Put Phone in Airplane Mode BEFORE Leaving Home???

[Jaynay]

Planning for my July 31 cruise out of Port Canaveral.  I am driving to the port.  I do not have any internet/wifi packages - our plan is for DH and I to just use our free day each Diamond wifi benefit.  I have Android and he has Iphone.

 

I read on some threads here that we should put our phones on Airplane mode before leaving home and then connect to ships wifi once we get to terminal or onboard - and people really put emphasis on doing this before leaving.  And I'm assuming that after turning Airplane mode on that I would then turn on wifi to connect to my home wifi and not cellular, right? FWIW, I usually have Wifi Calling turned on anyways (my phone has both wifi and wifi calling options)...

 

By putting the phone in Airplane mode when I leave home, I'll lose use of cellular capability during the drive.  What is the reasoning of putting one's phone in airplane mode before leaving home instead of when one gets to the port?  And I suppose the same goes for leaving from a hotel to travel to the cruise port...

 

 

[smokeybandit]

The advice was to enable wifi calling before you leave home.  

[Cigar King]

That's terrible advice.  Put the phone in airplane mode once the ship sails and you'll be fine.

[cruiseguy1016]

You do not need to be in airplane mode before you leave home. If you have confirmed that wifi calling works, you're all set. You can leave your phone in "regular" mode until the ship sails. That will allow you to still have data usage while still in port. Once the ship sails put the phone in airplane mode so you don't incur any roaming charges.

[njkruzer]

We always turn off roaming as well just in case the phone goes into regular cell service without noticing.  As the ship starts to sail i put it in airplane mode and turn on wifi.  To use it you will need to sign up for wifi with the ship.

[twangster]

If you enable airplane mode at home you may miss the text message that reminds you to show up on time based on your scheduled arrival time.  🙂  

[smokeybandit]

Mine only goes into airplane mode about an hour after pushing off from the docks

[Jaynay]

Perhaps what I read had to do with UDP and scheduling dining and entertainment as soon as getting to port?  

 

So perhaps I should just test wifi calling at home before leaving, then once we get to the terminal, turn on airplane mode, turn on wifi to connect to the ship, schedule dinning and entertainment and do muster in app, then disconnect wifi and turn cellular back on, and finally - whew! - turn airplane mode on and connect to ships wifi again once we sail away to use ships app.  Correct??

Edited July 29, 2022 by Jaynay

[rrraydon]

7 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Mine only goes into airplane mode about an hour after pushing off from the docks

I agree.

[njkruzer]

3 minutes ago, Jaynay said:

Perhaps what I read had to do with UDP and scheduling dining and entertainment as soon as getting to port?  

 

So perhaps I should just test wifi calling at home before leaving, then once we get to the terminal, turn on airplane mode, turn on wifi to connect to the ship, schedule dinning and entertainment and do muster in app, then disconnect wifi and turn cellular back on, and finally - whew! - turn airplane mode on and connect to ships wifi again once we sail away to use ships app.  Correct??

You can, and must, do muster before sailing and before you put phone in airplane mode.  Don't waste your wifi minutes until you need to.   Using your cell service while still in port is fine.

[reallyitsmema]

2 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

You can, and must, do muster before sailing and before you put phone in airplane mode.  Don't waste your wifi minutes until you need to.   Using your cell service while still in port is fine.

 

You can connect to the ships wifi without going into airplane mode.  You connect to the ships wifi so you can use the Royal App to make reservations and to do muster.  None of this uses any "minutes" or cellular.

 

They can use each of their 24 hours of Voom to access the internet on a sea day or at some point that they feel they need it.

 

They should go into airplane mode when they are done using their cell service in port.  We go into airplane mode about an hour after we leave port as we usually still have signal from shore.

[smokeybandit]

23 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

You can, and must, do muster before sailing and before you put phone in airplane mode.  Don't waste your wifi minutes until you need to.   Using your cell service while still in port is fine.

You can do your muster stuff just connected to the ship's wifi without using any Zoom time.

[njkruzer]

2 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

You can do your muster stuff just connected to the ship's wifi without using any Zoom time.

Good to know.

