Wifi calling on Millenium recently

[royalcruz]

Has anyone been able to use wifi calling (in airplane mode) very recently specifically on Millenium? We were unable to use it on SURF internet this week. I will upgrade to STREAM on my next Millenium cruise IF I know I will be able to use wifi calling, so I'm hoping someone with experience here will let me know if it works. I've used wifi calling over surf internet on other Celebrity ships for the last few years, so this was quite unexpected. I had to leave my phone off airplane mode this time to call or text. (Text messaging does work on apps like FB Messanger and Whatsapp). I'm my elderly ill mother's sole support and I'm sure many of you are caregivers with similar needs. 

[canderson]

WiFi calling and native text are going to require the upgraded package.

[GMoney]

I did the PC full transit a few weeks ago and was able to wifi call with the upgraded package. 

[Jim_Iain]

Surf does not support internet calling but have heard that for a period of time a mis-configureation was permitting them.

 

I was on Millennium in October and used WiFi calling regularly using the Xcelerate package.    I also used WhatsAPP and FaceTime

 

You may wish to upgrade.    The unexpected cost of having your phone off Phone Modes could be 10s times the upgrade cost. 

Edited December 14, 2021 by Jim_Iain

[DaKahuna]

I can verify the Surf does not support WiFi calling but Stream does.  I found this out when my account was temporarily directed to Surf instead of Stream on embarkation day. 
 

[royalcruz]

Thank you all for giving me the confidence that if I upgrade to STREAM I will be able to use wifi calling. It seems that Celebrity has made a decision to intentionally block wifi calling.  This is really sad for those of us who just need wifi calling and who are not interested in streaming videos or doing video calls. I have used surf for wifi calling to check on my sick mother and to communicate with her case workers and Instacart food shoppers. I sailed with my best friend on Infinity, and during the cruise her adult daughter had a crisis and had to be hospitalized... she was able to arrange for a family member to meet her daughter at the hospital thru wifi calling on surf wifi. Celebrity promotes stream wifi for entertainment...I guess they don't realize that some of us have real life responsibilities that never end, and we were not expecting wifi calling to be pulled out from under us with no warning.  At least I won't have to cancel my next cruise, but it just got more costly. 

[neverlaysup]

10 hours ago, royalcruz said:

Has anyone been able to use wifi calling (in airplane mode) very recently specifically on Millenium? We were unable to use it on SURF internet this week. I will upgrade to STREAM on my next Millenium cruise IF I know I will be able to use wifi calling, so I'm hoping someone with experience here will let me know if it works. I've used wifi calling over surf internet on other Celebrity ships for the last few years, so this was quite unexpected. I had to leave my phone off airplane mode this time to call or text. (Text messaging does work on apps like FB Messanger and Whatsapp). I'm my elderly ill mother's sole support and I'm sure many of you are caregivers with similar needs. 

It rarely if ever works on the basic internet, even with the high speed, there are still issues but for the most part it works.