Trying to stay connected to techphobic elder Mom

[chirurgeon]

I'm going on a PC Repo. Mom refuses to cruise and since we live together we communicate every day, obviously. When I go away, on any trip, we always talk once or twice a day. Fourteen days is a long time to not talk. IF I can get her to get used to an iPad, and that's a big if, how much wifi does face time use?

 

[ImprovGal]

While I have not used Facetime, I would imagine it would blow through the MB quite rapidly. I travel with a netbook and I quickly learned that because of all the images in my newsfeed, just using facebook would eat through my MB. Since Facetime involves streaming video, that's got to be a worse memory eater.

Can you get your mom set up with an email account and just shoot her an email every now and then? While I don't live with my parents, we are close and see or talk to each other most days of the week. When I or they are travelling, we just check in periodically via email.

 

[ASchwa]

I'm going on a PC Repo. Mom refuses to cruise and since we live together we communicate every day, obviously. When I go away, on any trip, we always talk once or twice a day. Fourteen days is a long time to not talk. IF I can get her to get used to an iPad, and that's a big if, how much wifi does face time use?

I did the PC last year. On embarkation day I called my family to let them know I was on the ship and also let them know I was not going to be in constant contact with them. I did call from Key West, I know your not going there, but then I emailed once after key West and for Mother's Day I called from my stateroom. I think it is about $6.99 a minute. I spent less than $15 on the call. I know that for the wifi the biggest package for it is $89. Maybe you can use that for face time.

 

[jtba]

if FaceTime takes up too much bandwidth, how about sending text messages with her on the iPad? would that work for your mom? assuming you have an iDevice too, you can use iMessage and txt each other easily.

 

[Patinmn]

It has been my experience that my bandwidth on the ship was not good enough to FaceTime. Maybe you might try to just do an audio call with Skype, but I still think that may be an issue.

As long as your mother is in good health, I would just have a conversation with her and let her know the issues and costs of daily communication. Is this something she is concerned about, or is this just for your peace of mind. it is always best to start a dialogue and see what her expectations are.

 

[Flossbolna]

You could use Skype to call her on her phone. You need to have an account with Skype that you add money to. Then you can just dial her number and call her from your smartphone with the Skype app.There is a low fee per minute.

It will use quite a bit of data. But depending what your plans are in the different ports, you should be able to find free wifi in every port.

Unfortunately I can currently not access skype itself from my work computer, but this is a starting point.
https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10917/can-i-call-people-in-other-countries-with-skype

Even if you were to use factime, you should use the non-video (just audio) version of facetime as it will work much better with limited bandwith.

 

[elaine amj]

What my friend did was call each time she stopped at a a port. So every few days. Maybe pick up some kind of international phone card? (depends on your ports of course).

Your mom may have to handle not talking to you every single day during this cruise.

 

[Quellman]

text messaging is a simple solution, and one that you can send a few photos on. It will not cost you too much in terms of data either.

 

[elaine amj]

text messaging is a simple solution, and one that you can send a few photos on. It will not cost you too much in terms of data either.

Text messaging via wifi using the ship's data plan?

I've used apps like Heywire to send text messages using wifi/data only. It shows up on the recipient's phone like a normal text message. (not sure if your mom does texting).

What about using a Skype app to call your mom's landline phone? You should be able to use the ship's data plan to do this although you will also have to pay a small fee to skype (I believe there are other alternatives these days too)

 

[Quellman]

Text messaging via wifi using the ship's data plan?

Yes, using the wifi. It should be cheaper than any of the 'cellular at sea' options. Especially if you want to have lengthy conversations via text. You can either use a texting app, or if you have an iDevice to iDevice, it will send as an iMessage which can be done via wifi instead of cellular. Txt messages measure in the kbs. So the free 50mb they give you at the start of the cruise could potentially be enough for maybe 10 cellphone taken photos (approx 20mb total) with 30 mb reserved for text messages.

 

[elaine amj]

I use texting apps like Whatsapp to communicate with friends in other countries. It's awesome because it is all wifi based. Plus it uses very little data.

Depends on OP's mom's comfort with using an app though? Not even sure OP's mom texts at all?

 

[RRB]

So if you turned your phone to Airplane Mode in order to save on data usage, you would then have to take it off Airplane Mode in order to send/receive texts, correct? When you turn the Airplane Mode off to text, the phone would then download all the emails that are in the ques?

 

[elaine amj]

You can go into your settings and turn off your data instead. That way u can still use WiFi, calls, and texts.

I only use airplane mode if I don't want to accidentally do one of the three. In my one phone with no data plan, the data setting is turned off almost all the time.

 

[GooniesAndy]

I used an app called MagicJack to make calls home over wifi. I didn't make hugely long calls, but it didn't take up much bandwidth. Occasionally they had trouble hearing me, but for the most part it was just fine. My phone was so locked down, because I was paranoid about using up too much data that the one time I forgot to sign out of the wifi overnight my phone only used 2 MBs. I never took it off of airplane mode, but I left wifi on at all times so that I could use the DCL app.