iPhone usage on ship

[Jess Warren]

How has everyone's experiences been using i-Phones on the ship (Specifically the Magic)? I would really prefer not to have to bring the laptop.

 

[tvguy]

Either way you pay, a lot. I assume you are talking about using it to communicate, not the features you can use in airplane mode.

 

[erionm]

While at sea, cell service is provided by Cellular at Sea. The rate for voice calls is $2.49/minute.

http://www.cellularatsea.com/roaming.htm

AT&T has created a Cruise Ship Passport that will give you 15 voice minutes and 15 messages (text & video) for $35.00/month.

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/popups/international-passport.jsp?wtSlotClick=1-004L0O-0-1

 

[Jess Warren]

Either way you pay, a lot. I assume you are talking about using it to communicate, not the features you can use in airplane mode.

dh was wanting to use it for e-mail- checking messages, etc. not so much calling (if I can keep him from working while we are on vacay!!)

 

[mellyp]

read this one :
http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships-activities/ships/services/internet-cellular-services/

if you really need to access your email, better use internet plan, is more cheaper.

If you are on the boat, you have to pay 2.50/ min
If you offshore is 1.50/ min

 

[trimix]

If money isn't an issue, the iPhone will connect to shipboard wi-fi and allow full but slow internet access.
The cost wasn't worth it for me, and for the large amounts of email I get the system was painfully slow. In ports, once we were done with excursions and exploring and had returned to the ship, I would take my notebook to a local web cafe to download my emails and deal with anything urgent and important. I could look at the rest of my email back on the ship and write a few responses, then either send them from the ship or from an internet cafe at the next port.

 

[dsnygirl2006]

Ok, wait a minute....you cannot use your cellphones on board without paying for an onboard cell service??? No calls, texts, nothing???

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

ON our last cruise- I brought laptop and iphone (airplane mode- solely to use for internet/email/etc- the same way I'd use a laptop. No calls or texts so I wouldn't pay intl. rates) and they both worked the SAME speed.
Now granted that was super slow to non-existent... this was on the transatlantic cruise and the internet serivce was FAR below what I'm used to on western caribbean as well as the panama canal cruise. But my point is they worked the same. Believe me, I hoped the laptop would work faster/better- but no. LOL

Honestly I see no difference. if you're using ship internet on laptop or iphone- there should be no speed difference. If it's slow for one, it's slow for the other.

 

[corky441]

Ok, wait a minute....you cannot use your cellphones on board without paying for an onboard cell service??? No calls, texts, nothing???

You can use it, but depending on your carrier you will pay upwards of $2.49 per MINUTE for the roaming charge.
This becomes extremely pricey

My advice, turn off the phone...

If you really really really have to remain in touch while on the cruise, bring a laptop and purchase one of the Internet minute plans from DCL
It is slowwwww but still cheaper in the long run
If you're on the Magic or Wonder, they also have computers you can use. They are in the Promenade lounge area. You purchase the same Internet package as if you had your own computer with you

 

[cmwade77]

According to what I have read AT&T can receive Text messages and you are charged according to your text plan. Sending messages costs $0.50 each. I have unlimited text messaging, can anyone confirm?

 

[irishdadx4]

Ok, wait a minute....you cannot use your cellphones on board without paying for an onboard cell service??? No calls, texts, nothing???

The cell service is basically very expensive roaming. Most of the major cell carriers (AT&T, verizon, etc) have agreements with Cellular-At-Sea and offer you a lower rate(not much) but you will need to check with your cell provider to make sure it works correctly. If your call provider does not have an agreement (which is most of the "pay as you go" providers) then you pay Cellular-At-Sea's rates. Verizon and AT&T charge $2.49 per minute, T-mobile charges $4.99 per minute. Sprint doesn't publish rates for cruise ships so I couldn't answer for that. These rates are the same for all the major cruise lines; DCL, PO, RCCI, Carnival, Celebrity, Aida, NCL, HAL, since this company provides the cell service to all these and many more cruise lines. Texts are equally expensive...typically on the order of $.50 for each one sent and about $.05 for each one received. AT&t specifically says that picture and video texts cost $1.30 each one sent and $.50 for just a SMS text sent.

So sorry no free cell service from the ship...it uses a satellite connection which is very expensive. You will get cell service from a land based tower for a few miles out to sea, and you will use the cell towers on the island ports as you visit them. DCL will turn off the on ship's tower when it gets within range of a landbased tower. Again, you will need to check with your cell provider to see how they handle/charge you for calls made in a foreign country.

So best advice....

just consider yourself out of touch for the trip...check in during port days if you need to/must....and if you have kids/tweens/teens with cell phones...take their phones from them...and locked them in the safe.

 

[irishdadx4]

According to what I have read AT&T can receive Text messages and you are charged according to your text plan. Sending messages costs $0.50 each. I have unlimited text messaging, can anyone confirm?

