I message on Escape

[honeybear'scruisevacation]

Does anyone know if the I message still works on Escape?

[MaryZ]

it did not in September

[BirdTravels]

Hmmm,,, must have fixed the bug in their system (that allowed iMessage) when they went to tiered service.

[MikeBTN]

If you pay for internet iMessage will work no problem.

[POA1]

It worked in October. My wife and brother in law used it all the time. I seriously doubt that they can block it. If they block the ports iMessage uses, they'll block their own intranet.

 

Not only was it free, but it worked way better than the paid option.

 

You DO NEED to have a minimum of two iOS devices and they can't communicate with the outside world, just each other on the ship. Airplane mode on, wifi on. It took all of 3 minutes to get it to work. (Both my brother-in-law and I are fairly network savvy, but it's pretty easy to set up. Just try to be in the same room when you are testing it.

[dpws]

On escape 21st Oct couldn't get it message to work

[POA1]

On escape 21st Oct couldn't get it message to work

iMessage runs over ports 80 & 443. That's HTTP and HTTPS. They cannot, under any circumstances, disable those ports.

[dshefter]

It worked on our Thanksgiving week cruise. You have to pay $9.99 for the service. Allows you to Text and make calls to others who have the service.

[Jenlynn0825]

So, for clarity, if you are trying to imessage, you just need to be connected to their wifi that you pay for and put he phone on airplane mode for it to work? So if you buy the social media chat package you would be able to use the imessage on iphones?

[VideoTech]

So, for clarity, if you are trying to imessage, you just need to be connected to their wifi that you pay for and put he phone on airplane mode for it to work? So if you buy the social media chat package you would be able to use the imessage on iphones?

 

I wish people would differentiate between "wifi" and "internet." They are not the same thing. the iMessage trick supposedly works over the ship's wifi system, which you do not pay to use. Now, I'm not an IOS user, so I can't speak directly to this, but I have read posts that say the iMessage trick (used for texting between IOS phones ONLY on board the ship) does not work anymore.

 

As an Android user, I can tell you that the NCL app, iConcierge, does work for texting between any two phones running the iConcierge app. Well..that is...it works most of the time. There are odd periods when it just seems to drop out and usually that can be solved by signing off and then signing back on again.

 

If you want to text to anyone NOT on the ship, you will need to buy an internet package. Once you have done that, Facebook Messenger and Google Hangouts will work from ship to shore.

[keith00200]

On the Escape Oct 28-Nov 4 and it worked for us every time, without issue. We both have iPhone 7s and did not buy the internet package, we just used the free concierge app. It does require pairing the phones to the service, which took 5 minutes or so. Enjoy your cruise!

[POA1]

I wish people would differentiate between "wifi" and "internet." They are not the same thing. the iMessage trick supposedly works over the ship's wifi system, which you do not pay to use. Now, I'm not an IOS user, so I can't speak directly to this, but I have read posts that say the iMessage trick (used for texting between IOS phones ONLY on board the ship) does not work anymore.

 

As an Android user, I can tell you that the NCL app, iConcierge, does work for texting between any two phones running the iConcierge app. Well..that is...it works most of the time. There are odd periods when it just seems to drop out and usually that can be solved by signing off and then signing back on again.

 

If you want to text to anyone NOT on the ship, you will need to buy an internet package. Once you have done that, Facebook Messenger and Google Hangouts will work from ship to shore.

As an honest to goodness network engineer, I can tell you that the only way to shut down iMessage (peer to peer) is to disable ports 80 and 443 on the WLAN. That effectively kills all the HTTP and HTTPS services.

[MaryZ]

You used to be able to use your imessage to message anyone who has an iPhone all over the world connecting to the ship wifi without buying an internet package.

Sometime, in the past few months you cannot anymore. We could not on the Breakaway in May or the Escape in September.

We were able to use it on the Epic on our transatlantic in March and in Europe.

There is a way to block it on the router and at the firewall so I'm guessing that's what they did.

[sunnydaysmile]

On the Escape Oct 28-Nov 4 and it worked for us every time, without issue. We both have iPhone 7s and did not buy the internet package, we just used the free concierge app. It does require pairing the phones to the service, which took 5 minutes or so. Enjoy your cruise!

Would you please explain what you mean "pairing the phones"?

[POA1]

Would you please explain what you mean "pairing the phones"?

Just make sure you can use iMessage between the two phones before you get on the ship or leave port. The text bubble color is different for iMessage vs normal text (SMS or MMS.)

 

Once you are on the ship, put your phone into airplane mode. Next, turn on WiFi and connect with the ship's network. You should be good to go at that point. Just be on the lookout for a pop up that tells you that you don't have internet connectivity. I can't remember if that was the case with iOS or Android or both. If you get that pop up, you'll need to answer that you wish to remain connected.