Citizen Jane

The phone is no different then the iPad. The key difference is with the iPad I can not text people without iMessage. With the phone you can text people who don't have iMessage it converts iMessage into a SMS, which shows up in green text on the screen.

 

iMessage works through data plans on the phone or iPad. No data on the phone then it's SMS message.

 

So if you have the phone on airplane mode and just wifi on, you will be able to iMessage other people via their phone number as long as they have iMessage. When you go through your phone book, numbers, names highlighted in blue have iMessage.

 

When you say deselect are you referring deselecting your number?

Thanks Bosjoe. I completely forgot that I can selectively re-enable only the Wifi in airplane mode. Of course, then I still have the phone off. The only reason I need the phone on is that we had to take our cat to an emergency vet on Saturday and then to another vet (our vet sees patient on Saturday but was overwhelmed) to be boarded instead of staying at our house while we are out of town. He has a pretty serious problem and if the vet calls, I want to be able to answer. If I don't have the phone on, the way my luck is going the vet will definitely call. So it is a combination of caution and voodoo.

But, your other explanation of the SMS is perfect. Thanks for reminding me of the nuts and bolts.

I meant, when you open Settings > Messages > Send & Receive you get a list which starts with your phone number and continues with any other emails/email aliases you use for iMessage. The phone number is grayed out and automatically selected...so that is what I was thinking of deselecting, but I'm so tired I'm not even sure what I'm thinking!:eek:

WAIT! I just realized part of the problem is I'm running and old iOS on the phone. Ignore everything I just said. I'm gonna bite the bullet and upgrade my iOS before I leave the house for the ship (in the next hour). I think I can set the email address to be preferred for texting in iOS7 where you can't in earlier versions.

THANKS EVERYONE!!!

Thanks everyone. I did try to also contact the Concierge for help since we are staying in a GS, but I haven't gotten a response either to my initial email or the one I sent as a response to a general greeting one from him. But given what everyone says about the state of internet on the ship and how busy he is, I'm not surprised. I have, however, been trying to do something about it!

I figured hightailing it to the maitre'd would be the thing to do.

Of course, I guess we could just order off the dining room menu in the suite every night, but it wouldn't be quite the same.:D

Hi Everyone,

We are having an exhausting and stressful time trying to leave for our cruise and I'm so tired I can't think straight.

Here is the situation: Our preferences list second seating traditional dining and that is what we requested, however, we've been waitlisted for that and put in 5:45 seating which just won't work for any of us.

There are 4 adults and one "child" (11 years old going on 40) in our group and I have two questions:

1. Would it be too late to switch to MTD and try to get a standing res for 8:30? I think I had to do this once before, but it has been a few years and I can't find my notes for that cruise.

2. Can you think of any disadvantage to doing this?

3. What/when/where/how would be the best way to make the change.

The cruise leaves TOMORROW and we have two linked reservations.

Many thanks for all your help. I'd be at my wit's end if I couldn't get advice from you all given how things are going in our household right now.

http://www.cruiseportinsider.com/cococayschedule2014.html#.U8uttixOW00

 

schedule of ships for cococay. Lucky for our Aug 4th cruise only one ship.

I'd double check using a different site:

http://ships.cruisett.com/

Whereas on the link you posted (and thank you, very informative) no other ships are shown in Cococay on Aug. 12 when we will be there, on the link above (and I confirmed this by chasing down the itinerary for the other ship) it shows that Grandeur will also be at Cococay.

I booked this cruise specifically for the Grand Bahama stop. For the unhappy folks please read #6 In your cruise ticket contract.http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/en_US/pdf/RoyalCaribbean_Cruise_Ticket_Contract_013114.pdf

I'm glad you were able to get a stop that you wanted. I like the itineraries with stops in Key West, but they are hard to find so I understand.

