Texting Onboard

[meandsis]

I recently heard that for about $5 per person, you can activate something onboard that will allow you to send text messages to other ship mates cell phones. I can't find anything about that on the carnival website. Does anyone know anything about this, or how it works?

[crzndeb]

35 minutes ago, meandsis said:

I recently heard that for about $5 per person, you can activate something onboard that will allow you to send text messages to other ship mates cell phones. I can't find anything about that on the carnival website. Does anyone know anything about this, or how it works?

https://www.carnival.com/shipboard/funhub/funhub-landing

 

Download the app before you sail.

Edited January 13, 2020 by crzndeb

[coevan]

1 hour ago, meandsis said:

I recently heard that for about $5 per person, you can activate something onboard that will allow you to send text messages to other ship mates cell phones. I can't find anything about that on the carnival website. Does anyone know anything about this, or how it works?

 

 

you sure you checked the Carnival website? As soon as you click search, wi-fi and Hub App appear

[Kwaj girl]

PUT THE PHONES AWAY!   You are on a cruise.  Live the life. Catch up with them at dinner.

[Organized Chaos]

1 hour ago, meandsis said:

I recently heard that for about $5 per person, you can activate something onboard that will allow you to send text messages to other ship mates cell phones. I can't find anything about that on the carnival website. Does anyone know anything about this, or how it works?

 

As has been said, what you're hearing about is the Carnival Hub app. It's free to use most of its features, like deck plans, food venues, menus, S&S account info., and more. For $5 (good for the entire cruise) you can activate the chat feature that allows you to message others. But they also have to have the Hub app and have to have purchased the chat feature. It's $5 per device. It's best to download the app prior to your cruise. It'll act as a countdown clock beforehand, and routes you to Carnival's website to make other purchases, but the rest of its features won't be enabled until you get onboard and connect to the ship's wifi. You do not need to buy one of the internet plans to use the Hub app.

[Organized Chaos]

5 minutes ago, Kwaj girl said:

PUT THE PHONES AWAY!   You are on a cruise.  Live the life. Catch up with them at dinner.

 

Not this again. 🙄 Enjoy your cruise however you like, but let others do the same without trying to lecture them.

[coevan]

none of your business, the Hub App is the bomb. Let's see what on my phone, flash light, GPS, weather, Star Walk, Radar, and iTunes to name just a few. Catch up with who at dinner?

[nydney1]

On our last trip the texting worked just Ok if it was person to person, Group texting did not work at all.

 

The texting feature is great for parents as kids start to go off on their own.

[coevan]

We had 10 people on it, but never as a group. We kept the app open, it worked well for all of us.

[meandsis]

Thank you all so much. There are 15 of us going on this cruise, and many of us don't know each other. Trying to keep up with what everyone wants to do could be a logistic nightmare. We have used the hub app before, but had not used the "chat feature",  and really didn't even know about it. We don't want internet, and this will be perfect for our needs. I feel with this we won't have to spend valuable cruise time waiting on people, we can simply let them know where we will be, then Go To The Fun! Thank you

[2wheelin]

31 minutes ago, Kwaj girl said:

PUT THE PHONES AWAY!   You are on a cruise.  Live the life. Catch up with them at dinner.

We had 20 of us plus kids last week so we used chat to PLAN dinner in various changing groups so we could catch up. Only takes a minute. Phones did not interrupt our vacations as much as waiting for other people would have. 

You don’t need to use your phone if you don’t want to.

[Purvis1231]

1 hour ago, Kwaj girl said:

PUT THE PHONES AWAY!   You are on a cruise.  Live the life. Catch up with them at dinner.

To each his own. I like to be able to keep in touch with my family and friends when necessary. 

[WesternKansasCruiser]

Just to understand we don’t need any type of internet plan. We will buy the texting once we get onboard through the app.  Thanks!!!

[Organized Chaos]

21 minutes ago, WesternKansasCruiser said:

Just to understand we don’t need any type of internet plan. We will buy the texting once we get onboard through the app.  Thanks!!!

