The Carnival App

[Tampa Bay Irish]

Carnival has recently introduced an onboard app. We used it on our recent cruise on the Sunshine. The cost is $5. The app promises to facilitate a kind of onboard texting service to other passengers with smart phones who also have purchased and downloaded the app. Unfortunately the texting service didn’t always work. Some messages were never delivered and had to be resent. Other messages were delivered hours late. Sometimes the message service in the app worked perfectly. However it was hit and miss. What our group of friends resorted to doing was putting our own time stamp in the body of the message. That way you knew when the message was actually sent. The other thing we did was request that the person receiving the original message to acknowledge receipt of the message by sending a message back to the originator. Our system worked for us.

 

The other neat thing that the app did was give you access to not only today’s Funtimes but also the Funtimes for any future day of the cruise. This allowed us to peruse the upcoming menus for the main dining room. This allowed us to pick a night to go to Ji Ji’s Asian Restaurant (which was wonderful) on a night when the menu in the main dining room didn’t look as good. Get the app. It’s worth the $5. Go to Ji Ji’s for dinner on the Sunshine. Well worth it too.

[cruisinqt]

They are supposed to be trying out a much better WiFi on the Vista class ships. I’m hearing it’s very good. But until it’s implemented fleet wide, there are some tips that help with the existing WiFi and app issues. We’ve found that if we don’t close the app we are much more likely to get the messages sent to us. It doesn’t notify you of the incoming messages either unless the app is open. And when you send a message, don’t immediately close the app, leave it open and running just in case you’re in an area that is not near a router and has poor reception. Once you’re in an area with better reception it will send the message, but again, the app has to be open and running. We did this and it never effected our battery much. And our messages usually got sent pretty quick. Thanks for the tip on putting the time in your message. That’s a good idea.

[teknoge3k]

Carnival has recently introduced an onboard app. We used it on our recent cruise on the Sunshine. The cost is $5. The app promises to facilitate a kind of onboard texting service to other passengers with smart phones who also have purchased and downloaded the app. Unfortunately the texting service didn’t always work. Some messages were never delivered and had to be resent. Other messages were delivered hours late. Sometimes the message service in the app worked perfectly. However it was hit and miss. What our group of friends resorted to doing was putting our own time stamp in the body of the message. That way you knew when the message was actually sent. The other thing we did was request that the person receiving the original message to acknowledge receipt of the message by sending a message back to the originator. Our system worked for us.

 

The other neat thing that the app did was give you access to not only today’s Funtimes but also the Funtimes for any future day of the cruise. This allowed us to peruse the upcoming menus for the main dining room. This allowed us to pick a night to go to Ji Ji’s Asian Restaurant (which was wonderful) on a night when the menu in the main dining room didn’t look as good. Get the app. It’s worth the $5. Go to Ji Ji’s for dinner on the Sunshine. Well worth it too.

 

This isn't exactly a new app, they've had it over a year. Also the app is free. You only have to pay $5 if you wish to use the chat feature. Otherwise everything else on the app is free. :)

 

The Hub app is great!

[joshandmel]

On the Dream I could tell you the areas that WiFi was weakest. As long as I was not in these areas (typically the aft area of the ship) it worked great. The $5.00 fee for messaging is great for my fiancee and I since I tend to wander around often. It is nice to get in touch with the other person. The best part is the mobile fun times for sure. There is so much information being housed in the app now compared to when it launched that it is becoming more and more useful. I could be wrong and I hope I do not get hate, but I can easily see a time coming where the paper fun times are phased out there is a special request.

[originalgeek]

one of my favorite features is setting reminders for events in the fun-times I don't want to miss. And some day I'll get on a ship that does Pixels through the app - I think I'll like that.

[Keys2Heaven]

Carnival has recently introduced an onboard app.

 

Yes, as someone else mentioned, not new and free. The onboard chat is $5 per guest who wishes to use it.

 

I did hear that the app is being expanded and will included YTD reservation requests.

[teknoge3k]

one of my favorite features is setting reminders for events in the fun-times I don't want to miss. And some day I'll get on a ship that does Pixels through the app - I think I'll like that.

 

The Pixels portion on the app is great. We didn't use it to purchase pictures since we had all of them printed & digital but I can see it being great for those wanting to purchase individual pictures. I loved it because as soon as we had our pictures taken, it was on the app within a few minutes. That was great. That way we saw our pictures as we were having them made rather than having to go through a hundred pictures in the end when we got them all.

[ParrotRob]

On my Android device, notifications worked just fine. I would get a notification for incoming text messages and also for events I had flagged as "attending". You can also see what events other members in your party are attending.

[plattwear]

We enjoyed using the app on our recent cruise to see hit like by the activities we each individually wanted to do in our group, then we could compare. It would show how many people wanted to do a certain activity (comedy club, show, movie etc). Made it much easier to plan and we did not have to carry around the fun times paper with us.

[riclop]

Disconnect your on vacation , what did you do before???

[junebug61]

Question about the Hub app, we have a large group and would like to use the chat feature to keep in touch with everyone. Do we need to enter everyone’s folio number to contact them or do you use their regular cell number?

 

 

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[thinfool]

Question about the Hub app, we have a large group and would like to use the chat feature to keep in touch with everyone. Do we need to enter everyone’s folio number to contact them or do you use their regular cell number?