That being said, if you were referring to me as one of the "unhappy folks" who needs to read my cruise contract, I think you are being a bit unfair. I was only answering the OP's question and stating that they didn't let me know about the change, not complaining about it. It never even crossed my mind to complain to the company (and not just because I DO know what it says in my contract, it really is a minor thing). It would have been nice for them to notify passengers because one might not have discovered it until significantly later, potentially reducing the ability to research and/or reserve options for the day on Grand Bahama. Fortunately, we noticed it and it really is not that big a deal. Just gives us a new and unexpected place to explore. As I said, while we like the day at sea we are going to make the most of it.

iMessage can work via email or phone. As long as you have an apple account. I don't own an iphone, but a iPad without a phone number and I use iMessage via wifi all the time.

Yes. I know about using iMessage without a phone number. I also use an iPad and my daughter uses my second apple account to text me from her touch (well, not really a touch, a hand-me-down iPhone without a sim card which she uses as a touch). This is one of the handiest things about iMessage.:) However, I don't want to haul around the iPad just to send or receive texts on the ship.

What I was talking about above is trying to figure out whether I can deselect the phone in the list of enabled addresses/numbers in settings. So far I can not do this and I suspect it is purposefully set up this way on the phone.:rolleyes:

I would not use the data part of AT&T's plan, and just stick with the ship's WiFi. The ship's WiFi will be faster, and is not charged by how much data you use.

Thanks, Bob. I was hoping you would chime in and I appreciate your response. That is my gut feeling as well.

So, the rates for Cellular at Sea with AT&T are:

$30 for 50 minutes of phone time with $1.00 per minute for overage

$60 for above PLUS 100 messages with $0.50 per message for overage

$120 for all of the above PLUS 100MB data

But, if you purchase an AT&T International messaging plan $30 gets you 200 messages. I assume, however that you won't be able to text with this plan on Cellular at Sea which means that you are kind of stuck with paying twice the rate of an international plan (except on shore).

It sounds like most people in the threads I have read are saying that using the ship's wifi is faster than the AT&T data (which is certainly my experience on land many times as well. Is this what most people have experienced? I'm wondering if I should just buy the phone and text plan and purchase a wifi plan on the ship for data usage. Of course, then if I'm out and about unless I'm someplace with free wifi I'll pay quite a hefty fee, but how often am I really going to do that in the Bahamas. Really?

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to be able to answer my phone occasionally because our cat is having to spend time at the vet. All day has been emergent vet care and I still have to pack for cruise and drive to Florida tomorrow.

I'd love to be able to text my family if I really need to get a hold of them on the ship which could possibly be done using iChat with ship's wifi plan. Has anyone done that? If so, what were your experiences? Better to use Cellular at Sea for texting or ship's wifi.

Is it possible to turn off iMessage via your phone number and only use your email addresses? I'm thinking it is not.

Sorry for all the randomness. I've been trying to work this out for a while and lots of bad things have happened in our house the last few days making prep for the cruise nearly impossible.

THANKS!:)

I'll post a response after we get back. We purchased the 8/11 run WITHOUT a stop in Freeport, but it was added after purchase.

So, guess I'll vote after I have a more informed opinion!

I like days at sea, so I am already leaning one way, but I'll give it a shot.:cool:

A person in our roll call had posted that their itinerary showed an added stop in Grand Bahamas instead of a sea day for the August 18 cruise on Enchantment so, I went in to look for myself and sure enough it shows it on mine also. Has anyone ever had this happen?

 

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On July 9th I booked the 4 day cruise on Aug. 11 on Enchantment with the last day at sea.

1 week later I checked (okay maybe 8 days :D) and the sea day had been replaced with the port stop and I started trying to find new cruise compasses (finally posted a thread on July 18th).

I did not receive an email about the itinerary change. (Checked the junk filters too!)

Common thinking in other threads I've seen is that it gives them an extra port stop during the heavy tropical season when seas can be high due to activity. Personal (my family) whining says we want a sea day. We'll just, as my Dad always says, "Go with the flush."

We get back and school starts right away. I'll try to post about the stop, but it may be a while because of those pesky job and family responsibilities.

You can make an appointment at the passport office, drop off your documentation and pick your passport up later the same day..... A friend of mine did it the week before last..... Just went for a long lunch in Liverpool whilst waiting! You can also opt to have it delivered to your home address within a week. Even though RCI have said I should be ok....I don't think I shall risk it.......

