Texting on board

[Dc9703]

Going on my 1st carnival cruise in March 2020.  Was wondering how good onboard texting worked?
 

Was a little surprised to be charged $ per person to text.  I seem to recall it being free on my Holland America Alaska cruise in 2018.  Anyways, does it work well?  Do you just use it within the Carnival Hub app?  We are going as a group of 12 and wanted a simple way to communicate and coordinate while on the boat.  Any advice would be appreciated.

[Joe817]

3 minutes ago, Dc9703 said:

Going on my 1st carnival cruise in March 2020.  Was wondering how good onboard texting worked?
 

Was a little surprised to be charged $ per person to text.  I seem to recall it being free on my Holland America Alaska cruise in 2018.  Anyways, does it work well?  Do you just use it within the Carnival Hub app?  We are going as a group of 12 and wanted a simple way to communicate and coordinate while on the boat.  Any advice would be appreciated.

It worked perfect for my wife & I when we sailed last July. And with a group of 12? I would think it would be a necessity. And $5.00 per person for the entire cruise is a nominal cost considering the peace of mind it can give you. You have to leave the HubApp open 24/7 to get all the texts from your group. And yes, you have to use it within the app. And the app does so much more. For us, it was invaluable going on our first cruise.

[jbethel11]

5 minutes ago, Dc9703 said:

Going on my 1st carnival cruise in March 2020.  Was wondering how good onboard texting worked?
 

Was a little surprised to be charged $ per person to text.  I seem to recall it being free on my Holland America Alaska cruise in 2018.  Anyways, does it work well?  Do you just use it within the Carnival Hub app?  We are going as a group of 12 and wanted a simple way to communicate and coordinate while on the boat.  Any advice would be appreciated.

Are you texting via an app (iMessage if you have an iPhone) through your phone carrier? If so, you will be charged per text. In order to chat onboard without being charged per text is to download the hub app, and pay $5 per person (for whomever you want to communicate with). Also, you can use WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, but then you would have to purchase the WiFi plan for each device.

[Dc9703]

Thanks for the quick responses.  I think i'm going to ask all the adults and grandadults to download the app.   $5/per person is small, just odd they bill people for it.  Seems a little like nickel & diming once you paid $1000+ for the room.

 

Glad to hear it worked well and i think i'll just use that.  Looking to give people and kids freedom to do what they want on the trip.

[Joe817]

2 minutes ago, Dc9703 said:

Thanks for the quick responses.  I think i'm going to ask all the adults and grandadults to download the app.   $5/per person is small, just odd they bill people for it.  Seems a little like nickel & diming once you paid $1000+ for the room.

 

Glad to hear it worked well and i think i'll just use that.  Looking to give people and kids freedom to do what they want on the trip.

I think all of you will find it quite handy staying in touch with each other while on the ship. And it does SOOOO much more! Like ship details, the daily Fun Times agenda for the days activities, making reservations from your phone, and a whole lot more. 

 

https://www.carnival.com/shipboard/funhub/funhub-landing

[Organized Chaos]

3 hours ago, Dc9703 said:

Thanks for the quick responses.  I think i'm going to ask all the adults and grandadults to download the app.   $5/per person is small, just odd they bill people for it.  Seems a little like nickel & diming once you paid $1000+ for the room.

 

Glad to hear it worked well and i think i'll just use that.  Looking to give people and kids freedom to do what they want on the trip.

 

Micro-transactions through smartphone apps are a popular trend these days. I guess Carnival didn't want to feel left out by giving ALL of the features on the Hub app for free. 😁

What ship will you be on? How well the Hub chat feature works often has a lot to do with the ship. Not all of them have upgraded wifi service, so in those cases, Hub chat may not be as reliable. Experiences vary greatly, from working perfectly to messages being delayed to hardly working at all. If your group does purchase chat, and you find that it hardly works, talk to Guest Services. They might refund your $5 fee.

 

Your only other option, as has already been talked about, is purchasing one of the internet plans and using a messaging app of some kind. But that gets a lot more expensive than the $5/device Hub chat fee, especially in a group of 12.

[Dc9703]

47 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

Micro-transactions through smartphone apps are a popular trend these days. I guess Carnival didn't want to feel left out by giving ALL of the features on the Hub app for free. 😁

What ship will you be on? How well the Hub chat feature works often has a lot to do with the ship. Not all of them have upgraded wifi service, so in those cases, Hub chat may not be as reliable. Experiences vary greatly, from working perfectly to messages being delayed to hardly working at all. If your group does purchase chat, and you find that it hardly works, talk to Guest Services. They might refund your $5 fee.

 

Your only other option, as has already been talked about, is purchasing one of the internet plans and using a messaging app of some kind. But that gets a lot more expensive than the $5/device Hub chat fee, especially in a group of 12.

I'm going on the valor.  Anyone try that one for texting?

[coevan]

the Hub App works pretty much the same on all ships. The newer ships have faster wifi, don't know if this really affects the Hub. We loved the App, so much info 

[desiree741]

If you buy the WiFi package do you still need to pay for the hub?

 

[coevan]

for texting , yes, but the Hub App is free

[Organized Chaos]

On 10/18/2019 at 6:18 PM, coevan said:

the Hub App works pretty much the same on all ships. The newer ships have faster wifi, don't know if this really affects the Hub. We loved the App, so much info 

 

This isn't entirely true since we're talking about Hub chat specifically. Experiences on how reliable it is still varies greatly.