You are essentially roaming/international when using the cruise ships cell service, so you will pay for each text, unless you can add an international type of texting package to your phone contract, which I'm sure will cost you a fair amount of money. Your unlimited plan only covers you on AT&T's cell network, once you go off that network, you are covered by whatever roaming agreement AT&T has with the 3rd party cell network provider you are using. In this case, that's Cellular-at-Sea.

 

[Disney Dreams]

According to what I have read AT&T can receive Text messages and you are charged according to your text plan. Sending messages costs $0.50 each. I have unlimited text messaging, can anyone confirm?

We were on the Wonder in early November. Prior to going, I spoke with AT&T to figure out our options and potential charges for using our iphones.

We decided the phone & internet fees were too much and put our phones on airplane mode. HOWVER...

We were leaving our pup (fur child) behind with friends and wanted to have a way for them to communicate with us if needed. We were told that it would cost .50 for every text sent and NOTHING to receive text messages.

So, we told family and the friends watching our house and our pup that they could send as many as text messages as they felt necessary and we would reply (or not) as needed based on the text. Obviously, if something was wrong at hone we would spend whatever needed to call out, but knowing we could get free texts incoming was comforting.

Then, since we had the phones on airplane mode, we turned them on once every couple of hours to allow for any pending texts to come in.

That was how we handled it. Next result: Texts received in 4 days on 2 phones: 3, outgoing texts & calls: 0 Dollars spent communicating onboard: 0 Peace of mind knowing people could text us in case of emergency: priceless

- Dreams

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

I last cruised this past June. We have Verizon and turned it on once or twice a day to check for text messages (how I asked people to get in touch if necessary). It wasn't bad, and I think it was .50 to send and .05 or .10 to receive, but I don't remember exactly. My total bill was less than $10.00 for the cruise.

 

[sullins5]

so, Let me get this right. IF you have it on airplane mode and keep it on, it costs? Right? But if you want little to no cost, just cut the power on (airplane mode also), check for any texts (for us it'd have to be for an emergency) and then keep it off each day?
What about the ports? Same scenario? Going to St Martin/St Thomas/ CC...airplane mode when I cut it on, and check for texts only?

I have done some MAJOR damage when I called my dh and he was in China, and I thought I put in my long number on an international card. $100 for 9 minutes. And then our only cruise with RCCL, I called home to talk again to dh, first time 10 min/ and 2nd time all I heard was "Call me when you get to Miami!"

I would like to not cut it on at all, but I know the ppl keeping our animals will text.

Is all this right?

 

[dunbarfamily]

Ok, I'll sound like a geek. Here goes:

I'm a new smartphone user, having just gotten the iPhone4 the end of June. This will be our first big trip with it. How do I turn it off so that it won't try to connect to wifi on board? Will a little window pop up asking if I want to connect?

Thanks!

 

[erionm]

Ok, I'll sound like a geek. Here goes:

I'm a new smartphone user, having just gotten the iPhone4 the end of June. This will be our first big trip with it. How do I turn it off so that it won't try to connect to wifi on board? Will a little window pop up asking if I want to connect?

Thanks!

WiFi is not going to be your issue on board. You would need to enter log on information to connect to WiFi on the ship. If you do keep your phone on and don't use airplane mode, turn off data roaming. To do that, go to Setting > General > Network.

 

[croppincolburn]

Dh used his iphone in St Thomas. AT&T has a network (or whatever it would be called) there. The phone happened to ring while he was checking messages. Haven't gotten the bill yet to see if Dh was correct. Oh, and we were sitting in the middle of the harbour when we were doing this.

 

[dunbarfamily]

WiFi is not going to be your issue on board. You would need to enter log on information to connect to WiFi on the ship. If you do keep your phone on and don't use airplane mode, turn off data roaming. To do that, go to Setting > General > Network.

Thanks Michael. If I keep it in airplane mode, will that be good enough? What if someone tries to text me? I thought about just keeping it in the room turned off for the trip, as I won't be checking email or logging into facebook scared1, but I'd still like to take a few pics with it, especially if I don't feel like lugging around the dslr.

So do you recommend turning off the data roaming, or using airplane mode? And then what if someone texts me? Or tries to call me? Yikes. So many questions.

 

[erionm]

Thanks Michael. If I keep it in airplane mode, will that be good enough? What if someone tries to text me? I thought about just keeping it in the room turned off for the trip, as I won't be checking email or logging into facebook scared1, but I'd still like to take a few pics with it, especially if I don't feel like lugging around the dslr.

So do you recommend turning off the data roaming, or using airplane mode? And then what if someone texts me? Or tries to call me? Yikes. So many questions.

If you use airplane mode, you will not get any phone calls or text messages nor can you call out or send text messages.

When you turn off data roaming, it prevents the phone from connecting to the internet when you are not on your providers network.

I leave data roaming off all the time and don't use airplane mode unless I'm actually on a plane. Only once have we gotten a call while on a cruise and that was from our vet to give us an update on one of our dogs that had surgery while we were gone.