Cell phones aboard ship

[Mboothby]

Can cell phones be used and do they work aboard the ships? Anyone have an experience with this?

[txtara]

we have sprint..and to our suprise..we turned it on in st thomas..and walla..they worked..we called home..our waiter..Dwight from Jamaica..said that yes they work in st thomas/san juan..and one other..I think it was nassau..but dont hold me to that..and as long as we are along the coast line they will pick up..but hey you are on vacation..haha..and they do have the ever golden priced internet o/b..$85 for the week...ouch..can live without it for that..ha

[Pryd]

Our Cell phones worked only when we passed the coast of Puerto Rico on our Eastern Caribbean. But be warned the Roaming charge will be quite high. We used the ships internet and found that the flat rate was cheaper than using the cell phone at the ports, and more reliable

[Mboothby]

But.....they can't be used ON the ship while at sea?

[Firefighter Mickey]

Correct - in order for a cell phone to work, it must be in range of a cell phone tower, and then it must be in range of a tower that is part of the particular network in some cases. When the ship is at sea, you are usually too far away from a tower in order to have cell phone service.

Satellite phones do not have the same restrictions. They only require that the phone be able to "see" the satellite (which for a system like Iridium, they can almost always do).

[pmgreene]

We didn't experience any roaming charges with our Sprint PCS phone. We had a prepaid calling card and used that on St. Thomas. As someone else said, we had service as we passed San Juan, Puerto Rico (you can find out what time that will be by looking at your Navigator and it tells you places you'll be passing and about what time).

[BethC1952]

My Sprint PCS phone worked about 20 minutes outside Nassau Harbor (on the way in), and there weren't any roaming charges on my bill that month! I didn't try it anywhere else, but there had been reports of a tornado at home (in New Jersey, of all places!) and I wanted to be sure that everything was alright (it was).

Beth

[dznymom1]

I called work from my verandah in St. Thomas. We have a Verizon nationwide plan and had no roaming on long distance charges much to my surprise. We also made a call from the ship a couple hours before reaching Port Canaveral since we were running late and needed to rearrange our transportation. NO extra charges for that one either.

[Matty02]

A lot of castmembers have AT&T phones to use in some ports. Nextel doesnt work anywhere on the 7 day cruise, except for about the first hour of the cruise as your leave Florida. Thats what I know :-D

[tony3331]

nextell doesnt work anyware

[Matty02]

yeah, with nextels it all depends on where you live. I live in Michigan and it is one of Nextel's two biggest states. I live north of all the big cities, but my town has about 45,000 people in it wtih college students and we have tourists everyday for a Casino, so Nextel has coverage here. I guess if you live in the sticks, it might not work, but everywhere I travel (2+ days a week for work) I have service.

haha, if I am out of service for 5 minutes, I gracefully consider that a "Vacation" :-D

[tony3331]

i do get service here in nyc but nextell has really fell off belive it or not the phone worked great on 9/11 maybe i will take it with me and feed it to the fish!! rented a satilite phone for 3weeks so i am sure that will work real good down there.

[CamColt]

Anyone know if Singulair(I think thats what it is:confused: ) will work from on the ship in Nassau? I really dont want to get off the boat. :(

[tony3331]

i called them and they told me no service

[albiats]

Camcolt -

It's spelled 'Cingular', and it's the combined cellular properties of BellSouth and SBC.

I have AT&T Wireless and have tried for about two years now to get my phone to work from Nassau. The last and most used reason that it won't work is because there is so much cell phone fraud in that area that AT&T and some of the others have decided to not offer roaming service there. They recommend that you go ashore and use a land line.

I have given up and will just not try to use my cell phone from there.

[CamColt]

LOL! Thanks Albiats!
Can you tell I have no clue, and just asked DH what service we have? :D