phone rentals or walkie talkies?

[2910car]

We are still trying to decide if we should buy walkie talkies or rent the phones on the Allure. We are a family of 14 - grandparents, kids and grandchildren - with five cabins in June. We really want to be able to find each other on such a big ship. If anyone has good or bad experience with walkie talkies, please advise.

 

Thank you.

[johneeo]

We are still trying to decide if we should buy walkie talkies or rent the phones on the Allure. We are a family of 14 - grandparents, kids and grandchildren - with five cabins in June. We really want to be able to find each other on such a big ship. If anyone has good or bad experience with walkie talkies, please advise.

 

Thank you.

 

My experience ... walkie talkies do not work, so save your money.

 

Also, having cruised with groups of 20, the last thing that any of our group was interested in was "finding people".

 

It is quite easy, as the trivia players can be found at the trivia, the bingo players, the pool people, etc, will all be found in the area they enjoy.

 

We usually established a beachhead on the promenade in the evenings .... ours was at the Copper Kettle. There would always be a half a dozen or so, some would go to the casino, come back, whatever.

 

But, we had fixed dinner, so every evening, we would all spend a couple of hours together, and off we would go, some to the shows, some to the Copper Kettle, some to the casino.

 

At the islands, groups went on the excursions they wanted.

 

Also, you can establish times and places for everyone to meet.

[WYB!]

I'm a fan of 2 way radios

 

Right now you can get this from walmart for under $20:

 

Cobra 16-Mile CXT125 2-Way Radios

 

I've used them on previous cruises. You just need to remember to use a unique channel and frequency and not just the preset Channel 1 Frequency 1.

 

I would say 6 is a good number to have. (4 primary units and 2 backups).

 

But I do only use them for the excursions and not while on the ship.

 

- CWipes

[akcruz]

My experience ... walkie talkies do not work, so save your money.

 

Also, having cruised with groups of 20, the last thing that any of our group was interested in was "finding people".

 

It is quite easy, as the trivia players can be found at the trivia, the bingo players, the pool people, etc, will all be found in the area they enjoy.

 

We usually established a beachhead on the promenade in the evenings .... ours was at the Copper Kettle. There would always be a half a dozen or so, some would go to the casino, come back, whatever.

 

But, we had fixed dinner, so every evening, we would all spend a couple of hours together, and off we would go, some to the shows, some to the Copper Kettle, some to the casino.

 

At the islands, groups went on the excursions they wanted.

 

Also, you can establish times and places for everyone to meet.

 

I agree with this, it is amazing how the ship becomes much smaller once on board, there are only so many places to go. Can it take a bit of planning, yes, but in the long run it is much simpler.

 

Having to carry around the walkie talkies with you (personally I stick my sea pass in a pocket and head out the cabin without anything else) and keeping track of them is more of a hassle to me. Besides what will you do if the person you are looking for is in a show, etc? Hopefully they have them turned off ;).

 

Set a meeting time and place for the group once you figure out your "normal day" and hang out places.

[2910car]

Thank you for all your responses.

 

I understand that when we go away with a group of friends it is easy to meet up for dinner and maybe just run into each other sometimes and everyone does their own thing otherwise.

 

However we are the parents and grandparents of all these other cruisers and want to enjoy sharing some experiences with them. There are 3 families of children. I definitely don't want to be together with everyone all the time and I totally know that they will all find things they want to do on their own, but I do want to spend some time enjoying each family.

 

We were on a Carnival ship 2 years ago with all of them and it was difficult to stay in touch. I just imagine it will be even harder on Allure so was thinking about renting the phones.

[praline3001]

I was looking into the modified Iphones on the Allure. I am not sure if this is an extra charge or if its included in the $30 per phone per week.

 

They have tracking devices on them. You can turn on your phone and find exactly where your kids are at any given moment.

 

The kids club offers the bracelets free of charge. You also have to go to them to get a position on the bracelet.

 

Only kids club get them free so that is why I am unsure if the tracking service is free on the iphones or not.

 

Not only can I keep in contact with my 2 older teens, I will know where they are at. Them knowing this will be a positive thing :D

 

 

For those who used them ~ how does the tracking work? Is the map detailed enough so you can see "Oh he's at Johnny Rockets" or is it more general X marks the spot?

[Shippy]

We rented them on the Oasis. They are $30.00 each. It was just my husband & myself. When you get them, they program them so you can only call your family group, not others. They only work on the ship. They advised us to leave them in our room when we went out to a port so it would eliminate the chance of losing them.

We rarely called each other because it does have a gps system. You can see where the other person is ! You can also text.

Another cool feature is that is has 'the daily paper' info on it so can see what is going on anywhere on the ship at anytime. I used to have to carry the paper copy with me.

You must remember to charge them every night. You are given the chargers with the phone.

[33tekfan]

We are still trying to decide if we should buy walkie talkies or rent the phones on the Allure. We are a family of 14 - grandparents, kids and grandchildren - with five cabins in June. We really want to be able to find each other on such a big ship. If anyone has good or bad experience with walkie talkies, please advise.

 

Thank you.

 

First off, I'll say up front that we did not use the walkie talkies, so I am not talking from personal experience We had considered it, then abandoned it. We just set a time for everyone to "check in" a few times a day and it worked like a charm. The people we did see...ummm...HEAR using the walkie talkies were very, very annoying.

 

As I was typing this DH asked what I was writing and I said "Walkie talkie advice" and his response was "What? What? Can't hear you! Where are you? What?". Then he added that you may as well tie two soup cans together with string as it is about as effective as the walkie talkies!

 

I stressed before our cruise about not having constant contact with my teens, but as others have said, you'll be amazed at how often you "run into each other" even when it's not check in time - especially if you know each others habits and favorite areas:) Whatever you decide, have fun and enjoy being with all your family!

[luv2cruiserccl]

only thing good i hear about the phones is that the compass is on there in a digital form so that would be nice. The walkie talkies personally bug me. There is also the option of text on your cell phone it was only 50 cents for me to send and 5 cents to receive so if you are not going to be doing it alot that might be a cheaper option. Check with your cell phone company for your specific pricing

[Shippy]

only thing good i hear about the phones is that the compass is on there in a digital form so that would be nice. The walkie talkies personally bug me. There is also the option of text on your cell phone it was only 50 cents for me to send and 5 cents to receive so if you are not going to be doing it alot that might be a cheaper option. Check with your cell phone company for your specific pricing

 

Watch out for 'ship charges' while you are at sea, international charges,etc.

We never even turn our own phones on while on the ships anymore after a few bad experiences.

[Finbar127]

Last August we used Midland GXT1000VP4 FRS/GMRS radios on FOS and they worked very well. The only time we had an issue was when one of us were by the flow rider and the other was down by the ice rink. We could still understand each other but it was choppy. Other than that we had no problems at all. The radios have a group feature where you can send an alert tone to one radio or all radios in your group. You can also set them to vibrate so you don't annoy others around you with the alert tones. If you take the time to learn how to program/use them and have the children practice using them before you go, they can be a very convenient tool.

That said, the rented iphones sound like they would be a better choice. I've rented DECT phones on other ships and they were fantastic for keeping in touch. Much better than using two way radios. The only thing that would make me nervous would be giving them to children. IIRC RCL charges a ridiculously high fee for losing one of the iphones.