$5 chat plan and regular wifi plans and messages?

[Thenagers]

My friend who is traveling with us is planning on just getting the chat feature to communicate on the ship because she wants to disconnect from most technology.  We all have purchased different wifi plans.  Will we have to purchase the chat feature to contact her or does the wifi plans include this feature?  Will she even need it if we can not access?

[dallasdan]

I don't think the wifi plans cover it.  All will have to purchase the chat feature.  However,  on my last 2 cruises I was able to text from my I phone to other I phones without paying for wifi.  Try it first before purchasing the chat.  Just make sure the text is blue.  If it is green it will not go through and you will have to restart your phone.

[Wennfred]

Yes, you will have to pay the extra $5.00 to use their app chat feature.

 

Make sure to have your phone on Airplane mode so that you won’t  be charged high cellular at sea roaming charges. Those text will go via satellite to a station in Miami and that can get very expensive.

Edited March 27, 2023 by Wennfred

[audcc77]

Other people in your group would need to buy chat in order to talk to her.
 

On our last cruise I had premium internet.  
 

My DH bought only the chat feature.  So I figured I’d better get it too.  
 

On the last day, he was sitting on the balcony and I was sitting inside and we were just texting each other.  Not using chat feature at all.  🙄
 

Agreed. Before buying the chat feature, see if texting works. Still have all your phones on airplane mode.  

[dlphn501]

On 3/27/2023 at 5:59 PM, dallasdan said:

I don't think the wifi plans cover it.  All will have to purchase the chat feature.  However,  on my last 2 cruises I was able to text from my I phone to other I phones without paying for wifi.  Try it first before purchasing the chat.  Just make sure the text is blue.  If it is green it will not go through and you will have to restart your phone.

I have heard this about iphones from recent cruisers.  I'm going to try it with my daughters in June.

[Jelly_Toast]

We discovered this mid-cruise earlier this month on Horizon. We all had the chat plan, but none of us had purchased wifi. I was getting notifications on my iphone from things like my robovac and doorbell cam, which seemed weird but I didn't really think about it much. Then my daughter received a text message from someone back home and that's when we realized we could text each other on imessage as well as anyone back home as well. I can't imagine that Carnival techs aren't working on this as they stand to lose money on the chat app (which does not work near as well as imessage, and I think goes without saying to anyone who has used the chat app).

Edited March 29, 2023 by Jelly_Toast
typo

[mz-s]

The thing is Carnival's Hub app uses Apple's push notification service, otherwise you wouldn't know when your table is ready etc. So they have to allow Apple's push notifications through their web filters, even for people who haven't bought an internet plan.

 

Guess what also uses Apple's push notification service? Ring doorbells, iMessage, etc. So try it on your next cruise. You may be able to iMessage without needing to buy a plan.

[Sabalon]

46 minutes ago, mz-s said:

The thing is Carnival's Hub app uses Apple's push notification service, otherwise you wouldn't know when your table is ready etc. So they have to allow Apple's push notifications through their web filters, even for people who haven't bought an internet plan.

 

Guess what also uses Apple's push notification service? Ring doorbells, iMessage, etc. So try it on your next cruise. You may be able to iMessage without needing to buy a plan.

 

Whoa!!!   And it's all encrypted end-to-end, so it's not like they could easily block all but their own push notifications!    That is a huge thing to know.   

Airplane mode, turn on wifi, join their onboard wifi, and bam.  I know what I'm trying as soon as we get out of cell range!!!  

Thanks for posting this and the info.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

So this only works on Apple devices?  No workaround for Android? 

[MississippiMom]

This is an interesting thread.  My immediate family all uses Apple devices.  I wonder if we test out the theory of no chat feature needed and if that doesn't work, then we add the $5 per device expense.  🤔

[mz-s]

29 minutes ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

So this only works on Apple devices?  No workaround for Android? 

 

No, nothing is standard with Android because every company wants to put their own crap on the phone because they think people want junk like that. But RCS (which Google calls Advanced Chat I believe) should work with a paid wifi plan.

[dallasdan]

1 hour ago, MississippiMom said:

This is an interesting thread.  My immediate family all uses Apple devices.  I wonder if we test out the theory of no chat feature needed and if that doesn't work, then we add the $5 per device expense.  🤔

That is what you should do.  I message worked for me the last 2 cruises.  Panorama and Miracle.  Didn't need to add chat.  The only thing I message will not do is receive pictures or downloadable files. Text messages work great though.

[mz-s]

3 minutes ago, dallasdan said:

That is what you should do.  I message worked for me the last 2 cruises.  Panorama and Miracle.  Didn't need to add chat.  The only thing I message will not do is receive pictures or downloadable files. Text messages work great though.

 

Yes do not try to send or receive photos because the push notification service that Carnival lets through is very slow, it's only good for text. Trying to send or receive photos without having purchased a wifi plan will just cause issues.

 

I will also mention that this has not worked consistently for me. Last year I was on 3 Carnival cruises and I think iMessage only worked on one of them. So I think they are figuring out how to block it, maybe. I need to go on more cruises to try to figure out a pattern. Anyone care to donate to my testing fund?

