Walkie-Talkies verses the ships phones

[cruiselover0213]

Anybody have any feedback on the phones/walk-talkie's that you can rent on Allure? We are trying to decide if we should just bring our own walkie talkies or if we should take our chances of getting and using the ships phones to keep tabs on our teenager.

 

Thanks!

[akcruz]

Just one thing to think about what will they do with the phones or wakie talkies while on the flowrider, basketball court, or in the pool? We set rules and times to check in with our teens. If plans change we leave notes in the cabin or messages on cabin phone. We do check once in while to make sure they are where they said they would be. Yes it takes time out of our day and some planning but thats what being a parent is all about to me. Not that you would do it but a lot of folks take a vacation from parenting while on vacation. Let your kids know what is expected and set consequences and no need for the phone on board.

[4ever]

I too would like to know opinions on use of the phones/walkie talkies.

Please post if you've has experience with either on board the Allure~Thanks!

[wendyatpml]

We bring our own Walkie Talkies and it works fine for us. We also use them alot when we are out and about in ports.

[reallyitsmema]

We don't bring walkie talkies, we set the rules ahead of time and communicated with sticky notes left in the cabin or voicemail. We left a note for our son too so if he had to find us, he could easily. We also would cruse by and see that he was where he was supposed to be. He was always on the basketball court or playing ping pong or just hanging with friends as he had said he would be.

 

Unless you have a young teen, 13 or so, none of the teens carry walkie talkies, it's not cool.:cool:

[KMagz]

I will say if you decide to go the walkie-talkie route bring goods ones. We tried inexpensive wrist-mounted ones and they were just about useless on Oasis of the Seas. Terrible range, lots of static.

[textbookcase]

We rented the phone while we were on Oasis a couple of weeks ago. They worked okay, but the connection would drop often and the phone kept trying to reconnect, so batteries drained faster than they should have. Even with that problem, I was really happy to have them since it was just me and DD13 traveling together. I was able to locate her on the phone 90% of the time and it has the Cruise Compass on it, so it was easy to look up upcoming activities. All minutes and texts were included in the $34 fee per phone for the week.

 

We tried the walkie talkies a few years back, which didn't work well. Too many people with too few channels. It was much less effective for us. On Oasis, many people used them - you could quickly identify those folks by the yelling into the walkie talkie and the constant repeating of answers since it could be hard to communicate.

[elainesj]

We used our walkie talkies on the Liberty of the Seas, so smaller ship than the Allure. Mind you, we had decent quality ones with a good range (it was mostly used for 2 families travelling in separate cars to stay in touch with each other - worked perfectly). They were EXTREMELY useful for this as we're Cdns and the 2 families did not have US texting plans so using cells to communicate during the 2 day drive would have been $$.

 

It worked relatively well. We didn't use them all the time, just occassionally. It worked from about one end of the ship to about 3/4 of the way (so not end to end). It came in useful on occassion.

 

We probably wouldn't have brought them though if the 2 families did not need them for the drive. They were useful, but not extensively useful.

[johneeo]

Anybody have any feedback on the phones/walk-talkie's that you can rent on Allure? We are trying to decide if we should just bring our own walkie talkies or if we should take our chances of getting and using the ships phones to keep tabs on our teenager.

 

Thanks!

 

Do you trust your teenager?

 

My experience with walkie talkies was horrible. They just did not work at all.

 

And as someone else said, your teenager is not going to be too happy having to carry around a walkie talkie so his mommy can check up on him/her.

[cb at sea]

It's not as hard to "keep tabs" as you think. The best thing to do is have your teen physically "check in" with you at times you tell them. Set up a tentative schedule, so everyone will know where to find everyone else....

 

Just because you talk to them on a phone or walkie-talkie doesn't really tell you anything!!

[ebbinns]

are there clocks all over the ships? My teens will find it convenient to say "I didn't know what time it was" when they miss the planned family check in time. And, no, watches are not cool. :eek:

[BND]

are there clocks all over the ships? My teens will find it convenient to say "I didn't know what time it was" when they miss the planned family check in time. And, no, watches are not cool. :eek:

 

I wouldn't care if they thought watches weren't "cool". I know most teens prefer to use their cell phones, but seriously they can't figure out how to find out what time it is? They could put it in their pockets where no one could see it :rolleyes: That excuse wouldn't have washed with us when our boys were teens, and they knew it. There are clocks on the pool deck, and in the Promenade on ships that have one. I think it's pretty simple, tell them if they want the time on their own, they'll figure out a responsible way to know what time it is. Responsibility earns freedom. Every crew member I've ever seen has a watch on, so they could ask.

 

Also, we found the walkie talkies very irritating onboard. Most people had the volume turned way up and quite a few used them to fool around with their friends and family and not just to check in. Nothing like sitting at lunch having a quiet conversation, getting to know your tablemates and listening to two guys harrassing each other complete with static and beeps.

[reallyitsmema]

are there clocks all over the ships? My teens will find it convenient to say "I didn't know what time it was" when they miss the planned family check in time. And, no, watches are not cool. :eek:

Yes, there are clocks around the ship and in the teen area.

[johneeo]

are there clocks all over the ships? My teens will find it convenient to say "I didn't know what time it was" when they miss the planned family check in time. And, no, watches are not cool. :eek:

 

Make rules. Define consequences for violating the rules, works on a cruise ship, works in real life.

 

Example, tell your kids they will meet you and check in at 10 PM at the Crown and Anchor. Should they fail to check in, they are grounded for the rest of the cruise. No excuses whatsoever will be accepted for violation of the rule.

 

And follow through. It ain't that difficult.

[BND]

Make rules. Define consequences for violating the rules, works on a cruise ship, works in real life.

 

Example, tell your kids they will meet you and check in at 10 PM at the Crown and Anchor. Should they fail to check in, they are grounded for the rest of the cruise. No excuses whatsoever will be accepted for violation of the rule.

 

And follow through. It ain't that difficult.

 

Exactly. Someone has to be the adult.

 

From what I'm reading, no one seems to like the walkie talkies. We have our own that we used to take to the beach so when someone was going back and forth to the condo from where were sitting or we were on the boardwalk, we could check in, but they didn't work well as a lot of people had them and you rarely could get your own "channel".

[notladjr]

I am going to find out in May! Up to now all of our cruises have been without walkie talkies but I have been intrigued with the idea of trying them. We won't use them all of the time but when the wife and I are splitting up to do different things and want to hook back up I thought it would be nice.

 

The set I have were too big to carry around so I bought a small Motorola set that has a 14 mile range. I know on board the ship with all of those walls they won't have that range but I am curious to see just how well they do. They have a page function that gives a discreet cell phone style ring. I like that so we can find a private place to respond. The last thing I want is to be THAT obnoxious person hollering into a screeching, loud two way radio!