Texting/chatting through app

[Brieanna817]

I read a couple places that once onboard you can pay a $5 fee per device to be able to text while on board? Any truth to that? Other places I read you can use the Hub App to chat?

[Ellaleah]

I read a coupl3 of people say that you can iMessage each other without that app or Wi-Fi.  I’d like to know if that’s true.  Thank you.

[mz-s]

14 minutes ago, Brieanna817 said:

I read a couple places that once onboard you can pay a $5 fee per device to be able to text while on board? Any truth to that? Other places I read you can use the Hub App to chat?

 

You can pay $5 per person per cruise to chat with each other on the Hub app. Obviously this is only to chat with folks on the cruise. You can't use it to chat with folks at home. Everyone who wants to chat has to pay the $5.

 

4 minutes ago, Ellaleah said:

I read a coupl3 of people say that you can iMessage each other without that app or Wi-Fi.  I’d like to know if that’s true.  Thank you.

 

It worked for me on my last Sunshine cruise in May, but that was the only time it's worked for me. I just connected to the Carnival WiFi, didn't buy a plan, and was able to iMessage text for free. No SMS and no photo/video iMessages, just text. I doubt it's advertised since it eats into their revenue.

[Brieanna817]

Thank you! Do you have to wait to board to pay the $5 or is that something you can set up on the app beforehand?

[csm5986142]

1 hour ago, Brieanna817 said:

Thank you! Do you have to wait to board to pay the $5 or is that something you can set up on the app beforehand?

 

We had to wait until we were on board, so if there is a way to do it ahead, I haven't figured it out.

[mz-s]

1 hour ago, Brieanna817 said:

Thank you! Do you have to wait to board to pay the $5 or is that something you can set up on the app beforehand?

 

You can't buy Chat until you get onboard and connect to the ship's wifi.

Edited August 4, 2022 by mz-s

[ballarinamom]

We have purchased the chat for several cruises and it worked great. Just off the Glory and we had a hard time. Constantly had to log out and log in and it was still hit or miss. We ended up asking for a refund

[gamblesk]

1 hour ago, ballarinamom said:

We have purchased the chat for several cruises and it worked great. Just off the Glory and we had a hard time. Constantly had to log out and log in and it was still hit or miss. We ended up asking for a refund

 

We just got off the Sunrise and it was very hit and miss.. we had 4 people using it and my wife's phone pretty much never received any of the texts.. The rest of us were pretty hit and miss.

[pinto18]

Didn't work well for us either but I think my husband "accidentally" didn't have the app open and so never would get my texts. If you have someone with you who will be reliable to always keep app open and check messages, it will probably work fine

[groundloop]

1 hour ago, pinto18 said:

Didn't work well for us either but I think my husband "accidentally" didn't have the app open and so never would get my texts.....

 

My wife accuses me of having selective hearing, this takes it to a new level.  😁

 

But anyway, the one time we've cruised with a group of folks we used the hub app to chat and it worked pretty well.  The only downside was not being able to ignore that one person who was nonstop telling everyone what she was eating for breakfast, how her coffee tasted, blah blah blah.

Edited August 5, 2022 by groundloop

[NCTribeFan]

I haven't had any luck using the chat feature, either on Carnival, or on HAL (where it's free).

 

Even keeping the app running, messages just don't show up.

 

Since my travel buddies need wi-fi for work, I just go ahead and pay for the Social plan and we use FB messenger.  

 

Sure, you can give the $5 chat function a try, but it may be pretty much non-functional and you'll have to resort to the old-school method of staying in touch by either making plans ahead of time or leaving messages on cabin phones.

[febtober]

5 hours ago, pinto18 said:

Didn't work well for us either but I think my husband "accidentally" didn't have the app open and so never would get my texts. If you have someone with you who will be reliable to always keep app open and check messages, it will probably work fine

 

Nah as a husband myself, they probably just weren't going through.  We were on the Magic recently about 70% of the messages would work.  My wife would show me her phone and there would be multiple sent messages, then I'd show her my phone and I had gotten none of them.

[maryann2]

I used the chat feature on the Pride and Splendor.

Both times it only worked occasionally. Very unreliable. Ended up leaving phone messages on the room phones.

[pinto18]

5 hours ago, febtober said:

 

Nah as a husband myself, they probably just weren't going through.  We were on the Magic recently about 70% of the messages would work.  My wife would show me her phone and there would be multiple sent messages, then I'd show her my phone and I had gotten none of them.

I like how you stick up for all husbands!! Seriously though, my husband barely looks at my texts on land so in our case I am blaming him!

[ballarinamom]

I think more people are buying the wifi packages and the ships dont have the bandwidth to support it all. That causes lags and bad service 

[Amy Paperlady]

1 hour ago, ballarinamom said:

I think more people are buying the wifi packages and the ships dont have the bandwidth to support it all. That causes lags and bad service 

 

I'm noticing that those complaining about the chat (and naming the ship) are on the older ships, and those saying it worked well are on the newer ships. Could that have anything to do with it?

[ballarinamom]

On 8/23/2022 at 11:19 AM, Amy Paperlady said:

 

I'm noticing that those complaining about the chat (and naming the ship) are on the older ships, and those saying it worked well are on the newer ships. Could that have anything to do with it?

Most likely.