Oasis IPhone Rental or Your own IPhone

[roebud]

Just wondering if anyone has used the ship's rental IPhones and those who use their own IPhone connecting to the ships WiFi. How was your experience with either. Also does anyone have any information on the Rental Agreement or whether they try to sell you insurance in case of lost or damage?

 

Thanks for you replies! :)

 

Rose

[LAatl]

from what I understand from the blogs, they are around $30-40 per day/per phone. You can find the location on the ship of the other people in your party with the rentals, they have the cruise compass on it, you can call the others with the rentals and you can text them and they have the ships deck plans on them.

 

This is the only functions on the phones. It's a lot more convenient to do this then worry about roaming charges on your own phone.

[jpolm]

from what I understand from the blogs, they are around $30-40 per day/per phone. You can find the location on the ship of the other people in your party with the rentals, they have the cruise compass on it, you can call the others with the rentals and you can text them and they have the ships deck plans on them.

 

This is the only functions on the phones. It's a lot more convenient to do this then worry about roaming charges on your own phone.

 

Wow that's pricey for a rental?

[Daghis]

I don't think the rental price is that high. I think that's closer to the entire price for the cruise. For some reason, I've got $50/week per iPhone in my mind, but I can't remember for sure what I've read.

 

Edited to add... A Google search found this Royal Connect PDF which says it's $30/week.

[benalexe]

They are not too available. By the time I got to the deck they were renting them they were sold out. The regular wifi is very expensive, consider a good walkie talkie

 

 

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[cindytx3092]

We rented a pair on our last cruise and they worked on the interior of the ship. At times if one group was out on the deck, they would not work.

 

We made this our first stop on the ship to assure that we got a pair.

[roebud]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I was surprised to read that they may not work on deck. Hmmm interesting, I wonder if a text would go through. We are cruising with our teenage daughter and just want to be able to communicate with her. We'll definitely use the GPS function if need be. I wonder how quickly they sell out. Definitely will make this a priority when we arrive on board.

 

Thanks again,

 

Rose

[Brandis]

Too bad they are not offering this as a downloadable app for personal iPhones.

 

 

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[PegB87]

Check with your carrier to see if your phone(s) & service allow for international roaming (includes cruise ship roaming).

I have the iPhone 4S & I just called my carrier to have them activate international capability on my phone.

Once on board I turned Data Roaming OFF & also disabled ALL notifications/updates. I could have made calls (tho I didn't bc it's $2.99/min.:eek:), but I did text.

Texts were 50cents to send & 5cents to receive.

I was only on a 4nt cruise, so my next bill was only $2-$3 higher.

 

If your phones/carrier allow for it, you may come out ahead vs. RCI phones (IF you can even get them!), especially if you stick to just the occasional 'check-in' text.

[Clarea]

Check with your carrier to see if your phone(s) & service allow for international roaming (includes cruise ship roaming).

I have the iPhone 4S & I just called my carrier to have them activate international capability on my phone.

Once on board I turned Data Roaming OFF & also disabled ALL notifications/updates. I could have made calls (tho I didn't bc it's $2.99/min.:eek:), but I did text.

Texts were 50cents to send & 5cents to receive.

I was only on a 4nt cruise, so my next bill was only $2-$3 higher.

 

If your phones/carrier allow for it, you may come out ahead vs. RCI phones (IF you can even get them!), especially if you stick to just the occasional 'check-in' text.

Check with your carrier about this. Some carriers differentiate between international and cruise ship, and international plans may not cover a cruise ship.

[zooma]

We rented Wow Phones last week on Oasis, and here's what I can tell you: they are $30 each for the week. No insurance was offered, but they cost something crazy like $500 if you lose one. They do run out fairly quickly. We were among the first onboard, had to stop at the Shore Excursions desk first, but then went straight to the Internet Cafe/Card Room to get in a (very slow) line for phones. Did meet some fun folks in that line (who had already started on their Premium Packages :)), but, at some point, the phone crew came around to ask everyone in line how many phones they needed, because they were running out and wanted to know when to cut off the line so that people did not wait unnecessarily. I heard someone tell folks who were not able to get those phones that they could go to Guest Services and get DECT phones (similar but maybe not as fancy?) if they wanted.

 

The phones worked fine enough: texts always went through; calls went through, but it was hard to hear, so you always followed up with a text; and the GPS was accurate only about 30% of the time because sometimes it just didn't update (eg, would show that my son was still in his room when I had just seen him elsewhere). The phones were worth it for us, since our teens were off on their own every evening, and at least we could get in touch if needed. Our daughter carried her own iPhone around with her most of the time simply because she wanted to take pictures, etc. We tried to text back and forth between our regular iPhones, and it never really worked (though now I hear that it might be because we had scared her so badly re roaming charges that she had her phone on Airplane Mode (which will not permit texting)).

 

I would get the Wow Phones again. Oh, and I hear RC is working on an app so we can indeed use our own phones.

[pabrett46]

We had the dect phones on Oasis but that was over a year ago. We got them from guest services. They did not text but you could call of course. That was all we needed to do. Call each other to check in. They cost me $25/person for the week. I don't know if I would need the gps especially if it's hit and miss.

[LTyler]

If u have children it's a good thing to rent I rented them this past October because my inlaws always get lost lol they worked fairly good they also have texting also! if u have an iPhone the person I spoke with on Oasis says an app will be available soon but I'm sure it will still be 30 per phone