Carnival Hub App Chat - Is it reliable (and reliable enough to keep track of a preteen)?

[BandBWCsmom]

We cruise in 2 weeks and this is the first time we have cruised where we will have a child that is 12 and so not in Camp Ocean. 

 

Is the Carnival Hub App reliable chat??? We always cruise where we spend the cruise together so we've never even tried to use it. 

 

I'm wondering if I need to get all of us the wifi package so that we can use traditional text or if the Hub app is good for chat. 

 

Any words of wisdom? And experience Circle "C" for 12-14 years old???

 

Thanks! 

[braveslake]

No, in my  opinion it is not. It is very spotty and both people have to keep the Hub app on at all times to use it. It was easier to pay for social media and use messenger to communicate. 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Depends on how instantaneous you require it to be.  We used it for just this purpose in 2018 and it was adequate.  We didn't lose or miss any messages. We just had to look to see if there was any message. Our rule with the kids was simple: text in the app whenever you go from one place to another.  This way, if we needed to find them, we just had to open the app, and look at the last message, and we'd know.  We didn't feel we needed our phone to notify us the instant the kids moved around. And, we'd do the same, in case the kids needed to find us.  

 

To use the social media packages to communicate, you need to get a package for each person, which adds up to a LOT of money.

[pinto18]

honestly its only as good as the reliability of your teen...my ( not teen) hubby never bothered to have app open which you need to do in order to get texts..nor did he check regularly . Kind of like he is at home lol.

[CeleBrat]

It worked really well for our family of 4 on the Celebration last month. No missed texts at all.

[Blessed2Cruz]

Worked well for our group of 12 last week no missed txt great for met ups with such a large group 

[Frank12]

When it first came out it sucked.  We used it last month on Mardi Gras and it worked very well.  Apparently they have improved it's reliability over time.

[fozzy1975]

worked great for my family! very helpful! we plan on getting it tomorrow when we board the Horizon

[Colorado Beach Bum]

Cruised many times with teens/pre-teens before chat was available.  Never had a problem. Just always had meet up places and expectations. 
 

That said, chat has been spotty at times but worked flawlessly at other times.  Try it out and see before getting WiFi.  
 

Also, if you have iPhones try iMessage without buying plan.  We’ve had it work a couple times without a WiFi plan.  🤫 don’t tell anyone. 

[hermajestylanie]

It did not work well on our Alaska cruise from June 26- July 6. Very spotty and often texts would not come through at all. They were just missing. 

[slh2412]

It never works when I need it.  Many many delayed messages.

[TravelE]

Yes, it works but both users need to make sure they are always connected to wifi. Also, it is more reliable to message one person at a time rather than group messaging. 

[dmet0225]

On the Celebration last week, the chat feature rarely worked.   Every time I tried to open the chat function, I just kept getting a screen that said, “trying to connect.”

[Usuallyrightagain]

Venezia last week the messages constantly didn't go through. You'd send them, stare at the chat on your phone for minutes, go back to the home page, go back into messages just to "check", all seemed fine. Then when you didn't get a reply 20 mins later you'd go in and it would be there grayed out as "unsent". ARGH. It was super frustrating. I once had to resend a message 7 times to get it through to my husband. My entire family have the same type of phones (android) and no one was closing the app completely (just opening other screens while it ran). Our friends with apple phones also found it less than stellar. I had a tween in Circle C though and they loved it. We just kept popping back in to check on them and chat with the coordinator, Jane, who was AWESOME. 
 

[StephPS79]

On the Glory in February this year, it was NOT reliable.  When it worked, it was great.  But there was a lot of time it didn't work.  Text not being received, or sent way later.  We ended up resorting to calling cabin phones when we needed to reach someone, that was more reliable lol.

 

We didn't even bother with it on our cruise in May.  Not worth the frustration for us.

[Purvis1231]

It is not totally reliable often a person can log off but if you set up some guidelines about how often to check in etc you might make it work. but to be honest, when our child was a preteen we did not let her get too far out of sight so walkie-talkies worked well. Our child is now 16 and on our most recent cruise, we used Snapchat to communicate fairly efficiently. Only one of us at the time had paid wifi but notifications would go through. we could send her a notification and she would know to check the Hub app.