 

 

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Peace of mind is probably worth the hassle. Have a great trip!

HI We were in a GS on Enchantment in Dec 2013. We had both an iPad and a DVD player provided by Royal in the room.

Thanks. Very helpful!:o

The Coke Freestyle cups - Are there different designs or colours (yes I put a U in colour)?

 

If I buy them for my kids, they like to be able to distinguish between who's is who's.

 

Are their different cups for the adults as well? If so, I am hoping there are at least 4 different designs... :)

Isn't that "u" because you are a neighbour to the North? :)

I'm not sure what the situation is these days, but in the past there were sometimes a couple of designs, but the variations were not terribly easy to see at a glance.

Our solution is to carry at least one "sharpie" with us and just mark the outsides of the cups before use. Sometimes you have to re-marker them after a couple of days of use. This time I will make sure I have a couple of colo(u)rs of "sharpie" with me including a metallic one which will mark and show on black surfaces. They come in handy many times and now DD demands I keep one in my purse at all times. :eek:

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2012/09/royal-caribbean-coke-machine-cruise/832730/1

Thanks.

Interesting that in the USA Today article Royal claims the requirement to set the cup flat (so that the RFID chip restriction comes into play) is an attempt to avoid cross-contamination. Other Freestyle machines do not have this restriction yet the health department lets them go...at movie theaters, college cafeterias, the World of Coca Cola, etc. Wonder if this is creative marketing of the RFID chip. It probably DOES cut down on cross-contamination issues, but I'm betting the existing cross-contamination issues are actually already very low. Neither here nor there in reality.

It is helpful for me because I routinely hold the cup closer to the dispensing nozzle in order to avoid the minute splashes coming from the syrups dispensing as they hit the ice. I learned this the hard way with tiny red/pink/brown dots on a white shirt after retrieving a soda (diet cherry coke) at work. And, no, I don't glue myself to the side of the machine, I tend to use lots of ice. I chalk it up to growing up in Florida and attending schools without air conditioning.

We used the iPad charging cord to charge the iPhone.:)

I confess that I had been thinking about that. An extra charging cord is always a plus!

Many accusations of iPad/iPhone charger thieving/hogging/misplacement happen on a weekly basis in our house. :rolleyes:

DD and I have taken to using sharpies to decorate ours in order to minimize false accusations by DH.:cool:

Thanks to everyone for a very clear and helpful discussion of the ins and outs of the packages!!!

Hi, I'm Joshua and me and my friend received our booking confirmation today. My friend has a problem. On his passport he has two middle names, however on the booking it only has one. We read the T&C's and it says that middle names are not needed unless you're flying to the US, which we're not. Will this cause a problem at the terminal, will it stop him from boarding? Thanks for your help.

I doubt it will be an issue. Call tomorrow to make sure.

My daughter has hyphenated middle and last names and her bookings always are slightly different from her passport because of the lack of ability to handle hyphens consistently in the booking system. She has never had any issue with boarding on any of our 4 cruises.

We are going on a family cruise in March of 2015. It will be a first in that we're bringing the kids (young adults) and I used a travel agent. She suggested that we look at using Shore Trips rather than going through the ship for excursions. Does anyone have any experience they would like to share about using this company?

 

Thanks

We used them on three of our previous cruises and had great experiences every time. We had a custom trip with a guide to the zoo and pyramids in Belize, horseback riding in Grand Cayman, and on another trip horseback riding in the rain forest in Belize. Great customer service and I'll probably use them on this trip as well. In the past we used them because they had trips not available on the ship, not because they were cheaper. Now I'll probably use them because they've earned my loyalty. :eek:

Just don't lift the cup up to taste in-between flavor choices, or then you will have to wait. Also, on Freedom, the flavors are greyed out when empty.

THAT is very helpful to know about lifting the cup. Thanks!

Also good to know about the greying out!:)

Does a GS on Enchantment have a DVD player? IPad?

