Walkie Talkies on an Oasis class ship (also did I catch a niner in there 😂)

[Cashsmoney]

  Hello we are sailing on the symphony OTS and wanted to know what’s everyone’s experience with using walkie talkies? I want to be able to give my children one so they can get ahold of us if they want to leave the kids club. They are 8 and 10 and don’t have cell phones so messaging on the app is not an option. How good is the range? 

[taglovestocruise]

3 minutes ago, Cashsmoney said:

  Hello we are sailing on the symphony OTS and wanted to know what’s everyone’s experience with using walkie talkies? I want to be able to give my children one so they can get ahold of us if they want to leave the kids club. They are 8 and 10 and don’t have cell phones so messaging on the app is not an option. How good is the range? 

Barely work if at all, way too much metal throughout the ship. 

[resetjet]

The app has a free messenger.  As long as they have a phone,  the wifi is free to just use the app so even an old phone will work if they dont have a phone.

[Cashsmoney]

5 minutes ago, resetjet said:

The app has a free messenger.  As long as they have a phone,  the wifi is free to just use the app so even an old phone will work if they dont have a phone.

Yeah they don’t have phones yet. Trying to hold back as long as possible 

[Cashsmoney]

11 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Barely work if at all, way too much metal throughout the ship. 

Yeah that’s what I was thinking I was hoping maybe the higher end ones might work ok. 

[resetjet]

No radios are useless.

 Dont waste your time.  Borrow some old phones.  Anything that will run the app and get wifi.

[WorkingForOBC]

We're considering giving our son an old phone to use on a ship for exactly this purpose. We haven't done it yet... But we figure we'll delete as many apps as possible, and only connect to the ship's WiFi (in airplane mode). The phone will go away again as soon as we're off the ship. We might have to practice texting beforehand, and come up with some simple codewords to simplify communication.

We haven't finalized our plan yet, but this is our current thought process.

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, Cashsmoney said:

  Hello we are sailing on the symphony OTS and wanted to know what’s everyone’s experience with using walkie talkies? I want to be able to give my children one so they can get ahold of us if they want to leave the kids club. They are 8 and 10 and don’t have cell phones so messaging on the app is not an option. How good is the range? 

You're in a big steel box with steel walls. The range is poor at best. 

[hachieashley]

We had decent luck with walkie talkies on Allure.  I think it helped that we mainly used them to communicate between central park view room, and pool deck.  But I do know that it was also working between the room and deck 5 play makers.  I am sure it is YMMV, but might be worth a try if you have the walkie talkies. 

[oasisorbust]

Won’t the kids club notify you if the kids want to leave? My kids are in their early 20’s but we cruised a lot when they were younger. In fact they used to give us a pager because it was before everyone had a cell phone- let alone a smart phone 

[Cashsmoney]

9 hours ago, WorkingForOBC said:

We're considering giving our son an old phone to use on a ship for exactly this purpose. We haven't done it yet... But we figure we'll delete as many apps as possible, and only connect to the ship's WiFi (in airplane mode). The phone will go away again as soon as we're off the ship. We might have to practice texting beforehand, and come up with some simple codewords to simplify communication.

We haven't finalized our plan yet, but this is our current thought process.

Yeah unfortunately I don’t have any old phones. I would have just got them iPod touch’s but they don’t make them anymore.

[mjkacmom]

6 hours ago, oasisorbust said:

Won’t the kids club notify you if the kids want to leave? My kids are in their early 20’s but we cruised a lot when they were younger. In fact they used to give us a pager because it was before everyone had a cell phone- let alone a smart phone 

Can 8 year olds sign themselves out? I’ve had kids that age on other lines, parents were not notified if the kids signed themselves out.

[WorkingForOBC]

We also thought about the iPod route, but found it was a dead end.

 

Unfortunately we haven't been able to validate this yet, but I think there are positive reports using unactivated Tracphones (cheap from target/Walmart/Amazon/bestbuy etc) to communicate on ships. Just download the app at home first (of course).

[resetjet]

Buy some old phones on ebay cheap. Ipads work too.  

