Communicating on my Celebrity cruise

[jkgourmet]

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

 

The Millennium has the app, but messaging is not currently supported.


Past Reviews post 184

 

 

So it's useless?

[pleezto24]

Just heard back from Celebrity App Support.  Very disappointed about messaging.  It is only in Beta and only supported on Edge.  

[justcrusn]

Depending on your phone, sending a text is usually .50 and receiving one a nickel.

check your rates but thats what we have paid in the past when not using wifi.

[h20skibum]

31 minutes ago, jkgourmet said:

 

So it's useless?

 

It is good for keeping your schedule, and tracking your folio, but no messaging.  Depending on when your cruise is, messaging may be active.  However, if it is soon, I wouldn't hold out much hope.  Messaging rollout is much slower than the app itself.

 

As noted, you could check your cell carrier text rates for cruise ship.  We did this once on a Panama Canal cruise on Princess, and our Verizon rate for texts was the $0.50 and $0.05 as noted above.  We also had some cell calls at $2.99 per minute.  Just make sure you limit attachments, or you could hit the data cap pretty quick.

[jkgourmet]

I have free international texting, but since when does that work in the middle of the ocean?

 

We also have unlimited data in about 200 countries.   Unlimited everything in the USA.   T-Mobile for those who are 55+   Two lines 70 bucks.  Love it.

[Clemmnj]

We had the international plan which worked fine in port, but not onboard.  For that we needed a cruise ship plan called cellular at sea. We had AT&T. 

[h20skibum]

2 hours ago, jkgourmet said:

 

I have free international texting, but since when does that work in the middle of the ocean?

 

 

International plans are different than cellular at sea, which is used to provide cell service on a cruise ship.  You can read a little about it here.  http://www.cellularatsea.com/

 

You would need to check with your provider to see what their rates are, and if your device will work. 

[jkgourmet]

I admit that being able to message friends and family on the ship would be cool, but they are eventually located or eventually come back to their cabins.  

 

But, we've done without for 25+ cruises and many, many, many trips over seas.  Lived part time in Mexico for two years.  Never needed any cellular plan beyond internet, which is WIDELY available in all ports, hotels, Airbnb, bars, cafe's, etc.  Now that our current (and cheap) cellular plan includes unlimited international data, it's even easier to get online.

 

And years ago, we didn't even have that!  We kinda like unconnecting and turning off the devices for awhile.  

Edited March 3, 2019 by jkgourmet

[Clemmnj]

Unless you pay for it, internet not available on a cruise ship. I am just back from an Antarctica cruise and oddly enough there is no internet in Antarctica, nor was there internet in the Falkland Islands. We definitely needed either an international plan and cellular at sea, or both. 

[jkgourmet]

24 minutes ago, Clemmnj said:

. We definitely needed either an international plan and cellular at sea, or both. 

 

I'm genuinely curious:  Why do you "definitely need" service all the time?

 

What did y'all do before there was cellular phones and/or the internet?  It wasn't so long ago.

[Stumptowngal]

4 minutes ago, jkgourmet said:

 

I'm genuinely curious:  Why do you "definitely need" service all the time?

 

What did y'all do before there was cellular phones and/or the internet?  It wasn't so long ago.

I am not the poster you directed your question to but I can give a personal example of a situation at sea when having been immediately reachable on my cell phone would have greatly helped a situation with my elderly mother. 

 

My husband and I took a 7 day Caribbean cruise in 1999 with Celebrity.  My mother wasn’t in a critical health crisis when we left though she had her share of significant health problems. I was solely responsible for decision-making for her medically. On the last full sea day we spent most of our day around the pool and generally enjoying the ship. We were not in our cabin all day until close to dinner time. I then noticed athe blinking message light on the bedstand telephone.  There was a message from 7 hours earlier about my mother suddenly being in a medical emergency and taken to the hospital.  Needless to say, if I had been able to be reached on a cell phone (which I do take with me on cruises now and activated for calls and internet) I could have started the ball rolling with a lot of important decision-making and communications that needed to be made.

 

So while I don’t feel a need to be tied to the internet constantly for personal entertainment, it does allow for people to travel with a better piece of mind when they have family members, young or old,  who may need help.

