Texting Beyond HUB App

[crazyboys]

We will be on Vista in March and would like to be able to text back home to check on Family. We have AT&T service and as I understand it, there is a program that AT&T offers for unlimited texting and limited data minutes for phone use, all for a flat fee. Will we still need to purchase a Wi-Fi package from Carnival to be able to use our phone to text or receive texts from home if we have this AT&T package? I am curious as to what other AT&T users do to have texting availability from Ship/Port to home? Any help would be appreciated.

[EllaDuChien]

I have AT&T and the flat fee International day pass (if that is what you are talking about) only works in Ports, not with Cellular at Sea.  They (AT&T) also have a cruise ship package for some crazy price that I was not willing to pay!

 

What I do is get the Social wifi package, put my phone in Airplane Mode and connect to the ships wifi.  On that I can use iMessage, Viber, or Facebook Messenger to connect with home while on the ship.  It is MUCH cheaper than any package I have found with AT&T.

[coevan]

The AT&T cruise package is $50 for talk and text a month. $100 adds some data, but not much. If you buy the wi-fi package you can text on IM or whatsapp

[crazyboys]

2 hours ago, EllaDuChien said:

I have AT&T and the flat fee International day pass (if that is what you are talking about) only works in Ports, not with Cellular at Sea.  They (AT&T) also have a cruise ship package for some crazy price that I was not willing to pay!

 

What I do is get the Social wifi package, put my phone in Airplane Mode and connect to the ships wifi.  On that I can use iMessage, Viber, or Facebook Messenger to connect with home while on the ship.  It is MUCH cheaper than any package I have found with AT&T.

Thanks so much for this information. Very helpful.

[crazyboys]

20 minutes ago, coevan said:

The AT&T cruise package is $50 for talk and text a month. $100 adds some data, but not much. If you buy the wi-fi package you can text on IM or whatsapp

Yes, these are the packages we were looking at. Appreciate the information. Thank you.

[bbtbear]

I will be cruising in 20 days with my sister while my husband and daughter will be staying home. What my service provider (Verizon) recommended was that we all install WhatsApp on our phones and that I put my phone on airplane mode and get the wifi package on the ship. It only operates through wifi, not through a cell network. We've all installed the app and tested it out with good results. So that's our plan.