Can you share advice for wifi calling/ texting apps.

[packercruising]

Yes, because if the provider allows WiFi calling, it simplifies things.

 

Thanks! We have Republic. It is mostly wi-fi. :cool:

[frank808]

The pricing has generally been the same on all ships but people confuse online pricing before the cruise with on board pricing. The current price for SURF online before the cruise ids $9.09 for one device. The package can be shared across as many devices as you want but only one device at a time can be online.

Someone replied they bought surf on harmony for $9.99 a day. On allure it is $12.99 a day.

 

A few months ago before the big rollout of this surf and stream it was $15 a day on allure and oasis and i believe that at that time it was equivalent to the surf and strem package as people have reported that they were able to stream movies onboard.

 

So what used to be $15 for one device and $22.50 for two devices minus your c&a discount is now $17.99 per device minus your c&a discount. Thats an increase of 20% for one device and 60% for two devices.

Edited June 22, 2016 by frank808

[Biker19]

Someone replied they bought surf on harmony for $9.99 a day. On allure it is $12.99 a day.

 

A few months ago before the big rollout of this surf and stream it was $15 a day on allure and oasis and i believe that at that time it was equivalent to the surf and strem package as people have reported that they were able to stream movies onboard.

 

So what used to be $15 for one device and $22.50 for two devices minus your c&a discount is now $17.99 per device minus your c&a discount. Thats an increase of 20% for one device and 60% for two devices.

 

Again, there's some mixing of pricing. Other than some very special one time pricing (maybe on the maiden), the $9.09 before the cruise and $12.99 on board is true for Harmony as well.

 

While pricing was $15 per day when there were no tiers, STREAM can be had for $12.59 now if you buy pre cruise so there's actually some savings now over the old pricing. True, on board STREAM is more than it used to be, but if one plans ahead, you can get it cheaper.

 

BTW, on Oasis class ships you can stream most videos with the SURF only package.

[erby2283]

I doubt that $2/day would buy you much data, if any on a ship.

 

 

Got a quote from Verizon bc my boss was traveling to Canada end of June and it was $2 a day for unlimited calling, texting and data.

[Tony O]

I doubt that $2/day would buy you much data, if any on a ship.

 

That's what's on Verizon website.

It's different prices for different countries

Either $2 or $10 a day

This ties into your voice and data plan you already have

Edited June 22, 2016 by Tony O

[MaryAnn&Don]

This ties into your voice and data plan you already have

 

Yes but according to my info from Verizon today, it does not cover you when you are on a cruise ship. This is very new change and is not yet reflected in the web site info. It only covers you when you set foot on the ground. I called back to get a second opinion and the story was the same. The plan for the Canada $2/ day data is not unlimited but is based on your US plan. It is called "Travel Pass" Sounds good until you realize the new policy that it does not cover when aboard the cruise ship. When you are on the ship and try to use the Verizon connection you will get a text message that advises you the rates are pay as you go, and not Travel Pass.

[Biker19]

Got a quote from Verizon bc my boss was traveling to Canada end of June and it was $2 a day for unlimited calling, texting and data.

 

As is mentioned above that does not apply while on the ship's infrastructure.

[Biker19]

It's different prices for different countries

Either $2 or $10 a day

 

While RCI may want to think of its ships as different countries, it isn't so, neither does any cell provider. Once you are out of land based cell tower range, RCI has a captive customer in terms of cell service - they have the only connection to the outside world. They are not going to give that away for $2 or $10 day.

[MaryAnn&Don]

While RCI may want to think of its ships as different countries, it isn't so, neither does any cell provider. Once you are out of land based cell tower range, RCI has a captive customer in terms of cell service - they have the only connection to the outside world. They are not going to give that away for $2 or $10 day.

 

I agree with you in principle, but Verizon and others have have the technology, they claim to detect your location to know if you are on the ship or on the ground outside the port and simply will switch your billing to the more expensive service when on the ship. I thought is was pretty incredible they would do that from an ethics angle. I wonder if the cruise industry put pressure on Verizon to grant the ship sovereignty?

 

BTW- When I was on Anthem, the Voom service was the best I ever had on a cruise ship, but when I it within US land and could switch back to Verizon LTE, that was still much faster. I wasn't going to buy the ship service that week but in early May, RCI had a 48 hr sale where they offered the streaming speed for 9.99 / day. According to others, prepaying, seems now a standard. As a point of comparison, I will be on Celebrity Summit for a 14 day trip in September, and so far the 2 week internet package is $269. Then they offer Elite class passengers a 90 minute free experience. It is so designed that if you choose the 90 minutes free and then want more, you will have to pay extra.

 

I'm thinking that because this cruise will have a bumber of ports in the US, as we head up the NE coast, I will budget my time to downloading my email and other needs while off the ship for the $2/day when in Canada, use the 90 minutes on days at Sea. Besides, the Celebrity service is reviewed to be almost like dialup speed.

[Biker19]

I agree with you in principle, but Verizon and others have the technology, they claim to detect your location to know if you are on the ship or on the ground outside the port and simply will switch your billing to the more expensive service when on the ship. I thought is was pretty incredible they would do that from an ethics angle. I wonder if the cruise industry put pressure on Verizon to grant the ship sovereignty?

Think of the ship's cell service and infrastructure like any other roaming cell provider - virtually all cell providers have agreements with other providers for roaming privileges and rates. Nothing unusual about Verizon's deal with RCI - most of the other cell providers probably have such an agreement - the only question is the rate.