 

[first mate]

When we were sailing on the Edge, we used the Celebrity app to message each other a few times.  It was still in Beta so it didn't "ding" so you had to look for your message.  They said they were working on the "ding" for notifications.  When we went to different places, it was convenient to ask where are you? or where should we meet?  I wasn't thrilled about carrying around my phone but I liked having all the info about the ship's happenings.  You can look up all the menus on the app, too.  Also book tours on your phone.  No more booking on the TV. 

[Clemmnj]

Some people either don’t need or don’t want to either reach or be reached while on vacation. To each their own. I have children and elderly parents and I like to know that I can reach out or have them reach out while I’m away. During my last cruise there was a serious cold snap that necessitated me calling home to direct my son in what to do with the water/heat of a seasonal home we own. Everyone has different circumstances and my saying that you would definitely need something beyond the internet for calling home obviously only applies to those who want or need that option. 

[mfs2k]

There have always been options. Back in the olden days, when I cruised in the mid 1980’s before cell phones and internet, we had ship to shore radio and phone options for emergencies.  

 

Passegers would give the ship number to family members for emergencies and we’d check In from pay phones (collect calling was popular) when we reached ports. 

[jkgourmet]

2 hours ago, Stumptowngal said:

I am not the poster you directed your question to but I can give a personal example of a situation at sea when having been immediately reachable on my cell phone would have greatly helped a situation with my elderly mother.

My husband and I took a 7 day Caribbean cruise in 1999 with Celebrity.  My mother wasn’t in a critical health crisis when we left though she had her share of significant health problems. I was solely responsible for decision-making for her medically.

 

 

Indeed - THAT'S the first reason I've ever REALLY heard that makes sense to me.  The "solely responsible" part.

 

I have a different perspective, I guess.  We have no kids - maybe that's why we have a different perspective.  As my father aged, I started to send him our itineraries and how to get in touch with us (hotel phone #, the ship phone #, etc.).  He told me to stop sending them, that he was not going to use them or ever contact us while we were on vacation.  His reason?  "If I croak, I'll be just as dead when you get home.  Calling you would only ruin your vacation and waste all the money you spent on it."  He was a blunt, pragmatic man - But he did have a wife to make decisions for him, and had signed every legal document possible to deal with medical issues.

 

We've come to agree with my Dad.  We have pets that are left with people we trust and who keep them in their homes (not boarding).  We leave a limited use power of attorney for those people to use if something happens to the dog.  We tell them NOT to call or email us if something happens to him.  We tell our neighbors not to contact us if the house burns down.  We tell our friends and relatives to NOT email us if something bad occurs unless there is something that we can do about it.  And I can honestly say that I've never been able to think of something that we could do when we are on the other side of the world. 

 

Different strokes, I guess.

[Clemmnj]

Different strokes indeed. If I had made similar plans and given similar instructions I would be constantly worried that my house had burned down and the dog had died.

[Tourist1292]

It would be fine for me not to have the internet package and only use the phone when it is in port. It is not possible for my teenager girl in college though. We did not even have a data plan until my older daughter went to college.

 

I know. Back in the day people use pigeon for communication. 

[jkgourmet]

1 hour ago, Clemmnj said:

Different strokes indeed. If I had made similar plans and given similar instructions I would be constantly worried that my house had burned down and the dog had died.

 

🙂  But ask yourself this:  If either occurred, What could you do about it when you're in the middle of the ocean someplace? 

 

My answer:  Nothing, except grieve my losses and ruin my vacation.  The dog and the house will still be gone when I get home. 

[2theship]

Last summer, our family group of eight sailed the Summit to Bermuda and we all had the Go Best package so there was free unlimited internet. We found being able to text each other around the ship was very convenient. Could we have managed without it? Sure, but why? I was on vacation and didn't want to waste my time figuring out where people were and what was going to happen next. When it's just the two of us traveling, I enjoy being able to text pictures to my kids. Could it wait until we get home? Sure, but why? It was fun to send a photo of a double rainbow in Hawaii as it was happening.

