Anyone use FaceTime on cruise?

[Galaviz]

We are bringing along 2 minors (niece and daughter's BFF). They both will want to have daily contact with their family. In one case, mom will be having more separation anxiety! We are on a 7- day cruise that doesn't port until day 4. I was thinking of bringing my iPad to FaceTime. Are there extra fees involved? Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[been2marceline]

We are bringing along 2 minors (niece and daughter's BFF). They both will want to have daily contact with their family. In one case, mom will be having more separation anxiety! We are on a 7- day cruise that doesn't port until day 4. I was thinking of bringing my iPad to FaceTime. Are there extra fees involved? Anyone have any suggestions?

It will either be blocked or won't work because of bandwidth.

The speed is about equal to old dial up modems, for those of us that remember them....

Everybody on board shares basically a single, marginally fast connection, simply uploading or downloading a single page can take minutes....

 

[been2marceline]

P.S. But this is just on board, most places you can find free wifi in port, though not on CC, should work better then.

 

[MikeAndNick]

Connections on the ship are expensive. I had the same thing a few years back when I took a friends 15 year old daughter. The friend wanted her daughter to text her every day. I let them know that electronics on the cruise was not allowed by me. Our cruises is vacation and a good time to learn how to get along without being connected. The mother started to have a fit and I told her it would be a good time for her to learn how to much she appreciates her daughter. After 7 days everyone was alive and lived through being disconnected. The daughter learned she can have fun without being connected. The mother and daughter got along much better after being separated for the week.

My suggestion, lock all electronics up and tell everyone you will see them in 7 days.

 

[tow-mater-1]

Not on a Disney cruise but we did on our Carnival cruise last year. My dh and I went without the kids and we would check in every few days using FaceTime. We had to buy the internet package and it worked pretty good... there were a few times where it would freeze but that was occasional. Actually come to think of it we Skyped our oldest son while on our last Disney cruise... so yes it does work.

 

[Robmom]

I didn't try it, but during Pirate Night, I saw a woman using Facetime to show someone at home the pirate show and fireworks, etc., and she didn't seem to have a problem. I don't know how much she was paying for internet use though.

 

[lanejudy]

Not sure if it's the ship, the actual location, or what...but I've read MANY posts stating both positions - FaceTime or Skype worked fine, or FaceTime or Skype didn't work at all. It might be a crapshoot - take your chances that it will work, but be prepared if it doesn't.

 

[TDC Nala]

I've seen some folks say they have used it. But I also heard they block all streaming sites because they just don't have the bandwidth. And I can vouch for the fact that on-ship Internet is often very slow.