Are the wave phones still widely used?

[Carrie in AZ]

Our last cruise was Oct. 2014, and I believe the cruising app became available after that. We very much struggled with the antiquated wave phones on our previous cruises. Are they still widely used? Our family of four, two adults, two teen daughters, all have smart phones - will we need to try and use the wave phones for any reason?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

We use the app extensively. The whole family has phones and during our check aboard lunch in Cabanas, DW, DS, DD1 & DD2 all hand them over to dad for setup. Funny, I don't ask for them...

The big thing I have to impress on the kids is to keep the app open on their phone else they won't get the notification that we just summoned them via text. The other functions are awesome as well. We don't even use the paper Navigator any longer except as a souvenir piece. We hunt through the app, favoriting our preferences then compare notes. We look like a bunch of phone-dorks, but it works!

 

[GoofyLovingFamily]

The kids club still used the wave phone. That was only reason we carried one. We prefer the app although the messages do not always go through right away or alert you to a message.

 

[cmph]

I guess if there was a true emergency with your child in Edge or Vibe, that would be the only reason you'd ever need a wave phone (for the CM to contact you). Although if they're together, one of them could text you if something happened to the other. It's not like they have to call you to come pick your kiddo up in Edge or Vibe, in any case, which seems to be the primary reason to use them for people with younger kids.

We only used the app, as our kids had devices to use for texting us.

 

[PurplePencil]

I guess if there was a true emergency with your child in Edge or Vibe, that would be the only reason you'd ever need a wave phone (for the CM to contact you). Although if they're together, one of them could text you if something happened to the other. It's not like they have to call you to come pick your kiddo up in Edge or Vibe, in any case, which seems to be the primary reason to use them for people with younger kids.

We only used the app, as our kids had devices to use for texting us.

There are rare occasions in which Edge/Vibe contacts you when the kids are not in Edge/Vibe (ie. something happened and they are checking in). They often but not always try the room phone then the wave phone but not always

 

[Plaid Princess]

We never even turned them on on our most recent cruise. The app is much more useful, and it's less to carry around. I stuck them in a drawer to save on desk space.

 

[Laundress]

Did not even touch them on our last trip. The app is very usefull. we had 4 cabins and 16 people. all connected by the app. cute disney emogies too.

 

[tlprice]

I've never been able to figure out the wave phones!

 

[islandsnoopy]

Our last cruise was Oct. 2014, and I believe the cruising app became available after that. We very much struggled with the antiquated wave phones on our previous cruises. Are they still widely used? Our family of four, two adults, two teen daughters, all have smart phones - will we need to try and use the wave phones for any reason?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.

We used the DCL Navigator app while on the ship but used the wave phones while on Castaway Cay.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

The app does not work on Castaway?

 

[lds0191]

There have been many posts that the app does not work on Castaway Cay. When we were there in February we didn't have any problems as texting through the app worked fine. But I think it can be sporadic.

 

[islandsnoopy]

The app does not work on Castaway?

The app didn't work for us last month on Castaway Cay. I'll try it next week on CC and let you know.

 

[belac]

Only carried wave phones for when DS went to kids club, other than that app only

 

[Weedy]

Tip: be sure to download the app before leaving home. It takes a little time and wifi to download it.
Once onboard take a few minutes to connect to each other. Each phone will have a code and you will need to accept each other to be able to text. We usually do this a lunch the first day.
If you have any problems there is a help desk.

 

[phinz]

We haven't used the Wave phones since they got the app sorted out.

 

[phinz]

The app didn't work for us last month on Castaway Cay. I'll try it next week on CC and let you know.

Our Wave phones never worked on Serenity Bay, so it wouldn't matter to us if the app didn't either.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

The app does not work on Castaway?

I can share my experience on this, which MIGHT explain why some people find that the App works on CC and some find it doesn't.

When I first got off the ship, it worked fine. Then, when I was on the tram (and thus a bit farther from the ship and moving) it did not work. When I got to beach, and tried again (and was thus a little closer to the ship or perhaps on-land DCL wifi), it worked fine again, and continued to work throughout the rest of the day.

So if you have trouble with it on CC, keep trying. It may work again in other parts of the island.

You do need to keep checking it to see if you have a message. Also, of the 9 people in my group, one or two had more trouble with messages getting through than the others did, so there is some variability that did not correlate to type of phone or anything like that.

For people following this thread with younger children, I will say that the younger kids clubs still use the wave phones, not the app to contact parents to pick up their kids, but since your kids are teens, like mine, that won't affect you.

 

[bumbershoot]

For people following this thread with younger children, I will say that the younger kids clubs still use the wave phones, not the app to contact parents to pick up their kids, but since your kids are teens, like mine, that won't affect you.

Yep.

And once we allowed my son to have a device with wifi on it, he carried that to the lab with him and texted through the app when he was ready to go.

The CMs at the lab weren't trustworthy about calling the wave phones; they kept calling the room instead, both when my little cousin wanted to leave and another time or two when they were contacting us. So we were glad he had another method to reach us.

 

[CamColt]

We didn't use them at all on our cruise 2 weeks ago. The texting feature on the app was very convenient.

 

[Chica1581]

We only used the App. We received messages to pick up our child from the Oceaneers club on the app. We didn't need the wave phone. Seems they would call and send a message.