Wifi ?s

[ctc917]

So we ae going on a 4 day cruise on the Dream to the Bahamas(of course) and now that my youngest is a teen and loving his internet connections I was wondering what he will be able to do and not do on our cruise.
I will not be purchasing an internet package but will sign up for the free package when we get on board, what does this allow you to do usually if you are good with it? so my first question is where do I sign up for this?
My other questions are if we do not sign up for a paying plan and my teen turns on his phone will it just not be usable or will it connect and I will end up with a huge bill from my carrier when I return home?
My other questions are when we dock in the Bahamas will he be able to connect to our Sprint international phone plan from the ship or will that be an issue between the ships wifi and our phones plan? how will we be able to tell the difference on what we are using? Are there places close to where the ship docks where we can access internet/wifi for free? Can you use your phone plans international plan when you are at Castaway Cay or is the Dreams wifi the only option there?
I hope i'm asking the right questions since I'm not too phone savy and I'm just hoping to get some info on what I'm to tell my teen on when he can use his phone internet/wifi and when he can't. Any other suggestions or ideas would be so helpful and needed.

Thanks
ctc917

 

[SmileEar2Ear]

I have many of the same questions... I'm hoping someone will be able to answer.

 

[cvjw]

You sign up for the free 50 mbs the first day on the ship from the navigator app. You can’t do much with it, honestly. I used it to check my messages everyday from my kids.

Talk with your phone carrier about the international plan. We have AT &T and we could pay $10 a day to use our normal phone plan in other countries. it would work in the Bahamas with our phone plan.

We just stopped in Cozumel on the magic and Mexico is included in our normal phone plan. We just took our phones off airplane mode, switched off WiFi and turned on roaming and our phones said AT&T Mexico on them, so we used them as normal. Sitting on the ship.

 

[pixiedustedme]

So we ae going on a 4 day cruise on the Dream to the Bahamas(of course) and now that my youngest is a teen and loving his internet connections I was wondering what he will be able to do and not do on our cruise.
I will not be purchasing an internet package but will sign up for the free package when we get on board, what does this allow you to do usually if you are good with it? so my first question is where do I sign up for this?
My other questions are if we do not sign up for a paying plan and my teen turns on his phone will it just not be usable or will it connect and I will end up with a huge bill from my carrier when I return home?
My other questions are when we dock in the Bahamas will he be able to connect to our Sprint international phone plan from the ship or will that be an issue between the ships wifi and our phones plan? how will we be able to tell the difference on what we are using? Are there places close to where the ship docks where we can access internet/wifi for free? Can you use your phone plans international plan when you are at Castaway Cay or is the Dreams wifi the only option there?
I hope i'm asking the right questions since I'm not too phone savy and I'm just hoping to get some info on what I'm to tell my teen on when he can use his phone internet/wifi and when he can't. Any other suggestions or ideas would be so helpful and needed.

Thanks
ctc917

There is a technology desk, at which someone will help you set up a plan, ensure your phone doesn't rack up a huge bill accidentally, and answer any of these other questions that you have. It is called the Connect@Sea desk.

 

[Numtini]

The free plan might let you check your email quickly once a day. That'd be about it. The packages really aren't about casual surfing, they're more about people who need to stay in touch doing a quick check of messages.

 

[ctc917]

Thanks for everyone's replies and I do understand that I can go ask someone when on ship about the wifi and how it works but I was hoping to get some information ahead of time to inform my teen what his options are for internet when at ports since he will not have any internet while on board since I will not be purchasing internet onboard for him to use. So I was hoping for information for myself and also for him to know ahead of time what the options are onboard(making sure I won't have a huge bill when I return)and at the islands what the options are for a teen that loves his access to the internet.

Thanks

 

[mrsxsparrow]

So we ae going on a 4 day cruise on the Dream to the Bahamas(of course) and now that my youngest is a teen and loving his internet connections I was wondering what he will be able to do and not do on our cruise.
I will not be purchasing an internet package but will sign up for the free package when we get on board, what does this allow you to do usually if you are good with it? so my first question is where do I sign up for this?
My other questions are if we do not sign up for a paying plan and my teen turns on his phone will it just not be usable or will it connect and I will end up with a huge bill from my carrier when I return home?
My other questions are when we dock in the Bahamas will he be able to connect to our Sprint international phone plan from the ship or will that be an issue between the ships wifi and our phones plan? how will we be able to tell the difference on what we are using? Are there places close to where the ship docks where we can access internet/wifi for free? Can you use your phone plans international plan when you are at Castaway Cay or is the Dreams wifi the only option there?
I hope i'm asking the right questions since I'm not too phone savy and I'm just hoping to get some info on what I'm to tell my teen on when he can use his phone internet/wifi and when he can't. Any other suggestions or ideas would be so helpful and needed.

