Can I iMessage my teens onboard while at sea for free?

[Caju0510]

We will be on the Star Princess RT San Francisco/Alaska. We have 3 teens plus other family members traveling. We all have iPhone 5s. Can we iMessage each other while at sea without incurring any roaming or outrageous charges? We have called our carrier (Verizon) who explained standard text charges but I have since been told that to iMessage would be free. Anyone experience iMessage while on a cruise? We really just want to be able to find each other on the boat, walkie-talkies never worked for us. I was not able to find any threads related specifically to iMessage so I apologize if this has been addressed elsewhere.

 

Thank you!

[-Lew-]

Absent cell service, you'll need to be connected to the ship's wifi in order to iMessage. The ship's wifi is not free.

 

Lew

[KarateMan]

It may work. I discovered a glitch in their systems two years ago and was able to do the exact same thing above without being logged in.

 

If you think if it this way first your device needs to connect to the wifi system. That is easy. Once connected you need to "log on" to access internet, however when you are not "logged on" you are still connected to the ships wifi system.

 

What I discovered was that two separate laptops logged into the same Skype account could message each other directly without actually being logged onto the internet.

 

It was a really weird situation and I never understood it but it did work.

[Illyria]

We will be on the Star Princess RT San Francisco/Alaska. We have 3 teens plus other family members traveling. We all have iPhone 5s. Can we iMessage each other while at sea without incurring any roaming or outrageous charges? We have called our carrier (Verizon) who explained standard text charges but I have since been told that to iMessage would be free. Anyone experience iMessage while on a cruise? We really just want to be able to find each other on the boat, walkie-talkies never worked for us. I was not able to find any threads related specifically to iMessage so I apologize if this has been addressed elsewhere.

 

Thank you!

 

iMessage uses an internet connection (as opposed to SMS messages that route through the cell tower). Since there's no free wi-fi on the ship, nor is there a 3G/4G data signal provided by Verizon, you wouldn't be able to use it for free.

 

Edit: unless the glitch described in the post above mine works - that I don't know anything about :)

Edited July 29, 2014 by Illyria

[ar1950]

 

Edit: unless the glitch described in the post above mine works - that I don't know anything about :)

 

Because there is a wireless network within the ship (intra-net) that, once you have set up your paid for Internet account, your device has to connect to first before logging on to the actual Internet. It may well let you bypass the login procedure and connect to another device that has also been activated for Internet connectivity and is on but not logged in to the Internet (hope that makes sense).

 

OP, if you try this, let us know how it works out.

[KarateMan]

Because there is a wireless network within the ship (intra-net) that, once you have set up your paid for Internet account, your device has to connect to first before logging on to the actual Internet. It may well let you bypass the login procedure and connect to another device that has also been activated for Internet connectivity and is on but not logged in to the Internet (hope that makes sense).

 

OP, if you try this, let us know how it works out.

 

I think you described it better than I described it and that is how I found it worked. Two devices communicating to each other via the intra-net of the ship.

[Colo Cruiser]

It is not free.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I iMessaged using the shp's wifi several times, and, if I had a conversation with someone open, I would be able to log off wifi and continue the conversation, but only for 3-4 minutes. I discovered this one day when I received another incoming text after I had logged off.

[ar1950]

It is not free.

 

The Intra-net would be free. You are only charged when logged on to the Internet. There is not much you can do on the Intra-net. The ship only wants to give you the Internet log on screen for the Internet access via the Intra-net. Two devices paired via iMessage or Skype may well work on the Intra-net.

Edited July 29, 2014 by ar1950

[sfo2008]

I iMessaged using the shp's wifi several times, and, if I had a conversation with someone open, I would be able to log off wifi and continue the conversation, but only for 3-4 minutes. I discovered this one day when I received another incoming text after I had logged off.

 

I had this same experience though more like 15-30 minutes after sign off, but I would not rely on that behavior.

[Colo Cruiser]

The Intra-net would be free. You are only charged when logged on to the Internet. There is not much you can do on the Intra-net. The ship only wants to give you the Internet log on screen for the Internet access via the Intra-net. Two devices paired via iMessage or Skype may well work on the Intra-net.

 

Can't count on that.

[ar1950]

Can't count on that.

 

Yeah, you can count on that. You don't get charged until you actually log on. And you are charged until you log off. It is how it works.

Edited July 29, 2014 by ar1950

[Colo Cruiser]

Yeah, you can count on that. You don't get charged until you actually log on. And you are charged until you log off. It is how it works.

