Voicemail or Two-way Radio?

[DiantoCruise]

Hi All

 

I'm hoping you all can help on this. I did read through quite a few posts on two-way radios but didn't find an answer to this question.

 

We are on the Sun in June and we are trying to decide if we need to take two-way radios or rely on voicemail and post-it notes.

 

We are wondering if you can call and check your voicemail from house phones around the ship or if you have to return to your room??

 

Thanks for any help :)

[garycarla]

voicemail?

 

Two way radios work and good communication work pretty well.

[The Other Tom]

When you say voice mail, are you referring to cell phones ? My advice is not to use cell phones while on or near the ship... the roaming fees will kill you.

[211Flyer]

Hi All

 

I'm hoping you all can help on this. I did read through quite a few posts on two-way radios but didn't find an answer to this question.

 

We are on the Sun in June and we are trying to decide if we need to take two-way radios or rely on voicemail and post-it notes.

 

We are wondering if you can call and check your voicemail from house phones around the ship or if you have to return to your room??

 

Thanks for any help :)

 

Take the radios but make sure they are the high power type as it is hard to get a signal thru all that steel from one end of the ship to another. Also read the instructions as the lower channels (I think below 15?) are lower power. Also when you go on shore you can use them to stay in contact. Enjoy!

[kdg51]

And you don't want to use the ship phone unless you have a real emergency. My friend made 3 real quick calls home from the cabin and bill was almost $70. :eek: I imagine the charges would be the same if checking voicemail. Before she decided to call from her cabin she called home a few times on her cell phone but no one could hear her. Those charges were on her cell phone bill @ $2.50 a minute and her cell phone provider would not remove them because fees were charged to them from NCL. :eek:

 

I'm going to try our walkie talkies this time. Hubby just had to have them but since we both have cell phones our kids are the only ones who have ever used them. :D

[CruisnGram]

I have Verizon and checked before our cruise to find out exactly what the charges would be.

 

If someone called my phone and I didn't answer it, and they left a voice mail, I was not charged. However, if I called to check the voicemail, I was charge the $2.49 per minute.

 

Text messaging was $.50 to send a text and $.05 (or maybe $.10) to receive one (doesn't matter if you have an unlimited text plan). So we texted quite a bit. Between that and the use of the house phones, we were able to keep in touch and it cost very little. My phone bill just came in today and the extra charges were $7.50.

[NJ04SS]

Get a set of cheap Two Way Radios for $29.99 from Radioshack or Walmart. They work great and you can use them for future cruises or vacations.

[Ms belp]

Get a set of cheap Two Way Radios for $29.99 from Radioshack or Walmart. They work great and you can use them for future cruises or vacations.

 

What I heard on the ship was "Hello?", "Hello?", I can't hear you! Where are you? What deck are you on? Darn it, I told you these things were worthless. Just get yourself back to "whatever deck"; we've made plans and you are "messing" them up!

 

I say, leave that stuff at home.

[NJ04SS]

lol, my family had a descent size re-union on a Royal Carribean Cruise, they brought the two ways never had a problem. Just from their experience, I was not there....

[ZoneHPH]

ok my interpretation is this of the OP.

 

"can you use the house phones to call your cabin and then retrieve the voicemail left on them". (with the idea like "hey let's check the cabin voicemail if Little Johhny left us a message.)

 

yes. but you have to be in your room to retrieve it, as far as i know. i am not sure if you can dial in to your room to check voicemail.

 

not a bad thought. unfortunately i can only give you half an answer.

[superflyjeff]

Yeah just get yourself some of the nicer two way radios...should be well under $30 or $40 for a pretty good set. We've used them on our last two cruises. Sure there are sometimes when you're on polar opposite ends of the ship that reception may not be the best, but for the most part they work really well.

[superflyjeff]

Yeah just get yourself some of the nicer two way radios...should be well under $30 or $40 for a pretty good set. We've used them on our last two cruises. Sure there are sometimes when you're on polar opposite ends of the ship that reception may not be the best, but for the most part they work really well.

[DiantoCruise]

Thank you all for taking the time to answer and I am sorry it has taken me so long to get back and check your answers but I was away from the computer for a few days.

 

Obviously I was not very clear in my original question. I did mean using the voice mail on the phones in our cabins not the very expensive options of cell or home voice mail. ZoneHPH had it exactly correct in thinking that we want a way to keep tabs on each other or let each other know that we will late or whatever without having to go back to the cabin.

 

I love that half the answers say the radios work great and half say they don't work very well :D:D. I think we will take them with the hope that we don't have to use them but they will be there if we do.

 

Thanks...I get all my best answers from you all!

[ZoneHPH]

ZoneHPH had it exactly correct in thinking that we want a way to keep tabs on each other or let each other know that we will late or whatever without having to go back to the cabin.

 

oh c'mon....don't i get a Bob Barker..."ROD...TELL HIM WHAT HE'LL PLAY FOR!!!"...."A NEWWWWW CAR!!!"

 

i have to say...this is probably one of the most thought out questions i've seen in a while. and i HAD to jump on this thread.

now that i think about it...i'm going to see if this works somehow on the ship. unfortunately you won't get an answer until i come back June 22. but what a GREAT thought that is.

 

HYPOTHESIS: Using ship courtesy phones allow you to check your in-cabin voicemail.

 

NULL HYPOTHESIS: Using ship courtesy phones do NOT allow you to check your in-cabin voicemail.

 

CONTROL: Checking in-cabin voicemail from inside your cabin.

 

 

let the experimentation begin.

[Sally Forth]

I think the OP meant using the internal ship phone system. However, I can tell you a funny but expensive story about what happened to us off the coast of Mexico. My niece discovered that she'd left her retainer at the hotel in Santa Monica. I checked, and we still had cell phone coverage. I called the hotel, talked for a long time to Housekeeping, arranged to have the retainer shipped to my niece's home address, and had to give my Visa card for the hotel to do that. Here is the summary (I might not have the money exactly right) I posted when I got the phone bill:

 

Cost of shipping one retainer LA to Vancouver- $17

Cost of cell phone call Mexico to LA to arrange this- $45

Getting your retainer home before your Mom finds out you lost it- priceless

 

Viv

[Phils]

Take the radios but make sure they are the high power type as it is hard to get a signal thru all that steel from one end of the ship to another. Also read the instructions as the lower channels (I think below 15?) are lower power. Also when you go on shore you can use them to stay in contact. Enjoy!

 

We took a couple of those personal radios with us on our last cruise (which was our first) and they worked poorly. Others aboard using similar radios seemed to have no problem.

 

After trying unsuccessfully to communicate with the radios the first day we put them away for the rest of the cruise. They'd work if we were ~75' apart but not from the middle of the ship to our stern cabin. I wouldn't have taken them on our next cruise.

 

Now I will. Maybe they won't work well again. Or maybe by using a higher channel they'll work fine. Thanks for the tip 211Flyer! Worth a try.... they don't weigh much or take a lot of room.

 

Phil