Texting At Sea

Whoa! Before you get too excited I'm talking about texting between friends and family aboard the ship. If you decide to use your phone to text those folks back home, you are gonna pay for it. I was amazed to find though that there are quite a few apps available on many of the cruise lines that allow you to text each other on the ship.

We've enjoyed the apps that let you book specialty restaurants and find out what's happening on the ship for the daily activities but I didn't know that many of them also allow you to text other passengers who have downloaded the app as well--for free. You don't have to buy internet minutes to do it and it works on the ship's WiFi.

While I don't like the idea of being tied to a phone on a vacation, I do like the idea of being able to check in when you are separated and need to meet up. FYI the cruise lines offering this are Norwegian (not all ships though), Royal Caribbean (not all ships), Princess (most ships), Holland America (all ships), MSC (not all ships), Disney (all ships--how great is that for traveling with kids!), and Carnival (charges a small fee for app but you don't need an internet package).

Guess I'd better sharpen my texting skills for the next cruise.