mom2two2 Posted July 14 #1 Share Posted July 14 I swear that we were able to whatsapp message our group chat on our last cruise (between android and iphones) on board without a wifi pkg. Is this still possible? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare RobInMN Posted July 14 #2 Share Posted July 14 Should not be possible, nor should it ever have been. The only report like this I recall seeing is that some people have reported iMessenger working without WiFi, but that loophole having been closed since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker19 Posted July 15 #3 Share Posted July 15 38 minutes ago, mom2two2 said: Is this still possible? Each ship may have some unique internet access loopholes which may allow some apps to function without a Voom package - you won't know till you try it, but it's not supposed to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly333 Posted July 15 #4 Share Posted July 15 The app allows you to message other people in your party for free. But not apps non rcl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Scottdalfonso Posted July 15 #5 Share Posted July 15 It has worked recently, I really think it's just a luck thing. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. But it does seem to work more often than not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wineaux007 Posted July 15 #6 Share Posted July 15 I thought you needed an internet connection (wifi) to use whatsapp? It works in just about all countries with T-Mobile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted July 15 #7 Share Posted July 15 I've never had WhatsApp work w/o internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandy toes Posted July 15 #8 Share Posted July 15 13 hours ago, firefly333 said: The app allows you to message other people in your party for free. But not apps non rcl. The app will NOT allow you to communicate with children. No one under 13. There is no way around it because the ship has the DOB of the guests. IF one of the tweens change their DOB to get on the app, they might get on for a few hours but they will be bumped off and flagged. I do not like that we cannot check on a child that Adventure Ocean says is old enough to sign themselves out. A ship is like a city and tweens need supervision. IF we have no way to communicate with them, then our tweens canNOT sign themselves out and are very upset about our rule when their friends are running helter skelter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly333 Posted July 15 #9 Share Posted July 15 1 minute ago, sandy toes said: The app will NOT allow you to communicate with children. No one under 13. There is no way around it because the ship has the DOB of the guests. IF one of the tweens change their DOB to get on the app, they might get on for a few hours but they will be bumped off and flagged. I do not like that we cannot check on a child that Adventure Ocean says is old enough to sign themselves out. A ship is like a city and tweens need supervision. IF we have no way to communicate with them, then our tweens canNOT sign themselves out and are very upset about our rule when their friends are running helter skelter. Ok I agree. I am old enough having young kids didnt occur to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy4Cruisin225 Posted July 15 #10 Share Posted July 15 Don’t know about WhatsApp, but on the Liberty last month we were able to send IMessages to each other and home without the WiFi package. Last year on the same ship we were NOT able to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted July 15 #11 Share Posted July 15 46 minutes ago, sandy toes said: The app will NOT allow you to communicate with children. No one under 13. There is no way around it because the ship has the DOB of the guests. IF one of the tweens change their DOB to get on the app, they might get on for a few hours but they will be bumped off and flagged. I do not like that we cannot check on a child that Adventure Ocean says is old enough to sign themselves out. A ship is like a city and tweens need supervision. IF we have no way to communicate with them, then our tweens canNOT sign themselves out and are very upset about our rule when their friends are running helter skelter. The workaround is to log into the app with one of the adult accounts on the child's phone while still logged in on the adult's phone. It's a pain in the butt really, since you end up sending messages to yourself. But in a pinch, that's a workaround. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatka Posted July 15 #12 Share Posted July 15 1 hour ago, Wineaux007 said: I thought you needed an internet connection (wifi) to use whatsapp? It works in just about all countries with T-Mobile. Yes, and this is absolute majority Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pghflyer Posted July 15 #13 Share Posted July 15 (edited) We were on Vision and as of two weeks ago, none worked for our group of 8 without Internet: WhatsApp (has never worked on any other ship for us) iMessage (has worked on other ships in the past) Android RCS (has never worked on any other ship for us) The RCL app messaging worked OK but our 12-year old was excluded, and the connectivity was pretty spotty everywhere so you were often very delayed in getting messages delivered. Edited July 15 by pghflyer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovesthebeach2 Posted July 15 #14 Share Posted July 15 18 hours ago, Biker19 said: Each ship may have some unique internet access loopholes which may allow some apps to function without a Voom package - you won't know till you try it, but it's not supposed to work. We were recently on Adventure and Serenade (for 2 segments) and they were close together so we’re not sure, but one of them (and hubby thinks it was Serenade) I was able to send him texts on our iPhones which he received and replied and he didn’t have the wifi package. