Royal TV Sucks

[RobInMN]

11 hours ago, Ashland said:

We always bring our Firestick and have no problems watching Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu etc. etc. etc.

Us too. And we use a VPN

 

[A&L_Ont]

3 hours ago, twangster said:

 

Royal is so inconsistent with the suite product across the fleet.  Only newer ships include Voom with full suites.  Makes no sense.  

Especially when the older ships now have Starlink. 

 

3 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

I feel the same about this.  I do not sail in full suites very often.  However, there is really no incentive on an older ship.  There are so few benefits it doesn't justify the cost.  Voom is something they could offer.  I get there is no space or number of potential guests for a Coastal Kitchen on these ships.   

Agreed, espically when the older ships are currently charging what suites used to cost on Oasis and Quantum class. When they were priced more economically I didn’t think about it like how I do today. 

[MichaelCMTX]

Ya know, we complain about the TV quality on board but on board was where I discovered "Impractical Jokers" so you never know when what you might consider to be a diamond in the rough gets uncovered.

Based on when we traveled for a while, every Spring is incomplete without "los Screen Actors Geeld awards." 

[Heckah]

I stopped in the room for a bit to charge my phone and watched TV and there was a movie on where this kid had an imaginary friend that was Adolf Hitler (Come to find out it was called Jo Jo Rabbitt).  That was an awkward 25 minutes of TV.

[gatour]

8 hours ago, captainannoyed! said:

I agree with the OP.  I’ve stayed in cabins from inside all the way up to the Royal Suite, and this is something Royal really ought to do something about.  In particular, I really believe that in full suites should have extended TV options.  At a minimum, there ought to be the ability to access entertainment apps that people already have at home.  In a full suite, shouldn’t a passenger be able to log into their own Netflix using their own account?  I think so.

Licensing has a lot to do with this.  It is basically how many channels that RC wants to psy licensing for.  They must not think it is a differentiate enough  from other cruise lines to pay the licensing companies for additionsal channels.

 

In regards to offering suites more channels.  The licensing is a per ship basis and not a per cabin basis.

[Tree_skier]

I'm one of these people who has never turned on a TV on a cruise ship...  I'd much prefer that instead of spending money upgrading TV infrastructure they continue to improve internet access and wifi signal across all parts of the ship.  

[njkruzer]

31 minutes ago, Heckah said:

I stopped in the room for a bit to charge my phone and watched TV and there was a movie on where this kid had an imaginary friend that was Adolf Hitler (Come to find out it was called Jo Jo Rabbitt).  That was an awkward 25 minutes of TV.

Off the subject but noticed you're from Pittsfield.  We lived there from 1983 to 1997. We've been back but not recently. 

[nelblu]

9 hours ago, SquishTheWhale said:

Do they have any kids content? I'll be bringing a tablet for my son loaded with shows but always good if there's something on the TV as well.

Yes, there are 3 channels for different ages. There used to be a channel for old series and movies but replaced by Prime 2 channels and imo air CBS series. 

[lovesthebeach2]

6 hours ago, twangster said:

 

Royal is so inconsistent with the suite product across the fleet.  Only newer ships include Voom with full suites.  Makes no sense.  

thats one reason we would only book a GS on a newer ship that has voom included, a suite lounge with a bar and CK. I know, were spoiled  but have only done it a couple of times. Its just too expensive.

[lovesthebeach2]

We were on Odyssey for 27 days which included a TA with many days at sea and we never turned the TV on at all 😳but we dont watch much at home either

[captainannoyed!]

2 hours ago, gatour said:

Licensing has a lot to do with this.  It is basically how many channels that RC wants to psy licensing for.  They must not think it is a differentiate enough  from other cruise lines to pay the licensing companies for additionsal channels.

 

In regards to offering suites more channels.  The licensing is a per ship basis and not a per cabin basis.

You raise good points.  Thank you for the post.

[deltahog]

2 hours ago, Heckah said:

I stopped in the room for a bit to charge my phone and watched TV and there was a movie on where this kid had an imaginary friend that was Adolf Hitler (Come to find out it was called Jo Jo Rabbitt).  That was an awkward 25 minutes of TV.

Great movie.  Taika Waititi is amazing.

[Pratique]

The only thing we look at on the ship TV is the live map. Nothing else seems worthwhile to us.

 

I know Wi-Fi isn't an option for everyone but it works well for streaming.

 

Also, we download shows onto an iPad at home as a backup option both during the cruise and traveling to/from port.

 

The other night I slept under the stars on the balcony and it was the best TV show ever to fall asleep to. If I had that every night I would never need a TV. In fact, there are lots of creature comforts I enjoy at home that I don't miss at all while on a cruise, TV is the big one.

[fenton04]

3 hours ago, deltahog said:

Great movie.  Taika Waititi is amazing.

