iPhone help please - going on cruise

[kpadalik]

We are going on a cruise in a couple of weeks, just me and my DH. Our two girls are staying home with their aunt. I have two questions regarding my iPhone.

1) I read somewhere that you have to disable the roaming/3G/WiFi thing somehow. Otherwise, when you are listening to the iPod or doing other "offline" stuff, you may get charged roaming charges or something? Can anyone explain this to me? How do I disable it?

2) Also, I am hoping to touch base with my daughters at some point during the cruise. I have app for free texting. Can I use that or will I get charged for international roaming? What about in port? Can I find a free WiFi spot somewhere and send an email or text real quick w/o being charged roaming, etc? Are there apps that allow me to do this? How do I go about finding these WiFi spots?

Thank you so much for any help. I'm hoping that there is someway to do this!

 

[NWOhioAngela]

You should be okay if you put your phone on airplane mode.

What ports are you visiting? If you're in Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands you're covered in your regular plan. We cruised in March and it was great to be able to send home a quick message and a picture or two while we were in those ports.

 

[darrengs]

You definitely do not want to be hit with roaming data fees, I am talking $20/MB. So as the PP stated you can put your phone into airplane mode, this will disable the phone, 3G and Wifi. Then if you wish to use WiFi you can turn on just the Wifi while leaving the phone in airplane mode.

As for Wifi hotpsots I would suggest posting on CruiseCritic.com.

 

[kpadalik]

We don't know where we are cruising to bc we are doing a last minute cruise. We are watching prices on 5 different cruises. But we will either be in Cozumel/Grand Cayman or the Bahamas.

So I just have to put it in airplane mode? And if there is a game that requires Internet connection, it just won't allow me to connect? Right? I just don't want to make a costly mistake.

And in port, just keep on airplane mode, but switch to wifi and I won't be charged anything? I will post this on cruise critic to find out about wifi. Thx for the suggestion and the help

 

[DEA]

If you go to Settings -> General -> Network
you will see a slider for Data Roaming. Set it to "off" to avoid international data roaming. I recall that it was put in after people racked up tremendous charges while abroad without realizing it.

 

[darrengs]

If you go to Settings -> General -> Network
you will see a slider for Data Roaming. Set it to "off" to avoid international data roaming. I recall that it was put in after people racked up tremendous charges while abroad without realizing it.

There was a problem where in Bermuda the iPhone "thought" it was on AT&T and connected and people were socked with huge roaming fees. I am not sure if this issue still exists or not.


http://dougtoombs.com/2008/07/23/bermuda-the-iphone-and-att-beware-the-data-roaming/