iPhone 5 w/ iOS 8.3 phone setting while traveling to Vancouver

[halfmonkey]

Our cruise to Vancouver is coming up in a few months and we're in the process of getting everything in order for our cruise and mini-vacation of 4 nights in Vancouver pre-cruise. My question is about our cell phone. We have Verizon and in looking at their travel plans, it appears that the plans that they show are for people to add that frequently travel to Canada or Mexico. The plans show for an additional $5, you get 100 minutes of talk, 100 sent tests, and unlimited received texts. The data is only 100mb. Since we're not frequent travelers to either of these countries, I don't think the plans are what we're looking for.

We currently have old grandfathered plans where we still have unlimited data plans on both of our iphones. I'm worried that because these appears to be "plans" that I would need to add to my existing plan, once we come back from our trip and I remove these "plans," I'm worried that VZ will somehow remove our unlimited data and force us to one of their new limited data plans due to some technicality.

With that being said, we may just have to do a pay as you go and bring walkie-talkies and limit our data use to the free wi-fi around the city. If we go this route, can someone set me straight on the iphone settings? I assume, we'll need to set roaming to Voice Only and turn off Data Roaming.

As for joining the free wi-fi spots around the city, I believe we'll need to turn on Ask to Join Networks. Currently, we have it off and it's my understanding that the phone will only automatically join networks that it has previously joined. Otherwise, we would need to manually enter and set up to join an available wi-fi network. If I turn this feature on, it's my understanding that anytime my iphone detects an available wi-fi network, it'll ask if I want to join it. Is this correct?

 

[Saamh]

When we travel in Europe we put our iPhones in airplane mode the entire time. I have to manually join wifi networks manually. When I'm somewhere that has wifi (or if I want to see if there are any available wifi connections) I go into settings - wifi and then look at the list of available connections. Ones with a lock next to them require a log in (some places will provide you with the code with a purchase or have it posted). You can try to join others that aren't locked. Most times once it connects you have to open Safari and accept the terms before you're fully connected.

 

[Disneyteachers]

Our cruise to Vancouver is coming up in a few months and we're in the process of getting everything in order for our cruise and mini-vacation of 4 nights in Vancouver pre-cruise. My question is about our cell phone. We have Verizon and in looking at their travel plans, it appears that the plans that they show are for people to add that frequently travel to Canada or Mexico. The plans show for an additional $5, you get 100 minutes of talk, 100 sent tests, and unlimited received texts. The data is only 100mb. Since we're not frequent travelers to either of these countries, I don't think the plans are what we're looking for.

We currently have old grandfathered plans where we still have unlimited data plans on both of our iphones. I'm worried that because these appears to be "plans" that I would need to add to my existing plan, once we come back from our trip and I remove these "plans," I'm worried that VZ will somehow remove our unlimited data and force us to one of their new limited data plans due to some technicality.

With that being said, we may just have to do a pay as you go and bring walkie-talkies and limit our data use to the free wi-fi around the city. If we go this route, can someone set me straight on the iphone settings? I assume, we'll need to set roaming to Voice Only and turn off Data Roaming.

As for joining the free wi-fi spots around the city, I believe we'll need to turn on Ask to Join Networks. Currently, we have it off and it's my understanding that the phone will only automatically join networks that it has previously joined. Otherwise, we would need to manually enter and set up to join an available wi-fi network. If I turn this feature on, it's my understanding that anytime my iphone detects an available wi-fi network, it'll ask if I want to join it. Is this correct?

I'm grandfathered in too so interested to hear the best plan for this. We will have some time on either end in Vancouver and I'm not sure what the best method is!

 

[xlxo]

Whatever you do in Vancouver..... should be the same as on the ship.... there's roaming charges on the boat too.

 

[KristiMc]

We just got off the Wonder in Vancouver. We kept our phones in airplane mode and connected to wifi where available.

 

[halfmonkey]

Whatever you do in Vancouver..... should be the same as on the ship.... there's roaming charges on the boat too.

When I get on the ship, I plan to just actually turn our phones off as I'm not even sure our phones would even get cellular phone service let alone data service so I'm not concerned there. I will say that I believe there's a new DCL app that we can use while on the ship so maybe I'll have it in airplane mode and connect to the wi-fi while onboard. I thought I read somewhere that they have wi-fi service that you can pay for while onboard and then there's also a free wi-fi service only usable with the app. Not sure if this is accurate but if I can't get the app to connect, I'm not terribly concerned as I'll just stick with using the Navigator like we did last time.

While I'm in Vancouver, I'm not terribly concerned with receiving and making phones calls and getting charged the roaming fees because we can control that what calls we take. Data on the other hand, you have no idea of when data is being consumed whether while using an app or in the background so we plan on only using data when we can connect to free wi-fi.

For communication, we plan on bringing walkie talkies while in lines and for things like that.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Even Canada is very expensive for calling and data. It's a good idea to turn off all cell data services and updates for apps. There is wifi on the ship. Usually 50 mbs are free if you sign up first day. We usually get 1000 for the week which costs about 89 and use it for checking Email and Facebook, etc. Get Skype on your phone before you go and buy a few credits. When you are on wifi you can make Skype calls through wifi for pennies. Also texting is very cheap, much cheaper than calling. And each stateroom has two wave phones thst you can use onboard for texting or calling each other. If you need more than two there is a small charge per extra wave phone for the week.

 

[KristiMc]

When I get on the ship, I plan to just actually turn our phones off as I'm not even sure our phones would even get cellular phone service let alone data service so I'm not concerned there. I will say that I believe there's a new DCL app that we can use while on the ship so maybe I'll have it in airplane mode and connect to the wi-fi while onboard. I thought I read somewhere that they have wi-fi service that you can pay for while onboard and then there's also a free wi-fi service only usable with the app. Not sure if this is accurate but if I can't get the app to connect, I'm not terribly concerned as I'll just stick with using the Navigator like we did last time.

While I'm in Vancouver, I'm not terribly concerned with receiving and making phones calls and getting charged the roaming fees because we can control that what calls we take. Data on the other hand, you have no idea of when data is being consumed whether while using an app or in the background so we plan on only using data when we can connect to free wi-fi.

For communication, we plan on bringing walkie talkies while in lines and for things like that.

To use the Navigator App you put your phone in airplane mode and then turn wifi on and connect to DCL_Guest. This is free. If you want further access you have to pay. We used the App all week. It is nice to see all of the activities for the week and you can select favorites and will get a notification 15 minutes prior to the activity starting. The chat feature is also nice and it was nice to be able to just carry my phone and not have use the Wave phones as in previous cruises.