WiFi Calling: Is VOOM Surf good enough?

[karen_g]

I will need to make calls home from my next cruise on the Symphony.  I am planning on buying an internet package and using  wifi calling from my cellphone.  Does anyone know whether the *Surf* internet package/speed is good enough for this purpose?  On past cruises I have bought the Surf & Stream, but I never did stream anything.  I am hoping to save a few bucks by going just with "Surf" speed, as long as my phone calls will go through & will be clear.  Does anyone have any experience with this?

[jean-lynd]

58 minutes ago, karen_g said:

I will need to make calls home from my next cruise on the Symphony.  I am planning on buying an internet package and using  wifi calling from my cellphone.  Does anyone know whether the *Surf* internet package/speed is good enough for this purpose?  On past cruises I have bought the Surf & Stream, but I never did stream anything.  I am hoping to save a few bucks by going just with "Surf" speed, as long as my phone calls will go through & will be clear.  Does anyone have any experience with this?

Wifi calling worked fine with surf for us on Allure in February. I hope this helps!

[long4acruise]

We only buy the basic Surf VOOM package and have used our cell for Wifi calling, texting and WhatsApp to call around the world from the ship!

[lifes-a-beach]

Me too.  Used it a bunch with just the surf package.  Worked fine.

[OCSC Mike]

Should be fine.  Even FaceTime continues to work with Surf.  Onboard Harmony right now & this is actually the first time I’ve bought surf & stream.  I was able to stream video two years ago on Oasis with Surf but no such luck this time around.

Edited June 19, 2019 by OCSC Mike

[Clarea]

7 hours ago, karen_g said:

I will need to make calls home from my next cruise on the Symphony.  I am planning on buying an internet package and using  wifi calling from my cellphone.  Does anyone know whether the *Surf* internet package/speed is good enough for this purpose?  On past cruises I have bought the Surf & Stream, but I never did stream anything.  I am hoping to save a few bucks by going just with "Surf" speed, as long as my phone calls will go through & will be clear.  Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

Surf should work fine for WiFi calling.

[h20skibum]

The quality, and reliability of both surf and surf and stream depend on the ship, and the ship’s location.  They had this printed in the Compass on more than one occasion.

 

 

It was interesting that they were advertising internet sales on some of those days.

[Biker19]

15 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

They had this printed in the Compass on more than one occasion.

That’s a standard disclaimer to keep disgruntled customers at bay. 

[karen_g]

Thanks for all the replies.  I think I will go with the basic SURF package.  It sounds like it will be all that I need!

[AlanF65]

17 minutes ago, karen_g said:

Thanks for all the replies.  I think I will go with the basic SURF package.  It sounds like it will be all that I need!

 

17 minutes ago, karen_g said:

Thanks for all the replies.  I think I will go with the basic SURF package.  It sounds like it will be all that I need!

If you have conne tion issues you may need to turn off some hd calling features, voice will be fine.

 

[bayportkat]

A quick question- to use the wifi calling our our trip in a few weeks, do we just put the phone in Airplane Mode to avoid charges from the cellphone company?  That will still allow us to use iMessage, What's Ap and the wifi calling?  Does the Wifi calling go through the phone app just like a regular call?

As you can tell, I am not very tech savvy!

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, bayportkat said:

A quick question- to use the wifi calling our our trip in a few weeks, do we just put the phone in Airplane Mode to avoid charges from the cellphone company?  That will still allow us to use iMessage, What's Ap and the wifi calling?  Does the Wifi calling go through the phone app just like a regular call?

As you can tell, I am not very tech savvy!

 

Put the phone in Airplane mode and then turn WiFi back on.  You can still use all your apps that require internet connectivity, and WiFi calling will allow the phone to be used as if it was on the cell network, no extra apps needed.

[SRF]

And realize, you must activate WiFi calling for the first time, and set it up, WHILE CONNECTED TO YOUR CELLULAR NETWORK

 

If you wait until on board and away from land, you are out of luck.

