iConcierge and internet questions

[Viva_la_Vida]

My husband and I are sailing the Breakaway for the first time in two weeks :D

 

We have a couple of questions regarding iConcierge and the internet package:

 

We had 250 minutes of free internet. I say "had" because it recently switched to "250 minutes OR 1 GB" on our Vacation Summary on MyNCL recently. Does that mean whichever comes first? It seems promising for the speed if they had to add that caveat.

 

I have downloaded iConcierge, but can't really tell much about how it works yet as most of the features are activated once on board. Have couples found it useful and worth it for $7.95? The alternative would be using our free internet package to text one another via an app that utilizes wireless. Can we both be connected to it at the same time? Is the wireless reliable enough to count on it for communication? I don't anticipate that we'll be separated much at all so although $7.95 is cheap, it would be great to save that money if possible unless the app is just really awesome.

 

Can you tell how many minutes/bytes you've used?

 

Our plan for Bermuda is to purchase the dockyard wireless if it seems we've eaten through the majority of our free plan.

 

Thanks for the input!

[BirdTravels]

Breakaway sells internet by GB and not minutes.

 

Only 1 at a time connected.

 

IConcierge proves access to ship info and your account for free. 7.95 voice / text uses network used by ships' crew phones and is reliable.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Demonyte]

7.95 voice / text uses network used by ships' crew phones and is reliable.

 

 

I would never compare the reliability of the app relying on WiFi connectivity to specifically-built VoIP portables that probably don't even use WiFi but DECT to connect to the base stations or repeaters that are hardwired to the Ethernet network.

 

On several other ships the reliability of iConcierge has been iffy at best, with the app losing the connectivity even though the device has connection to the WiFi, messages not coming through, etc, etc.

 

To sum it up, iConcierge is nothing like the cordless phones that the crew carries.