Celebration on-board network quirk (good!)

[KarmaCruisers]

So we’re on the Celebration right now; NO WiFi package..and we’re able to use iMessage without a problem (both to text our friends on this ship AND people back home)

ALSO, notifications are coming through for emails(gmail) and slack. I can’t actually open the specific apps to see them; BUT, on my Lock Screen I see the notifications perfectly (it’s how I have it setup so I can see slacks and emails from my Lock Screen) but my Home Screen icons also show the number of new emails I’m getting.

the weird part is, the WiFi (my wife has it) works GREAT! (25Mbps)..so I wonder if carnival neteng fouled up a setting, when they were going in and allowing less throttling; they ALSO inadvertently toggled on to allow some other things to come through.

in any case; it’s a good surprise..

just posting for others info

[highSeas22]

So you don't have wifi but your wife does and it works great?  Is that what you are saying

[allinwonderland]

The notifications thing happened to me the last time I was on the Panorama (after it had gotten Starlink) so that might be a system-wide thing. I couldn't, however, send or receive any iMessages, though I'd had hopes of doing so.

[mz-s]

This is reported on here every so often. It's how push notifications work on iPhone. If Carnival wants the Hub app to be able to receive notifications (such as your table is ready or chat notifications), they have to allow all notifications. And iMessage uses the same protocol as push notifications, so those have to come through as well.

 

Like you said though even though you have a notification from Gmail, you can't open the app and read the email because Carnival is able to block the web from working without a paid plan.

[KarmaCruisers]

10 hours ago, mz-s said:

This is reported on here every so often. It's how push notifications work on iPhone. If Carnival wants the Hub app to be able to receive notifications (such as your table is ready or chat notifications), they have to allow all notifications. And iMessage uses the same protocol as push notifications, so those have to come through as well.

 

Like you said though even though you have a notification from Gmail, you can't open the app and read the email because Carnival is able to block the web from working without a paid plan.

Interesting; as a network engineer; I would assume it’d be all internal network traffic (for the hub app to work) but maybe they don’t have an “internal” network vs “prod” facing network. 

 

also; the wife has the WiFi package and is getting a consistent 30Mbps.

with this notifications loophole; I’m actually able to respond to work without having to pay for it..kinda neat.

[mz-s]

1 hour ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Interesting; as a network engineer; I would assume it’d be all internal network traffic (for the hub app to work) but maybe they don’t have an “internal” network vs “prod” facing network. 

 

also; the wife has the WiFi package and is getting a consistent 30Mbps.

with this notifications loophole; I’m actually able to respond to work without having to pay for it..kinda neat.

 

I don't know the specifics of Apple's push notification service but I know there are on-device notifications, I don't know if it's possible (or even feasible) for Carnival to run their own push notification service on the ship. It's probably just easier for them to allow the traffic, but throttle it severely, so it's basically only usable for push notifications and as a side effect, text-only iMessage.

[seaman11]

let me know if any free workarounds . lol ill be on her the next trip.   i did know about getting some notifications , id be weary of charges through imessage though 

[mpacker]

2 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Interesting; as a network engineer; I would assume it’d be all internal network traffic (for the hub app to work) but maybe they don’t have an “internal” network vs “prod” facing network. 

 

also; the wife has the WiFi package and is getting a consistent 30Mbps.

with this notifications loophole; I’m actually able to respond to work without having to pay for it..kinda neat.

 

on my last cruise it would work for a while then go out...it seemed to be a certain number of messages then it completely went away.  i got a 24 hour wifi pass after that... after it went away i had imessages working for a while even though nothing else worked.  again it seemed to be a certain number of messages (it wasn't time oriented) and then it died again.

[Colorado Beach Bum]

Seems to be hit or miss being able to iMessage without an Internet plan.  We’ve had more hits than misses the last few years. 

[ohioNCLcruiser]

I think them allowing notifications to come through at times (error or not) is a great marketing move to get more people to buy the internet. If someone hasn't purchased it but suddenly got emails and messages they might want to reply to then I bet they purchase a package.

[WLHyatt]

I've had it work with facebook messenger in the past, pre-starlink existance. It seemed like it would happen overnight where I would receive the messages for the day, then replies to those would go out the next night. My guess was they allowed many things through in a window where they opened up service due to one system process or another overnight daily.

[CheckersMidwest]

We've always been able to imessage. Occasionally, facebook messenger as well. With the phone in Airplane mode.

[hard_eight]

Same on Android with the notifications...obviously no imessage 🤢😁

[seaman11]

i use to buy per day , and only seadays , it was $10 per 24 hours, anyone know it its gone up?

[weezal]

2 hours ago, seaman11 said:

i use to buy per day , and only seadays , it was $10 per 24 hours, anyone know it its gone up?

Inflation

https://www.carnival.com/internet-plans

[KarmaCruisers]

On 10/10/2023 at 9:00 PM, mpacker said:

 

on my last cruise it would work for a while then go out...it seemed to be a certain number of messages then it completely went away.  i got a 24 hour wifi pass after that... after it went away i had imessages working for a while even though nothing else worked.  again it seemed to be a certain number of messages (it wasn't time oriented) and then it died again.

I can verify this…but it’s only my phone. Our cruise friends in the next cabin, have been working fine the entire time…I think it’s GOTTA be based on data usage (I get a LOT of push notifications from work emails/slack/calendar/etc) and it goes on what must be a DHCP lease..as it’ll go away for a few hours then come back and barf up all my notifications, and once again allow me to iMessage.

[Raiderguy8]

I am going to throw this out there as a possible reason how this would happen.  By any chance do you have T-Mobile as your carrier?  My wife and I were Sprint customers who wanted to change plans and were forced to close out our Sprint account and open a new T-Mobile account.  We have been on two cruises since then, on two different cruise lines so it is not solely a Carnival situation, and we would both get email notifications and she would get Facebook and YouTube notifications as well.  I cant remember if she could use Facebook messenger or not.  These notifications only started happening after we switched to the T-Mobile plan and have been wondering if it was carrier-specific.