 

Once set up, you are good to enable it at any time,

[bayportkat]

7 hours ago, SRF said:

And realize, you must activate WiFi calling for the first time, and set it up, WHILE CONNECTED TO YOUR CELLULAR NETWORK

 

If you wait until on board and away from land, you are out of luck.

 

Once set up, you are good to enable it at any time,

Thanks! I checked and we already have it set up!  Just wanted to be sure I knew what to do regarding the airplane mode!  

[Wine-O]

I've used wifi calling from the ship with my iPhone making calls to the U.S.  Will this still work if I am on the ship and use wifi calling to call a European number?  Not sure how that works.  Airplane mode, of course.

[Clarea]

5 minutes ago, Wine-O said:

I've used wifi calling from the ship with my iPhone making calls to the U.S.  Will this still work if I am on the ship and use wifi calling to call a European number?  Not sure how that works.  Airplane mode, of course.

 

WiFi calling replicates the billing situation when your phone is on it's home cellular network. So if you would be charged for that European call from home, you will be charged the same via WiFi calling.

[Wine-O]

20 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

WiFi calling replicates the billing situation when your phone is on it's home cellular network. So if you would be charged for that European call from home, you will be charged the same via WiFi calling.

Thanks.  That makes sense.  Now I have to find out what Verizon charges to call from the U.S. to Europe.  🍷

 

 

[SomewhereCruise]

Ditto what everyone said. The surf package served our purpose for all (basic) communication needs. We had our son configure our phone before we left for cruise though.

[GUEST71919]

We thought the regular Voom was great on the Allure, but it was virtually worthless on our recent Grandeur sailing. When my husband went to discuss it with the tech desk, he was told that the non-stream version wouldn’t allow text messages. Say what?!  Hmmm... maybe she doesn’t know that WiFi based texting is a thing? 👩🏼‍💻 It was only just slightly amusing that she thought that somehow a text message was a harder push than say periscope?! OY. DH is in upper level Mgt with a major telecommunications company and rather well versed in such issues, so he nicely told her the problem was quite real. She upped the packages to the so-called streaming level and they made only a small difference. $20.99 for 9 days is quite a lot to pay for nothing (and not being able to send/receive a short text from a pet sitter can be defined as “nothing.”).  Now we aren’t sure what to do on our next to booked cruises - maybe get 1 “stream” Voom to share and then connect at the international daily rate in port?  Work on our telepathy skills??

 

Seems to matter a great deal which ship regardless is Voom equality claims in onboard marketing.

Edited June 21, 2019 by 2Beeze

[SRF]

The problem is, not the data rate, but the ping.

 

There have been reports of ping times over 600 ms.  Your husband will understand what that means.

[phabric]

I am new to internet on RC ships.  I have used internet on Princess ship for just emails.

 

We are going with 10 yr old granddaughter on the Symphony.  Her mother wants to speak to her daily through the Internet.

 

Which internet package should we get, Voom or Surf?

[Clarea]

4 minutes ago, phabric said:

I am new to internet on RC ships.  I have used internet on Princess ship for just emails.

 

We are going with 10 yr old granddaughter on the Symphony.  Her mother wants to speak to her daily through the Internet.

 

Which internet package should we get, Voom or Surf?

 

If by "speak", you mean audio only, then Surf is fine.  If you mean video, then get Surf & Stream.

 

VOOM is Royal's name for all their internet offerings.

[phabric]

1 minute ago, Host Clarea said:

 

If by "speak", you mean audio only, then Surf is fine.  If you mean video, then get Surf & Stream.

 

VOOM is Royal's name for all their internet offerings.

 

I do not use the Internet much.

 

Last time on a Princess ship, I think she used FaceTime or Skype, where she spoke and saw her mom on the computer.

[Clarea]

34 minutes ago, phabric said:

 

I do not use the Internet much.

 

Last time on a Princess ship, I think she used FaceTime or Skype, where she spoke and saw her mom on the computer.

 

Facetime is video and audio, so I'd recommend Surf & Stream.

[phabric]

Thanks that helps.