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaddyandMax Posted July 15 #15 Share Posted July 15 5 hours ago, sandy toes said: The app will NOT allow you to communicate with children. No one under 13. There is no way around it because the ship has the DOB of the guests. IF one of the tweens change their DOB to get on the app, they might get on for a few hours but they will be bumped off and flagged. I do not like that we cannot check on a child that Adventure Ocean says is old enough to sign themselves out. A ship is like a city and tweens need supervision. IF we have no way to communicate with them, then our tweens canNOT sign themselves out and are very upset about our rule when their friends are running helter skelter. This is so true. A few cruises ago for some reason I was listed as a 10 year old. It took days into our cruise for Royal to figure out why no one could message me. In the end, my age and my son's age somehow got mixed up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ace1zoe2 Posted July 15 #16 Share Posted July 15 4 hours ago, Crazy4Cruisin225 said: Don’t know about WhatsApp, but on the Liberty last month we were able to send IMessages to each other and home without the WiFi package. Last year on the same ship we were NOT able to. Our daughter just got off Harmony yesterday and she texted me through iphone messages saying, how is it possible I can text and get texts with my phone on airplane mode and no wi-fi? I told her it was a loophole that sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't. When we were on Wonder in September it worked for us. In January it did not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2two2 Posted July 15 Author #17 Share Posted July 15 Yeah maybe I am mistaken. It could have been at the hotels pre and post cruise maybe that the group chat messages in Whatsapp were going through Thanks everyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandy toes Posted July 16 #18 Share Posted July 16 MaddyandMax Goodness! What a mess that must have been! Could you even order a glass of wine in the MDR or a Pina Colada by the pool? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandy toes Posted July 16 #19 Share Posted July 16 17 hours ago, ace1zoe2 said: Our daughter just got off Harmony yesterday and she texted me through iphone messages saying, how is it possible I can text and get texts with my phone on airplane mode and no wi-fi? I told her it was a loophole that sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't. When we were on Wonder in September it worked for us. In January it did not. I do not use What's App? But someone in our group of friends said, that if you are close enough to someone else with Wi-Fi you can piggy back off that phone. That is a loop hole they are working on to eliminate for safety reasons. He said that their daughter was told how to do it by a guy in the teens camp area on the 2nd evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker19 Posted July 16 #20 Share Posted July 16 4 minutes ago, sandy toes said: MaddyandMax Goodness! If you want to notify a poster, use the @MaddyandMax call out or quote them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker19 Posted July 16 #21 Share Posted July 16 1 minute ago, sandy toes said: But someone in our group of friends said, that if you are close enough to someone else with Wi-Fi you can piggy back off that phone. Not all phones can hot spot a wifi connection like that and it's not a loophole but a feature of that phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaddyandMax Posted July 16 #22 Share Posted July 16 15 minutes ago, sandy toes said: MaddyandMax Goodness! What a mess that must have been! Could you even order a glass of wine in the MDR or a Pina Colada by the pool? That was the bizarre thing. I ordered drinks and had no problems. It doesn't really make sense but it happened LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted July 16 #23 Share Posted July 16 27 minutes ago, sandy toes said: But someone in our group of friends said, that if you are close enough to someone else with Wi-Fi you can piggy back off that phone. This is not true. If so this would be a major security hole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker19 Posted July 16 #24 Share Posted July 16 16 minutes ago, smokeybandit said: This is not true. If so this would be a major security hole. Some phones may allow a BT or wifi connection (basically hot spot via wifi or BT) to another phone to use their data connection - I assume that's what they meant as piggyback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandy toes Posted July 16 #25 Share Posted July 16 Some how it did work. The dad saw it actually functioning on his daughters phone, and told the group of kids NOT to do that. He really scared his daughter with stories of the FBI taking her off ship or US Custom Agents taking her away. Later other kids could no longer do it. Whatever was happening was not a cruise long event and was shut down by the ship IT. Just beware that odd things can and do happen with portals on open water and 6500 people. If you would have finished my earlier post, you would have seen 47 minutes ago, sandy toes said: That is a loop hole they are working on to eliminate for safety reasons. I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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