verizon TravelPass while cruising Eastern Caribbean (Updated-trip completed)

[halfmonkey]

We're currently booked on a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise in March of 2017 and was wondering if anybody knows anything about using their cell phones while at ports at the stopovers? We plan to upgrade to the iPhone7 and are on the new plans that they released a few weeks ago. It's my understanding that if you use roaming services while in some approved countries, you'll just use up your domestic plan allotments and pay $10 per day of use.

Does anybody know if the TravelPass is available in Tortola, St. Thomas/Charlotte Amalie, and Castaway Cay?

 

[adamki]

Verizon has an international trip planner: http://www.verizonwireless.com/support/trip-planner-tool/

St. Thomas is the US Virgin Islands, so your domestic text/data rates should apply, but calls appear to be a higher rate ($1.99/minute, according to a list from 2013).

The British Virgin Islands are a Travel Pass destination, so you can do the $10/day plan, but the Bahamas are not, so the rate is either $2.06/megabyte and $1.79/minute voice or $40 for 100MB, 100 texts and 100 minutes of voice.

 

[phinz]

Verizon now considers St. Thomas to be local. This is a very recent change. Voice, data and text are all no charge.

 

[halfmonkey]

Verizon now considers St. Thomas to be local. This is a very recent change. Voice, data and text are all no charge.

When you say "local," does that mean that I don't even have to pay the $10 per day use of the TravelPass when calling, texting, or using data in St Thomas or do you mean that I will need to pay the $10 per day TravelPass but I won't be charged international roaming rates and charges?

 

[phinz]

Yes. Use the trip planner and just enter the USVI with nothing else. It will show it as Domestic and no charge. You won't need a TravelPass for St. Thomas.

 

[halfmonkey]

Our trip is around the corner so I was wondering if anything has changed for British Virgin Island and US Virgin Island? It looks like Verizon has Tortola listed as part of the British Virgin Island so it looks like it will cost $10 per day per line that uses talk, text, and data. As for St. Thomas/St. John, my itinerary lists it as US Virgin Island and someone above said that it is now considered a local/US location so no extra charge to my minutes,texts, or data usage. Just my normal allowances.

So my other question is how about Castaway Cay? Does it costs $10 while on the island or is it considered as part of the US? I assume it'll be $10.

 

[CM Dad]

So my other question is how about Castaway Cay? Does it costs $10 while on the island or is it considered as part of the US? I assume it'll be $10.

Castaway Cay is not part of the US. It is a Bahamian island

 

[halfmonkey]

Castaway Cay is not part of the US. It is a Bahamian island

It looks like the Bahamas is listed as part of the Travelpass program for $10.

Does anybody with Verizon wireless actually have recent experience with using their phones in these location? I'd like to get confirmation that you were only charged the $10/day per phone. We're on the family share plans (not on the new unlimited plans) using iPhone 7's. I'm not worried about going over my data allowance as we have plenty, plus we get rollover data allowances too. Just want to make sure I don't get hit with surprise roaming and per bit data charges because those will be very costly.

 

[cruiser21]

We're currently booked on a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise in March of 2017 and was wondering if anybody knows anything about using their cell phones while at ports at the stopovers? We plan to upgrade to the iPhone7 and are on the new plans that they released a few weeks ago. It's my understanding that if you use roaming services while in some approved countries, you'll just use up your domestic plan allotments and pay $10 per day of use.

Does anybody know if the TravelPass is available in Tortola, St. Thomas/Charlotte Amalie, and Castaway Cay?

You've given me another reason to put up with Sprints poor customer service. We have free international. Service is not that great on castaway if you're trying to surf the web.

 

[halfmonkey]

So something I just learned that I didn't realize before. You actually have to add the Travelpass international plan to your acct before you can access it. If I'm understanding it correctly, if you travel to Bahamas for example and you don't have the Travelpass plan on your acct, you'd be paying the normal roaming rates for talk, text, and data. If you have the Travelpass plan on your acct, then once you make a call, text, or use data, you'll automatically activate the Travelpass plan and be charged the $10/day per phone to access the plan. Hope this helps somebody.

 

[msmama]

So something I just learned that I didn't realize before. You actually have to add the Travelpass international plan to your acct before you can access it. If I'm understanding it correctly, if you travel to Bahamas for example and you don't have the Travelpass plan on your acct, you'd be paying the normal roaming rates for talk, text, and data. If you have the Travelpass plan on your acct, then once you make a call, text, or use data, you'll automatically activate the Travelpass plan and be charged the $10/day per phone to access the plan. Hope this helps somebody.

I was just coming to say this. You have to sign up for it. But it was easy to do online.

I haven't used it where you're going but I did use it in Canada and it worked fine (canada is cheaper than $10 per day).

 

[JeanfromBNA]

I did this for our Southern Caribbean cruise last year. Signed up in advance on the phone with Verizon. $40 covered all of the Caribbean countries except, I think, Grenada. Limits were as described above. The plan was fine; cell service in some countries was spotty.

 

[halfmonkey]

Finished our cruise about a week ago and got my verizon bill. Travel pass worked out great. It was basically $10 per day per phone. I think it's technically each 48 hour period. I'm not sure so you'll want to double check. In any case, we visited Tortola, St Thomas, and Castaway Cay. It looks like the charges only applied to Tortola and Castaway Cay. Guessing St Thomas didn't get charged because it's the USVI. Keep in mind data was 3G on Tortola and St Thomas and LTE on Castaway Cay. Info in case anybody else needed clarification.