iphones as walkie talkies without needing internet/cell service?

Has anyone used their iphones as walkie talkies on the ship without connecting to the internet/cell service? What are the best apps to use for this purpose? Thanks in advance.

When were on the Crown Princess in October 2015, they offered a free app to help you communicate with other people in your party. As I recall, you sign up at Guest Services Truth be told, not very effective, but maybe they have the bugs worked out now. This service is not common knowledge and I do not remember how we found out about it. Otherwise, you will rack up an enormous phone bill if your phones do indeed work well on the ship. Have a wonderful cruise!;)

When were on the Crown Princess in October 2015, they offered a free app to help you communicate with other people in your party. As I recall, you sign up at Guest Services Truth be told, not very effective, but maybe they have the bugs worked out now. This service is not common knowledge and I do not remember how we found out about it. Otherwise, you will rack up an enormous phone bill if your phones do indeed work well on the ship. Have a wonderful cruise!;)

Are you referring to the Princess@Sea Messenger? If it is, you don't sign up with Guest Services. Information were on the Patter.

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Only one app I've heard of is called Ripple-Connect Cruise Communicator. Has Text, Voice and Video chat. Released 2014 and not updated since. Known to be blocked on Carnival. I tried it - couldn't get it to work on Princess in 2014

Thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2108916

Good explanation of why: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=44293457&postcount=15

When were on the Crown Princess in October 2015, they offered a free app to help you communicate with other people in your party. As I recall, you sign up at Guest Services Truth be told, not very effective, but maybe they have the bugs worked out now. This service is not common knowledge and I do not remember how we found out about it. Otherwise, you will rack up an enormous phone bill if your phones do indeed work well on the ship. Have a wonderful cruise!;)

But that is not voice communication which the OP is asking about.

There are "walkie talkie" apps on iPhones which can be downloaded for free. I have never used one, but the description says "allows any number of users to talk instantly". and another one "a place for free live private conversations".

Hope this helps. I'll be trying it next week on the Diamond Princess.

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/onboard/in_touch.jsp

Princess@Sea is our FREE, award-winning mobile friendly tool offering quick and convenient access to valuable information about the ship while you're onboard! Plan your day's events and activities, review the ship's itinerary and port guides, browse restaurant menus, even access your stateroom account! Plus, the Princess@Sea Messenger allows you to send text messages to other guests onboard!

Getting started with Princess@Sea is easy. Simply connect to the ship’s WIFI once onboard, open your browser and Princess@Sea will be the default page that appears. It even operates in "Airplane Mode". No cellular or data charges required!

Princess@Sea and Princess@Sea Messenger are now available on all ships.

Hope this helps. I'll be trying it next week on the Diamond Princess.

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/onboard/in_touch.jsp

Princess@Sea is our FREE, award-winning mobile friendly tool offering quick and convenient access to valuable information about the ship while you're onboard! Plan your day's events and activities, review the ship's itinerary and port guides, browse restaurant menus, even access your stateroom account! Plus, the Princess@Sea Messenger allows you to send text messages to other guests onboard!

Getting started with Princess@Sea is easy. Simply connect to the ship’s WIFI once onboard, open your browser and Princess@Sea will be the default page that appears. It even operates in "Airplane Mode". No cellular or data charges required!

Princess@Sea and Princess@Sea Messenger are now available on all ships.

Not voice and no real time notification to the receiver. Your phone has to be on and logged into the ap before the presence of a message shows up on the screen. You can easily send a text message, but the receiver has to check to see if any message exist.

Hope this helps. I'll be trying it next week on the Diamond Princess.

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/onboard/in_touch.jsp

Princess@Sea is our FREE, award-winning mobile friendly tool offering quick and convenient access to valuable information about the ship while you're onboard! Plan your day's events and activities, review the ship's itinerary and port guides, browse restaurant menus, even access your stateroom account! Plus, the Princess@Sea Messenger allows you to send text messages to other guests onboard!

Getting started with Princess@Sea is easy. Simply connect to the ship’s WIFI once onboard, open your browser and Princess@Sea will be the default page that appears. It even operates in "Airplane Mode". No cellular or data charges required!

Princess@Sea and Princess@Sea Messenger are now available on all ships.

Appreciate these details and this great posting. Have copied and shared on cruise Roll Call. We depart from Fort Lauderdale in just week on our way to San Francisco via our first trip through the Panama Canal.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 171,578 views for this posting.

We have tried many times to get one of those walkie talkie apps to work on a ship using Wifi but not requiring one to log on and start running the 'meter' but we have not been successful. What works fine with Wifi at home requires us both to log in on a ship, which is not practical. I, too, would like to learn if someone has found an app that works on ships.

Of course, I would be even happier if the Princess@Sea messaging simply offer an audible notification that a message had been received.