[jbethel11]

3 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

This isn't entirely true since we're talking about Hub chat specifically. Experiences on how reliable it is still varies greatly.

On 10/18/2019 at 7:18 PM, coevan said:

the Hub App works pretty much the same on all ships. The newer ships have faster wifi, don't know if this really affects the Hub. We loved the App, so much info 

It can also depend on location. Public areas may experience slower chat speeds.

[pacruise804]

The basic Hub app is included with your cruise fare and connects to the ship's wi-fi/intranet.  

 

You can pay $5 per folio number (passenger) for the entire cruise to enable onboard chatting with others who also purchased the chat feature.  This is run through the Hub app, which needs to be open to receive messages.

 

You can also purchase internet data packages to communicate via apps with people off the ship.  There are different levels and some are available for per day purchase while others must be purchased for the entire cruise.

 

You can also go old school and tell each other your general plans and schedule times to meet up.  The ships aren't that large 😉 

[marci4tony]

Download the app!  I hear its amazing, and does so much more than just text!

 

Will try it out in a few weeks!  (Vista or bust 11/16/19)

 

[coevan]

Yes, it's great has the Fun Times, hours of restaurants, ship layouts and more, sounds like a commercial 😄

[marci4tony]

How do you keep ppl from turning ON their phone by mistake?  I wonder if I can block it from Verizon?  At least on international days?  (Worry about the teenager)

[Joe817]

2 minutes ago, marci4tony said:

How do you keep ppl from turning ON their phone by mistake?  I wonder if I can block it from Verizon?  At least on international days?  (Worry about the teenager)

When it's in airplane mode it's already on. It just disables the calling function... or something like that. Don't think you can receive calls either.

Edited October 22, 2019 by Joe817

[marci4tony]

I worry about the kid turning it back on to play his games... ugh!  Teenagers!!

[coevan]

They would have to buy a wi-fi package, there is no phone signal at sea, unless you buy an expensive package from your provider. 

[Organized Chaos]

1 hour ago, marci4tony said:

I worry about the kid turning it back on to play his games... ugh!  Teenagers!!

 

Coevan is wrong, there is a "phone signal" at sea. When the ship reaches international waters, they'll activate a satellite-based cellular network called Cellular at Sea. If your kids, or anyone for that matter, connects to this, they'll incur the rates that go along with it. If you haven't bought a cruise package through your personal cell carrier, connecting to Cellular at Sea can get very expensive.

 

Like Joe said, turning on Airplane Mode prevents the phone from connecting to a cellular network. It disables the phone's cellular and wifi antennas. If you want to use wifi, you can turn it back on manually and still leave Airplane Mode on.

 

If you think your kids will turn off Airplane Mode, about the only sure-fire way to prevent it is to take their phones away. If you let them play offline games or buy them an internet plan so they can do at least some things online, you'd have to tell them to leave Airplane Mode turned ON and under no circumstances should they turn it off. In the past, many older phones used to work just fine without a SIM card. Without a SIM, they can't connect to any cellular network, but you could still use them to play offline apps or for a wifi connection. When my son was younger, I gave him one of my old iPhones to play games on, but its SIM wasn't activated, so it was just good for offline and wifi use. I haven't tried that in years. You'd have to take out the SIM to try it, but that's kind of a pain.

 

 

[robc1972]

1 hour ago, coevan said:

They would have to buy a wi-fi package, there is no phone signal at sea, unless you buy an expensive package from your provider. 

 

The boats have cell service if you leave your phone in regular mode and you have international coverage on your account.

I keep cell on all the time and just turn off data to save the bill.

No charge if you make no calls.

 

You can also buy internet and use WIFI calling and not be charged for calls, texts or data,

[coevan]

true about Cellular at Sea, always keep phone on airplane mode. 

[NOLALADY]

On 10/18/2019 at 12:54 PM, Dc9703 said:

Going on my 1st carnival cruise in March 2020.  Was wondering how good onboard texting worked?
 

Was a little surprised to be charged $ per person to text.  I seem to recall it being free on my Holland America Alaska cruise in 2018.  Anyways, does it work well?  Do you just use it within the Carnival Hub app?  We are going as a group of 12 and wanted a simple way to communicate and coordinate while on the boat.  Any advice would be appreciated.

It was 9.95 per person on NCL and automatically charged everyone in your room whether you wanted it or not and was spotty at best.  Used it a couple of weeks ago on Carnival Sunrise and had no trouble.  Well worth the $5.00 to be able to keep up with everyone in my group.

 

[zorky12]

Our only cruise (vista 2018) we have been on we were able to call and text off WiFi the entire trip. We bought the middle package. Have Verizon iPhones. Turned on WiFi calling prior to leaving. Put phone on airplane mode with WiFi on. You must activate WiFi calling prior to departure. Basically you agree if you dial 911 on WiFi nobody will be able to locate you. My wife called home to our daughters every day multiple times. Also could text with iMessage and FaceTime. There was a bit of a delay once in a while but was still great. People were asking her how she was talking on her phone on the ship in the middle of the ocean. If you read my cruise review it talked about it. 

Edited October 24, 2019 by zorky12