Wi-Fi- ??

[John VN]

This only works when the ship is in port and your phone connects to land-based cell towers. Mexico was included in my unlimited plan, but Bahamas had a similar daily charge.

Out at sea, your phone will connect to ship cellular service provided by "Cellular at Sea". At sea, my service charges $4/minute voice, 10 cents per SMS text, and $1/Megabyte download. If you download a Gigabyte, that's $1000 charge!

It's best to keep your phone in airplane mode while on the ship!


-Paul

We returned yesterday from a 4 day and had phones on airplane mode as we left PC. Wednesday afternoon we had a day at sea and while in the cabin DW's phone rings ????? Being both concerned and confused she answered since it was a family member who only wanted to talk about our cruise line of choice. OOPS, somehow the phone got off airplane mode soooooo

 

[DCL58]

I just remembered that my oldest daughter is on our plan with Verizon and is going to Japan soon. I think we purchased a daily plan for each line while we were in the Caymans, I think it was like $10 per line, per day. Will such work well for her while in Japan?

It is $12 per day now with AT&T. My boys have used the international day pass for years while traveling in Europe.

 

[pjacobi]

I never encountered the cellular at sea service.

If "Roaming" is disabled on your phone, it probably won't automatically connect to "Cellular at Sea" service.

Most people have "Roaming" enabled because most cell plan now allow free roaming within the US. The exception is in foreign countries and a sea where additional charged will apply.


-Paul

 

[AquaDame]

We buy eSims when we travel and it is much cheaper than paying per day. Here are my last few examples - you choose data amount and length of time. Most are a couple weeks and region not just one country.

The downside is they don’t use your phone # as you switch the eSIM. WiFi calling works if you turn that on and we still get iMessages as long as they are sent to our emails associated with our AppleIDs and not phone #, which works for us.


These are for on land though. My husband is trying one meant to use cellular at sea this April for the first time that is more expensive - I think $57 or so for 3GB. We’ll see how well it works!

 

[Kit Jackson]

WiFi calling works if you turn that on and we still get iMessages as long as they are sent to our emails associated with our AppleIDs and not phone #, which works for us.

Just wanted to post this as a PSA regarding text messages. iMessages only work if you have an iPhone and are only trying to communicate with other iPhone users (which is the case for many people). If you or someone in your travel party uses Android, WhatsApp will allow you to communicate with people on land and on the ship without needing to worry about wifi, minutes, data, and similar concerns.