Only one app I've heard of is called Ripple-Connect Cruise Communicator. Has Text, Voice and Video chat. Released 2014 and not updated since. Known to be blocked on Carnival. I tried it - couldn't get it to work on Princess in 2014

 

Thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2108916

 

Good explanation of why: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=44293457&postcount=15

Sadly doesn't work on Princess. We tried it last June on the Crown Princess. You can leave messages with Princess@Sea but you have to manually go in and check them. Not ideal but works. You can try radios in the gift shop but don't forget you're on a big metal boat. It won't work at times reception wise but it did good enough 80% of the time. Just keep the volume down for call in beeps and step away when answering. You WILL get dirty looks from other passengers. Keep a tight leash when using either with a teenager. Once they figure it out it isn't fool proof (reception/remembering to check) they will play dumb on the boat. As annoying as the walkies are you do get a near answer most of the time.

Sadly doesn't work on Princess. We tried it last June on the Crown Princess. You can leave messages with Princess@Sea but you have to manually go in and check them. Not ideal but works. You can try radios in the gift shop but don't forget you're on a big metal boat. It won't work at times reception wise but it did good enough 80% of the time. Just keep the volume down for call in beeps and step away when answering. You WILL get dirty looks from other passengers. Keep a tight leash when using either with a teenager. Once they figure it out it isn't fool proof (reception/remembering to check) they will play dumb on the boat. As annoying as the walkies are you do get a near answer most of the time.

You are right. I guess that is the reason why there is no audible notification, not to be a disturbance to others.

Has anyone used their iphones as walkie talkies on the ship without connecting to the internet/cell service? What are the best apps to use for this purpose? Thanks in advance.

None of the walkie talkie apps like Zello will work on the ship without connecting to their intranet first. Both people have to be connected in order to have a continuous conversation although Zello might keep a buffered message only to be played when the receiving person loges on. (not sure).

Either way a pair of walkie talkies is the only way to go for any somewhat reliable conversation, aside from their Princess@sea messaging system which doesn't have any audible notification built in.

Either way a pair of walkie talkies is the only way to go for any somewhat reliable conversation, aside from their Princess@sea messaging system which doesn't have any audible notification built in.

These need to be combined.

Send a message with p@sea, then scream into your walkie talkie "CHECK YOUR MESSAGES!!!!"

With enough walkie talkie screamers, even the "alerts disturb me luddites" will be begging princess to implement notifications.

As has been well testified here, there aren't any communications apps out there that will carry voice over the ship's network without being logged in and presumably on the clock.

There is a company out there called Beartooth https://www.beartooth.com/ which is supposedly developing a 900Mhz radio solution which would allow an iPhone or Android user to connect this device to their phone and then have PTT and text messaging away from any cellular or Wi-Fi network.

I got interested in this a few months back, and they were promising a February delivery date, but it now appears that the first delivery date has been moved to April. It looks a lot like a Kickstarter style of product launch where you pay up front and they deliver... whenever. The concept seems solid. A self powered radio module which connects to your phone via Bluetooth and uses an app for management and communications. All users have to have the Bluetooth radio device and then the individual users have to "register" other users for communications purposes, but once it is set up it looks super easy to use. If it transitions from vaporware to a real product, it will be pretty amazing.

Until then I'd recommend getting a pair or more of the FRS/GMRS radios to keep in contact while on board. Amazon has some competitive prices on Motorola Talkabout radios. The T100 through T600 series radios are their current shipping models. The M-series radios have been discontinued. FRS/GMRS radios are all inter-operable with each other so old or new doesn't really matter, unless a new series radio has a feature you really want.

Officially the GMRS channels on the Talkabout radios, and radios from other makers, like Midland, Cobra, etc. require a license from the FCC to operate on those frequencies and the higher powers that GMRS is meant to use. However, just like CB licensing prior to 1977, the FCC rarely enforces GMRS licensing because there are too many radios and users to try to police; it's a loosing game. On board a cruise ship that is in international waters I wouldn't hesitate to have my travel party on a GMRS frequency because the transmission power is as high as the radio can go, and you are more likely to get your transmission through, plus you are outside of the jurisdiction of the FCC.

I suspect that in the next 5 years or so the licensing requirement to use GMRS frequencies will be eliminated because it is impossible to regulate and the regulation itself doesn't enhance the usability or availability of the GMRS frequency range.

Please no walker talkies! So annoying. On our Alaska cruise people had them. And they were using the, in dining room[emoji33][emoji33]

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Please no walker talkies! So annoying. On our Alaska cruise people had them. And they were using the, in dining room[emoji33][emoji33]

 

 

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Agree! Someone bring a walkie talkie jammer to make them useless and thus silence them. [emoji4]

They work great in the theater too.

They work great in the theater too.

And between massage rooms in the spa... [emoji6]

And between massage rooms in the spa... [emoji6]

Ha!! Good one. :evilsmile:

As has been well testified here, there aren't any communications apps out there that will carry voice over the ship's network without being logged in and presumably on the clock.

