Meanee

Pretty much anyone with WiFi calling should be able to text using WiFi on the ship. iPhones work over the internet anyway for iMessage. Android phones should work as well, as long as you make sure that WiFi calling is enabled. You may not be able to call (ship's firewall will block it) but text should go through.

We get on in Copenhagen Tuesday week!

Hell yeah, Tuesday for me as well.

Booked Berlin and St Petersburg with SPB tours. Tallinn, Helsinki and Stockholm will be DIY. Ship price for tours was stupid expensive, even with $50/off perk.

I picked Copenhagen. We are getting on Breakaway on 5/29. There was a cheap, direct flight from NYC to CPH. Port is closer. We are actually flying out on 25th and will spend few days in Copenhagen before getting on board.

Can you please tell me more about the Barcelona bag transfer? We have some time before our flight and would love to have lunch before heading to the airport.

This was a fairly new service. First cruise I had from Barcelona to Barcelona (same as OP's), did not have that, but that was like 3 years ago. Last cruise I had was from Athens to Barcelona, but it was on Princess. And right in a terminal, there were people with those fliers. I think it's like 20 euros a bag.

They take your bags right there, give you a claim form, and take your payment. It also depends on when your flight is, they may not be able to accommodate you. We had somewhat later flight. They told us that bags will be in Lost and Found section of a terminal (forgot which one), but they will give you a map. Barcelona airport can be a tiny bit confusing, but we had no problem finding the place. Our bags were there at 3pm. We just rolled them to checkin and that was it.

Wonderful service and was very well-worth it. Instead of lugging our crap to airport, we enjoyed the city, saw few things, and made a nice day trip out of it. Went from "let's just get to the airport" to another sightseeing port of call.

Link: https://bagsandgo.com/en/

I've done this cruise few years back.

Naples: We took a train to Pompeii and joined a tour group that are always out there. They will get you in faster than on your own.

Rome: We thought about taking a train, but there were bunch of buses, offering 20 euro round trip, which drops you off few feet away from Vatican. We walked all over the place, and took subway (very easy to use).

Livorno: NCL provided a bus that took us out of the port (that one is pretty industrial area, you shouldn't walk there) and we took a train to Pisa. 10 minute walk and we are watching tourists propping up tower for photos.

Cannes: Took a train to Eze village. Amazing place.

Mallorca: Very easy to walk around, we checked out cathedral, and city in general. Surprisingly beautiful island.

Barcelona: They offer an airport bag transfer service now. We dropped off our bags and went to explore the city. Took a train to airport after and picked up our bags.

Europe is a piece of cake on your own.

I love the "If he proposes with a fake ring, I may have to reconsider" response. Because apparently, love can be measured by the size/cost of a ring. Screw all the happy times you had together, screw all the experiences you shared. Screw the actual love between you two. It's all about a fat ring, right?

Some people, ffs...

Cool. Had not looked at turning off mobile data. Once I did that I got it to work.

 

I did verify it was using different radios. The actual wifi was connecting to 2.4 and it broadcasted its SSID on the 5 gig band.

 

Now I just need to make sure I turn off the roaming ability when I do that

 

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I am not sure about other carriers, but with T-Mobile I get a text, something like "Do you REALLY want to enable roaming on a cruise ship?"

I usually leave roaming enabled, since I get free unlimited data and text in pretty much anywhere in the world for free, and my calls are only 20 cents a minute. But cruise ships are disabled by carrier, unless you specifically request to enable cruise ship roaming.

Multiple SSIDs can easily be setup. What I was talking about multiple radio is that one radio listens for other SSIDs to join. The other radio will broadcast SSID(s). That's why I think t-mobile may have it operating with two radios. With Verizon and a S8+ I turn on airplane mode. Then I can turn wifi back on and it joins but then you go to re-enable the sharing it is grayed out and will not allow it to be activated.

 

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Try this:

1 - Turn off Airplane mode

2 - Turn off Mobile Data (it's in quick toggles if you expand them)

3 - Go to Hotspot settings, make sure the "WiFi Sharing" is enabled

4 - Turn on hotspot.

I just did it and tested it with my Note 8. Worked flawlessly. My laptop is connected to my phone's hotspot and shows it's public IP of my home FIOS connection, not T-Mobile's pool.

