Communicating with Friends on the ship?

[CantWaitToCrz]

We're on the July 2 Caribbean Princess cruise! There are 16 of us from my extended family. Can't wait... :)

 

Did you join the roll call? I don't remember seeing anyone from WNY. We're a group of 18 all from WNY or Central NY. It's coming soon!

[Happy ks]

The last time I took my kids on a cruise, I had them both leave their phones at home. I told them The could talk/text all day the day they got back home. They lived and we had 0 extra to pay the following month on our phone bill.

 

If that is just not possible, have a talk with them and tell them they have to earn the cash to pay for their communication for the week. (The Horror!) It will be interesting to find out how much more valuable their earned money is in comparison to yours.

 

You may get some resistance, but be a parent and be firm about this issue. Sometimes I can't believe what kids have to "do without" and get to go on a cruise :eek: We were lucky to go camping for a weekend when we were growing up.

 

Although we did have to walk 3 miles uphill in the snow both ways to get anywhere ;)

[jessegirl88]

Thanks all for your responses. Its hard when they have girlfriends and we will be away for 10 days. They are just going to have to deal with...I am sure they will find friends to hang with...Thanks again!

[cruisinkid]

My question is:

I have an iPhone, I only want to use it as an iPod on the cruise ( I'm elated to be away from email and cell phones for a week) Would it be easier for me just to buy an iPod and keep my phone off?

[notentirelynormal]

We had my teen niece and nephew with us when we went to Australia. We had 3 days before we boarded the ship and three days afterward, so we were gone 15 days. My niece was miserable the first few days. Why? Because until we boarded the ship, she kept in constant contact with her friends back home and they complained to her every time she contacted them - we miss you, when are you coming back, how come you had to go? Once she was on board the internet stopped. They had a great time with all the family. My point is, sometimes it's better to not contact the friends for a week and let life happen like it used to.

[apeller]

We have the cell phone battle before each cruise with DD (now 19). The rule is once the ship pulls out of port the phone gets shut off and put in the safe where it stays until we arrive at a US port where she has use of the phone until we leave port again. After the initial complaining, DD always survives. She does have limited internet privileges and rarely takes advantage of them. She has never accepted my offer of paying for the phone bill herself, and until she does, it stays in the safe (with my phone and DH's).

[Musky Ike]

Hi All,

 

I will be going out of NY on the Caribbean Princess and will have 2 teenagers with me and I have told them that the cell phone stays OFF!! Well, it was like I told them that they would have to go to school year round!!! I told them that they would not even be able to turn the phones on to retrieve there texts...How can I give them communication with there friends? Should I by a international calling card in Rite aid or somewhere else before we leave for the cruise so atleast they can talk? I know I can buy minutes for the internet so that they can email, but can anyone suggest any other form of communication while on ship that is not going to break my budget? Skype? Idk.... help...this may be miserable for the kids if they have no contact with there friends. Sorry if this sounds stupid to you, but if you have a teenagers that text all the time, then you will understand. Thanks a bunch!

 

You don't say if you are going North or South out of NYC. With a national plan, the cell should be fine in the New England port cities. Many port cities also have an internet cafe or wi-fi hotspot.

[kath00]

Thanks all for your responses. Its hard when they have girlfriends and we will be away for 10 days. They are just going to have to deal with...I am sure they will find friends to hang with...Thanks again!

 

Don't worry! My DH is a TOTAL internet/phone addict (yes, I said DH, not one of my kids). I have to yell at him at the dinner table to stop glancing down at his iphone. :mad: He is a computer programmer so he even works in the field.

 

However, when we get on a cruise ship, it's like one enters a whole different world. It's impossible to imagine beforehand but your kids, like my DH, will completely forget about their phones, texts, friends on land, etc for the 10 heavenly days you are at sea! And that's as it should be. Suddenly all the teen drama seems less dramatic to them and they begin to enjoy life as it unfolds on the ship. It's fantastic. I thought my DH would literally DIE without access to his precious iphone but I quickly realized that somehow the ocean manages to pull you away from all that!

 

Thank goodness...

 

Katherine

[CALMOM]

I have a better idea, tell your teenagers to be grateful they are going on a cruise and leave their cell phones at home. It might be a good lesson for them to learn how life can be enjoyable without the addiction of their cell phones. You teens might actually be able to have a conversation and you have the opportunity to find out what is going on in their life. They should realize that very few teens have the opportunity to go on a cruise.

 

By the way, yes I have had teens at one time, they are grown adults, now. They were extremely grateful to go on cruises and would of gladly given up their cell phones for the opportunity to cruise.

[DeltaOne]

My question is:

I have an iPhone, I only want to use it as an iPod on the cruise ( I'm elated to be away from email and cell phones for a week) Would it be easier for me just to buy an iPod and keep my phone off?

 

All you need to do is: 1) put the iPhone in Airplane Mode; 2) turn roaming off (which is the default setting anyway).

 

Airplane Mode turns off all five radios (EDGE, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS). No data can be sent or received, no unexpected large charges when you return home.

 

Note that you can safely put the iPhone in Airplane Mode and then turn WiFi back on by itself. This would enable you to find free or low cost WiFi in port and check your email. Or purchase Internet minutes on the ship and use the WiFi there. In either case there won't be unexpected large charges because the WiFi will either be free or paid for up-front. No surprises.

 

If you're nervous, reset the iPhone's usage meter (in settings). You can occasionally check that they remain at zero, indicating no data is being sent or received. (Unless you turn WiFi back on and use that.)

 

ps...you could even use WiFi, in port, and the Skype app to place telephone calls. The Skype app won't work on the ship's WiFi network. And this is easy test before the cruise (put the iPhone in Airplane Mode, find a WiFi network, place a Skype call).

[Happy ks]

I see the problem with turning off the phone, putting it in the safe, etc... is that the teens know how to get the phone out of the safe and turn it back on. Teens don't appreciate the fact that this costs money, they haven't paid bills yet (well, most of them haven't).

 

My vote would still be to leave the phone at home, that way there's not a chance of them running up a bill into the hundreds or thousands. They will actually live and if the boyfriend/girlfriend loses interest, que sara sara :cool: Your teen will live through this, it's not nearly as dramatic as they would have you think.

[BratDet]

Last year- we kept the phones off after we left the NJ shoreline...which can be a way to let them get a lot of texting out of their system. hahahha

 

Then our stayed off until we went to Puerto Rico- then it was a text fest/calling fest.

Not being sure about St. Thomas- we just left them off.

 

It took me forever to log on via Princess in the cafe last summer to pay a bill I forgot to do before we left for vacation. cost me like 19$...because the internet service was so slow.

 

My youngest son is away from the middle of MAY till September and he has only been allowed to use his cell phone 3 times to call home for about 5 minutes...(Army Boot camp). He is a MAJOR TEXTER!!

 

He and we here are writing letters back and forth like CRAZY. What a concept...handwritten letters....

 

I always appreciate handwritten notes- why don't they try that?

in between ports where they CAN use the phone? Make them address labels for the friends they will care to write to....

 

I already have stamps and envelopes to take for this trip.....to send to my son- because there is no way he will be allowed to use his phone on the day we are in PR.

 

If you are taking a computer- they can also compose e-mails and save- mail it to themselves and when using their phone in port- log on and send the letters out that way...via phone email.

Good luck....

Bernadette

 

 

 

Bernadette