Hand held radios work on ship?

[cmax]

Do walkie-talkie type radios work on the ships? We have a 12 year old that we'd like to allow a little more freedom but have concerns. Thinking about using a radio when he's out and about. Have you found them to work on deck and inside areas as well?

[*Mach*]

They do, but only to a degree. The ship is built of plate steel and plate aluminum, both of which attenuate the radio signal a bunch.

The higher the power of the radio the better off you'll be but it won't work everywhere.

Please consider others as well. There are few things more annoying than sitting in a show and having someone's radio start to blare with reports of locations of the view at the pool on the Lido Deck...

:)

[ronrythm]

Hello cmax,

If you've never used hand held radios, please be aware that talking louder into them does not work. Speak in a normal tone of voice, that is what they are designed for. If you speak loud, the cheaper ones will just distort, while the more expensive ones engage compression/expander circuitry to bring the volume down. In neither case does it make speech more intelligible to the party on the other end. I use some of the Motorola ones at work. The most important thing we've found is to have the most available frequencies to find one that nobody else is using. We also have found that using optional headset with mics and earphones improves the sound and keeps from annoying the people around you.

 

Also, FRS/GMRS radios may need licenses or be illegal to use in countries other than the USA (need a license for GMRS) and Canada (Not sure, used to be under 2 watts, no license needed)so check before taking them off of the ship.

 

Enjoy

Ron

[bunchesofun]

After reading all the positive posts about walkie talkies we bought two pairs of 35 mile radius Motorolas. They did NOT work. They worked withing 100 feet of each other, but then the signal was lost. They were a huge disappointment as we wanted our 11 year old daughter to be able to contact us if she wanted to leave Camp Carnival. So really you have a 50/50 chance of them working. For me it was $100 down the drain.

[arush5268d]

Sadly they do work, to some extent. YMMV, as ships are constructed out of lots of metal and that can interfere greatly with the radio waves.

[ocntscha]

I've got a nice pair of Motorola ones that work great in normal circumstances around our neighborhood. But, I took them on a cruise and like the previous posters have said the range was extremely limited due to the steel construction of the ship. Also, there is so much ambient noise all the time, particularly on Carnival, that even if you are within the useable range of couple hundred feet and they alert you probably won't hear it.

[SuiteLady]

We invested in a good set of walkie talkies on our first cruise years back, and found they were more trouble than with it was worth. As stated above, they did not do their job as most channels were busy and you could not clearly hear the other person if they were further than eyesight away from you and I had many conversations with total strangers:eek:...hahaha

[Cruise-Crazy]

Just get good ones and they will cover most of the ship. If they say 35 miles and cost $35 they will be a disappointment.

 

AND use them responsibly.

[abitaturbodog]

We've experienced 2 problems with hand-held raidos:

 

1. They don't work all the time

2. Kids lose them

 

After the third time retrieving my son's radio from the guest services desk, we put them away and never brought them on a cruise again.

[bunchesofun]

We've experienced 2 problems with hand-held raidos:

 

1. They don't work all the time

2. Kids lose them

 

After the third time retrieving my son's radio from the guest services desk, we put them away and never brought them on a cruise again.

Losing them was one of the concerns we had. We used a plastic label maker and put our last name and cabin number on each one.

[room010]

Hello? HELLO??.......... crackle/hiss..........HELLO? YEAH IT'S ME WHERE ARE YOU? HELLO......... crackle/babble......SAY AGAIN?......bleep/zzzzzz/screech.......... HELLO? IS THAT YOU?........ I'M BY THE POOL, WHERE ARE YOU?........ buzz/hiss...... SPEAK UP! I CAN'T HEAR YOU........static/crackle.........SAY AGAIN?..........bleep/buzz.......YEAH I'M BY THE POOL RELAXING BUT PEOPLE KEEP STARING AT ME.........bleep/crackle.........I CAN'T TALK ANY LOUDER!!!! HELLO?..........screech/hiss......... YOU'RE BY THE POOL TOO? OH YEAH I SEE YOU HELLOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! LET'S GRAB SOME LUNCH WHERE SHALL WE GO?..........crackle.........OK PIZZA IT IS SEE YOU THERE IN 5 MINUTES. DON'T FORGET TO SAVE YOUR CHAIR WITH A TOWEL...........HELLO? HELLOO?????...........glug/glug/glug- hooray!!!! the sound of a walkie talkie IN the pool and the rousing cheers of everyone.

[arush5268d]

Hello? HELLO??.......... crackle/hiss..........HELLO? YEAH IT'S ME WHERE ARE YOU? HELLO......... crackle/babble......SAY AGAIN?......bleep/zzzzzz/screech.......... HELLO? IS THAT YOU?........ I'M BY THE POOL, WHERE ARE YOU?........ buzz/hiss...... SPEAK UP! I CAN'T HEAR YOU........static/crackle.........SAY AGAIN?..........bleep/buzz.......YEAH I'M BY THE POOL RELAXING BUT PEOPLE KEEP STARING AT ME.........bleep/crackle.........I CAN'T TALK ANY LOUDER!!!! HELLO?..........screech/hiss......... YOU'RE BY THE POOL TOO? OH YEAH I SEE YOU HELLOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! LET'S GRAB SOME LUNCH WHERE SHALL WE GO?..........crackle.........OK PIZZA IT IS SEE YOU THERE IN 5 MINUTES. DON'T FORGET TO SAVE YOUR CHAIR WITH A TOWEL...........HELLO? HELLOO?????...........glug/glug/glug- hooray!!!! the sound of a walkie talkie IN the pool and the rousing cheers of everyone.

 

I looooove it!

[serene56]

They were more a PIA then anything- we used them the first day of our first cruise and put them away after that.

 

Cabins are equipped with voice mail- set it up when you enter the cabin.

Use public phones located all over the ship- (by every elevator)

 

go over the fun times vs the kids pages to see where every one will be at any given time.