*** Note to casual non-geek CC readers *** this is technical matters not of general interests, it's fine to skip over & bypass ... discussions more suited on XDA-Developers Forum online than here. :halo:

 

As a general rule, newer generation of smartphones & iPhones, subject to carrier rules & configured APN settings and profile loaded on the device, allow or block advanced WiFi features, such as calling and/or hotspot sharing - we have lines on AT&T, T-Mo & Project Fi, all of which support & allow these features on compatible (and, approved) devices - running stock/OEM roms ... bootloader unlocked, rooted custom Rom's can bypass the restrictions. But, it doesn't sounded like this is the case ?

 

WiFi/Mifi hotspot features will use the "in-bound" mobile (data) signal and share (re-broadcast) it - in a # of ways: repeater, bridge and/or other modes ... sometimes, to bypass & override carrier's detection, as it will "consume" more data and take up the bandwidth that all users shared . I must getting old with early retirement going back to the IBM System 370 mainframe and PC-DOS generation to keep up with things lately ;p - but I am unaware of device's unmodified ability to take a WiFi signal and share it without using a 2nd. "radio" (modem/router, etc.) on a smartphone.

 

From time to time, I do, on an as needed basis and not as a matter of routine since most "public" & hotel networks are too slow & unsecured to effective do this and support power & speed hungry apps, nevermind streaming services, but I've done it by taking cellular signal and put it out again with a different SSiD and sign-on, making a hotspot/MiFi router out of it - on all 3 carriers but never, ever, on in-bound WiFi.

 

I travel and cruise with the Sony Viao notebook PC running Windows 10 Pro-64 bits and it has an unique WiFi hotspot feature - the ability to use an ethernet (data) signal over hard wiring, and, over WiFi - and relay & rebroadcast it, changing the SSiD using WPA-2 to support and share among other devices, on a single connection. For good measures, I have a matchbox-sized TP-Link nano router that do that in connection with the Sony Viao for tethering or hotspot support.

 

Looking thru the OEM data sheets for the S8+ and Note 8, I am not seeing or reading any indication how this is possible at all - strictly on a WiFi connection. It is possible that the "posts" mistaken the hotspot sharing while cellularly connected and then switched on the "enabled" tethering & portable WiFi functions. My older, backup iPhone SE (factory unlocked, iOS 11.x) do that nicely - but not while connected to the ship's WiFi data network, it is disabled by design while on Airplane Mode & WiFi only (enabled).

 

If I am overlooking a well-kept secret, I am going to hijack & seize one of the niece's Samsung the next time I see them, and borrow it to play for a few hours ... shopping around for a new "toy" since Android P is coming.

APN, in this case, does not quite matter. APN only matters for cellular data. If you are attempting to redistribute a WiFi connection, APN is not needed.

When "WiFi Sharing" is enabled on a Samsung phone, it will redistribute any valid data connection, be it cell or WiFi.

Anyway, there are multiple ways to go around this. If you really don't feel like poking through your phone, there are other products out there. Connectify hotspot on any Windows laptop will work, and will turn your Windows laptop into a hotspot for free. Or buy a travel router, like Hootoo wireless travel router. They will gladly redistribute WiFi network over to you.

Only way I can see this as possible is if the t mobile phones use 2.4 radio as a hot spot and the 5gig as the connection to the other wifi.... Could swap the radios as well. I have Verizon and it just grays out every thing related to being a hotspot while in airplane mode

 

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Radios don't matter. I have Unifi access points that blast out 4 different WiFi networks. One for my IoT setup, 5.8ghz for streaming devices, one for general, and one for guest access. So 3 networks on 2.4ghz, and one on 5.8.

Samsung definitely does have capability to share WiFi hotspot.

Literally first Google result: https://wccftech.com/how-to-enable-galaxy-s7-wifi-sharing/

Edit: Airplane mode, by default, grays out everything. Once airplane mode is active, you can enable WiFi and bluetooth individually. You just have to tap on them to turn them on. You can also completely exit airplane mode and keep cellular radio disabled.

Which carrier are you using. I have the S8+ as well but anytime my phone is in airplane mode the wifi hotspot is greyed out. Can connect to wifi and even posting this in airplane mode but can not turn the hotspot back on

 

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I have T-Mobile S8+ and factory unlocked Note 8.

be careful of using 2 dollar bills. because they are so rare to most people and business, they are sometimes not accepted as legal currency. Regular ole 1 dollar bills is a safer

$2 bills used to be rare. Now they are being printed again and used a lot. A dropzone I went to gave me change in crispy, just-printed $2 bills. I still have a handful of them at home.

You may want to test your hotspot idea before your cruise. I have a newer Samsung and as with any phone I had before the hot spot option turns your phone into a hotspot for your cell data. I have not seen any phone that could use its wifi signal as a client but then broadcast another signal to act as a shot spot server

 

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Your phone can definitely do that. I've served wifi to people on a commercial flights.