[ehogan]

Just returned from the Mardi Gras and purchased the chat feature which had some issues for us.  Occasionally the connection to the Hub app failed and we had to reconnect.  When that happened any chats that had been sent to us were lost.  We were using Android phones…our companions with iphones had no problems.  Could it be due to android phone?  

[Sabalon]

Just got home from the Elation.  Wife and I both have iPhones.  

1) We were able to receive all sorts of push notifications - garage door opening and closing, gmail, alarms from work (boo), etc.   Other than what would show up on the home screen you couldn't do anything with them, so I may see the subject and start of the text from a gmail, I couldn't open it up.

 

2) Things where sometimes delayed.  We would get notifications in bunches sometimes, but they were sent 40 minutes earlier.

 

3) Text messages (via iMessage - ie from our daughters iPhones at home) would come through.  Pics they tried to send of the dog would no.   Also, we could not reply until we got on an island where we found wifi or I had cellular.

 

4) Text messages between my phone and my wifes worked pretty well.  The first one I tried, it bombed, and tried to send it via SMS eventually (airplane mode was on so that didn't work).  But after that one - probably her phone on airplane but not on wifi - things worked pretty well.   Helped keep in touch with where the other was - when the other had their phone.

 

5) Sunday my phone decided "You have been signed out of iMessage".  Don't know why.  Don't know if there is a timer where it re-registers every so often and couldn't do that on the Carnival wifi without data.   When we got back into port, I had to restart my phone to get it to re-activate with iMessage - no idea if I did that at sea if it would have worked or not...didn't think of it at the time.

[mz-s]

1 minute ago, Sabalon said:

Sunday my phone decided "You have been signed out of iMessage".  Don't know why.  Don't know if there is a timer where it re-registers every so often and couldn't do that on the Carnival wifi without data.   When we got back into port, I had to restart my phone to get it to re-activate with iMessage - no idea if I did that at sea if it would have worked or not...didn't think of it at the time.

 

That's a security thing with iPhones, I don't know of a way to work around it.

[nydney1]

On 3/28/2023 at 8:48 PM, dlphn501 said:

I have heard this about iphones from recent cruisers.  I'm going to try it with my daughters in June.

We just got off the Freedom Saturday and we were able to text via iMessage to anyone with an iPhone, on or off the ship. 
 

No pictures or emojis would go.

 

We did not have any other internet plans purchased.

[Sabalon]

2 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

That's a security thing with iPhones, I don't know of a way to work around it.

 

Too late now, but I was wondering if before we left, and everytime we had an actual uplink if signing out and back in (or reactivating it) would "restart the clock" or something.  Without knowing what triggers it, hard to say.

[dropbackandpunt]

On 3/29/2023 at 9:06 AM, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

So this only works on Apple devices?  No workaround for Android? 

I'm currently on the Horizon and can confirm this works on Android. Using Google Messages I have been able to text both my wife and daughter without the WiFi plan with no issue (we all use Android devices).

[mz-s]

9 hours ago, dropbackandpunt said:

I'm currently on the Horizon and can confirm this works on Android. Using Google Messages I have been able to text both my wife and daughter without the WiFi plan with no issue (we all use Android devices).

 

Only with a paid wifi plan. iMessage is sometimes working for iPhone users just by connecting to Wifi - not paying for a plan at all.

[five.]

@dropbackandpunt I have a friend wanting to do Zoom calls on Horizon this coming week. Curious if you were able to tell if Starlink had been implemented yet and Zoom calls might be an actual possibility. I told her that if it had not, it would probably be a no-go.

[dropbackandpunt]

On 4/7/2023 at 7:04 AM, mz-s said:

 

Only with a paid wifi plan. iMessage is sometimes working for iPhone users just by connecting to Wifi - not paying for a plan at all.

And yet it worked just fine without a paid wifi plan for our Android devices.  YMMV but neither my wife nor daughter had a paid wifi plan and could text and send pictures in Google Messages with no issue at all.  

[dropbackandpunt]

25 minutes ago, five. said:

@dropbackandpunt I have a friend wanting to do Zoom calls on Horizon this coming week. Curious if you were able to tell if Starlink had been implemented yet and Zoom calls might be an actual possibility. I told her that if it had not, it would probably be a no-go.

I do not have an answer for that.  I speed tested the internet a couple of times and it was between 40-50 mbps.  I was able to do a video Messenger call with my son with mostly no issues so maybe.

[mz-s]

7 minutes ago, dropbackandpunt said:

And yet it worked just fine without a paid wifi plan for our Android devices.  YMMV but neither my wife nor daughter had a paid wifi plan and could text and send pictures in Google Messages with no issue at all.  

 

Good to know, it must be similar to iMessage in that it operates over ports that Carnival has to leave open for their HUB app to operate.

[steveknj]

I assume it's $5 for the whole cruise for the Carnival Texting plan? (I think NCL is now $10 per cruise, used to be $5).  For $10 for the two of us, I'm not going to worry if any of these texting options on iPhone or Android will work.  If it was $10 per day ($5 each) then I might look for the alternative.   I always "unplug" on cruises and never by a wifi plan.   In many (most) ports I can text with my T-Mobile plan, so for stuff from home I wait for the port.   Feels old school and refreshing not being bothered all day long by calls, texts or emails. 🙂