 

There is a company out there called Beartooth https://www.beartooth.com/ which is supposedly developing a 900Mhz radio solution which would allow an iPhone or Android user to connect this device to their phone and then have PTT and text messaging away from any cellular or Wi-Fi network.

 

I got interested in this a few months back, and they were promising a February delivery date, but it now appears that the first delivery date has been moved to April. It looks a lot like a Kickstarter style of product launch where you pay up front and they deliver... whenever. The concept seems solid. A self powered radio module which connects to your phone via Bluetooth and uses an app for management and communications. All users have to have the Bluetooth radio device and then the individual users have to "register" other users for communications purposes, but once it is set up it looks super easy to use. If it transitions from vaporware to a real product, it will be pretty amazing.

 

Until then I'd recommend getting a pair or more of the FRS/GMRS radios to keep in contact while on board. Amazon has some competitive prices on Motorola Talkabout radios. The T100 through T600 series radios are their current shipping models. The M-series radios have been discontinued. FRS/GMRS radios are all inter-operable with each other so old or new doesn't really matter, unless a new series radio has a feature you really want.

 

Officially the GMRS channels on the Talkabout radios, and radios from other makers, like Midland, Cobra, etc. require a license from the FCC to operate on those frequencies and the higher powers that GMRS is meant to use. However, just like CB licensing prior to 1977, the FCC rarely enforces GMRS licensing because there are too many radios and users to try to police; it's a loosing game. On board a cruise ship that is in international waters I wouldn't hesitate to have my travel party on a GMRS frequency because the transmission power is as high as the radio can go, and you are more likely to get your transmission through, plus you are outside of the jurisdiction of the FCC.

 

I suspect that in the next 5 years or so the licensing requirement to use GMRS frequencies will be eliminated because it is impossible to regulate and the regulation itself doesn't enhance the usability or availability of the GMRS frequency range.

Looks interesting although the price is a little high.

Agree! Someone bring a walkie talkie jammer to make them useless and thus silence them. [emoji4]

Good luck with enforcing that one. It'll only make things worse than ever trying to contact someone else & unless you're putting out lots of power it won't work anyway unlike a cell phone jammer.

The way that the cruise line manages its wifi network, you can not use an app to communicate in this fashion. While others have said this in the replies, I did not really ready the why not...

The cruise line manages all the ports that you have access too. You can connect to their wifi for free, but the only port open is the internet port, which they trap and have you go to their sign in page ( or any free webpages they choose to offer ).

After you sign in, they open up some of the ports but not all of them. This allows them to control what type of apps you are using, and what kind of data you are sending across their narrow pipe of internet.

Ports are what each application uses to actually communicate with another application. When the makers of the apps create them, they use from a set pool of ports for the type of app they are making. Without them everything would be broadcasting on the same port and would slow every app down, when it was looking for its data..

There are a few ways around what the ship is doing, but all of them are technically hacking and I wont go into it.

Your best bet is to use the app the ship provides, or use an old fashion note system ( writing notes and slipping under doors for people to get where you are )

Agree! Someone bring a walkie talkie jammer to make them useless and thus silence them. [emoji4]

I'm not sure that would be all that effective or beneficial. Plus, ship staff use 2-way radios all the time to communicate. Many of those are on licensed commercial radio frequencies and often times they operate in the same spectrum as FRS/GMRS although not on the FRS/GMRS frequencies.

I had said earlier that we are probably looking at the beginning of the end of GMRS licensing. For those interested the following link is a few years old, but illustrates some of the problems trying to license a radio system that is easily available through any retailer and has completely anonymous usage. This is basically exactly the same situation which lead to unlicensed usage of CB frequencies.

http://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2015/05/fcc_eliminates_gmrs_regulatory_fee.aspx

As for how people use their FRS radios while on a cruise, there are numerous ways to turn off all the beeps, alerts and such that FRS radios often have on, by default. If all those alerts and "roger beeps" were turned off, these devices would probably go without much notice by other passengers.

I'm not sure that would be all that effective or beneficial. Plus, ship staff use 2-way radios all the time to communicate. Many of those are on licensed commercial radio frequencies and often times they operate in the same spectrum as FRS/GMRS although not on the FRS/GMRS frequencies.

 

I had said earlier that we are probably looking at the beginning of the end of GMRS licensing. For those interested the following link is a few years old, but illustrates some of the problems trying to license a radio system that is easily available through any retailer and has completely anonymous usage. This is basically exactly the same situation which lead to unlicensed usage of CB frequencies.

 

http://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2015/05/fcc_eliminates_gmrs_regulatory_fee.aspx

 

As for how people use their FRS radios while on a cruise, there are numerous ways to turn off all the beeps, alerts and such that FRS radios often have on, by default. If all those alerts and "roger beeps" were turned off, these devices would probably go without much notice by other passengers.

The walkie talkie jammer suggestion was just a joke...

I kind of figured it was a joke, but I'm also kind of dry.

I can also understand that some 2-way users don't behave with their radios.