Go to settings, search for Mobile Hotspot and Tethering, tap on actual WiFi hotspot (not the switch next to it) and it will take you to settings page. Enable "WiFi Sharing"

It worked fine on my S8+ and my Note 8

Fixed link:

There is no cell phone company that will include cellular communication (voice, text, data not on WiFi) on board the ship into their international package. Satellite time is expensive.

With Princess ships, I had luck with WiFi calling. Not sure how NCL will work.

You get an unlimited account. One device at a time can log onto the account. One room/multiple rooms. Just one device at a time. We usually have four phones and two iPads.

You can easily go around this limitation. And VPN limitation too (I will confirm that later, I guess).

With newer Samsung phones, there's an option to "share hotspot"

So, connect to WiFi, turn your phone into a WiFi Share Hotspot, and it will use your phone's internet connection to connect up to 10 devices.

As for VPN, things like OpenVPN on standard port (443, for example) should work just fine. They will most likely block typical VPN ports, like 1723, 500, or 4500. But port 443, which is standard web port, should be open. Once you are on VPN, you should be able to stream YouTube/Netflix/Hulu.

My TA gave me a deal where you get some airfare credit. But it's a really weird setup. You do not get to pick airline. Prices were outrageous. After credits, it came out to $1600/person from NYC to Copenhagen and back. I booked Delta directly, for $650/person.

This was a bit of a shocker for me, since I used Princess EZAir, and prices were a lot better than direct from airline offers, and this was without any credits from Princess. With Princess, I was able to select exact flights I wanted, including setting up an 8 hour layover in Rome which we used as a sightseeing day.

On May 29th Breakaway sailing, bid $50 for Minisuite upgrade from Balcony. Just for ****s and giggles. It was accepted.

If you have a decent phone (Galaxy S8 or Note 8) you can share WiFi connection. Sign into WiFi with your phone, enable WiFi sharing, and your phone will become a hotspot. Toss in a VPN connection, and you will not be restricted to any app types, like Skype or Netflix. You can have up to 8 other devices leech off your phone.

So no, you cannot sign in with multiple devices, but there's definitely a way to go around this limitation, provided you have correct equipment.

Towels are provided in your room

 

You are expected to take the towels from your room on excursions (that involve water)

 

You can exchange spiked towels for clean towels by (1) dropping them on your bathroom floor and having your room steward change them, (2) using the towel exchange on the pool deck, (3) using the towel exchange at the gangway at beach ports.

So no towels provided at the pool? You have to bring them from your room?

There's a reason why you have to pay tips on UBP. It's one of services that not everyone uses, and you can't force every guest to pay tips on something that you never use. "Hey little Timmy, I know you are only 13, but your mom needs to pay tips for that bar shared tip pool"

I have my own opinions about forcing tips (roll it into total cruise fare and pay your damn crew appropriately), but until it is changed to be in line with civilized world, I will have to do what rules say I have to do.

Both room and pool side recently. Yes, if lost or not returned, you will be charged for it. Yes, you can take it with you off the ship.

It's been years since I've been on NCL cruise. Does NCL "check out" towels at the pool? I know with Princess, they have a cart with fresh towels for your taking. Carnival swiped your card every time you take a towel. RCCL gave us "towel cards" for the pool.

Actually, if you bothered to read the Royal Caribbean policy, it states "Guests are not allowed to bring beer, hardliquor, fortified wines or non-alcoholic beverages onboard for consumption or any other use on boarding day or while in port". Whether or not their port screeners pass water through onto the ship is another matter. Just saying.

Is Princess the only one that lets you bring limited wine and as much of NA beverages as you feel like?

it depends on which country to you book in

in UK no additional gratuity payable

but even booking via USA and paying gratuity even if you drink just 2/3 drinks a day can break even

 

We nearly always book independently especially when we see ridiculous prices for NCL shore excurions

 

but isn't that what the choose your perk is all about?

I am in USA and it came out to like 350 bucks for my last cruise. I don't drink $350 worth of liquor on any cruise. Last one I did was with Princess. Get chummy with bartender and you get some drinks free. They happen to like when you treat them as human beings and not just a drink dispenser.

Free at Sea UBP comes with hefty gratuity that you have to pay. In order to justify it for me, I'd have to get completely trashed every day. I'd rather spend that money on shorex, or some nice scotch to sip at home. And since my better half doesn't drink, it makes it so much of a worse deal.

I picked dining package, and we are all happy with it.