Royal Chat free starting New Years Day

[HappyTexan44]

I have been having a hard few days, and I needed a happy place to go to.   I checked out the RC blog, and learned that the chat will be free.   That is good news.   That was $40 in our budget.   Not a lot of money, but I'll take any movement in the right direction.  

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/12/09/royal-caribbean-ceo-chat-feature-app-will-be-free-starting-2023

[as3369]

Thanks for the heads up

[soremekun]

7 hours ago, HappyTexan44 said:

I have been having a hard few days, and I needed a happy place to go to.

I hope this week is positive and productive.  I wish you the best.

[desibee]

After we disembark.  Boo.

[ARandomTraveler]

Sorry you're having a hard week.

[HappyTexan44]

It is really nothing in the grand scheme of things.  Well, the nothing is past tense.  Original problem is that daughter(12) lied to us about something that we'd have been merely grumpy about if she'd told the truth.  Then while she's still in trouble in trouble for lying, a little over 24 hours later, she bald-faced lied about something else.  I told her to write an essay about why she shouldn't lie.   All she could think of was that when she lies and gets away with it, she starts to lie more (So apparently this has been happening for awhile) and when she is caught, Mommy is sad.    So, apparently, a huge parenting parenting fail. 

 

Then yesterday I learned that my mother doesn't feel healthy enough to drive for Christmas.   Which means she might never leave the house alive again.  

[mac66]

It seems to me that chat was free last year. We took a cruise in Dec '21 with our adult children and freely chatted through the app. This year we couldn't. So free chat is back.

[Biker19]

5 minutes ago, mac66 said:

We took a cruise in Dec '21 with our adult children and freely chatted through the app. This year we couldn't. So free chat is back.

There may have been some very limited times/ships on which they were doing some testing when that may have been possible, otherwise that has generally been a paid option.

[xeriod]

1 hour ago, HappyTexan44 said:

It is really nothing in the grand scheme of things.  Well, the nothing is past tense.  Original problem is that daughter(12) lied to us about something that we'd have been merely grumpy about if she'd told the truth.  Then while she's still in trouble in trouble for lying, a little over 24 hours later, she bald-faced lied about something else.  I told her to write an essay about why she shouldn't lie.   All she could think of was that when she lies and gets away with it, she starts to lie more (So apparently this has been happening for awhile) and when she is caught, Mommy is sad.    So, apparently, a huge parenting parenting fail. 

 

Then yesterday I learned that my mother doesn't feel healthy enough to drive for Christmas.   Which means she might never leave the house alive again.  

Tell her to hurry up your taking her to one of her favorite places, MsDonalds, Disneyland , whatever. Then go somewhre she does not like, grocery shopping, garage sale , whatever. Then when when she asks when are you going to her  favorite place just say " oh , I lied. How do you like it"

[HappyTexan44]

25 minutes ago, xeriod said:

Tell her to hurry up your taking her to one of her favorite places, MsDonalds, Disneyland , whatever. Then go somewhre she does not like, grocery shopping, garage sale , whatever. Then when when she asks when are you going to her  favorite place just say " oh , I lied. How do you like it"

 

Oooh, that could totally work.  DH's main jobs are homeschooling DD and building the house we are living in.  So, he spends lots of time in Home Depot and Habitat's Restore.  She hates both.  

I am so personally strict on truth that I don't think I could do that.  

[crzndeb]

I’m not sure by wording, if it goes in effect on Jan 1 on all sailings, or for sailings after Jan 1.

Boarding the Navigator on Dec 30th. 

[The Fun Researcher]

LOVE that this is free.  It will help greatly with our family Alaskan cruise in July with 16 of us spread across 5 family units. (some first time cruisers)

 

If I remember correctly you don't get text notifications though right?  Like no *ding* or *buzz* letting you know you got a text? 

 

Don't you have to specifically check the App every once in a while to see if anyone texted?  (Speaking of Apple iPhones)

Dan

[lakelorain]

Great news.  Anything that saves us a few dollars is always welcome.  We love the chat feature for family cruises. 

[LittleJoefromKokomo]

8 hours ago, HappyTexan44 said:

 

Then yesterday I learned that my mother doesn't feel healthy enough to drive for Christmas.   Which means she might never leave the house alive again.  

 

I am so sorry for your mother, my father is 83 and in a similar downspiraling condition. We have to be happy and graceful for every moment they are still with us and try to talk and meet with them as much as we can (even if life, work, kids to often takes all our available time) 

[nasa1974]

Not familiar with the chat feature. If someone sends you a chat does your phone buzz or something or do you have to constantly bring up the app to find out someone sent you a chat 20 minutes ago?  if you have to constantly look at your phone, I don't see the advantage of the feature.

