IMessage on Magic?

I use iMessage or email to connect with my family. Which WiFi package will work. I'm not interested in any other websites or anything else, just being able to contact family while I'm on board.

We always purchase the middle package of the three and it works fine. However be aware on the larger ships like Magic there are some areas where the service is spotty sometimes on the ship.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

You can choose the package you prefer.

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1152/~/carnivals-wi-fi-service-and-hub-app

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

If you want to access email, you'll need the middle package.

I usually buy the cheaper package and use Facebook messenger to keep in touch. We have even had some success making phone calls using the FB messenger app, but very, very limited success.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Forums mobile app

We purchased the social media package last year and were successful with iMessage for the first 4 or 5 days of the cruise. It seemed to be unreliable after that so we switched to using FB messenger.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

If all you need is person-to-person contact on the ship (but don't really need true internet access or the associated costs), the Carnival Hub app might be your best bet at $5 per device for the entire voyage. It has a messaging feature that reportedly works extremely well, and at $5 for your entire cruise it's drastically cheaper than any of the internet options, the cheapest of which (the social plan) doesn't support iMessage to start with.

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1152

Just back from trip on Magic. The hub was not very dependable for me. Sometimes worked sometimes I would get message 12 hours later. For the money I guess that was not bad. I ending up buying the middle internet pkg by day toward the end. And for me it was worth it.

Just back from trip on Magic. The hub was not very dependable for me. Sometimes worked sometimes I would get message 12 hours later. For the money I guess that was not bad. I ending up buying the middle internet pkg by day toward the end. And for me it was worth it.

Do u remember what the price onboard was for the entire week for that middle package? Trying to determine if it’s better to pre-purchase online now or wait and purchase once onboard. Thanks for any info.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Do u remember what the price onboard was for the entire week for that middle package? Trying to determine if it’s better to pre-purchase online now or wait and purchase once onboard. Thanks for any info.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

For the 6 day MAGIC cruise it was

$5 to use messenger

$25 social pack (FB, messages)

$75 social, messages, bank & secure sites

$1?? For the all out pack

Whichever one you get just know you’re paying for access to more, not faster speed. Pretty much any package at sea is slower like an old DSL CONNECTION.

The $5 messenger you’re primarily using a closed network (ie cut off from the outside world) which is why you need to be on airplane mode and log directly into the ship’s internal Wi-Fi network. Just like your home the further away from the source the lower the signal is.

Now I'm confused. (But that's par for the course.)

I'm getting the social package. Will the Hub messaged work on that? Or will I have to spend an additional $5 a day for it?

The Hub chat application is completely separate from any of the internet packages, and doesn't even require internet access - it works internally on the ships intranet.

You pay the $5 per device per voyage fee for Hub, and that's it - no internet package required.

Now, on the topic of internet packages...

Whichever one you get just know you’re paying for access to more, not faster speed. Pretty much any package at sea is slower like an old DSL CONNECTION.

Sounds like Carnival hasn't got on board with the highspeed solutions yet like RCI. I had the premium internet package on our last RCI cruise (aboard Grandeur, one of their older ships at that) and the internet was absolutely blistering. Speed isn't the be-all-end-all for most peoples needs, but it certainly is nice in some situations. ;)

The Hub chat application is completely separate from any of the internet packages, and doesn't even require internet access - it works internally on the ships intranet.

 

You pay the $5 per device per voyage fee for Hub, and that's it - no internet package required.

 

Now, on the topic of internet packages...

So it's $5 per voyage, not per day extra.

I'll go for it. Now to get my old school husband on board. I'm in a seminar on-board, and I want to stay in touch with him. He likes the 20th century idea of arranging a time to be somewhere. I don't want to be that tied down. Especially if I have to be back in the room (deck 2 ) in five minutes, and everyone is meeting at Lido.

My family has Verizon. With the $5 hub fee, the three of us with Androids were able to send and receive regular text messages throughout the entire cruise. However, the one with the iPhone could not?

Sent from my Moto Z Droid.

"slower like an old DSL CONNECTION."

not sure what you mean by this, did you mean dial up? DSL is one of the fastest form of internet connection, as fast as 1G

The social package worked well for imessage. We also used the hub app but it seems that it would randomly log off and you have to be logged into it to receive messages. Great concept for the app but needs improvement to be reliable.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Forget trying to get any streaming at all on facebook with the social package. (John Heald live)