Free onboard texting?

[qa4ever]

Hello, I had read that RC now has free onboard texting?

Is that available on all ships (we are going on Harmony)?

How well does it work?  We have teenagers and need a way to stay in touch with them, and the wifi packages are insane price points!

[smokeybandit]

It works like any other messaging app, albeit bare bones. And notifications for new messages are pretty sporadic.

[renza]

You get no notifications. You have to just keep looking. 

[Biker19]

41 minutes ago, qa4ever said:

Is that available on all ships?

Yes. 

[smokeybandit]

14 minutes ago, renza said:

You get no notifications. You have to just keep looking. 

I got notifications. Just, like twice out of about 10 messages.

[Tatka]

11 hours ago, renza said:

You get no notifications. You have to just keep looking. 

We got them.

[MaddyandMax]

I found in October on Oasis the key to getting notifications was locking my phone while keeping the Royal app open.  In October it wasn't free.  I've also heard reports that it is still not free so I don't know if this is fleet wide yet.

[steveru621]

The free messaging app only works between passengers on the ship.

 

You cannot text off the ship without WiFi calling.

[cruisegirl1]

10 hours ago, MaddyandMax said:

I found in October on Oasis the key to getting notifications was locking my phone while keeping the Royal app open.  In October it wasn't free.  I've also heard reports that it is still not free so I don't know if this is fleet wide yet.

It is recently free.  In November it was  not free, but now is.  

M

[tserface]

It used to cost $3/person to use messaging in the app, but not people are reporting that it's free.  It's very handy and it would be nice if they did include it.  It's way better than people carrying around noisy walkie talkies 🙂

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, tserface said:

It's very handy and it would be nice if they did include it. 

The texting feature within the app became free late last year fleet wide. 

[chukli]

Sorry to ask but how does this free text messaging work once onboard? I got wifi for only device but would like to keep in touch with daughter. Is the messaging done using the RCCL APP?

 

[Biker19]

11 hours ago, chukli said:

Is the messaging done using the RCCL APP?

Yes, via the three dots in the upper right.