Do Cell Phones Work On The Ship???

[KewlxPink]

Just wondering if cell phones work ON the ship, in the stateroom, etc.​

 

[Lew]

They'll work only when you are in or near a port that has cell phone service. They will not work when out at sea.

 

[cookleitz]

We have Cingular Cellular service and we had good signal from the time we left port at Port Canaveral until about an hour after we left Key West, even at sea. I took great joy calling our relatives while we were at sea telling how nice it was while they were freezing in IL and IN.

Chris

 

[Buddy Bear]

On our last eastern caribbean cruise we were on our way to St. Thomas when we picked up a signal while passing the normal bahamian islands. When we were close to Eleuthera Catherine tried using the cell phone on the verandah and it worked.

Surprised the heck out of me. What further surprised me was there wasn't any addtional charge for the call. We have Verizon America's Choice plan.

 

[Meskamooska]

Hi All,

I just wanted to share some info I gleaned from my wireless carrier (Verizon) regarding using my cellphone while in Mexico. According to them, the cellphone "should" work (apparently Mexico has frequent "brown-outs", where cell service just drops off for a time for no real reason) in Mexico, HOWEVER it is considered International use and unless you have a plan that pays for that you will be subject to significantly higher roaming fees than you would be here in the States.

The higher fees would come from both sides of the calls carrier. To explain, you would be charged by Verizon an "International Roaming fee 69¢/minute plus pass-through of serving carrier’s tolls, surcharges and taxes". What this means is that you will pay the 69¢/minute for sure as charged by Verizon and could be charged any amount the other service providers involved in making your call work wanted to charge you. You won't know how much you are going to pay totally per minute until you get your bill.

So, if you are a Verizon customer you might wish to consider switching your calling plan for the duration of your cruise to a "GLOBAL CHOICE" plan. It will wind up costing you about $20 extra, give or take but it will assure you that there will be no additional roaming fees charged for your phone use either by Verizon or by any other carrier. You can change easy enough by just giving Verizon a call. Tell them when you are cruising and for how long and they will advise you on what day (depending on your billing cycle) would be the best for you to make the switch. After your cruise you can just call them up again and switch yourself back to whatever your usual plan is.

I don't know how other cellphone providers handle these kind of things (Spring, Cingular, T-Mobil, Nextel, etc) so if you are with them and not Verizon, I would STRONGLY suggest that you give your carrier a call and find out what you need to do to protect yourself and your pocketbook.

I do know that ship-to-shore calls are $6.99/minute. YIKES!

Oh, and if you are traveling with a group and want to be budget concious, you might want to have just one person switch their phone to the Global Service (so you have access to it in an emergency) and you could then let them give that number to friends or family that might need to contact you and yours whilst you are away.

I hope this info proves to be helpful and wish every a Bon Voyage whenever you are sailing!

Take care,

Tisza

 

[debtman7]

It would be really neat if the cruise ships could put an antenna on the boat that would service phones on the boat. I don't know how technically possible that is, but it would be nice to be able to call family and friends on board when they are not in their rooms. Then we could replace the annoying beep of walkie talkies with the annoying ring of cell phones!

 

[bicker]

It's not only technically feasible, but such enhancements are even already planned installation for cruise ships of various cruise lines.

 

[Takia]

AHH!!! So, soon we are going to have cell phones on cruise ships!!! I GO on cruises so that I dont have to deal with my cell phone or the people's around me!!! HAHAH!!

 

[bicker]

Cruise lines typically cram 2000-3000 people together on the same boat, in cabins easily half the size of a normal hotel room. They even make you eat dinner with other people -- strangers!

Due to the close conditions of the cruise ship, passengers can expect to encounter other passengers much more directly than on traditional vacations. Passengers very often have a completely different perspectives on what they want out of a vacation and what they want out of their cruise, and therefore may have completely different manners in which they enjoy their cruise. Some of these differences may indeed be distressing. I don't find walkie-talkies or cellphones distressing, but rather found it distressing when folks put the crew members in difficult positions, or discussed the citizens of the countries we had just visited in a disparaging manner. To increase my own enjoyment of cruising, I found it best to be more tolerant of these differences, and find a means to be happy with cruising despite the fact that not everyone, packed together in such close quarters, is pursuing their vacations in the same way.

On our next Caribbean vacation, we've decided that we want to get away from everyone and everything, so we're going to look to go to one of the islands, and find an out-of-the-way villa, and go hiking to remote beaches that most folks can't even make it to.

 

[tvguy]

Leave the cell phones, and laptops at home.
There is NOTHING happening at home or work that can't wait until you get home, honest.

 

[bicker]

I'd never contact work (or allow work to contact me) while I'm on vacation. Vacation is my time to relax and enjoy myself. I typically use my cell phone to check in with family (who are always incredibly stressed-out whenever I leave the country).

 

[debtman7]

Leave the cell phones, and laptops at home.
There is NOTHING happening at home or work that can't wait until you get home, honest.

Actually, I think the #1 reason for using cell phones on a boat would be to contact other people on board. We have a group of 14 people cruising, staying in 5 different cabins and probably wanting to do all different things, and it would be nice to be able to get in touch with each other from time to time.

And unlike the walkie talkies, cell phones can be put on vibrate. Or just set up your mickey mouse song ringtone, then maybe people won't mind

 

[LoveMickey]

Cell Service on the Wonder

We have Cingular and had cell service for just about 1 hr. after sailing to Nassau.

We did not have it again til we got back.

 

[UGAFan0829]

I know that Nextel doesn't work. Not even the walkie talkies. (They also require good signal to be used, just like the phone part.) The only time that I was able to use my Nextel to call back home was when we were still in Port, and then for a little while that first night. Then, on the way back in, I wasn't able to use it until we were almost completely back into port.

 

[DavidOH]

We were abke to get Cingular service in St Thomas. We did have to pay international roaming charges $0.79 per minute. It took two billing periods for this to catch up to us. We didn;t call for work or anything important just to tell my DSiL that it was 85 and sunny in paradise.

Yep it's just like me to rub it in.

My DF was able to get AT&T service at the same time. Again he said it "cost him extra". Don't know what that really means. But it sounds like roaming charges too.

 

[Rence]

If using a cell phone on the cruise is important to you, then you should call your provider and inquire about the specifics of your phone and your plan.

Coverage varies with providers and can vary from one plan to another within a provider. Just because someone has the same provider as you does not necessarily mean that your phone will work in the same locations. Also the cost can vary wildly from plan to plan. So while one person reports no roaming fees, another person with the same provider may have huge roaming fees.

The phone itself can make a difference. Some phones need to be updated with the most current coverage information. We called before we left and found out that service had recently been added on some islands but that the phone needed a software update to handle it. The update could be done over the phone and we had it in a few minutes. My sister who has the same provider did not update her phone and her's did not work.

We just called and went through port by port. It only took a few minutes and they could give us the specifics for our plan. We were told in each port if we had coverage and what if any additional fees would apply. The service rep also noted the need to update our phone for coverage in some locations.