Using the app to communicate with a large group?

[GracyandGravy]

Putting together some options for staying in communication for a group of 16 that we have going on the Joy in February. Obviously leaving notes or calling from room to room has its burdens and limitations, so I'm looking at presenting the app as the best option (I know there is a charge for it). How reliable is it? I saw some reviews that it didn't work particularly well.

 

Any other options for keeping a group of people in touch during our trip? We are a group of neighbors and texting is our normal daily method of communication so the app seems like a good extension of that.

[marktwothousand]

I have been on the Joy and used this. It works adequately for individual and group chat, but there are some caveats...one being: once you start the group, you can't add new people into the group without starting a whole new chat.

 

I didn't have any issues with reliability overall

 

Here is what I did to get around the group chat issue: I met a group on the Joy who wanted to coordinate activities and keep in touch through the trip. What we did to get around it was: I was designated the group chat administrator...I kept the master list of contact info for the group in my app...in the morning, if we had new people to add from the previous day, I would start a new chat with all the updated contacts and say "this is your group chat starting on October 29. Please delete and disregard all other chats". This way we made sure no one was excluded.

 

Other caveats include...erratic notifications at times (once in a blue moon, you won't get notifications, but this is rare nowadays). you can always manually go into the app and check for new messages at any time...

also... the app does not respect "do not disturb" policies on all phones. So if you wanna avoid being woken up in the middle of the night by your friends sending pics of the group doing shots on the dance floor at the klerrrrbbb...you have to turn the sound off or turn notifications off at night.

[GracyandGravy]

Thanks - that's very helpful. I doubt we would add other people since we all live in the same neighborhood and will pretty much stay a group, although it is likely that one or two of the really social butterflies will find other people to have a separate group.

 

Good info too about the problem with the do not disturb feature. I don't think that will be an issue since we all pretty much text at all hours anyway. Since we are all 55+ I would like to say the chances of doing shots on the dance floor at the club isn't a regular occurrence, but alas, we are quite the party hard type and there is probably more than one photo of at least one of us dancing on top of a bar.

 

Did you find that it's the best (only real) way to stay in touch with a group? I can't think of another one that would work better but I haven't traveled as part of a group before.

 

[marktwothousand]

There is no other reliable way unless you wanna pay for texting via Cellular at Sea at 75 cents or more a pop, and that’s if everyone has their phones on roaming. I wouldn’t rely on something like whatsapp via the ship’s internet as sometimes you can lose your internet authorization when your phone’s been idle for too long and you need to re-log in.

 

Just have everyone download the app, they will be happy they did. It’s the Cost of traveling unfortunately. The first thing I do is download the app on all my cruises...and if you’re in the port waiting to board, sit in the waiting area close to the ship and get on the ship’s wifi before you board and get connected and set up early. I always hated consuming valuable vacation time setting up and testing the messenging after boarding and found out you can do it before you board if the signal is strong enough. 
 

so! If you’re the one organizing it, YOU are gonna have to get everyone’s contact info into your app contacts, then, go to start a group chat, and add everyone carefully and manually. If you miss adding anyone you will need to start a new group all over again...it happened to me. Had to do it 3 times because I kept missing someone 

Edited January 17, 2020 by marktwothousand

[GettotheSun]

Hi - hope you don’t mind me adding a question to your thread.  I seem to recall reading in a post or a review that they won’t let a child under 13 (?) be authorized to use the App, do you know if this is true?

 

Im not sure I understand why if the parent consents.  We have a 14 and 11 year old so was hoping both could use it.  I have an old iphone that only has wifi (deleted the cellular plan) that I let my 11 year old use to text his friends at home...was hoping he could use it for the NCL app.

[GracyandGravy]

1 hour ago, marktwothousand said:

There is no other reliable way unless you wanna pay for texting via Cellular at Sea at 75 cents or more a pop, and that’s if everyone has their phones on roaming. I wouldn’t rely on something like whatsapp via the ship’s internet as sometimes you can lose your internet authorization when your phone’s been idle for too long and you need to re-log in.

 

Just have everyone download the app, they will be happy they did. It’s the Cost of traveling unfortunately. The first thing I do is download the app on all my cruises...and if you’re in the port waiting to board, sit in the waiting area close to the ship and get on the ship’s wifi before you board and get connected and set up early. I always hated consuming valuable vacation time setting up and testing the messenging after boarding and found out you can do it before you board if the signal is strong enough. 
 

so! If you’re the one organizing it, YOU are gonna have to get everyone’s contact info into your app contacts, then, go to start a group chat, and add everyone carefully and manually. If you miss adding anyone you will need to start a new group all over again...it happened to me. Had to do it 3 times because I kept missing someone 

Thanks - that is good to know. I'm probably the most tech savvy out of the group although everyone is completely comfortable with texting, etc. so it won't be an issue from that standpoint. I'll make sure I'm prepared right away to get it going.

 

I just wanted to research all the options so that I can present it as "here are the options and this is what we are doing." The cost itself won't be an issue. It might be more that they don't want to even handle their phones, but then they will just have to rely on someone else in the group who doesn't mind calling them or knocking on their door. That's their problem - LOL

[GracyandGravy]

50 minutes ago, GettotheSun said:

Hi - hope you don’t mind me adding a question to your thread.  I seem to recall reading in a post or a review that they won’t let a child under 13 (?) be authorized to use the App, do you know if this is true?

 

Im not sure I understand why if the parent consents.  We have a 14 and 11 year old so was hoping both could use it.  I have an old iphone that only has wifi (deleted the cellular plan) that I let my 11 year old use to text his friends at home...was hoping he could use it for the NCL app.

Oh wow - that could be pretty inconvenient if you are trying to stay in touch with your kids. I guess they have to have a cutoff somewhere.  Hopefully someone with kids can weigh in and let you know if really is a smart enough app to link to the ages on your profile. Highly unlikely because anyone in your party could be using any device. I should try to install it on both of our phones as well as my spare phone and see if it requires it to be linked to a specific person in our reservation. I don't think it did when I put it on my phone.

[GettotheSun]

On 1/17/2020 at 6:18 PM, GracyandGravy said:

Oh wow - that could be pretty inconvenient if you are trying to stay in touch with your kids. I guess they have to have a cutoff somewhere.  Hopefully someone with kids can weigh in and let you know if really is a smart enough app to link to the ages on your profile. Highly unlikely because anyone in your party could be using any device. I should try to install it on both of our phones as well as my spare phone and see if it requires it to be linked to a specific person in our reservation. I don't think it did when I put it on my phone.

 

Hi Again, 

 

So in case anyone else with tween kids may be wondering, I found sort of an answer on the NCL FAQ.  I seem to recall reading a post where a guest said they were told they could not add a child under 13...but not sure.  Based on below, it sounds like a simple measure of granting permission, which totally makes sense.  I think a good control for them to have in place.

 

Why do I need to give consent for my child to use the Cruise Norwegian App?

The Cruise Norwegian mobile app is not intended for children under the age of 13. However, permission by a parent or guardian in the same stateroom can be granted through their mobile app. To grant permission, a parent must log into the app with their information, open the main menu, select the CHILD ACCESS menu option, and follow the instructions.