Cellular at Sea - anyone used it recently?

[su_A_ve]

My work phone has a global unlimited data plan. When we cruised a couple of years ago on the Fantasy, I could not connect at all at 3G, and the internet desk was no help whatsoever. They insisted there's no such thing like global unlimited data.

So has anyone used this recently? Are there specific settings needed?

Thanks in advance.

 

[SuperDry]

I have never been able to get the 3G data on Cellular at Sea to work. Voice and SMS work fine, but not data (in my experience). I just turn off data roaming and use the ship's WiFi (or land-based 3G roaming when in or near ports).

Also, I too would be skeptical that any sort of "unlimited worldwide" data plan included cruise ships. Not that it's not possible, but I think it's improbable.

 

[Geil]

Any cellular service relies on cellular towers which are all build on land. So there is not a chance you can get a signal deep into the sea!! I guarantee you whatever you have is only referring to global land based cellular providers.
Satellite service be the only thing that would work at sea as those would be based on signals from said satelite networks but those are totally different from your cellular providers and require different hardware as well

 

[BartmanLA]

Not to mention that in order to connect to any cellular service while at sea would require you to go through the ship's network (satellite) and that is a premium charge per minute for cell service and per KB for data. That can be very pricey if you plan on using the phone very much at all during the cruise, although in ports you can connect to the land based cell system that will give you the worldwide access your company provides. Just not at sea unless you have big pockets.

 

[minorthr]

Generally No cell service works on the boat from any carrier without adding a separate cellular at sea plan from your carrier and even then only certain carriers support it. Also according to disney website it only works in the staterooms.

https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/guest-services/internet-phone-services/

Once you add this you most likely have to enable cellular and data roaming in our settings.

ATT states you don't need a plan to call back to the us but its $2.50 a minute you can add plans that offer minutes and data if you want.

 

[c todd]

We used cellular at sea through AT&T. It was a $1 a minute with the plan (I think first 50 minutes were free). Incoming texts were free, I think outgoing were .50 per. You could get a more expensive plan that included data. Cruise ships are not included in global data when you go through cellular at sea which is the signal you will pick up most of the time. Sometimes there was a signal and sometimes there wasn't. The night we left PC there was no signal until sometime the next day. Then we had signal mostly but occasionally there wasn't one or it was poor. When you get to the islands you can pick up other signals that will allow you to use your other plan. I'd check the details of your global data because they have changed.

 

[su_A_ve]

I manage my company's cellular account (over 90 lines). Our plans include global international data and it's unlimited, including for cellular at sea. It's not something you'll find in a consumer account or small business, but definitely out there for corporate customers.

In our case however, voice and txt are charged. voice minutes at standard rates, txt at 50c incoming, 5c outgoing. We have other restrictions with this plan, like no hotspot functionality.

It's just last time I could not get it to work - Verizon confirmed everything was provisioned correctly (it worked without issues in St. Marteen). Verizon was insinuating that DCL was blocking 3G in order to prevent customers for overages (or to promote WiFi).

 

[C6PT7]

I manage my company's cellular account (over 90 lines). Our plans include global international data and it's unlimited, including for cellular at sea. It's not something you'll find in a consumer account or small business, but definitely out there for corporate customers.

In our case however, voice and txt are charged. voice minutes at standard rates, txt at 50c incoming, 5c outgoing. We have other restrictions with this plan, like no hotspot functionality.

It's just last time I could not get it to work - Verizon confirmed everything was provisioned correctly (it worked without issues in St. Marteen). Verizon was insinuating that DCL was blocking 3G in order to prevent customers for overages (or to promote WiFi).

It isn't dcl if it is anyone, it is MTM who manage their ship comm's systems.

 

[minorthr]

I manage my company's cellular account (over 90 lines). Our plans include global international data and it's unlimited, including for cellular at sea. It's not something you'll find in a consumer account or small business, but definitely out there for corporate customers.

In our case however, voice and txt are charged. voice minutes at standard rates, txt at 50c incoming, 5c outgoing. We have other restrictions with this plan, like no hotspot functionality.

It's just last time I could not get it to work - Verizon confirmed everything was provisioned correctly (it worked without issues in St. Marteen). Verizon was insinuating that DCL was blocking 3G in order to prevent customers for overages (or to promote WiFi).

I'll have to check out moving to Verizon because Ive never heard of unlimited international data. We have 500+ lines with ATT and the best international deal we can get from them is $120 a month for 800mb of data, unlimited texting and $0.35 a minute. I have a Verizon rep who has been calling me about switching is there a plan name I can reference?

 

[su_A_ve]

I'll have to check out moving to Verizon because Ive never heard of unlimited international data. We have 500+ lines with ATT and the best international deal we can get from them is $120 a month for 800mb of data, unlimited texting and $0.35 a minute. I have a Verizon rep who has been calling me about switching is there a plan name I can reference?

It is a 'government' plan. We have two plans. US only which allows us to add tether, and international which doesn't. But both have unlimited data. Voice minutes is a bucket but all lines are pulled together so we've never exceeded it. And I'd say that we pay a LOT less than that.