Ship to shore phone charges??

[kcand sunshine]

Anyone used the phone before? Just curious how much it is a minute?????? Thanks

 

[wishiwasgolfing]

I read somewhere where it was $7.00 per/minute. But I don't know when that rate applied so it's probably more by now.

OUCH !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[IrishCowboy]

Hi Kcand Sunshine!

We picked up some pre-paid phone cards at our local Sam's Club and used them at pay phones in St Thomas to call back home. They average less than $0.04 per minute.

Have fun on your upcoming trip. Your going during AEA week, aren't you?

 

[kcand sunshine]

Yes, we are and we're from B'ham also. We have the 5:25AM flight! Do you think if we get to the airport at 4 AM we'll be OK? My TA thinks it'll be fine but we haven't flown since September.
We are so excited.Thanks for the tip. I just thought I should call and check in at home at least once.

 

[Pugdog007]

You'll be fine if you get to B'ham Airport 1 hr before flight. Just flew out last week and our airport is flowing SMOOTHLY in comparison to some others I've been through lately.

Also - ship to shore is $7.95 per minute! OUCH!

 

[kcand sunshine]

Are you sure 1 hour is enough time with it being Spring Break?My TA said to allow 1 1/2 hours which means getting there at 4AM. I can't miss the flight so I'm scared to take a chance. Delta says 2 hours and I know that there aren't many flights that leave at 5Am!!!

 

[IrishCowboy]

Kcand sunshine,
Are you parking at the airport or is someone dropping you off? Sometimes the B'ham airport parking lot gets full on holiday weekends and you may have trouble finding a parking spot on Saturday morning. 1 1/2 hours should be plenty of time that early in the morning.

Have a great trip!

 

[CamColt]

Can you use calling cards from the ships phones? If so, how do they work? I dont know much about calling cards if you couldnt tell.
When we cruise I only plan to get off the boat at Castaway Cay, but I do want to call my kids at home once or twice during the cruise(3 day).

 

[kcand sunshine]

Thanks Irish cowboy,
We're either taking a cab or someone's dropping us off.I also took your recommendation of doing the Golden Eagle catamaran.It sounds like a blast. Hope my kids don't get sick. We're also doing the Atlantis sub trip and plan to go to Magen's Bay. I just found out today that some friends of my sons are going to St. Thomas for the week and they are staying near Red Hook beach. Do you know anything about it?

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Originally posted by CamColt

Can you use calling cards from the ships phones?

No, all calls, regardless of whether you're calling a toll-free number, or using a calling card, or even if the ship's docked in Port Canaveral, cost $6.95/minute. There's no way around this.

When we cruise I only plan to get off the boat at Castaway Cay, but I do want to call my kids at home once or twice during the cruise(3 day).

There are no phones at Castaway Cay, so if you want to use a public phone to call your kids, you'll need to do that at Nassau.

Perhaps you'd like to arrange to email them once or twice during the cruise. Email at the Internet Cafe is considerably cheaper than ship-to-shore phone calls.

 

[Pugdog007]

My most recent flight out of B'ham last week (to Lake Tahoe) left at 6:30am. I had someone to drop me off in front at approx 5:30, and made it with time to spare. And this included a thorough search at security, where I had to boot up my laptop, take off my shoes and have the full-body with the wand thing. All that and I still had time to spare. Our airport is quite efficient, considering. (OK we won't mention the screw up where the medal detectors were accidentally disabled last week in Concource C!)

So my advice... relax

Ginger

 

[ruvidu]

I know I have used my cell phone from St. Thomas. What kind of signal would you get in Nassau?

 

[SingingMom]

It may sound silly, but we decided to get the unlimited Internet package instead of using the telephone! When I thought of the possible cost of my phone call home to mom, "YES - WE ARRIVED SAFELY - I CAN HEAR YOU - CAN YOU HEAR ME?? -- YES I SAID WE ARE HAVING A GREAT TIME - NO - I DIDN'T SAY WE "HATE", I SAID IT WAS "GREAT" "..... You get the idea! That call could have cost the same as the Internet package!! lol

With the Internet package, I emailed almost every evening between dinner and the show - cc'd my family and some friends, sort of a day by day ship report.

My sister loved my updates; she had gone on a 3 day when DCL first started cruising (actually won the trip for 4 on a call in show of WABC Radio in NY!) and said it was like "re-living the Magic"!

They have AOL, so that was fun - my buddy list came up and surprised a friend by IM'ing. Told me to "get off the computer and go have a Mai Tai" for him!

 

[kcand sunshine]

Pugdog007,

Thanks. Did you fly Delta? I had a friend at work that went to Tahoe last week too and she said the same thing but flew American.I would think an hour is plenty of time at 4:15 in the morning-I guess we'll leave at 4 and have a little over an hour to kill.We have an 1 1/2in Atlanta so we'll eat breakfast there. Thanks and can't wait!!!!

 

[Joe & Joanne]

Hi Folks

Here is a suggestion!

Before you go on your cruise, send an email to yourself with the names of all those folks you want to send info on the trip to. Do not open the email until you get on the ship. That way when you do get on board all you have to do is go to your mail server, open the email, "copy" all the addresses and "paste" them into a new email. Write your email but "do not" mark your original email as being read so it will be there next time. Saves some time and you don't have to remember all the folks with not missing anyone. Enjoy your trips.

 

[Pugdog007]

Negative on Delta - flew Continental with a 1 1/2 layover in Houston. I typically search Expedia and book whatever airline can give me the best rate, along with an acceptable route/schedule. I'm not faithful to any one airline I must say though that I was quite impressed with Continental... it having been the first time I'd flown with them.

My trip to Tahoe was actually a business trip. Looking forward to a "real" vacation in May on the Magic!

Where are you in B'ham? I'm in Trussville.

 

[CamColt]

Thanks Dave. I pretty much thought I was SOL, but I figured Id check. Emailing is a great option, except my kids are 2 & 5 and cant read. I dont know if they would get the full effect of Grandma reading it to them.

I hate the thought of getting off the bought in Nassau. YUK! But it looks like thats what we will be doing. Im sure Ill miss the kids so much by then that I will want to go call them.

Can I just verify one thing, do calling cards not work on the ship at all, or do they work, just at the higher charge(Im not too sure how they work to begin with, if you couldnt tell ).
Thanks again!