Cell service on the ships?

[aprilchem]

unless u r in some sort of emergency or need-to-know situation, turn off the dam* cell phone and relax!!

just my nsho!

Not everyone can do this. My DH has a job that requires him to be available in an emergency, otherwise large companies could lose millions of dollars in the week that we are gone and people in the factories that he services could lose a week's worth of wages. He will check in before we leave and we will buy an Internet package while on the ship, and he may even need to use the telephone as well. I totally support him; his job is important and I would feel terrible if others suffered because we insisted on being totally out of touch.

I am a college professor and I can (and will) be totally out of touch while we are on the cruise, but my profession permits it.

 

[TJDisneymama]

I ended up turning off the phone and bought the small data package to go online on my tablet to check emails....I guess if there was a family emergency they would have been out of luck with no way to contact me, lol. It was only 3 days though so NBD. The signal was pretty bad though and super slow, it was torture to go online at all. No life or death situations to worry about but as a Disney TA, I had clients who were on vacation at the same time and I wanted to be able to respond if they had a problem that they had emailed me about. Also, if I got an inquiry from a potential new client I would not have wanted to leave them hanging for 3 days!

The *228 is something you should do periodically anyways with Verizon, like once a month, to update the roaming capabilitieis (or something like that)

 

[su_A_ve]

Not everyone can do this. My DH has a job that requires him to be available in an emergency, otherwise large companies could lose millions of dollars in the week that we are gone and people in the factories that he services could lose a week's worth of wages. He will check in before we leave and we will buy an Internet package while on the ship, and he may even need to use the telephone as well. I totally support him; his job is important and I would feel terrible if others suffered because we insisted on being totally out of touch.

I am a college professor and I can (and will) be totally out of touch while we are on the cruise, but my profession permits it.

Both him and his company need to be aware of the expectations. Cellular at sea works, but it's VERY SLOW. Company will have a fit once they realize the charges. The ship's internet package is worse than dialup.

Expect the connection to be good enough to send and reply to emails but that's about it - no VPN, no skype, etc. The way I see it, if someone else cannot take care of things while he's out, then seriously, maybe he shouldn't go...

My .02...

 

[TXDCLfan]

unless u r in some sort of emergency or need-to-know situation, turn off the dam* cell phone and relax!!

just my nsho!

easier said than done for some of us

 

[Uncleromulus]

As has been noted, if an emergency at home people CAN call the ship on the special number--charged to a Credit card of course.

We'll just tell anyone who might need to call us (in a genuine emergency) to call and we'll gladly reimburse the cost once we get back.