Unplugging - will a pre-paid phone help?

[Flip flops in winter]

Like so many here, we desperately need to unplug to truly get away. Our last cruise was Alaska back in July and DH's phone kept connecting to the outside world somehow automatically and was a real nuisance. Hundreds of unwanted emails and texts would come flooding in and he had a really difficult time not looking at them - yes, he knows he shouldn't but it's like crack! News of possible paper navigators (upon request) is great to us but I can't assume we'll get this option plus we have kids that use the clubs so we need access to messages. So one way we are thinking about avoiding this is for him to use a burner phone (like a cheapy pre-paid) on the next trip and leaving his work phone completely off. Anyone here had success with this strategy before? I don't know how pre-paids work, but I'm assuming this would work? Can anyone find any flaws in my plan, lol?

 

[dreamer17555]

Put the phone on airplane mode. If not purchasing wifi emails won’t come through.

 

[blktauna]

Yes, airplane mode.

 

[Louise97]

Agree airplane mode is probably the best bet. An alternative for texts/calls, you could switch out the sim for a pre-paid sim to stop those coming through (since it'd be a different number), or turn off the mobile network connection in settings. Maybe he could uninstall the email app for the duration of the trip?

 

[71 Truck]

On our last cruise we were happy they brought back a basic version of the paper navigator. We do not like having to have a phone to find out what was going on, and on the cruise before our last one we tried it and we missed so many thing because it did not work properly for us.

With that out of the way in the past we would bring an old phone that did not have a service plan attached/Sim card removed to it anymore. We were able to only connect to the ships WiFi and used it on airplane mode when the App worked.
You do have to make sure the phones operating system is compatible withe the current version of the App.

 

[cmph]

Airplane mode does NOT stop push notifications. Trust me, they were coming in this week for me (gmail for my personal email, Outlook and Teams for my work account). I did not have paid-WiFi, I turned airplane mode on, and I turned off my cellular data.

I have no problem ignoring personal emails, but the work stuff IS hard to ignore. So, for Outlook, each morning I would tell it to "mute for today" (swipe left on my iphone on one of the home screen notifications, click the 3 dots, choose Mute for Today).

Re: the burner phone option, that wouldn't have worked for me, b/c I still wanted to use iMessage for the half of my immediate family at home. However, if you have no need for that, seems like it might work as long as it's not such a cheap phone that you can't load apps or something. On a previous cruise, we brought an old smartphone that had been wiped for my youngest to use the app, so that is always an option.

 

[blktauna]

Airplane mode does NOT stop push notifications. Trust me, they were coming in this week for me (gmail for my personal email, Outlook and Teams for my work account). I did not have paid-WiFi, I turned airplane mode on, and I turned off my cellular data.

Who's your carrier? I've never run into that before.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Airplane mode does NOT stop push notifications. Trust me, they were coming in this week for me (gmail for my personal email, Outlook and Teams for my work account). I did not have paid-WiFi, I turned airplane mode on, and I turned off my cellular data.

I have no problem ignoring personal emails, but the work stuff IS hard to ignore. So, for Outlook, each morning I would tell it to "mute for today" (swipe left on my iphone on one of the home screen notifications, click the 3 dots, choose Mute for Today).

Re: the burner phone option, that wouldn't have worked for me, b/c I still wanted to use iMessage for the half of my immediate family at home. However, if you have no need for that, seems like it might work as long as it's not such a cheap phone that you can't load apps or something. On a previous cruise, we brought an old smartphone that had been wiped for my youngest to use the app, so that is always an option.

Couldn’t you just stop notifications in settings?

 

[squirk]

Airplane mode doesn’t stop notifications if you have Wi-Fi still turned on (which you need to do in order for the app to work).

If you are using an iPhone, you can set up “Focus” modes that will allow notifications for only the apps and people/numbers you specify. I think (?) there is something similar on Android.

So, for example, you could turn off (“mute”) notifications for every app except the Navigator app, and mute notifications for texts except for your travel party and, say, your house sitter or dog sitter.

I have a Focus mode set up just like that, and I unimaginatively call it “Cruise”.

 

[tvguy]

Airplane mode does NOT stop push notifications. Trust me, they were coming in this week for me (gmail for my personal email, Outlook and Teams for my work account). I did not have paid-WiFi, I turned airplane mode on, and I turned off my cellular data.

I have no problem ignoring personal emails, but the work stuff IS hard to ignore. So, for Outlook, each morning I would tell it to "mute for today" (swipe left on my iphone on one of the home screen notifications, click the 3 dots, choose Mute for Today).

Re: the burner phone option, that wouldn't have worked for me, b/c I still wanted to use iMessage for the half of my immediate family at home. However, if you have no need for that, seems like it might work as long as it's not such a cheap phone that you can't load apps or something. On a previous cruise, we brought an old smartphone that had been wiped for my youngest to use the app, so that is always an option.

Glad I never signed up for push notifications then. Never had my personal email, work email, SLACK or teams on my personal phone. I do have G-mail on the phone, but I only have it because I have a Pixel phone, I never use that email address and I get about 3 mails a month on it, all from Google.
A co-worker signed up for push notifications on just about everything on both his personal and company cell phone. I sat next to him and it drove me nuts......"bing.....bing......bing......bing" constantly all day.

 

[cmph]

Couldn’t you just stop notifications in settings?

Sure - I could go in and click on each application one at a time if I had wanted to. and then reverse that when I got home. It was just easier to mute Outlook for the day the first time one came through, b/c I didn't really care about the others and didn't want to forget to turn them back on when we disembarked.

Who's your carrier? I've never run into that before.

AT&T. I don't remember ever NOT getting push notifications on planes and cruises, though, and AT&T hasn't always been our carrier. I guess some people in this thread would be really bothered by the notifications, but I'm not sure what the big deal is for most things. I don't get notifications for the vast majority of the apps on my phone. For those that I do, I don't have them set to ding at me or anything. It was literally just one app (Outlook) that I wanted to mute each day, to avoid work matters passing under my glance.

 

[cmph]

Airplane mode doesn’t stop notifications if you have Wi-Fi still turned on (which you need to do in order for the app to work).

If you are using an iPhone, you can set up “Focus” modes that will allow notifications for only the apps and people/numbers you specify. I think (?) there is something similar on Android.

So, for example, you could turn off (“mute”) notifications for every app except the Navigator app, and mute notifications for texts except for your travel party and, say, your house sitter or dog sitter.

I have a Focus mode set up just like that, and I unimaginatively call it “Cruise”.

That's a good idea - I have a Focus mode that is essentially the same as do not disturb but will let my kids and husband reach me. I didn't think about setting that up for a cruise. I will try that out this summer!

 

[OpieDoodle]

When I cruise I love to unwind and unplug. I turn off cellular data and I turn off all roaming. I agree it can be hard, by cruising I quickly realized just how often I sit down and try to scroll through facebook not even paying attention.

 

[Flip flops in winter]

Thanks, All. He does have an iPhone so I'll help him set up focus mode. I have an android so had not heard of that. I imagine didn't consider that option since really, he wants to un-focus.

 

[sponica]

Thanks, All. He does have an iPhone so I'll help him set up focus mode. I have an android so had not heard of that. I imagine didn't consider that option since really, he wants to un-focus.

He can also go into outlook and snooze notifications until he turns it off.

For your android, you can use digital wellbeing to block apps during certain points of the day. When I'm using facebook or another app to much, I set a timer on it or hours I'm not allowed to use it.