Amen to that and totally agree.  I was killing time in the room on explorerer of the sea.  I surfed the channels and happened to come upon this when it was about 2/3 done.  I watched it to the end.  I did not know the name of the movie so at the end I took a picture of the cast when the credits were rolling.  Glad I did and watched the whole movie on Amazon.  Outstanding!

[wolfcathorse]

19 hours ago, Ashland said:

We always bring our Firestick and have no problems watching Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu etc. etc. etc.

I have a Roku, how do I make it work on a ship?

[fenton04]

3 hours ago, deltahog said:

Great movie.  Taika Waititi is amazing.

I just checked out the book Jo Jo Rabbit is based on.  Caging Skies by Christine Luenens.

[rdemn]

10 hours ago, alfaeric said:

Seems to me that the lack of TV selections is a way to make sure people don't hole up in their cabin when they can leave and encounter the ship and ports.

 

I had thought in the past that when a cabin gets sick, they offer free movies for a day....  

like I said, I was sick for a day if I would’ve reported it, I would’ve been quarantined for a couple days in my cabin. If not more, I wasn’t about to report a little stomach bug and get quarantined for the rest of the cruise. Don’t think they wouldn’t.

[RobInMN]

25 minutes ago, wolfcathorse said:

I have a Roku, how do I make it work on a ship?

Should be the same as a Firestick.

Plug it into one of the HDMI ports.

Change the TV to this port. You may need to bring a universal remote that you program to Samsung so that you have a Source button. 

On newer ships, with the interactive TVs, you may need to unplug the wired network connection and power cycle the TV. When that is connected, it auto-launches a custom app that prevents the source button from working.

On the Roku, you will need to switch to the ship's WIFi, and then launch a browser to do the login like you would with any other device you connect to the ship's wifi. Assuming you you don't have a dedicated device count so that they Roku has it's own full time wifi connection. Alternatively, you could have the Roku pre-setup to a hotspot that you bring with you. This could be a hotspot device, or if you have an Android phone, you can wifi hotspot your phone's wifi connection (iPhone does not support this).

Once connected to the wifi, turn on a VPN. (set this up at home before you go). I suggest a VPN so that you are not geo-locked from anything you want to watch. This is especially important for YoutubeTV. I find it also helps to turn on the VPN on my phone that my firestick is connected to. Not sure why (seems redundant), but I have less issues with YTTV suddenly realizing it's not in the US anymore.

[Ashland]

4 hours ago, wolfcathorse said:

I have a Roku, how do I make it work on a ship?

If you have any problems after reading the above post just ask your cabin steward and they will put in a request for an electrician to come to your cabin and help you. 

 

Don't be concerned about doing this. It's usually easy for my DH to hook up our Firestick but on a couple of RCI ships we've had to ask for help and were told that they do this all the time. We of course gave a thank you ($) to the crew member that came to help.

[SquishTheWhale]

15 hours ago, nelblu said:

Yes, there are 3 channels for different ages. There used to be a channel for old series and movies but replaced by Prime 2 channels and imo air CBS series. 

Thank you- gives another option to keep him busy while we get ready.

[3CatsInMA]

If you're lucky, you'll stumble upon the channel showing Doogie Howser, MD, dubbed in Greek.

[MandyMooToo]

19 hours ago, deltahog said:

Great movie.  Taika Waititi is amazing.

Very moving!  I admit to crying a few tears.

[MandyMooToo]

We like to watch the live map in the mornings while getting ready and then at night when winding down before bed.  It is nice to spend a little crash time together, vegging out after a busy day.  The channel options are not great but we can usually find something to play that isn't too annoying and on our Wonder cruise last year we could airplay to the TV and watch whatever we wanted to.  That was nice!

[Nolefan95]

On 5/6/2024 at 10:49 PM, rdemn said:

I get it you’re on a cruise you don’t need to be watching TV.
but my last cruise, me and my wife got the Noro virus

We were in bed for 24 hours actually longer than that we missed a day

we just laid in bed watching their TV, which basically they have two channels. If you don’t like sports or news, if you go, call Fox MSN, BC news I don’t know who picks  what you’re going to watch, but they need to rethink. It seems like every episode was part of a series where you had to be paying attention to the last episode like 24, now 24 is a good show, but I don’t know what the hell was going on put some standalone shows on where you don’t need to know what’s going on.   And  don’t even say they have pay-per-view movies at 12 bucks apiece there choices suck not that I would pay $12 to watch a movie step up the game royal

Completely agree. Prior to streaming, there was an excuse. But now? They are just being cheap. 

[Nolefan95]

I also never understood for cruises sailing out of the US, why half or more of the channels were foreign. With mostly US passengers, shouldn't the channels be US based?