 

 

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Folio numbers. $5. per person for the sailing.

[moongal]

If you have already paid for the social media plan, do you still have to pay $5 per person to use the Hub app? Or will it work with just purchasing the social media plan?

 

 

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[leroydarts]

Has anyone tried to use the App on an Ipad? It didn't seem available on my last cruise.

[plattwear]

Question about the Hub app, we have a large group and would like to use the chat feature to keep in touch with everyone. Do we need to enter everyone’s folio number to contact them or do you use their regular cell number?

 

 

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Yes you should be able to connect all the people in your group with their FOLIO number. They will then show up on your friends list. We did not get notification however if the app was not open. We did get responses later after we opened the app again. It was a bit delayed but, It was a great way to locate each other on a large ship :-)

[ParrotRob]

If your bookings are all linked, you shouldn't need folio numbers at all, your cruisemates should just appear in your app as chat targets.

[stellarose]

we used it for our family of 4 (a 16 and 14 year old in tow). it was great. now sometimes it was hit or miss, but most times it was great. we were able to get messages to teens and inlaws (got them the app once on board). we did disconnect all week (no google, FB, etc). so we were off the grid, just not on the ship. the app was great to see what was happening. i would recommend it .

[Organized Chaos]

Question about the Hub app, we have a large group and would like to use the chat feature to keep in touch with everyone. Do we need to enter everyone’s folio number to contact them or do you use their regular cell number?

As was mentioned, if you link your bookings, you should be able to see everyone already. Also, if the bookings are linked, you'll be able to see if someone in your group favorites an activity. As you go down the list of Fun Times activities, if anyone in your group favorites something, it'll show an icon with a number by that activity indicating how many marked it as a favorite. Tapping on that activity will show you the initials of the person/people who marked it. Kind of a fun way of seeing what someone else is interested in doing and maybe catching something you missed yourself.

 

If you have already paid for the social media plan, do you still have to pay $5 per person to use the Hub app? Or will it work with just purchasing the social media plan?

The on board wifi plans are completely separate from the Hub app, so you'll still have to pay the $5 to activate chat regardless of any wifi plan you purchase. The Hub app will work (including chat) even if you don't purchase a wifi plan at all.

 

Has anyone tried to use the App on an Ipad? It didn't seem available on my last cruise.

Yes, it should work. I installed it on a 1st gen. iPad Mini that's so old, it can't be updated beyond iOS 9. It notified me that some of the Hub app's newest features wouldn't be available with an older iOS version, but the countdown clock worked before the cruise. I installed it on there thinking it'd be easier to read the digital Fun Times on the iPad Mini instead of my phone, but to be perfectly honest, I never even got it out of my bag the whole cruise. I just used my phone. According to the app's description, it is compatible with iPad.

[ballarinamom]

Disconnect your on vacation , what did you do before???

Brought a highlighter and had to carry a paper fun times around to remind me of what I wanted to do that day and then forget things because I wasn't keeping track of time or I left the paper some where and they were out at the service desk. And sometimes eating a meal that I didn't want because I forgot to do down to look at the menu in the Main dining room and I would have preferred to eat in the steak house that night.......

Not carrying walkie talkies around so my young daughter could tell us if she's wanted out of the kids program only to have dead batteries or a million people on the same channel as us.....

Should I go on?

Our phones are our cameras now. So we get to elimate one extra thing we have to carry around- the paper fun times

If you don't like the app, don't use it. But if it makes some one else's cruise easier, it's not your place to judge

[dmdiver]

I use the hub app on my phone & ipad. You just can't be logged in on both devices at the same time. Not a problem, since I am using one or the other.

[stellarose]

app does not use your data/ wifi / etc. you put phone in airplane mode. connect to wifi carnival. you DO NOT need to purchase internet plan.

 

the hub was great to see what food venues were open. what event was going on. you only get 1 fun times so why not use the app.

[Quilcruisers]

We really enjoy the hub app. We too use our phones and iPads for pictures, reading alarms, etc. although we are unplugged from the outside world, the ship becomes our oasis for a week. I really like the part where you will get reminded of upcoming activities and was on the breeze when they sent the pictures to your folio number. It was still new and we would get others pictures at times but still nice. I think the paper fun times were great but they have run their course and times are changing. I will miss having them as a souvenir but I stopped carrying them around once we got the hub. I do hope they include everything that was in the fun times, I found that some things were missing. Not a big deal. Also a search function would be good instead of having to go thru each menu, like one for food, one for shows, etc. if there was a search function, you could search the entire selection and then choose from there.

 

 

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[Lottacruises]

Social media plan and what's app is how my group communicates. It works fine for us.

 

No hub app needed for this, however we use the hub app too for activities and such.

[taughtu2]

So if you set your cell phone to airplane mode, it doesn't use any data or minutes from your plan? But the app still works? And your camera still works? I was wondering about how to keep my at&t bill from being $600.

[teknoge3k]

So if you set your cell phone to airplane mode, it doesn't use any data or minutes from your plan? But the app still works? And your camera still works? I was wondering about how to keep my at&t bill from being $600.

 

Correct. Airplane mode turns off all cellular data from your phone. The app uses wifi which is a totally different antenna inside of your phone, and works fine on the ships. Your camera is on your phone, it has nothing to do with your data nor wifi.