Cell phone in Vancourer and Sea Days

[matzmum]

I have a question about cell phone usage while in Vancourer and sea days. I have AT&T and was wondering if i will be able to phone home using "connect at sea". I know I can use the free wifi at the airport. I am worried about incurring additional charges.

 

[southerngirl528]

I have a question about cell phone usage while in Vancourer and sea days. I have AT&T and was wondering if i will be able to phone home using "connect at sea". I know I can use the free wifi at the airport. I am worried about incurring additional charges.

Good question to be asking BEFORE your cruise! I foolishly forgot to check with my cell carrier before we flew out to YVR, and before I knew it, I was getting a message from my phone company telling me I had racked up a good chunk of change in charges. In a few hours mind you. And I was not live streaming or similar! Fortunately the phone co. let me choose a package and make it retroactive those few hours. Whew!

Just call your phone carrier and tell them where exactly you will be traveling and ask them. You might need to add a package for just your month of travel and they are quite economical IF you get them ahead of time! Enjoy your Alaska cruise! It is sooooooo beautiful!!

 

[cmph]

I have AT&T too. We were just in Alaska in June and did a few days extra in Vancouver. The second we landed and I turned off airplane mode, I got a text asking if I wanted to opt into International Day Pass. $10/24h. Otherwise it charges per min, text, and data usage. Super clear and upfront. I turned off data whenever I wasn’t actively using it, to prolong when the next 24h period would kick in. Only applies to the phone that accepts intl day pass, not all family member phones on your plan, so it’s best to pick one person to have it and let everyone else know in advance who to contact. I had zero service at sea, but it was fine in all the ports.

 

[Van Houten]

AT&T gets quite pricey with international roaming, unless it is part of your plan. If you get many incoming calls which you do not intend to answer, keep in mind that any call which reaches your phone and then rolls to voicemail gets charged as one minute of roaming airtime. Connect at Sea call rates vary from operator to operator ($2.99/min on Sprint, $5.99/min on T-Mobile, I could not find any current info for AT&T) - at these rates you are better off using texts or relying on the ship's WiFi. For this reason whenever leaving for the cruise I set up unconditional forwarding to voicemail for all calls:

*#67# to get your voicemail forwarding number, then
*21*voicemailnumber#
##002# to reset forwarding rules to default (allow calls to go to voicemail when not answered).

This can only be done while you are on the operator's network, and generally does not work when already roaming. When set up correctly, you will see a small symbol on most phones showing that all calls are unconditionally forwarded.

 

[cmph]

FYI this was the first text that popped up, so maybe the phone number is a good place to start if you want to find out now how your account works:
AT&T Free Msg: Reply YES (free to reply) to learn how to talk and text all you want and use your data plan in over 100 countries for $10/day, only paying for the days you use abroad. Otherwise current intl rates apply: $2.05/MB, $1/min, $0.50/msg sent; $1.30/photo or video msg sent. Call +1.214.547.2300 with questions (a free call).

While it wouldn't have been worth it to me for the calls/texts (since I could still imessage at the hotel on WiFi), it was very useful for the data part for the days we wandered Vancouver.

 

[RAD]

Check the package you have with AT&T to see if you get Canada coverage as part of it. Last year no extra charges using it for voice, text and data.

As for Alaska while I’m port had coverage on the ship and for maybe 10 to 30 minuets after leaving. There were even a couple times while on the inside passage where I could see a small settlement and had coverage for a little while, just always made sure that the phone always said AT&T and not cellular at sea.

 

[Shanti]

I have a question about cell phone usage while in Vancourer and sea days. I have AT&T and was wondering if i will be able to phone home using "connect at sea". I know I can use the free wifi at the airport. I am worried about incurring additional charges.

Check if your hotel will have free wifi.

 

[lady9]

We also have AT&T and have cruised Alaska (We also used the same plan when our child was in Russia). We got an international package. This was in 2011 so I'm sure prices have changed. I am pretty sure it was $15 a month for unlimited international text and $1 a minute for phone calls from land. We did not use connect at sea as I believe that would be an additional charge and quite pricey at that. We added the coverage right before we left and canceled it when we returned. I would call AT&T and ask about the international plan. It was so much more affordable than roaming.