[JsMom2]

4 hours ago, njkruzer said:

We always turn off roaming as well just in case the phone goes into regular cell service without noticing.  As the ship starts to sail i put it in airplane mode and turn on wifi.  To use it you will need to sign up for wifi with the ship.

Me too.  For me it’s a 3 step process

Turn off Data Roaming

Turn off Cellular Data

Turn on Airplane Mode

 

No it’s not all necessary, but it’s a just in case….

 

 

 

 

[LarryHD2]

6 hours ago, Jaynay said:

our plan is for DH and I to just use our free day each Diamond wifi benefit

Diamond gets a free day of wifi on RCCL?  That isn't listed in the benefits. 

 

Wife and I just hit diamond and looking forward to the added benefits on our next cruise, but I didn't know about this one.

[brillohead]

6 hours ago, LarryHD2 said:

Diamond gets a free day of wifi on RCCL?  That isn't listed in the benefits. 

 

Wife and I just hit diamond and looking forward to the added benefits on our next cruise, but I didn't know about this one.

It's an on-board benefit.  You'll get a letter in your room listing the various coupons/vouchers.  You and your wife will each get a free 24-hour period of wifi.  You can share it by logging one phone off and logging the second phone on during that 24-hour period.

Some people manage to get "four days" of wifi by using these two free 24-hour periods.  On Day 2, if you sign up mid-day, say 1pm, using your freebie coupon, you can use the wifi for the rest of Day 2 and the first part of Day 3 (up until 1pm or whenever you initially signed up).  Then on Day 4 your wife signs up mid-day using her voucher, and you can use the wifi through the first part of Day 5.  

 

[Bloodgem]

I turn airplane mode on once the ship sails. 

[cruiseguy1016]

7 hours ago, brillohead said:

Some people manage to get "four days" of wifi by using these two free 24-hour periods.  On Day 2, if you sign up mid-day, say 1pm, using your freebie coupon, you can use the wifi for the rest of Day 2 and the first part of Day 3 (up until 1pm or whenever you initially signed up).  Then on Day 4 your wife signs up mid-day using her voucher, and you can use the wifi through the first part of Day 5.  

 

 

This is what we do. It allows us to check emails and do other internet-based things.

[klfrodo]

All I can say is WOW!

Step back, put the cell phone down (or any modern electronic device), and step away.

 

If you don't know what you're doing with electronic devices. ASK your grandkids, nieces, nephews, neighborhood kids, or just go to the local elementary school.

 

Don't post on the world wide web that Mark Twain was right.

[LeeW]

On 7/29/2022 at 10:55 AM, Jaynay said:

Perhaps what I read had to do with UDP and scheduling dining and entertainment as soon as getting to port?  

 

So perhaps I should just test wifi calling at home before leaving, then once we get to the terminal, turn on airplane mode, turn on wifi to connect to the ship, schedule dinning and entertainment and do muster in app, then disconnect wifi and turn cellular back on, and finally - whew! - turn airplane mode on and connect to ships wifi again once we sail away to use ships app.  Correct??

Two issues.  First, wifi calling must be set up where you phone carrier can connect.  As long as you have done this once on your phone you should be fine.  Second, you don't want your cell phone to connect to the ship tower.  They turn this on roughly when the pilot leaves the ship after sailing.   If you see "Cellular at Sea" you can incur high costs for data.  Easiest way to protect yourself is airplane mode then turn wifi back on.

 

Wifi gets access to local stuff on ship.  You need an internet package to connect to anything off ship, including wifi calling and texting. 

[FenderPB]

21 hours ago, klfrodo said:

All I can say is WOW!

Step back, put the cell phone down (or any modern electronic device), and step away.

 

If you don't know what you're doing with electronic devices. ASK your grandkids, nieces, nephews, neighborhood kids, or just go to the local elementary school.

 

Don't post on the world wide web that Mark Twain was right.

By far the best best answer so far!!!😀

 

Turn on airplane mode - WHY?  You are not in a metal tube with sensitive  navigation equipment, travelling at 500mph.with 300 peoples phones all trying to connect to the nearest cell tower.

It is not going to cause a ship to crash..probably.