[Biker19]

Just now, nasa1974 said:

If someone sends you a chat does your phone buzz or something or do you have to constantly bring up the app to find out someone sent you a chat 20 minutes ago?

The latter. Advantage over what?

[nasa1974]

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

The latter. Advantage over what?

What good is the feature if you have to constantly look at your phone to see if someone sent you a chat. Especially when you had to pay for it.

[Biker19]

5 minutes ago, nasa1974 said:

What good is the feature if you have to constantly look at your phone to see if someone sent you a chat. Especially when you had to pay for it.

Like a lot of purchases, value is in the eye of the beholder.

[HappyTexan44]

34 minutes ago, nasa1974 said:

What good is the feature if you have to constantly look at your phone to see if someone sent you a chat. Especially when you had to pay for it.

I can totally see this being the reason that it is free.   
You can't complain about something being lesser than promised, when you didn't pay for it.   

In addition to the bonus money since we were getting it anyway, since it is free everyone will have access.   I can totally see us wanting to communicate with some new best friends.   Everyone being on chat will be nice.  

 

[jean87510]

42 minutes ago, nasa1974 said:

What good is the feature if you have to constantly look at your phone to see if someone sent you a chat. Especially when you had to pay for it.

You can set your phone to vibrate or alarm if you receive a chat message.  Similar to what people do with text messages.  Or IM.  Or whatsapp, fb messaging...etc...  Or you just don't use it if you don't think it's for you.  It's helpful for large groups, families, parents, kids.  And if you don't like to have your phone out, then it's all good as it won't affect you.

[The Fun Researcher]

32 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

You can set your phone to vibrate or alarm if you receive a chat message.  Similar to what people do with text messages.  Or IM.  Or whatsapp, fb messaging...etc...  Or you just don't use it if you don't think it's for you.  It's helpful for large groups, families, parents, kids.  And if you don't like to have your phone out, then it's all good as it won't affect you.

Can you say specifically how to do this? I could not find out how to do it during our June cruise when we had purchased the chat feature for a number of family members

[jean87510]

21 minutes ago, The Fun Researcher said:

Can you say specifically how to do this? I could not find out how to do it during our June cruise when we had purchased the chat feature for a number of family members

It's a setting on your phone for the alert.  The chat feature is in the app.   Once connected to ship wifi, you can chat.  The 3 ... up at the top right is where chat feature is.  My husband and I used it for one of our cruises recently for 1 day for a few hours just to see how it worked as we were in Alaska going towards Vancouver on our last sea day.  Had no issues.  I remember us playing around with our phone settings to have it buzz when we tried the chatting.  He was doing work and I was wandering around the ship so we wanted to reach out to each other when we were ready for gym then dinner.  The chat feature worked in that situation.

[The Fun Researcher]

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

It's a setting on your phone for the alert.  The chat feature is in the app.   Once connected to ship wifi, you can chat.  The 3 ... up at the top right is where chat feature is.  My husband and I used it for one of our cruises recently for 1 day for a few hours just to see how it worked as we were in Alaska going towards Vancouver on our last sea day.  Had no issues.  I remember us playing around with our phone settings to have it buzz when we tried the chatting.  He was doing work and I was wandering around the ship so we wanted to reach out to each other when we were ready for gym then dinner.  The chat feature worked in that situation.

Thank you for replying back.  Well, I hope that works for us.  It wasn’t working like that on the allure this past June.   I will have to double check once we are on board again. I have every notification, sound, banner and other options turned on for the Royal app so it should ding or buzz but I don’t remember it doing that.  I will have to check the settings on everyone’s phones to make sure they have notification and sounds turn on for the app and see what happens.  We had to manually check the app for texts 😞 

Edited December 13, 2022 by The Fun Researcher

[Morecruisesplz]

On 12/11/2022 at 1:52 PM, HappyTexan44 said:

I have been having a hard few days, and I needed a happy place to go to.   I checked out the RC blog, and learned that the chat will be free.   That is good news.   That was $40 in our budget.   Not a lot of money, but I'll take any movement in the right direction.  

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/12/09/royal-caribbean-ceo-chat-feature-app-will-be-free-starting-2023

They got tired of refunding money when it doesn't work.

[Dan83]

Chat feature is now free on Adventure of the Seas. Seems to work a little better now than last time we paid for it.