[Kiki and The Noush]

Double check me on this, but I think that a cruiser must be at least 13 yrs of age to be able to use the app - using an old phone might not work if the child is underage.

 

[not-enough-cruising]

4 minutes ago, Kiki and The Noush said:

Double check me on this, but I think that a cruiser must be at least 13 yrs of age to be able to use the app - using an old phone might not work if the child is underage.

 

And how would anyone know the age of the person using the app?

This is between a parent and their child no one else has any say

[matj2000]

Every cruise ship walkie talkie conversation ever:

 

Hello?   Hello?    Are you there?

 

Hello?   Hello?  Hello?  Hello?

 

Can you hear me?  Hello?

 

Hello?

 

Are you there?

 

Hello?  Can you hear me?

 

Are you there? hello?  Hello?  Hello?

Edited March 5, 2023 by matj2000

[mac66]

I've used radios several times in the past on ships.  Always worked okay. Just be aware that the little bubble pack radios are usually 1/2 watt rated and operate in the FRS (family radio service).  You can now get 2 watt+ GMRS versions that work much better.

[Kiki and The Noush]

21 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

And how would anyone know the age of the person using the app?

This is between a parent and their child no one else has any say

I have an account for Voom - perhaps it is just a tick box "are you 13 or older?" I don't recall - I just thought it was worth mentioning.  

[mac66]

21 minutes ago, mac66 said:

I've used radios several times in the past on ships.  Always worked okay. Just be aware that the little bubble pack radios are usually 1/2 watt rated and operate in the FRS (family radio service).  You can now get 2 watt+ GMRS versions that work much better.

Just to clarify...most bubble pack radio operate on both FRS and GMRS but only at half a watt power. That realistically limits range to about 1/4 mile despite what they say on the package. In 2017 the FCCmodified the restrictions which allowed 2 watt radios. Technically you need a license to operate in the GMRS (general mobile radio service) freq. Licenses were $70 for 10 years and covered everyone in your family. Millions of radios sold, no one got a license.  Recently the FCC lowered the GMRS license cost to $35/10 yrs and more companies started making better, more powerful radios. Unlike HAM radio, you don't need to take a test to get a GMRS license.  So now you can get 5-8 watt handhelds which work with repeaters (signal boosters) where available. GMRS is starting to become more popular (at least among radio users).

[1025cruise]

Walkie talkies are useless on the ships.

 

[not-enough-cruising]

Just now, 1025cruise said:

Walkie talkies are useless on the ships.

 

and incredibly annoying to those around you

[davekathy]

Walkie talkies and fanny packs are now on the revised prohibited list. 😂

[Mum2Mercury]

13 hours ago, Cashsmoney said:

  Hello we are sailing on the symphony OTS and wanted to know what’s everyone’s experience with using walkie talkies? I want to be able to give my children one so they can get ahold of us if they want to leave the kids club. They are 8 and 10 and don’t have cell phones so messaging on the app is not an option. How good is the range? 

Admittedly, my children are young adults -- a couple years out of college -- so it's been a while since I used the kids' clubs.  If I remember correctly, back then they gave us a coaster-thing kinda like restaurants do, and they "beeped us" if the kid wanted to be checked out.  I suspect the system has been updated since then, but I'm sure the club has some way to contact parents and say, "Come now."  

3 hours ago, mjkacmom said:

Can 8 year olds sign themselves out? I’ve had kids that age on other lines, parents were not notified if the kids signed themselves out.

I'd think 8 is too young to check themselves out.  

Again, if memory serves, parents had to give permission (during club registration) for kids to check themselves out.  I think all parents would like the idea of making that decision themselves. 

[Charles4515]

19 minutes ago, mac66 said:

Recently the FCC lowered the GMRS license cost to $35/10 yrs and more companies started making better, more powerful radios. Unlike HAM radio, you don't need to take a test to get a GMRS license.  So now you can get 5-8 watt handhelds which work with repeaters (signal boosters) where available. GMRS is starting to become more popular (at least among radio users).

But of course there are no repeaters on cruise ships and the FCC has no juristiction outside US territory and waters. So FCC approved only means in the US. Use of GMRS at sea would have to be approved by the Captain. The rules would vary in foriegn ports.