Navigator app and cheap phones...

[WestFamily]

Hi,
Due to.....gravity lessons and a 12 year old...we are down 1 phone for our family to use on our cruise. I wanted our youngest to have a phone for the navigator app for messaging but now I have no extra phone that can do it.

Long story short: has anyone used those very cheap prepaid phones with the DCL app successfully? I’m talking one of those $30 or $40 android phones from target or Walmart. Which one did you use successfully?

thanks!
ps. Yes, I know, 1st world problems

 

[Spiffy MacSpiff]

FWIW... not exactly the answer you were looking for, but as much as possible my family doesn't use electronic devices on vacation. For now, we just travel with one phone for travel information and transportation emergencies, and that one goes in the safe once we're on the ship. We've heard mixed reviews about DCL texting, so we still rely on Wave Phones onboard and ask for extras if necessary. It's worked very well for us; our 12 YO, who doesn't have his own phone yet, did fine with it and we didn't have to deal with texts arriving late or not at all as some have reported. Not sure how long Wave Phones will be a thing, but for now they work great for us.

 

[Ravenne]

I have it installed on a Samsung Galaxy S5 running Android Marshmallow (v6.1, and the device is no longer supported, so OS can't be updated) and it works fine. I just read a comment on Scott's blog saying they couldn't get the current version of the app to run on a S4, so whatever you go with, I'd probably go no older than Marshmallow, v6.1. I wish DCL would provide specs and minimum requirements on the app, but alas, they don't.

 

[daedelus]

I agree with the previous poster - you've got to be careful with those cheap Android phones - you get what you pay for. Looking at the Google Play store, the DCL app shows up as requiring ~50MB of storage and Android v6.0 (Marshmallow) or better to run. I have it installed on a Kindle Fire tablet and while it works, good Lord is it slow. Check the specs of the phone you're looking at to make sure it's above that by a bit and you'll probably be fine.

Wave phones are indeed a good option, you can T9 text on them (does anyone still do that?) and they are easy to recharge each night. I would caution you to be careful though, if you have a butter-fingered young one the replacement cost of a Wave phone is $250...

Cheers and best of luck!

 

[FigmentSpark]

Any chance you have an old ipod sitting in a drawer? That will work. It just has to be able to connect to the internet (not that you actually connect to the internet in a paid way) to work. Even my ipad, which doesn't have cellular works just fine.

So essentially, you need a device that you could get wifi and the app on. You don't need a 'phone' per se.

 

[WestFamily]

Any chance you have an old ipod sitting in a drawer? That will work. It just has to be able to connect to the internet (not that you actually connect to the internet in a paid way) to work. Even my ipad, which doesn't have cellular works just fine.

So essentially, you need a device that you could get wifi and the app on. You don't need a 'phone' per se.

Thank you. I was thinking phone since it will fit in his pocket. I literally want it so he (the younger one) can say things like "going to the movie" "getting ice cream" and if it can take a picture, he can take a few photos. The iPad is too big (it's a great thought though) and (for the other posts) in my opinion: wave phones suck these days. I hate carrying around the wave phone. They were great before the App. I enjoyed them years ago. However now... We (wife and I) already have our phones so we can use the app and take pictures. I don't want another device to carry around and worry about. Plus, there's something about carrying around a phone that has been passed around between about 1000 other people. Not to mention the fear of the child breaking it.

 

[WestFamily]

Just closing the loop on this if anyone comes up with a similar situation:
the cheapest phone I could find was a $20 one at target. No minutes, no memory card, crappy camera, but...WiFi and access to the android store. So... it loaded the cruise app and a few games for my youngest (8) perfectly.

It helped him feel like he had more freedom and I didn’t have to carry around a wave phone. The battery lasted all day for him, the pictures he took won’t win any awards, and I never worried about it if he dropped it, stepped on it, or lost it. Win win!

 

[lklgoodman]

Just closing the loop on this if anyone comes up with a similar situation:
the cheapest phone I could find was a $20 one at target. No minutes, no memory card, crappy camera, but...WiFi and access to the android store. So... it loaded the cruise app and a few games for my youngest (8) perfectly.

It helped him feel like he had more freedom and I didn’t have to carry around a wave phone. The battery lasted all day for him, the pictures he took won’t win any awards, and I never worried about it if he dropped it, stepped on it, or lost it. Win win!

Thanks for posting. My dd has my old samsung phone, the app no longer works on it. Our upcoming cruise will be the first time she will be at Edge and will be checking herself out. I also don't want to carry along the wave phone. Didn't know it was possible to get something so cheap.

 

[hnthomps]

Just closing the loop on this if anyone comes up with a similar situation:
the cheapest phone I could find was a $20 one at target. No minutes, no memory card, crappy camera, but...WiFi and access to the android store. So... it loaded the cruise app and a few games for my youngest (8) perfectly.

It helped him feel like he had more freedom and I didn’t have to carry around a wave phone. The battery lasted all day for him, the pictures he took won’t win any awards, and I never worried about it if he dropped it, stepped on it, or lost it. Win win!

Thanks for posting, this is incredibly useful information. I'd love my 9 year old to have something he could carry around with the app on it, and will look into this.

Anytime this comes up people suggest the wave phone and I just...I wear sundresses. Where am I going to put a wave phone? I don't want to have to carry a purse on vacation! It's 2019, I don't want to deal with t9 texting or teach my kid how to t9 text on vacation! (1st world whining!)

 

[Bonnie1222]

DH and I lock our every day phones in the safe the minute we get in the room and finish the obligatory see you in a week phone calls to the parents. We have an older LG Stylo 2 Boost phone we carry just for the navigator and spur of the moment pictures (like when Cinderella decided to say hi when I was waiting for the elevator). We had to upgrade to newer phones because the storage was not enough for the apps we use daily and it was starting to crash.

We pulled out the SIM card, and have a small 2G SD card for storage. There is only the basic on the phone, the apps that can't be removed, music for my morning exercise and the DCL app. It works great. you may want to search eBay or the FB market place for someone looking to off load one they no longer use.