 

You got it. No internet plan necessary. You'll login to the app using your folio number (found on your S&S card) and your birth date. Once logged in, you'll be able to purchase the chat.

[dmdiver]

We've used the app several times.  You do need to leave it up & running if you want to get your messages.  Even if you don't use the messaging feature, the app is great for looking up & marking activities you'd like to do.  We use it to check our account, see what's on the dinner menu, etc.  I tend to have my phone with me a lot for taking pics, so it makes sense for me.

[AdobeRN]

We were on the Dream last week - used the app - worked on/off for us.  It is nice but I think the developers need to tweek it more, lots of issues with Wifi connection - and not just with our phones, we came across several people who had issues with the chat feature.  I told my family we will go back to the the magnetic message board on our cabin room doors next cruise.  

[stellarose]

you can text via the hub for 5 dollars only on the ship you are on. I believe. it would be too hard to do it from another ship.

[coevan]

who are you referring to, kind of an odd comment

[Hsmama]

19 hours ago, crzndeb said:

https://www.carnival.com/shipboard/funhub/funhub-landing

 

Download the app before you sail.

This is AWESOME. The one thing I disliked on my (one) cruise was the inability to split up and then find each other easily throughout the day!

[Organized Chaos]

How well the chat feature works varies and that seems to be the common denominator ever since that feature was introduced. Judging by all the reports I've seen from people on this forum, and there's been a lot of them, it seems as if it has gotten a lot better, but there's still a lot of reports of reliability issues. My guess is, this is more a fault with the app itself than the wifi service because we always use iMessages onboard and, in our experience, they've always been very reliable. Same wifi, different messaging services. The Hub app is still a great app, though, even without the chat.

[jdemps]

On 1/14/2020 at 8:20 AM, dmdiver said:

We've used the app several times.  You do need to leave it up & running if you want to get your messages.  Even if you don't use the messaging feature, the app is great for looking up & marking activities you'd like to do.  We use it to check our account, see what's on the dinner menu, etc.  I tend to have my phone with me a lot for taking pics, so it makes sense for me.

Forgive me if I am a tech noob....lol  What does leave it "up and running" mean?  I had issues in 2017 with the hub chat feature with messages not coming through on time or sometimes not at all.  I signed into the hub app and never signed out of it.  Is there something else specific you have to do to get you messages on time?   Thanks.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

53 minutes ago, jdemps said:

Forgive me if I am a tech noob....lol  What does leave it "up and running" mean?  I had issues in 2017 with the hub chat feature with messages not coming through on time or sometimes not at all.  I signed into the hub app and never signed out of it.  Is there something else specific you have to do to get you messages on time?   Thanks.

"up and running" means you have to make sure the Hub app is running on your phone, and not closed.  If you close the app, you won't get notifications about messages.

[Scarlett90]

On 1/13/2020 at 6:45 PM, Kwaj girl said:

PUT THE PHONES AWAY!   You are on a cruise.  Live the life. Catch up with them at dinner.

Or people in a large group would like to stay in contact with them to make plans. Parents may want to stay in contact with their teenagers. 

[Organized Chaos]

2 hours ago, jdemps said:

Forgive me if I am a tech noob....lol  What does leave it "up and running" mean?  I had issues in 2017 with the hub chat feature with messages not coming through on time or sometimes not at all.  I signed into the hub app and never signed out of it.  Is there something else specific you have to do to get you messages on time?   Thanks.

 

To expand on what PrincessArelna'sDad said, one option is to have the app open and displayed on your screen, then just lock the phone (or let it lock itself). When you wake the phone again, the Hub app will be displayed. Or, at the very least, have it running in the background. Meaning, it's still running, but you've simply gone to another screen or another app. Just don't manually close the Hub app.

[dmdiver]

Yes that’s what I meant as well. The first time I used it, I kept closing it so as not to use up my battery. As a result, I did t know when my friends were trying to meet up.