[hrhdhd]

6 hours ago, first mate said:

When we were sailing on the Edge, we used the Celebrity app to message each other a few times.  It was still in Beta so it didn't "ding" so you had to look for your message.  They said they were working on the "ding" for notifications.

 

Great. The Ding is coming. I can't wait to be in the theater hearing "ding" "ding" "ding" throughout the show. It's bad enough when people use their phones in the darkened theater. Now there'll be musical accompaniment.

[hrhdhd]

7 hours ago, Stumptowngal said:

<snip>

My husband and I took a 7 day Caribbean cruise in 1999 with Celebrity.  My mother wasn’t in a critical health crisis when we left though she had her share of significant health problems. I was solely responsible for decision-making for her medically. On the last full sea day we spent most of our day around the pool and generally enjoying the ship. We were not in our cabin all day until close to dinner time. I then noticed athe blinking message light on the bedstand telephone.  There was a message from 7 hours earlier about my mother suddenly being in a medical emergency and taken to the hospital.  Needless to say, if I had been able to be reached on a cell phone (which I do take with me on cruises now and activated for calls and internet) I could have started the ball rolling with a lot of important decision-making and communications that needed to be made.

 

So while I don’t feel a need to be tied to the internet constantly for personal entertainment, it does allow for people to travel with a better piece of mind when they have family members, young or old,  who may need help.

 

 

But your mother was taken to the hospital, so someone else was in fact making medical decisions. (And I certainly hope she recovered from whatever the issue was.)

 

I guess I just see a lot of people identifying things as emergencies that aren't emergencies, and then using them as excuses for needing to have their phones on all the time. I travel with the attitude of jkgourmet's father: maybe something will happen, but I'll worry about it when I get home. If I had responsibility for someone in particular, I'd arrange for a trusted friend or a paid medical aide to keep an eye on things. Not much I can do in the middle of the ocean.

[Jeremiah1212]

8 hours ago, jkgourmet said:

 

I'm genuinely curious:  Why do you "definitely need" service all the time?

 

What did y'all do before there was cellular phones and/or the internet?  It wasn't so long ago.

 

There are those of us like myself who still work and make a living off commission income. If I miss a deal or one falls through because I've ignored my phone, I could lose out on enough money to pay for many, many, many cruises. That's not worth it to me. 

 

On 2/18/2019 at 11:33 AM, mfs2k said:

We're sailing on Equinox next month with friends and we all have selected Free Wifi as a perk. We all have iphones and plan to call and text one another using WhatsApp which works over WiFi. 

 

You can just use your phones native message and phone just fine without any issues. Since WiFi can be spotty I find that my notifications don't always work that well when other apps are involved.

[Clemmnj]

Yes, but if I have the plans and don’t here from anyone then I know my house is still standing and the dog is alive. 

[mfs2k]

46 minutes ago, hrhdhd said:

 

Great. The Ding is coming. I can't wait to be in the theater hearing "ding" "ding" "ding" throughout the show. It's bad enough when people use their phones in the darkened theater. Now there'll be musical accompaniment.

 

Notification “Dings” are for people who leave their ringers on.  I think most people nowadays keep their phones on vibrate. Keeping your ringer on in a theater is disrespectful regardless what app is notifying you. 

[Kwaj girl]

On 2/18/2019 at 10:27 AM, Clemmnj said:

I recently returned from a Celebrity cruise to Antarctica. While taking pictures and videos of the spectacular scenery I would sometimes get cold and want to go inside for a bit. My husband would often want to continue taking pictures, moving from port to starboard based on the naturalist’s observations about what could be seen on either side. Here’s the problem. I had no way of getting in touch with my husband in order to find him again when I warmed up. I was discussing this with our table mates at dinner and they were lamenting the same issue. They did say, however, that Princess has an app that allows you to text other people onboard. Does anyone know if that is the case? I’m wondering if you would accumulate roaming charges for using the app or if you would have to shut down all your other apps to avoid extra data charges. If, however, Princess has managed to find a way to facilitate communication while onboard  I hope Celebrity quickly follows suit. 

SERIOUSLY?   How about just meeting up in your room at a prearranged time?