Grand.

I was anxious to use it also but it would not work for me. It kept disconnecting the wifi. The mgr of the Internet cafe said that it doesn't work with a Samsung phone. It was on the Grand.

Gee, I used it with Samsung, Kyocera, ZTE, and probably a couple more.

There is a glitch with Android 5.x, but it doesn't have anything to do with

Samsung.

I bet the majority of Android 5.x phones the i.net manager sees are

Samsung, and he made a (wrong) conclusion.

Does it allow voice-actuated texting, or is it only capable of doing texting-by-fingers? And, will we still see the time of day on our phones? We haven't worn a watch for years.

Sound like you may be referring to dictation, which in most cases requires an Internet connection. So unless you are willing to pay to use the Internet than no.

Your phone will display the date and time as it does normally but it will not update unless you turn on the cellular option and it connects to a cell tower.

It would be much more helpful to know what kind of phone you use and we can give you more specific advice.

Used it on the Diamond and it was very useful.

GUT2407 is correct that there is no notification when you receive a text and that proved a bit annoying.

On the Diamond the group we were with had iPhones and Androids and it worked fine. The one thing to remember is that you have to add the persons ID in order to text back and forth. Talk to the ship internet folks and they can help you set it up.

Enjoy your cruise.

Our phones are iPhone 5s.

Thanks! This ID, is it something they give you on the ship?

Thanks! This ID, is it something they give you on the ship?

For the people who are cleared to the same credit card,

you can find/add them by name.

To add others, you need a code like 'AZZ9YCY'

The other user can find this on their phone, tell you,

and you type enter it. Sort of like a cryptic phone number.

As others have said, no notifications.

The other problem I ran into, depending on where you wander,

you can lose wi-fi coverage.

This is kind of a different mentality that at home, where you expect

cell data everywhere (within reason).

Thanks! This ID, is it something they give you on the ship?

It's an ID you get when you first login to the system. Unless both phones have each others ID added you can't text back and forth. Logging in is pretty simple but you do have to remember your password. Once you are logged in you are given an ID (series of numbers and letters) and that is what the system uses to allow you to text back and forth.

Don't think of it as texting. Messenger@Sea is more like this discussion thread we are in right now.

When I type this reply and you are not refreshing this thread you will have no idea I replyed. When you read this reply you did so because you looked at new posts or refreshed this exact thread. Any notification you received about this thread is not available with Messenger@Sea.

If you and your DW can frequent your Messenger@Sea you can communicate much like text messaging. If you are not refreshing your Messenger@Sea you will have no idea anyone has posted anything.

For me it was a great asset to cursing with a group. I brought my laptop and it sat open on the desk on the app for the entire trip. Anytime anyone messaged there was a visual cue that appeared on the screen. Having the Laptop made for fast typing and ease of browsing shipboard account and such. My DW and I both owned Galaxy S5's so for us it was difficult to use the phones. (Laptop in cabin worked wonderfully.) We did still carry and use our phones everywhere. Our phones kept proper time. When we wanted to use our phones we were forced to connect to the ships wifi, launch app, communicate or check communications and finish in 60 seconds. At which time the phones were booted off the wifi. If we needed more time we just logged back in and hurried some more. It worked fine in a pinch. At no time were we unable to check for updated messages with the Galaxy S5. Other phones in our group were the Note4, Droids, LG's. All of which connected to the ships Wifi and stayed connected. A phone that stays connected is certainly a bonus.

There are people who use their phone often because they want to.

There are people who use their phone rarely and only when they have to.

For those that use their phones often because they want to, will enjoy Messenger@Sea.

 

For me it was a great asset to cursing with a group..

Do the other members of your group object to your curses?

I brought my laptop and it sat open on the desk on the app for the entire trip. Anytime anyone messaged there was a visual cue that appeared on the screen.

You don't have to refresh to see this -- the web page

has loaded javascript with the page which polls very frequently to

check for new messages -- if it gets a positive result,

it updates the little count icon.

Same on phone.

The real downside is that there is no notification while on ship wi-fi.

You can use your phone as a clock but since your phone will be (or should be) in airplane mode with wifi turned on, the time will not update if you change time zones. When we cruise, I change my phone so I make time changes manually instead of automatically. That way I can make sure my phone time stays in sync with the ship's time.

You can get notifications BUT you have to set it up in your accounts/notifications area. You also have to allow push notifications. Just choose how you want it done. The app does not change your notification settings automatically. You have to do that yourself.

As far as time goes do that manually as others have suggested. Ship time is often different than real time. FWIW I have a "cruise watch" its the only time I wear it. Its just simpler.

You can get notifications BUT you have to set it up in your accounts/notifications area. You also have to allow push notifications. Just choose how you want it done. The app does not change your notification settings automatically. You have to do that yourself.

 

 

 

As far as time goes do that manually as others have suggested. Ship time is often different than real time. FWIW I have a "cruise watch" its the only time I wear it. Its just simpler.

Unless something has changed, notifications require a push notification sever and communication with an apple server which would require an Internet connection. It wouldn't be possible to simply turn notifications on to receive push notifications that are now common on iOS and Android.

Unless something has changed, notifications require a push notification sever and communication with an apple server which would require an Internet connection. It wouldn't be possible to simply turn notifications on to receive push notifications that are now common on iOS and Android.

For android Princess@Sea uses google cloud messaging for

notifications. These notifications are not received on ship

wifi.

About a week after I came home, I turned on a phone that

I had used on the ship, and received a GCM notification.

We have booked to go on a tour with passengers we've never met, from another country. Does the Messenger or Princess@Sea let me look them up by name and contact them?

We have booked to go on a tour with passengers we've never met, from another country. Does the Messenger or Princess@Sea let me look them up by name and contact them?

No.

If you do not know their cabin number, you can call the customer service desk and ask to be connected to their cabin phone.

Thanks for that.

And when you do call them or run into them on the ship, you ask them for the id # found at the top of their message screen. You input that once, and it will be in your contacts. Easier to ask at the internet desk where to enter that number than for me to explain it correctly, but I think you go to your account screen. It isn't an obvious place (to me anyway; we found it by accident). And then give them your number.