Walkie Talkies

[Kissimmee_Family]

Has anyone tried to use walkie talkies on the ships? I can't imagine they would work very well but I thought I'd ask anyway?

 

[Skallywag]

There was a post about this a couple of weeks ago. We find them most annoying as we do with mobile phones in public places. Tend to find that people shout down these things so everyone else is disturbed. Think they should be restricted and only use in an emergency.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Do nextells work on the ship? The direct connect would be awesome (yes there is private mode) They are awesome to have in the parks so if it worked on the ship it would be great too

 

[aprilgail2]

There was a post about this a couple of weeks ago. We find them most annoying as we do with mobile phones in public places. Tend to find that people shout down these things so everyone else is disturbed. Think they should be restricted and only use in an emergency.

I agree! When you are laying by the pool relaxing and 3 people are yelling into the walkie talkies it is annoying....and half the time they are going off from other people...even worse yet are the people who go into the movie theatre or show theatre and don't turn them off and they go off in there...its just dowright rude to not turn them off in the theatres. Its so nice to get away from cell phones for a week but these are on par with them!

 

[hopelea]

We are taking walkie talkies. Don't know if they work well or not, but they will give me 11 year old dd's some freedom.

Sorry if they disturb some people I will give my dd's rules on how to use them. Only when they want to report where they are going. We will try to be polite with them. Also, we may find that they are a hassle having to drag around.

 

[tvguy]

Using an earpiece on the walkie talkie would keep them from disturbing folks. We left ours at home....after taking them to Disneyland, we found them useless.....too many people using them at once. And I suspect there is too much metal in the ship to allow them to work properly, they transmit best when in a "line of sight" situation. Plus we were with our kids the entire cruise, so no need.

Nextels are cell phones that have the option to transmit as walkie talkies on the cell phone frequencies. So they would only work when you were close enough to shore to get cell service.....is there is Nextel service in that region.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Using an earpiece on the walkie talkie would keep them from disturbing folks. We left ours at home....after taking them to Disneyland, we found them useless.....too many people using them at once. And I suspect there is too much metal in the ship to allow them to work properly, they transmit best when in a "line of sight" situation. Plus we were with our kids the entire cruise, so no need.

Nextels are cell phones that have the option to transmit as walkie talkies on the cell phone frequencies. So they would only work when you were close enough to shore to get cell service.....is there is Nextel service in that region.

Actually I have no idea? I should look it up. There probably isn't. I never think of it as being out of the country LOL.

 

[depomas]

I hope nothing is in the air today...

We used walkie talkies and they came in very handy.... We did not abuse them, or just use them in fun.... There were times when we separated with each of us having a child, and to meet up, these came in SO handy....

In some ports I listened to people on their cells, and it did not annoy me, different strokes for different folks, and maybe they needed to talk... I am on vacation for my family, not for other peoples concerns...

So, in one word, Yes walkie talkies were wonderful for US.

 

[996turbos]

I took my phone with me so we could talk to the other car groups we were traveling with plus I did direct connect to some of my co-workers(one of which was still at work on a Saturday) when we got on the boat. Just some friendly guess where I am, guess what we're doing. They of course teased me in the weeks leading up to the cruise, so turn about was fair play. Anyway, once the ship left on our 7 day eastern we lost signal. It went into the safe and slept there till we docked 7 days later. We had called Nextel to ask if the phone would work in St. Marrten or St Thomas and were told no. Hope this helps. The walkie talkie thing worked poorly at best on ship. The best reception we had was when I was on the bacony of our room and my BIL was in shopping area in St Marrtin. Next trip we are leaving them home. The walkie talkie that is, the BIL "might" get to go with us again. LOL!

 

[clh2]

We loved having the family radios with us on the ship. I totally agree that you need to be polite with them. I am the first person who gets ticked off with improper use of electronic devices.

Our FR's have a "vibrate-only" mode. DD called mine when DH and I were watching a movie in the theater. I quickly left the theatre and responded to her page outside in the hall.

We also have something on our FR's that helps to avoid the conversations from other family's FR's. Sorry - I don't know what it is called - I am not the techie in our house.

The reception is not the absolute best - but our family had arranged in advance if we couldn't hear someone, we would just meet back at the room to discuss the changes in plans. Having the FR's allowed our DD - who was 9 1/2 at the time of our cruise a little more freedom.

What our DD found was a little more fun was she would go to the club/lab area and send us an alpha-page.

 

[d'Isigny]

we've taken our on past cruises...they worked great!!! Plan on taking them again..and again. The flexability of 'splitting up' and not being 'tied down' to a 'meeting place' at a specific time is a great way to use walkie-talkies. Our radios have main and sub channels...these limit getting others coversations. I highly recommend spending a few extra bucks for these features.
We continue to use these while being respectful to others. I do agree that some can be VERY disrespectful to others around them.

 

[Kissimmee_Family]

We will have ours for shore time if nothing else. Sounds like some are already using them on board. We'll try to be responsible if we use them on the ship.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

I took my phone with me so we could talk to the other car groups we were traveling with plus I did direct connect to some of my co-workers(one of which was still at work on a Saturday) when we got on the boat. Just some friendly guess where I am, guess what we're doing. They of course teased me in the weeks leading up to the cruise, so turn about was fair play. Anyway, once the ship left on our 7 day eastern we lost signal. It went into the safe and slept there till we docked 7 days later. We had called Nextel to ask if the phone would work in St. Marrten or St Thomas and were told no. Hope this helps. The walkie talkie thing worked poorly at best on ship. The best reception we had was when I was on the bacony of our room and my BIL was in shopping area in St Marrtin. Next trip we are leaving them home. The walkie talkie that is, the BIL "might" get to go with us again. LOL!

thanks for the info. I guess I have to call nextell and ask for global service LOL.

 

[newcruiser05]

I just returned from the 3/12 - 3/19/05 cruise and the walkies came in handy. They worked fine on the ship and we were able to tell our daughter where to meet us or when to come home, etc. It was great to have it on board. We could have used it more than we did but often didn't think of it until it was too late. Can be used to find people, meet up, etc.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Love the walkie talkies! We had a large group of 17 a few weeks ago and used them ALL the time. No not during shows, and no we didn't yell into them. We used them to find out where we each were, where our kids were, if anyone else had woken up yet and wanted to meet, etc. They worked everywhere on the ship. From our rooms on deck two to deck 9, etc. We had five pairs for the five families. They all worked together.

We take ours to Disneyworld every trip and they are invaluable. If you haven't bought any, get the motorolas with security codes. There are something like 32 channels with 14 different codes on each one. With hundreds of combinations, we have never had a problem finding a channel no one else was on. On the ship, with much fewer people then the parks, we never even had to try to find another channel.

I have decided they were the single most usefull thing we brought on board!

 

[Skallywag]

Sounds as if we are in the minority finding these things very annoying. Here in England mobile phones are everywhere and people cannot even manage to do their shopping without ringing home for advice it seems. We like to come away to get away from phones computers and the like and sincerely hope we will not meet too many people using the things without thought of others.
Makes you wonder how people managed a few years ago without these gadgets.

Looking forward to a peaceful cruise in October I hope.

 

[mickeyboat]

We used ours once, but it was really nice to have them. DH and DD3 were napping and DD4 adn I decided to go play Bingo. When DH woke up, he found the walkie talkie on his chest and knew to call to find me. I kept the volume down and his call didn't distrub anyone.

As long as you use common sense, I doubt you will disturb anyone.

Denae