iPads in every room

[Agutaya]

I LOVE this idea. The thing that I would be worried about is the older generation of cruisers who are not as "tech savvy" as some. Might become problematic for them.

 

Well, you have given all us "older" folks a good laugh. I'm not going to flame you, but will mention that we got our first personal home computer in April 1982. Let me guess that would be 9 years and 8 months before you were born, right? Some of us are more tech savvy than others so I do agree with you that some non technical people may have problems with the IPad. We just got one for Christmas and I still have lots to learn about it as this is the first Apple product we've owned. It is rather intuitive but one still needs a little knowledge to get going on it.

 

BTW, USA Today says 5 other ships going in for refurbishment will be getting IPads - Legend, Grandeur, rhapsody, Enchantment and Vision.

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2011/11/royal-caribbean-cruise-ship-cabin-ipad-apple/572114/1

[nelblu]

Are you sure it's an I-pad? On the Oasis, there was a key board in the room, but it was not very easy to use. The keys were quite rigid and not working perfectly. We went to the computer room to use the internet.

[avazah]

I feel like having the brand name of 'ipad' versus any other tablet is an unnecessary expense. No one will book an RCI ship simply because they have ipads in the room instead of say an asus tablet or samsung tablet... but the latter are at least half the cost. I don't think printing is so extremely expensive to justify $600 give or take some bulk discount PER STATEROOM on each ship. I think an upgrade to the tvs would be a bigger draw :rolleyes:

[morganboys]

who is going to be responsible for these? If someone sets one down and it walks off or if someone happens to drop it and it breaks. not something I want to have to pay for when I don't need it.

[Bookish Angel]

I am typing on one now and while I use it at home, it will never leave my house as it is too bulky to tote around. For me, it is just another thing to misplace or break and of course, be charged for that damage or loss if it is ship-provided. It is fine if others want to use them appropriately; headphones for listening to music or videos, please. Then again, I can just imagine folks using it to Skype - that might get noisy!

[Iamthesea]

Since this thread is several months old and brought back up to the top, I have to chime in and say that I received an IPAD for Christmas. I love it! It is easy to use, too. However... I still don't get the need to have an IPAD in every stateroom.

 

I will probably take mine on my next cruise, but not sure I will use it for anything other than airline travel and free WiFi spots in some ports of call. If WiFi is so spotty on the ship, I'd rather use my free Diamond/Elite minutes to check email, etc.

 

Oh, and for the argument about the "older" generation being able to use these devices, I think if someone has never used one before, they would be quite technically challenge to use them for the first time on a cruise. I know that my recently deceased parents (85ish) would have never been able to figure the IPAD out. Good for you if you could! ;)

 

PS - Anyone know if Facetime can be used overseas?

[Toddcan]

If they did this, they would have to fixture it so it could not be removed from the room. Otherwise - you know people will drop them, walk away with them, or forget where they last left it.

 

But... I still hope they print the daily compass. I carry that thing around with us all the time. I would not want to carry around an Ipad/Tablet. I have enough of those at home - as convienent as they are, I cannot see them working for anything other than a touch screen interface fixed in your cabin for things that we currenlty see on our TV relating to our accounts, etc.

[Booking It]

I absolutely, positively love my iPad. If something were to happen to it, I would run out and replace it immediately regardless of cost.

 

When I first heard about this, I thought it would be mounted on one of those secure braces that limits what you can actually do on them (ie the home button is covered as is the URL field so that you cannot type in an address. I would still love to have that in the cabin instead of the interactive TV.

 

But the USA Today article says that Royal Caribbean will allow people to carry them around the ship. I don't know how I feel about that. Just seeing how irresponsible people are with other things on the ship, I don't like the idea of the, carrying around a $500 tablet. Now, I don't spend all of my time worrying about what others do. But I KNOW that people will break or lose them, cry to the Guest Services desk, and be off the hook for cost. The replacement cost has to come from somewhere, and that means it will be passed on to the rest of us.

[JulieRose]

You have made my night. I have not stopped laughing since I read this post. You must be a young person and very naive. How do you think we communicate on line at cruise Critic. A lot of us are retired businessmen who have been using modern techy for Years. How do we manage to book our flights and cruises. I have not read through the rest of the thread but I am going to, to see what a stir you could cause here. Still it really is funny. Btw I got a new IPad mini from my daughters for Xmas.

 

Yes there are plenty of the older generation who would have no problem with it but then you have some like my grandmother who is an avid cruiser who would have no idea how the thing even turns on. She has never used a computer even for email, held a job, owned a cell phone or even driven a car. She has been a homemaker all her life with no use for tech any more advanced than her tv and home phone. She would be completely put out by the switch to ipads.

