Are these a thing of the past? I am researching for my son & DIL .They leave for a Disney cruise in a week's time. I was wondering what is the best way for the family to stay in touch on board. Our 9 year old autistic grandson needs constant attention and the fact that the family WILL be seperated a good deal of the time warrants some kind of communication. Am thinking a cell phone would be too expensive an option. Can anyone help please

Sorry, but I find walkie-talkies totally annoying to other passengers. I hate them and their squawking. But you are safe, I don't cruise with Disney either. It would be nice to have something that doesn't interfere with other passengers enjoyment.

Yes, you can use walkie talkies - a lot of people do use them. As Charli said they are most annoying if people are constantly on them. Disney cruise is different though as it does cater to families. Disney does give the kids bracelets with ID and contact info to find the parents.

Check with Disney but they are usually fine...

cruiscritic.com specific reviews on your ship

some have rules on this due to communication interference

kids programs keep them controlled and active usually.

So no worries

They are fine and we have always used them. Sometimes the ship rents the units. Reception can be a problem if buried in the bottom of the ship.

We bought walkie talkes (supposedly good up to 2 miles) before a cruise and didn't have much luck with them. Poor receptions plus lots of interference from other broadcasts on the channels. If anyone has any tips on getting these to work, I would be interested.

Thanks!

Triathlete - you need to buy better walkie talkes with more power. A 2 mile range is only a quarter watt of power. A two miles means open terrain with no obstructions. You can buy units up to a 1 watt - 20 mile range. The ones we use have a half watt and a 5 mile advertised range and were adequate on our ships. Unless you have a inside cabin in the bottom of the ship.

Thanks for the expert advice, fmpden! Will splurge for the better units next time. Much appreciated!

We bought them for our first cruise and 90% of the time, they didn't work, even if I was on Level 6 and my husband was outside on Level 9. And I bought expensive ones. Wished I would have saved the packaging, I would have taken them back to Radio Shack, since they have never been used since we got home.

Either they were not set up properly (same channel and sub-channels) but most likely only a quarter watt model which is the most common in the market. Expense and power are not the same.

We bought ours at Costco several years ago and they worked perfectly on the ship. We also had to drive south in two cars and we were able to communicate clearly when we were separated on the highway. As fmpden says you need to be sure you get a set that has the necessary power.

We have used the walkie talkies since we were a big group and it did help in knowing where the kids were. I think if people are being obnoxious on it then that is a different case and they shouldn't use them.