Cell Phones on the High Seas

[Married_A_Disney_Nut]

I just got off the 14 night TransAtlantic cruise and was amazed to "sea" how many people were making and receiving cell phone calls while we were in the middle of the Atlantic. I can understand calling home every so often to check on things but those calls can be made from your room. Why walk around the ship constantly making calls ? And how much did those call cost ?

BTW: these were not business calls. Most of the time I heard "so what's new?"...

 

[eva]

I thought that DCL said that cell phone service would only be available in the staterooms. It will really tick me off if the person next to me at the pool is constantly sitting there yacking on their phone.

 

[gydell]

I could not get service in my cabin but I could get it out in the more open areas. That may be why so many people were "walking" around. My calls were about $.89 a minute. We were on th TA eastbound so it was nice to call Mom for Mother's Day and call my Dad on his birthday while we were gone. I never used the phone near activities or when people were around. I liked the idea of having a way to keep in touch if need be.

 

[RAD]

I thought I had read somewhere that DCL and some other company have partnered to allow cellphones to be used from the ship, they uplink the calls via satellite when out of service of land based cells.


Found a link with infor about this: http://www.dclnews.com/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?PressReleaseID=106946

 

[yndygo]

Ugh. How awful.

Honestly? I've always liked the fact that we weren't in "cell" country on the ocean unless someone had a Satellite phone.
Now my DH will think it's okay to 'touch base' with work while we're on the ship - I think I will be taking his cell phone away while we're onboard.

While those things are great for emergencies - they sure have a knack for ruining a vacation.

 

[branv]

If we had children and were leaving them while we went on vacation, I can see how great this would be. But since DH and I are childless, I LOVE that people can't reach us for four nights. We will not be telling anyone that cell phones can now be called (and of course, we'll be turning ours off since I think I read somewhere that you'll still be charged even though you don't pick up?? Confirm anyone?). I have relatives and friends who, no matter how many times I warn them not to call b/c they will cost me $4.99/minute cell charges, they'll forget (or not care)

Before this whole cell thing it was easy to explain that you were unreachable and only give responsible family members the emergency contact # to the Wonder after explaining that a) considering the $8/minute shore-to-ship phone cost, only call if someone is dead or dying and b) even if they are, after you leave Nassau there's no way to get back home anyway (excepting your own medical emergency of course). It's really nice to know that for four nights the real world is out of contact. Like I want to be enjoying a good BBC buzz by the pool only to have to fend off a call from my sister wanting to rant again about something mom did.

I do feel for parents of tweens and teens though - seperation from the phone isn't so easy, and I can imagine since this has been inacted, more than a few parents have been stunned by their phone bill. I would definitely confiscate all phones before boarding