How effective are walkie-talkies on a cruise ship? Does the ship's electronics hamper their effectiveness? Can you really communicate between decks and from fore to aft? What is the best milage range and brand? Do cruise ships rent them, or is it cheaper in the long term to buy a set?

Make your fellow passengers happy - leave them at home. There are plenty of quieter ways to keep track of your travelling companions.

Have to agree with Cruiseryyc! Walkie-talkies are very disruptive to those around you who want some peace and quiet. Why do we have to know where everyone is and what they are doing every minute these days? Plan ahead and meet every so often if you musta but leave the noise home, please.

I totally agree! Leave the walkie talkies at home!

BUT...If you MUST take them, they work moderatly well. Didn't have a problem with electronics, but between decks reception can be iffy if more than 1 deck either way in my experience.
Never seen rentals from cruise ship. Be aware that some non-US destionations restrict or ban such items without permits.

so annoying!

very disruptive!

please, for the sake of your fellow passengers,
leave them at home.

What a bunch of kill joys. Have no love for modern electronic. Remember guns don't kill people, people do. Same for the radios.

Work great on cruise ships. We use Motorola with 5 mile range because that was the most available when we bought them. Since we travel frequently we purchased over rental. When we traveled with our two sons, they were critical but we use them by ourselves. Just be careful how and where you use them and TURN DOWN THE VOLUME and the others here will not hate you. And they illegal to use in any foreign country -- frequency problem.

You'll mainly hear a lot of kids saying "Hey! Can you hear me know?" and "Joey...is that you?" type messages.

Most people give up on them because they become more of a pain than a help.

You can buy them pretty cheap now and at almost any big store.

Brands are not that different, try to get some with LESS options... all you really need is a channel selector and on-off volume control, the options just add to confusion.

Try to pick a pair that has at least a 5 mile range. The range rating is really only true if you are in a totally unobstructed situation. On a ship your main problem is getting the signal through all that steel, so the more power the better.

They sell them on the ships and since they sell for under $50 a pair at places like Walmart I've never seen them available for rent... Have fun.

All the cruise ships that we have been on have them for rent for the duration.

I have never thought of walkie talkies on a ship. I thought that the whole idea was to get away from a lot of that stuff. If you need that kind of control maybe you should do something else.

The discussion is starting to get silly. Has absolutely nothing to do with control and everything to do with convenience. It is just handy to be able to know and reach people on the ship and is great for kids and groups of people. It is a tool.

I had no idea you could rent walkie talkies on cruise ships.

I agree that if used in a considerate manner, they can be a great tool.

I've gone on a couple of cruises with a larger group of family members - since we don't spend every day together as a group, walkie talkies would be a convenient way of getting in touch with each other if necessary.

I took walkie talkies when I took my granddaughter on our Baltic cruise. There was only one time each evening when we used them, and I'm glad I had them. She joined the teen club, and when she was ready to leave the group, she called to tell me she was on her way back to our cabin. There are lots of people on a cruise ship, and I wasn't taking any chances... especially after hearing some of the horror stories on cruise ships. We did have to change stations because other families were also keeping track of each other. I was actually not aware of anyone else with walkie talkies except when mine was on. Then I would hear families asking for the whereabouts of its members. However, there was nothing offensive about their use.

We rented two "crew" phones while on a 2 wk cruise on a RCCL ship, the Navigator. One was for hubby and me and one for my brother, who was on a deck 3 levels up from us.

The total cost was $50 for 2 phones for 2 weeks and well worth it. They worked just like a cell phone, with a low, discreet ring. You could call phone to phone or to cabins, and it saved our feet many miles of roaming and hours of looking for each other. Highly recommend.