On Board I phone Rentals

[We Be Floatin !]

Anyone have any experience to share with rental the iPhones on board the Allure for the week so all family can connected while on board?

[Clarea]

Here is the info:

 

www.royalcaribbeanincentives.com/docs/rccl-pdfs/connect-brochure.pdf

Edited June 24, 2014 by clarea

[tgnorton]

We used them last year on the Oasis. We were a group of 14 people ranging in age from 70's to 10. Found it very helpful - esp being able to text.

[shelpt]

Do they come in a case like an Otter Box? Im concerned about breaking it.

Edited June 24, 2014 by shelpt

[sportsphotos]

This is the deal for the IPHONE they do not come with any kind of case. They also have a limited amount on Allure only 800 I believe. They are a great way to communicate with everyone. We sail on the 29th of this month and we will be renting 4. Good Luck

[Clarea]

Do they come in a case like an Otter Box? Im concerned about breaking it.

No case, and I believe they want a lot of money if you break or lose it. Would not be worth the risk to me.

[ixian]

I wish they would just create a cross-platform app - they could do it in the existing RCI app - so that anyone using it could send messages to one another on the ship. All you'd need to do is link users.

 

That is, from what I remember, essentially what the iPhone they give you does - it's a special app, and the phones are linked together. Yeah, they wouldn't get as many rentals but that doesn't seem to be a big profit center for them anyway.

 

And if they were smart they'd use it to drive people to the app, which is filled with ads, etc for shopping onboard anyway. It's kind of mind boggling how limited that app is right now considering they have everything they need already to make it really useful at sea.

 

Then again, software development doesn't seem to be one of RCI's strong suits going by the website :)

[Clarea]

I wish they would just create a cross-platform app - they could do it in the existing RCI app - so that anyone using it could send messages to one another on the ship. All you'd need to do is link users.

 

That is, from what I remember, essentially what the iPhone they give you does - it's a special app, and the phones are linked together. Yeah, they wouldn't get as many rentals but that doesn't seem to be a big profit center for them anyway.

 

And if they were smart they'd use it to drive people to the app, which is filled with ads, etc for shopping onboard anyway. It's kind of mind boggling how limited that app is right now considering they have everything they need already to make it really useful at sea.

 

Then again, software development doesn't seem to be one of RCI's strong suits going by the website :)

I had heard they were going to do what you suggest, but no timeframe was given.

[ixian]

Update - I just checked out the brochure and it's even more detailed than I remember. They already have the app! It's just a standard iOS app that connects to a special section of the shipboard wireless. There's no reason at all they couldn't just offer that for iOS/Android users in general.

 

Think how massively useful that would be for bigger groups and families. They could even put special events and stuff on the map to drive people to their shopping events and whatnot.

 

Locking this down to a special iPhone you have to rent is dumb. I wonder how many people lose/drop/ruin those per cruise and have to pay a steep fee. Plus a kid who has his own phone that you wrapped in an Otterbox is going to take better care of it than some "free" thing you hand him/her that doesn't even have all the games and other crap their "real" phone does.

[Clarea]

Update - I just checked out the brochure and it's even more detailed than I remember. They already have the app! It's just a standard iOS app that connects to a special section of the shipboard wireless. There's no reason at all they couldn't just offer that for iOS/Android users in general.

 

Think how massively useful that would be for bigger groups and families. They could even put special events and stuff on the map to drive people to their shopping events and whatnot.

 

Locking this down to a special iPhone you have to rent is dumb. I wonder how many people lose/drop/ruin those per cruise and have to pay a steep fee. Plus a kid who has his own phone that you wrapped in an Otterbox is going to take better care of it than some "free" thing you hand him/her that doesn't even have all the games and other crap their "real" phone does.

One of the reasons that might give them pause about supplying an app is onboard support. I'm thinking about several hundred people downloading an app onboard, then having problems, and Royal having to provide help desk support.

Edited June 25, 2014 by clarea

[train460]

how about some cheap walkie talkies?

Michael

[slyster]

Hmmm, I am thinking this would be a great way to communicate with deaf passengers or hard of hearing passengers whenever there is an announcement of some kind. I know it's not for that reason, but one of the problems we have had on board is when there is an announcement made, my wife doesn't get the information unless I interpret for her, because she's deaf.

 

I might look into this, but I might also contact the access department because this would be a great way to communicate with their deaf customers. Thanks!

[vacation_junkie]

how about some cheap walkie talkies?

Michael

 

We've yet to find a set of Walkie Talkies that work on a small ship let alone a big one! We've tried $39.99 ones to $399 ones. None seem to work through about 4-5 decks.

[jticarruthers]

We used the phones on Allure in March.

 

Basically worthless for us, on the two occasions the kids tried to get ahold of us we were in "dead zones" so the phones didn't ring and there was no indication when we came out of the dead zone that someone had been trying to call us, so we didn't know.

 

Could only text phone to phone, not from the ship phones so they couldn't leave us a text either.

 

Phones are probably 2-3 years old (original iPhone 4's) and their age is showing.

[goofygal531]

Anyone know what model iPhone it is?

[Clarea]

Anyone know what model iPhone it is?

Last time I saw one, it was a 3GS type.

[Jen731]

Wish we had all gotten them on the Oasis. Reading about dead zones, etc here made me change my mind, but my SIL got one through AO and it worked perfectly, leaving me mad that we hadn't gotten them. We did do okay finding each other just by saying where we would be throughout the day.