In-room movies and TV

[the_dylaness]

Hello,

I remember a few years ago when X was getting ready to start charging quite a bit for in room movies. What is the current status of this on RCCL? Traveling with school-aged kids, sometimes they just need to crash and watch a movie (and usually the same movie over and over and over...)  I can remember which cruise is which based on what movie was on repeat in our room!  (NCL Escape, "The Smurfs", Equinox "Ant Man and the Wasp", Reflection "Aladdin"...)  

 

If there are not a lot of movies available, can we stream to the TV in any way?

[jbrinkm]

19 minutes ago, the_dylaness said:

If there are not a lot of movies available, can we stream to the TV in any way?

 

We didn't use our TVs so I can't answer that part of the question. I DO know that it is very, very difficult to stream or use an attached device. I will try to point you to some info by someone who was able to figure out something, but I can't link directly. There's a cruise line specific blog site Royal Caribbean blog that has message boards. If you look for user Ron Donze, he posted a thread titled Firestick, signing onto Voom on December 7, 2022. He used an HDMI cable. Hopefully you'll be able to just use what is on the TV and not have to worry about it!

[Ashland]

Lot's of kids cartoons on the in cabin TV. However we bring our firestick and for the last several years have been able to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime etc etc. on RCI ships streaming them. This has been very easy to do.

[Mittens101]

31 minutes ago, Ashland said:

Lot's of kids cartoons on the in cabin TV. However we bring our firestick and for the last several years have been able to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime etc etc. on RCI ships streaming them. This has been very easy to do.

If you stream, you need the internet package?

[the_dylaness]

We have the internet package so I think we should be ok. Thank you all! We ordered the 4k Fire Stick today and saved the link mentioned earlier.

 

[the_dylaness]

Were there movies on demand available?

[Ashland]

1 hour ago, the_dylaness said:

Were there movies on demand available?

We always purchase the Voom Surf/Stream. Movies on demand are old (to us) and expensive so we would never use this option.

[nasa1974]

Very interesting. Something to check into further.

[DaKahuna]

5 hours ago, the_dylaness said:

We have the internet package so I think we should be ok. Thank you all! We ordered the 4k Fire Stick today and saved the link mentioned earlier.

 

 I use a travel router to connect to the ship’s WiFi and connect the FireStick to the travel router. 
 

 This also lets me use my iPhone, laptop, and tablet to the travel router at the same time. 
 

I am hoping the StarLink increased bandwidth will improve my throughput when using multiple devices on the travel router. 
 

[LilBlackDress]

What hasn't been mentioned is you may need a Universal Remote to access the TV Inputs 

We always bring our Laptop, HDMI Cable and a Universal Remote... Have never has an issue 

[truffles2]

11 hours ago, Ashland said:

We always purchase the Voom Surf/Stream. Movies on demand are old (to us) and expensive so we would never use this option.

On Harmony currently and there are about 25 movies available on demand. Oddly, Maverick top Gun was free. Most of the rest were $11.99 and none of them were worth that to me. 🙄

[DaKahuna]

 

I have also downloaded Netflix movies to my laptop and hooked it up to the TV's and displayed them on there. 

 

Lately we have just used our iPads and Surf to stream shows.  That way my wife can watch what she wants and I can watch what I want. 

 

[jbrinkm]

11 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 I use a travel router to connect to the ship’s WiFi and connect the FireStick to the travel router. 

 

Out of curiosity, where else do you use the travel router other than a cruise ship? 

[the_dylaness]

20 hours ago, Ashland said:

We always purchase the Voom Surf/Stream. Movies on demand are old (to us) and expensive so we would never use this option.

 

Not included? Yikes.

[the_dylaness]

I am not sure what a Universal Remote is which tells me I definitely don't have one... I got the 4k Fire Stick today. How do you normally turn on the TV in the room if it doesn't have a remote?!?

[the_dylaness]

Just bought one on Amazon, not sure how this will differ from the remote in the room but it was <11.99 so that's a good deal I guess 😉

 

[Biker19]

Just now, the_dylaness said:

How do you normally turn on the TV in the room if it doesn't have a remote?!?

The provided remote turns the TV on - the trick is to switch the TV to the input where the Firestick is - the remote doesn't have an input button like your home remote.

[DaKahuna]

21 hours ago, jbrinkm said:

 

Out of curiosity, where else do you use the travel router other than a cruise ship? 

 

 I use it in hotels, especially those that do not allow multiple devices for one charge.  

[matj2000]

On the last 2 voyages

 

I found that RC has added many more channels

 

You can probably find something to watch beside RC commercials.

[RogueMonk]

For easiest functionality, a Samsung tv clone remote works best — as it doesn’t need to be programmed.

[jbrinkm]

On 1/9/2023 at 6:52 PM, Ashland said:

Lot's of kids cartoons on the in cabin TV. However we bring our firestick and for the last several years have been able to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime etc etc. on RCI ships streaming them. This has been very easy to do.

 

How did you do it? We couldn't do it on Allure last year but also didn't bring an HDMI cable, we were just trying to cast to the Smart TVs with our phone (we can do this at home). I've seen people posting about how hard it is to reach the ports (TV/HDMI, not cruise stops...) on many ships because of the way the TV is with the wall. Did you bring a universal remote? 

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

Some cabins on the Wonder allow you to cast from your mobile device.  We had an OS and were able to cast.  Others in our group in OV and JS didn't have the option on their TV's.