As my signature line makes clear, we've travelled on both Enchantment and Navigator in the past. What it doesn't say is that we've done a trip in a GS and OS on each. The only past cruise where we had a DVD player in the room was the OS on Navigator, but most of the ships have been updated since then and I've read what the current amenities are, but would love to hear from someone who has been in a GS recently (seems like you can blink and things change onboard these days).

No, we don't need a DVD player, but we will have disks with use from the car drive to Florida so if we have one we might as well bring the disk case with us.:D I have, I confess, brought the portable player with me in the past as well rather than leave it in the car since it is very small, but I'm comfortable leaving it in the trunk!:cool:

The OP is in the UK.

Thanks. Feeling stupid now.:o (Because of myself, not because Maddycat let me know this!).

Oh well...

Perhaps my response will help someone else and I still hope Swinny has a great trip!

Good news: UK has no requirements for expiration (as others have said) and, as you already know, your other destinations are part of the Schengen agreement and thus requirement 3 months validity. You are probably okay.

Not-so-good news: The State Department website acknowledges that some airlines won't let you board unless your passport is good for 6 months. That implies that this practice is okay with the State Dept. Since cruise lines are in some ways similar to airlines, it may be that RC has changed their policy since other posters last travelled OR (more likely) it may just be general published policy. You are right to check with them. I'd also check with your air carrier just in case (though why it would be a problem flying to the UK I can't imagine).

Depending upon where you live you may be eligible to get an emergency renewal locally. In Atlanta if you can show your travel arrangements and they are within two weeks you can make an appointment at the passport agency and renew it on the spot in person. It used to be that there were only a few regional agencies, but in the last few years they have opened several more. I have several friends who had to fly to Miami for specialized visas just to teach their summer courses in Europe, but now it can be done in the ATL.

If you decide you want to go ahead and renew for peace of mind, it can be done within the time frame. If you are near enough to an official passport agency, it may be worth the drive (I've included the link to the State Dept website below). Obviously you can ALSO get it renewed overnight through an expediter, but it will cost you more. DH had to do it once when he was traveling for work to Iceland and didn't realize his passport had expired.:rolleyes:

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/information/where-to-apply/agencies.html

Good luck. I'm sure you will have a FABULOUS trip.:)

The chip in the cup monitors how many times you use it (must be 15 minute intervals between fill-ups) and not the number of buttons you push at any one time to create your own flavor.

Yay! Thanks Patti.

Thank you all for your input! I can't wait until we go on the cruise! If anyone has anymore info on which menu is which night, I'd appreciate it.

 

Thanks again![emoji2]

I'd appreciate the same. Trying to pick a night to go to Chops on our 4 nighter.

P.S. Seadancer, I taught at Deltona High (back when there was only one) for two years and grew up in DeLand.:eek:

We have the CocaCola Freestyle machines where I work (Emory University, aka in some circles "CocaCola U" because of all the money from the Candlers, Woodruffs, et al.) and I often fill my cup with a combination of "diet coke" and "diet cherry coke" because sometimes just "diet cherry coke" can be heavy on the cherry syrup depending upon my mood. DD also likes to mix multiple kinds of punch in what I often consider startling or even frightening combinations.

From the thread about carrying your cups around I have learned that the RFID chips monitor how often you fill your cup and someone commented that if a particular syrup is out on a machine and you press the button any way, you will have to wait 15 minutes before you can try again on another machine or selection. [i'm just going to accept that and move on without getting wound up about it:cool:].

I am deducing from this that I will NOT be able to mix flavors on the machine as in most other places, but will have to select a single pre-mix. Is this correct?:rolleyes: I can live with it, just want to know ahead of time so I don't waste my chance to fill the cup.

I'm also curious as to whether or not the machines indicate when syrup is out. The posts about having to wait suggest that you can't tell what is there, but the machines we have will "grey out" (really just lighten the logo) flavors for which there is no syrup to make the drink. Is this not the case on Royal's machines? I know they make different models, so I am not questioning other posters statements...just trying to make sure I can set the stage for DD before she starts her mixology and gets burned!:D

Thanks!!!

CJ