[Tony O]

Yes but according to my info from Verizon today, it does not cover you when you are on a cruise ship. This is very new change and is not yet reflected in the web site info. It only covers you when you set foot on the ground. I called back to get a second opinion and the story was the same. The plan for the Canada $2/ day data is not unlimited but is based on your US plan. It is called "Travel Pass" Sounds good until you realize the new policy that it does not cover when aboard the cruise ship. When you are on the ship and try to use the Verizon connection you will get a text message that advises you the rates are pay as you go, and not Travel Pass.

 

I never said it did. I said different countries

[MaryAnn&Don]

Think of the ship's cell service and infrastructure like any other roaming cell provider - virtually all cell providers have agreements with other providers for roaming privileges and rates. Nothing unusual about Verizon's deal with RCI - most of the other cell providers probably have such an agreement - the only question is the rate.

 

Oh I recognize they make these deals. AT&T has one they are advertising now. I just was caught by surprise considering the web site never said anything about it. The excuse was they are behind on the updates. But said they were happy I asked because they didn't want me to be surprised when I got the notice via text that Travel Pass did not work on any Cruise Ship and would have to pay the higher rate or go with the Ship's wifi.

[CaribbeanDreamer80]

macbook messenger is free and u can call and text and video chat on wifi! i have been testing it out and that is what i think will use

[JoeFan]

I did some testing for calling on my upcoming cruise. While my T-Mobile and Verizon iPhone has wifi calling, neither of them would allow me to be in Airplane mode and purely make a call on wifi alone. So I wouldn't want to be messing with the call going over cell at sea.

 

So I played with Google Hangouts and that seems to be the best solution.

Once you link it to your cell phone you are able to call US phones for free over wifi only (tested).

 

But to take it up a notch and be able to accept incoming calls, instead of using your cell number with Hangouts, sign up for a Google Voice number and associate that with Hangouts. It takes a couple minutes for everything to sync and work but I was able to make and receive calls on wifi only.

 

You can also use it to SMS or MMS any other phone capable of SMS.

 

I am very happy with this solution and can't wait to try it.

[1josh777]

I've used Tango in the past

[lovesthebeach2]

We both have IPhone 6S so we will use wifi calling too.

For just texting you can also use Facebook Messenger if they have android phones.

[Tony O]

I did some testing for calling on my upcoming cruise. While my T-Mobile and Verizon iPhone has wifi calling, neither of them would allow me to be in Airplane mode and purely make a call on wifi alone. So I wouldn't want to be messing with the call going over cell at sea.

 

So I played with Google Hangouts and that seems to be the best solution.

Once you link it to your cell phone you are able to call US phones for free over wifi only (tested).

 

But to take it up a notch and be able to accept incoming calls, instead of using your cell number with Hangouts, sign up for a Google Voice number and associate that with Hangouts. It takes a couple minutes for everything to sync and work but I was able to make and receive calls on wifi only.

 

You can also use it to SMS or MMS any other phone capable of SM

 

I am very happy with this solution and can't wait to try it.

 

 

We used Google Hangouts when we were in Europe last year. it worked great and yes it was free.The only caveat was that even thought our calls were free the person receiving the calls were charge with international calls.

[Biker19]

We used Google Hangouts when we were in Europe last year. it worked great and yes it was free.The only caveat was that even thought our calls were free the person receiving the calls were charge with international calls.

 

That must have been a very unique situation (or you got bad info) - no one in the US should be charged for any call received via Google Hangouts regardless of where you call from.

[Tony O]

That must have been a very unique situation (or you got bad info) - no one in the US should be charged for any call received via Google Hangouts regardless of where you call from.

 

 

Well I paid my daughters $60 cellphone bill for those calls

[bryans42]

Was recently on the Anthem and face time worked great

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[dalai]

Give textPlus a try. You receive a free phone number so you can reach any number whether they have the app or not. It's great for travel. WiFi calling is high quality. Texting. Etc. Android or iOS.

[golfpccc]

Recently on Liberty, had surf wifi only and FaceTime audio worked great on my iPad. Actually used it to close on our house from the ship!!

 

Carla

[Biker19]

Well I paid my daughters $60 cellphone bill for those calls

The bill was for a call received from someone who called them via Hangouts from overseas? How do you know that? I'm trying to figure out the specifics since I call from overseas all the time on Hangouts and that has never happened to me.

[QCAZ]

Recently on Liberty and had wifi surf 2 devices. Both DH and I have iPhone 6 and iPads. We're able to use Internet, emails, facebook, text messages ....did not try FaceTime. Used both phones and iPads, but only 2 devices at one time, easy to log on and off ....did it automatically. We were able to make phone calls from our iPhone over wifi. No app needed.

 

Tried wifi calling at home with phone in airplane mode and calls went through just fine sometimes, and other times said had to disable airplane mode. So turned airplane off, then back on, wifi back on and call went through in airplane mode ...did notice it took a few minutes for wi-fi to show in the status bar upper left corner of screen, but it worked. I have Verizon, so I called them and was told that phone did not need to be in airplane mode to use wifi calling. As long as wifi calling is enabled and wifi available will use wifi for calls and there will be no cellphone carrier charge. While on the ship I had to call our internet carrier as had a password issue, got message disable airplane mode so did, status bar still showed carrier wifi and call made, did not incur any cellphone charges.

 

To enable Wi-Fi Calling on your iPhone: First, verify that you meet all of the eligibility requirements.

Turn on Wi-Fi Calling:

Go to the Home Screen.

Tap Settings.

Tap Phone.

Tap Wi-Fi Calling.

Tap Turn On Wi-Fi Calling On This iPhone.

Follow the on-screen instructions to enter a U.S. address for use in the event of an emergency call (911).

Once your address is saved, the Wi-Fi Calling setting will be turned on. You are now able to take and make Wi-Fi calls on your iPhone.

IF Wi-Fi Calling is available, you’ll see Wi-Fi after your carrier name in the status bar. Then your calls will use Wi-Fi Calling.