[knittinggirl]

Found this on one of the Rhapsody reviews:

 

It is advertised that there are ipads in the cabins since the update, this is not so. We were selected for a trial of one of these on the second last day of the cruise, however we asked to be excluded from this because it was during the baby's sleep. After returning home from disembarkation my husband (who was not on the cruise) received an abusive phone call from someone on the ship demanding we return the ipad immediately or have $1000.00 taken from my credit card. I explained the situation but was told security would be contacted, I had to contact the Company myself, they later called me back and told me customer service had neglected to pass on the information that we were not participating in the trial. Not how most people want to end a cruise!

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=112248

[mcatmcat]

How do you think we communicate on line at cruise Critic. A lot of us are retired businessmen who have been using modern techy for Years. How do we manage to book our flights and cruises..

 

do you think you represent 100 % of the "old" passanger aboard?:)

[Broch]

do you think you represent 100 % of the "old" passanger aboard?:)

 

I don't know. At what age do you become "old". Just joking. I did say I could not stop laughing in my original post. I was laughing because I have a grown uo family and a lot of the time they think we are over the hill and I suppose we thought that of our oldies when we were young. Seriously though I would not like to see the end of the compass and I do appreciate there are a lot of people young and old who are terrfied of modern technical things. It just seems to be the norm nowadays that hard copies like paper are becoming a thing of the past sadly. Perhaps i was a litle bit sharp with my reply and appeared to be less sensitive.

[lysolqn]

Absolutely love my iPad, use it for one thing or another virtually every day and take it along whenever we travel, be it on land or at sea. Let's just say I rank it right up there with the invention of air-conditioning and the microwave oven! Notwithstanding, RCCL's idea of placing one in every cabin for pax use while onboard strikes me not only as a silly attempt to hop on the iBandwagon but also gimmicky and terribly impractical from both the pax' and the cruise line's perspectives. JMHO.

[nelblu]

Absolutely love my iPad, use it for one thing or another virtually every day and take it along whenever we travel, be it on land or at sea. Let's just say I rank it right up there with the invention of air-conditioning and the microwave oven! Notwithstanding, RCCL's idea of placing one in every cabin for pax use while onboard strikes me not only as a silly attempt to hop on the iBandwagon but also gimmicky and terribly impractical from both the pax' and the cruise line's perspectives. JMHO.

 

Better than sliced bread.:D:D

[knittinggirl]

Absolutely love my iPad, use it for one thing or another virtually every day and take it along whenever we travel, be it on land or at sea. Let's just say I rank it right up there with the invention of air-conditioning and the microwave oven! Notwithstanding, RCCL's idea of placing one in every cabin for pax use while onboard strikes me not only as a silly attempt to hop on the iBandwagon but also gimmicky and terribly impractical from both the pax' and the cruise line's perspectives. JMHO.

 

We got charged $2 for a coke taken from a neighbor's fridge, because the steward charged the wrong room. I'd sure hate to pay $1,000 for an iPad that the steward charged to the wrong room. Each iPad should be checked out, then returned at the end of the cruise. Unless a loud alarm rings when it leaves the room, I don't want one. Better yet, secure it so it can't leave the room.

 

Then there's the whole portability issue, paper compasses are much easier to stick in your pocket.

 

Why the $1000 charge mentioned into the other post? Why would they need a 3G ipad which is in the $1000 range? I suspect they get the Wifi model, then charge us for the 3G version when it disappears.

[lysolqn]

We got charged $2 for a coke taken from a neighbor's fridge, because the steward charged the wrong room. I'd sure hate to pay $1,000 for an iPad that the steward charged to the wrong room. Each iPad should be checked out, then returned at the end of the cruise. Unless a loud alarm rings when it leaves the room, I don't want one. Better yet, secure it so it can't leave the room.

 

Then there's the whole portability issue, paper compasses are much easier to stick in your pocket.

 

Why the $1000 charge mentioned into the other post? Why would they need a 3G ipad which is in the $1000 range? I suspect they get the Wifi model, then charge us for the 3G version when it disappears.

 

For the reasons you cited and then some, it sounds like an idea that might be sexy on paper but in reality would wind up being infinitely more trouble than it's worth. If RCCL feels compelled to be a player in the iWorld, it should simply allow pax with their own iPads the option of being "connected" (i.e., receive dailies, newspapers, make reservations, order room service, check photos, etc.) while onboard.

[Yorkvillain]

Absolutely love my iPad, use it for one thing or another virtually every day and take it along whenever we travel, be it on land or at sea. Let's just say I rank it right up there with the invention of air-conditioning and the microwave oven! Notwithstanding, RCCL's idea of placing one in every cabin for pax use while onboard strikes me not only as a silly attempt to hop on the iBandwagon but also gimmicky and terribly impractical from both the pax' and the cruise line's perspectives. JMHO.

 

Ha. My 3 favorite inventions: air conditioning, DVR, ipad

[samj80]

Production cost maybe, but what about the initial cost of the iPads, the upkeep, replacement cost?

 

I'm sure these costs have been carefully calculated. You would be astonished at the cost of paper / printing. The cost savings in the long term is the main reason why many public schools are using ipads. There is case study after case study to support it.