 

Turn off cellular data - unnecessary this is for people with small data allocation so their data and apps don’t update via the cellular network even in their hometown. this is unnecessary because …….

 

The thing you ABSOLUTELY MUST do is “turn off data roaming”.  
WHY? Because otherwise Facebook, twitter, instagram, Emails, App Updates  etc. will all download their data and also every photo you take will upload to the cloud. All over international Cell networks. This will eat a a huge amount of data and end up costing you an absolute fortune.

 

This way, because Wi-Fi is active you can connect to the royal app.

And your phone can still receive texts. Just remember  don’t answer any Cellular-at-Sea phone calls or reply to the texts as the price difference will be charged to you !!!

 

disclaimer: This advice is probably wrong and should be ignored by everyone.

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by FenderPB

[lovesthebeach2]

On 7/29/2022 at 12:50 PM, smokeybandit said:

Mine only goes into airplane mode about an hour after pushing off from the docks

same with ours, especially from ports that have a long way to go before open ocean. 

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, FenderPB said:

By far the best best answer so far!!!😀

 

Turn on airplane mode - WHY?  You are not in a metal tube with sensitive  navigation equipment, travelling at 500mph.with 300 peoples phones all trying to connect to the nearest cell tower.

It is not going to cause a ship to crash..probably.

 

Turn off cellular data - unnecessary this is for people with small data allocation so their data and apps don’t update via the cellular network even in their hometown. this is unnecessary because …….

 

The thing you ABSOLUTELY MUST do is “turn off data roaming”.  
WHY? Because otherwise Facebook, twitter, instagram, Emails, App Updates  etc. will all download their data and also every photo you take will upload to the cloud. All over international Cell networks. This will eat a a huge amount of data and end up costing you an absolute fortune.

 

This way, because Wi-Fi is active you can connect to the royal app.

And your phone can still receive texts. Just remember  don’t answer any Cellular-at-Sea phone calls or reply to the texts as the price difference will be charged to you !!!

 

disclaimer: This advice is probably wrong and should be ignored by everyone.

 

Turning on airplane mode is all you need to do. The rest is overkill and redundant

Edited July 31, 2022 by smokeybandit

[cruiseguy1016]

1 hour ago, FenderPB said:

By far the best best answer so far!!!😀

 

Turn on airplane mode - WHY?  You are not in a metal tube with sensitive  navigation equipment, travelling at 500mph.with 300 peoples phones all trying to connect to the nearest cell tower.

It is not going to cause a ship to crash..probably.

 

Turn off cellular data - unnecessary this is for people with small data allocation so their data and apps don’t update via the cellular network even in their hometown. this is unnecessary because …….

 

The thing you ABSOLUTELY MUST do is “turn off data roaming”.  
WHY? Because otherwise Facebook, twitter, instagram, Emails, App Updates  etc. will all download their data and also every photo you take will upload to the cloud. All over international Cell networks. This will eat a a huge amount of data and end up costing you an absolute fortune.

 

This way, because Wi-Fi is active you can connect to the royal app.

And your phone can still receive texts. Just remember  don’t answer any Cellular-at-Sea phone calls or reply to the texts as the price difference will be charged to you !!!

 

disclaimer: This advice is probably wrong and should be ignored by everyone.

 

 

At least you got one sentence correct.

[Bound4Bermuda]

23 hours ago, klfrodo said:

All I can say is WOW!

Step back, put the cell phone down (or any modern electronic device), and step away.

 

If you don't know what you're doing with electronic devices. ASK your grandkids, nieces, nephews, neighborhood kids, or just go to the local elementary school.

 

Don't post on the world wide web that Mark Twain was right.

 

If you just put the phone down and walk away, you’re going to end up with like a $1000 cell phone bill from data roaming charges and international fees. 

 

OP, once on board, you’ll want to connect to the ship’s wifi first so you can use the Royal app. You do not need to pay for wifi in order to use this feature—just select that you’ll use the app only when the pop-up gives you the option of that or connect to Vroom. THEN put it in airplane mode, and, as was mentioned, you won’t need to worry about all of the other settings because that automatically turns off data roaming, etc.

Edited July 31, 2022 by Bound4Bermuda