Family Advise --walkie talkie? yea or nay

[QiQi]

I am an experienced cruiser who is going on first cruise with two two kids, hubby and two other families with kids. I was considering buying small walkie talkies for the kids and I to communicate on the ship and the private island. Has anyone done this? worth it? what tips or alternatives do you have? thanks in advance!

[CruiserBruce]

Nay. Very commonly discussed here. Annoying to other pax. Don't work well on all metal ships. Illegal in other countries.

 

Common solutions...face to face planning, post it notes. Voice mail on cabin phones. And some cruise lines have systems you can borrow for communication.

[Velvetwater]

Our friends had them on our PC cruise and the batteries wore down quickly.

 

A good number of major lines have a connect app (Carnival etc..) which you could use with phones or you have the good old fashioned wipe board and pen on door or post its in cabin.

 

All else fails arrange hourly/2 hourly meeting points and times.

[beachbum53]

I am an experienced cruiser who is going on first cruise with two two kids, hubby and two other families with kids. I was considering buying small walkie talkies for the kids and I to communicate on the ship and the private island. Has anyone done this? worth it? what tips or alternatives do you have? thanks in advance!

 

 

There are multiple threads on this topic. Bottom line, don't waste your money or time buying walkie talkies to use on the ship. They simply don't work. All of the metal in the ship causes too much interference for walkie talkies to be effective.

[leaveitallbehind]

No - leave them at home. They are not necessary for communication on board - the ships are not that large and there are many other effective ways to stay in touch without them. Try post it's on the stateroom doors, house phones with stateroom voice mail, regular pre-arranged meeting times and places (meals, poos, etc.), and the old fashioned basic standard - just talk to each other and make plans. Depending on their age, the children can also be enrolled in the kids programs, which is another solution as well to where they would be.

 

Besides, they rarely work well on board and are usually more distracting to other passengers than of any benefit to the user. Also really not necessary on the private islands either.

 

Just my opinion.

[cb at sea]

Give the kids "meet up" times....have them come to you. Tell everyone your plans for the day, so they know where to look! If anyone's plans change, you'll know where to look for the others so you can let them know the new plans!

[Kamloops50]

Big Nay. The structure of the ship blocks the signal. Don't look at the ones the ships staff carry . They have a properly designed system for them.

[wheezedr]

Another no vote. They do not work well and you are better with preset meeting times. My kids loved the freedom of some time to themselves on the ship.

[sail7seas]

nay .....

[donaldsc]

Deleted

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[navybankerteacher]

Nay, a thousand times nay.

[Grandma Dazzles]

No, no, no, - for all the reasons already mentioned, including being illegal in several Carinbbean countries.

[taglovestocruise]

They don't work and the kids will think your a PITA..

[Philob]

They don't work and the kids will think your a PITA..

 

Or everyone else on board will think your kids are a PITA when they start playing "Can you hear me now?" on the walkies.

[rdsxgrl28]

Another no. We did these on a our first cruise, big mistake. Unless you are prepared to buy about $100 in battery they are not worth it. They only worked sporadically and a pain to carry all day.

[ilikeanswers]

If you are interested in trying it out, instead of buying a device that may not work there are apps you can install to your phone that give it walkie talkie function. If you can get one with offline capabilities even better.

[jdvmd]

No. They do not work very well at all.

[sloopsailor]

They work about as well as a swim suit made out of tissue paper.