 

 

Don't count on it for free Imessaging .

[ar1950]

Don't count on it for free Imessaging .

 

Perhaps not. Apparently it has worked on a limited basis for others. I wouldn't count on it for a reliable communication method. However, other communication apps or methods like Skype, as KarateMan described above, may work better.

[Colo Cruiser]

I wouldn't count on it for a reliable communication method.

 

 

Thats what I am getting at.

[Pam in CA]

However, other communication apps or methods like Skype, as KarateMan described above, may work better.

FYI, Skype is a huge bandwidth hog which is why it's often blocked so I wouldn't depend on that either. Anyone using Skype is slowing down everyone else so they're using more of their minutes.

 

It's so nice that Princess reads the boards. I like that about them.

 

An addendum: on the Royal and Regal, the intranet is used for lots of things, including checking the Patter electronically, your folio, deck maps, etc. so it's not true that the intranet isn't used for much.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Pam in CA

[pablo222]

I iMessaged using the shp's wifi several times, and, if I had a conversation with someone open, I would be able to log off wifi and continue the conversation, but only for 3-4 minutes. I discovered this one day when I received another incoming text after I had logged off.

 

I found this hard to believe, until my buddy gave me a demonstration

of it working on Coral.

Edited July 29, 2014 by pablo222

[goose30]

I would lock the phones in the safe. If the family starts to call and send pictures to their friends the phone bill could wind up costing more than the cost of the cruise.

[JohnBoy in NC]

We will be on the Star Princess RT San Francisco/Alaska. We have 3 teens plus other family members traveling. We all have iPhone 5s. Can we iMessage each other while at sea without incurring any roaming or outrageous charges? We have called our carrier (Verizon) who explained standard text charges but I have since been told that to iMessage would be free. Anyone experience iMessage while on a cruise? Thank you!

 

If you have the $25 International Data plan with Verizon (on each phone), you can use the ship's cell tower to imessage. We have this plan on every cruise, and on sea days my wife can imessage the kids back home for free (using the data package) instead of the .50 send text and 0.05 receive text. Her phone was a 4s and we had some issues when in Aruba, but Verizon tech forced her phone to work.

 

John in NC

[Caju0510]

Thank you everyone for your input. Our immediate family consists of six (3 are teens) and, at sea, we each go our separate ways most of the the time and meet up for dinner and random activities. In the past we just keep a legal pad and sharpies in both cabins and and leave each other notes. Or voicemails. Obviously not always practical to reach someone in a pinch. Closed circuit wifi, if there was such a thing, would be perfect! Anyway, we may stick with the original plan of locking the phones up simply because the risk of incurring big phone bills is huge. Plus, we really do cruise to disconnect for a while so I don't want the temptation to be there!

 

We're heading out in 1+ weeks so if I learn anything while away, I will share it with you.

 

Thank you again for all of the feedback!

[Loonbeam]

From a technical note so everybody understands why things can work for a limited time when you 'log off'.

 

When you physically connect to the intranet, you 'lease' an ip address. You keep that address for a period of time (usually 30 minute cycles on commercial systems).

 

When you inititate a skype connection or imessage, etc, the software connects those IPs and is smart enough to see they are on the same net. So even if you disconnect from the paid extranet, the two can connect until one or the other ip lease resets, in a perfect world that would be 30 minutes for both, but more likely much less.

 

Once one of the devices IP has changed, they need to reconnect through the skype or apple service to get the new 'address', which needs extranet access.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thank you everyone for your input. Our immediate family consists of six (3 are teens) and, at sea, we each go our separate ways most of the the time and meet up for dinner and random activities. In the past we just keep a legal pad and sharpies in both cabins and and leave each other notes. Or voicemails. Obviously not always practical to reach someone in a pinch. Closed circuit wifi, if there was such a thing, would be perfect! Anyway, we may stick with the original plan of locking the phones up simply because the risk of incurring big phone bills is huge. Plus, we really do cruise to disconnect for a while so I don't want the temptation to be there!

 

We're heading out in 1+ weeks so if I learn anything while away, I will share it with you.

 

Thank you again for all of the feedback!

 

 

We stick with notes. ;)

 

Enjoy your cruise. :D

[ginabab]

Great explanation Thanks for making it easier to understand

[Cruisin' Chick]

We left notes for each other too. Sometimes I would run into my teen while she was with her little group -- even when not looking for her. She knew when our dinner seating was, and that we would be in the cabin right before that.