Walkie Talkies

Hi,:D

A group of 11 of us will be going to the Golden Princess Southern Caribbean cruise in Oct. I just want to know if we should purchase walkie talkies before the cruise or is there rentals on the cruise? Do you know how much it will cost to rent walkie talkies for the week.

Thanks,

fina

A word of advice neither....they are VERY ANOYING!:cool: :eek: :cool:

I'd purchase. You can find decent water-resistant, 2-mile ones for pretty cheap, and use on the next cruise!!

A word of advice neither....they are VERY ANOYING!:cool: :eek: :cool:

If used discreetly, in private, on shore to locate your party members, they can be of indespensible help in keeping organized. Agree that they CAN be annoying, but so can loud talkers, heavy drinkers, children, etc, etc.

That is all we need... Eleven people with walkie talkies.. Leave them home.. They are intrusive and worse than cell phones..

If you absolutely must have them, then buy them at home. This is a hot topic on any board as many people find them extremely annoying. Maybe you could save yourself the expense and just arrange meeting times and places aboard the ship. IMHO, don't spend the money.

Yes they are annoying but helpful for finding people on board a large ship and keeping track of kids. I have heard you can use them when someone is in port and one person still on the ship (5 mi radius). Just wait till cell phone use becomes available. I hope they develop cell phone zones like smoking zones.

They are the worst.

I got some for a cruise last year and abandoned them pretty quickly because I kept on getting other people's sqawking on whichever channel I tried to use. It's cheaper and less intrusive to bring Post-It notes to leave in slots or use voicemail messages about where you'll be.

I got some for a cruise last year and abandoned them pretty quickly because I kept on getting other people's sqawking on whichever channel I tried to use.

Most models now (even cheap ones) have around 22 channels with multiple privacy (or 'interference eliminator') codes within each channel. This gives you several hundred unique sub-frequencies on which to communicate, which eliminates (or greatly reduces, anyhow) the amount of cross-talk. Most people leave them on channel 1, code 1 anyhow, I think, so any other setting you use should be OK.

You know, if I had two 12 year olds on a cruise, I would not expect them to stay with me all the time, nor would I expect them to paint t-shirts with Maria, the chipper child program girl. Hence: two-way radios.

The polite thing to do, however, is use them discreetly. One of the best ways to do this is to get two-ways with a vibrate feature like THESE. That way, you can get there attention and then they can talk to you without causing a disturbance in an activity.

Some of you have annoying habits, too. Maybe you don't want them to have 2-ways because you know that they are talking about you! :p

Onto Soapbox

Hope there's room for 2 on there, Jon, you stated it perfectly. Use with consideration for other people's 'space' topmost in mind! :)

You can bet when we sail the Carribean Princess over Feb vacation, my 16 year old will have one. We use them and we know how to use them the right way. They are great to keep track of the kids.

It's amazing the difference in attitudes and responses here and on another cruise line's board I was trolling.

Basically the same type of question; a matter of logistics regarding bringing walkie-talkies. The OP was NOT asking if they SHOULD bring them, along, but rather if they should rent or purchase beforehand.

On this board, they get flamed by people who have nothing helpful to contribute, but (I can only guess??) get some satifaction at going off on some poor soul who just asked a simple question -- and their first post, to boot! :mad: On the other board they got nothing but helpful suggestions to answer their question.

If as a new person (and I didn't know better) I was judging where I wanted to hang out on the boards to get helpful advice and information, I'd avoid the Princess board like the plague based on this experience. Thanks from all of us for showing a newbie some hospitality...

We help a great number of new Princess sailors here each and every week, very few have the reaction you are having, perhaps a lessening of the dissapproving tone will help for all concerned.

I agree with Tom-n-Jules here. In my years of cruise boards, I have never and would never have expected this to be a hot topic... ever. No other board where I have seen the topic of 2-way radios come up has ever offered responses other than brand recommendations and usage tips. I am truly blown away that anyone would care if someone else used the radios... Good God, I hate Polo cologne -- could every passenger on my cruise please refrain from wearing it? Because of course, MY sensibilities are most important, and I would hate to be annoyed by another human being...

To drag this back onto topic: The radios would work great for a large group, but as someone suggested I would get ones with plenty of sub-channels. Also, have a plan ahead of time as to which channel you will all switch to should there be interference. My little boy and I use the radios not only on cruises, but when he goes down the street to play, and we have it worked out that if there is someone else on the line, we both switch one subchannel higher. We have really inexpensive Motorola Talk-abouts that work great. The main feature I got these for, along with the subchannels, was the charger that came with them. Be careful -- some radios use plain batteries that run out *fast*. This charger is small and travels well, and the radios can be put in it as is -- the batteries don't have to be taken out first.

Hope this helps, and have a great cruise!

-gina-

I would purchase them at home rather than renting them. I believe that would be more economical. Also get one that you can change channels on, that have a good range and that come with a charger or get rechargeable batteries.

Have a great cruise!

Meg

Wow! This is a hot topic:) With an 11 and 15 yr old - we purchased two sets of Motorla walkie talkies. And attempted - to use them for two days. They can be annoying - mostly because even with 22 or more channels on a big ship with lots of kids EVERYBODY has them:) They also were not very reliable. They were a number of times - and we tested to ensure kids were not just "fabricating":) - that they do not work. Various parts of the ship etc.

After two days of trial and error - we gave up and went to the note and message system. Used sticky notes - phone messages and predetermined meeting times (for formal night, shows etc). This worked MUCH better in our case and we no longer had static in our ears.

We were on the CP 7/17 and it could be due to the ship, its size and number of kids (597). But found the walkies to be a bust - sticky notes a hit!

Therese

Personally I find they can be very anoying.....period!:)

We'll said ...I agree they can be very aggravating to say the least!:cool: :eek: :cool:

dont worry about buying or renting, just dont! If you must have one use in when on shore only! voice mail in the cabins and house phones all over the ship usually work quite well. also, why would someone bring kids on a vacation? i have four and would never!

I on the other hand, only have one child and I would not think of leaving him at home while vacationing.

Concerning walkie talkies....we have been on two Alaskan cruises with our son

(at age 9 and 11) and we had walkie talkies. The only problems I had were

1) him turning it off when he was in the game room

2) finding a channel that was relatively clear to communicate on.

We're on the Grand at Christmas and we'll have them again. My husband is a very early riser so he will take one with him and at 6am will turn it on waiting for the "OK" to return to the room!

Right after I joined the cruise critic boards three years ago I read that walkie talkies were an essential cruise item. So I bought a pair for our New England/Canada trip. We found them not worth using. I may try them again on this trip (in port - I'll shop and dh can sit somewhere and peoplewatch)

I have always found that I get the best reception on the ship if I turn it up to the loudest volume and stand in the middle of a showroom or lounge whlie the show is going on and hit the sqwak a few times and yell "breaker breaker"

Hum...........

Again, he didn't ask if he should bring his children, he asked about walkie talkies.

I posted a question regarding traveling with a 2.9 year old and got a lot of responses telling me to leave the kid at home. Not very helpful at all.

True Ethel5....I say bring all the rug rats you want but leave those chatter boxes at home...walkie talkie free zone on ships should be the rule!

Ethel5 - I think traveling with children that age is a parental decision. We used to have our children that age stay with their grandparents when we went on a cruise because that was the only time we had together. It is your call. I know my wife being the protective mother she is would probably have rather we taken them with us and either way we would have had a great trip.It is whatever makes you feel more at ease as a parent. Good Luck.

Steve