Give a newbie some specific advice about walkie talkies

[celbercrz333]

Hey all of you seasoned travellers, give WickedAwesomeMom some advice about your walkie talkies. I told her that the best advice I could give her is to take a couple of walkie talkies with her so that she and her son would know how to find each other on these huge ships. BUT...I don't have any personal advice about them, since we never took them. You can answer her questions better than I could about how to use them, where are the places on the ship where the waves might not get through, any place you might not be allowed to take them.....you get the idea. So let's hear from all of you, ok? Thanks.

[mcfloat]

I would never take walkie talkies on a cruise...In my opinion there is nothing more rude then having people yelling at each other over these things...Good old common sense and good parenting will work much better...Sorry if it is not what you wanted to hear, but its important to remember that others on the cruise are looking for a relaxing and quite time...

[clackey]

Hola,

 

 

 

We bought a pair on our second cruise and never used them, then on our third trip we found that half of the time you picked up someone else on your channel or the message was so garbl##, garbell###, distorted, that you couldn't understand it. I'll leave them at home next trip.

 

Have a great trip and eat a shrimp for me.

Clackey

[DGNewton]

Funny to see this....my wife bought 5 on ebay....I've tried to tell her that I'm not taking one and I could just see my 18 and twin 16 year olds having them when their in the youth crowd or chasing girls....I guess I could see them during the day when on deck, but not at night....I know she'll pack them....

 

I agree that the transmissions will be grabbled and others interferring. They are also intrustive during the evening shows, dinner, etc.

 

Saying that, anyone want to buy 5? lol

[nrose6]

Hola,

 

 

 

We bought a pair on our second cruise and never used them, then on our third trip we found that half of the time you picked up someone else on your channel or the message was so garbl##, garbell###, distorted, that you couldn't understand it. I'll leave them at home next trip.

 

Have a great trip and eat a shrimp for me.

Clackey

 

Agree 100%...I took 4 when i was on the Navigator of the Seas, and either 1) my kids had them off...or 2) the signal was HORRIBLE! You could not tell what anyone was saying. Well, hope this helped....ENJOY YOUR CRUISE....:D

[CaptData]

People on board the ship have told me only some brands work on ship Motorola is one. But as above depending on laction of persons using it, it could b3e garbbled. Most of them used them for off the ship in town oron the beach if one person was up at the bar and others down on the beach. Or in some of the other areas (shopping areas). Most said they would not pack them again. Others used them wisely for set check in times (ie Teens in disco and parents at a bar) kids wanted to tell mom and dad they where going to the pool for an hour.

 

 

I found it to be disrutive if someone got mad because they could not hear. MOM, I'M GOING TO THE ROOM. SEE,YOU AT SUPPER. MOM WAS ACROSS THE POOL FROM HIM.

[traveller99]

Quote: Give a newbie some specific advice about walkie talkies

 

Yep, Leave 'em at home...

[catmand]

I need to practice my typing so I am also requesting they be left at home. In the "good old days" we used to figure out how to find one another, and then someone invented post-its. Within 15 minutes of boarding one of our ships we were lucky enough to hear:

click:..............."Hey, where you at?"

click....click..."What?"

click................"What?"

[LARGIN]

Quote: Give a newbie some specific advice about walkie talkies

 

Yep, Leave 'em at home...

 

Yep.. You have my vote..

[pootsien2]

My twins are teenagers so I know we won't always want to do the same things. Do the cabins on the Navigator have voice mail on the phones and are there house phones like hotels so they can leave me a message or probably more likely Mom leaving them a message about where I'll be? I'm thinking that might work out...that is...if anybody remembers to check the messages!:)

[serene56]

Phones do have voice mail but I dont know if you can check them fromthe public phones.

 

If you do take the walkie talkies I suggest that you pick another name other then mom and dad. too many kids use that and yell into the thing MOM and tons of moms will say what???

 

also tell your kids not to use them in the public places. I tried to watch a show with teens sitting behind me having a grand time talking up the oppisite sex while we were trying to watch the show.

[celbercrz333]

Ok, I'm convinced. I gave bad advice then when I said get some walkie talkies. How about carrier pidgeons?? LOLOLOL.

[jster]

Just came back from the Victory...We took our walkie talkies and I am very glad that we did!!!! Our 12 yr old was in the camp carnival program and they were always going somewhere for all the different activites. It has nothing to do with good/bad parenting!!! I asked her to call me after each activity to let me know where they were going. yes, I had the caper that listed all the activites, but I felt better knowing that she made it there okay. It is a personal choice, some people think it's rude, some don't. The only problem we found was that there were other families on the same channel.

[CC#115]

We brought 2 sets of Motoroloa 5 mile range walkie-talkies and used them endlessly on the Carnival Triumph. We experienced occasional interference (both human and air wave) but overall we were very happy we brought them. Our 2 mile range set didn't work at all.

 

Contrary to previous posters, I say BRING THEM! Maybe I'm biased because DH and I use this type of communication routinely in our jobs and we're accustomed to it (as are our kids), but either way we found the constant contact to be comforting and the kids didn't mind hauling them around at all.

 

Good luck!

[familycruzer]

We brought ours along on our last two cruises but did not use them on the ships. We like to split up while shopping in port and they came in handy because we could easily find each other. My dd and I like jewelry stores and my dh and ds dont. We split up and could easily find each other again.

 

Your best plan on the ship is to make a schedule of when and where to meet. Make sure everyone has a watch on and knows the ships layout. I originally thought they were a good idea on our first family cruise until I found out how cant get reception half the time and when you can, its not your family.

[herewego]

They are really good OFF the ship. My kids though have more fun when waiting to board using them and sending messages like - meet me by the door - once they find a channel others are on! Of course they don't go to the door but get a big kick out of seeing how many they can get there. Had to take it away from my 14 yr old twins when they started with - "wow, those pants really make your butt big" click ahhh the fun we miss as we grow up :p

[celbercrz333]

I guess the jury's still out on this one then. Family, you have some good advice about meeting at a certain place and certain time. I guess a lot depends on the ages of the kids in your family.