Thanks
ctc917

We get off the ship in Nassau for a bit each trip just to use Wifi. I'm sure there are other options, but we usually head toward Senor Frog's (off the dock, take a right, it's a super short walk) and grab a drink and a bite to eat while checking messages, emails, etc. Admittedly it has been a couple years since we did a Bahamas cruise, but we never had any issues with their wifi.

 

[Lilsia]

Make sure that you turn off automatic updates on your phone. When you log on, some apps will start downloading or using background data that will eat your minutes up fast. I have 2 teens and we have been on several cruises. We all disconnect for the week and neither of my kids has ever complained about not being able to get online they are so entertained while on the cruise.

 

[pixiedustedme]

The free plan might let you check your email quickly once a day. That'd be about it. The packages really aren't about casual surfing, they're more about people who need to stay in touch doing a quick check of messages.

And it will only last even that long if your phone isn't running some kind of update in the background what you might not be aware of. That's why you do want to stop at the Connect@Sea desk. They'll check your phone & make sure you don't have that kind of stuff running in the background, quickly using up your data.

 

[ahain]

I agree with others. The free wi-fi is great for checking e-mail once a day, but you do want to make certain that you have no background updates going on and that you log off immediately after downloading your e-mails. The free wi-fi is not sufficient for your DS to surf, stream or do much messaging. I tell my daughter to plan on disconnecting from her phone while on board.

 

[Numtini]

Thanks for everyone's replies and I do understand that I can go ask someone when on ship about the wifi and how it works but I was hoping to get some information ahead of time to inform my teen what his options are for internet when at ports since he will not have any internet while on board

At ports, you'll find that some restaurants/resorts/whatever will have free wifi available. Otherwise, most phone carriers have a daily plan for foreign use, usually $10/day.

 

[ctc917]

Thanks everyone for the information and I have been telling my teen we will be unplugged during our 4 day cruise but I was looking to see when we dock if there were other options so he could reach out to his friends. I was also wondering if your phone plan can be used in the Bahamas does anyone have phone coverage when in Castaway Cay? But I was still wondering if we do happen to turn our phones off airplane mode while on the ship will you automatically start being charged from your phone company or do you have to pay to buy a package from the ship and then your phone company may charge you for any usage that you might use. If it matters my carrier is Sprint.

Thanks

 

[DisneYE]

The free plan might let you check your email quickly once a day. That'd be about it. The packages really aren't about casual surfing, they're more about people who need to stay in touch doing a quick check of messages.

I usually sign up for the 1GB plan which is $89... on a 7 day cruise I barely manage to use it all
I need to have it for business purposes & bc I like checking twitter in the mornings with my coffee in the verandah.
It won't be enough for watching YT or IG videos (which I know most teens like to do) but its good for basic browsing, emails, text messages.
Totally worth it imo if you need to stay connected.

 

[SmileEar2Ear]

Thanks everyone for the information and I have been telling my teen we will be unplugged during our 4 day cruise but I was looking to see when we dock if there were other options so he could reach out to his friends. I was also wondering if your phone plan can be used in the Bahamas does anyone have phone coverage when in Castaway Cay? But I was still wondering if we do happen to turn our phones off airplane mode while on the ship will you automatically start being charged from your phone company or do you have to pay to buy a package from the ship and then your phone company may charge you for any usage that you might use. If it matters my carrier is Sprint.

Thanks

My understanding is if you go off airplane mode, you might then accidentally connect to Cellular at Sea, which can be very expensive. Even if you don’t make calls/text, etc, your phone might connect to refresh emails, update, or a friend back home might send texts which you would be charged for. I plan to stay on Airplane mode and sign up for the free WiFi. We are traveling without our kids so I plan to turn WiFi on quickly once or twice a day to shoot them a quick hello message through iMessage on our iPhone so it won’t be using our cell plan. Then in Nassau, I believe through Sprint we should have free unlimited texting if you turn roam on. My understanding is once you are in port, the pricey Cellular at Sea carrier has to be turned off, so they won’t be able to charge you. You’ll just be responsible for charges from your own carrier. I called Sprint and messaging was free, but calls and photo messaging had a small charge. I’ve read that texting also works on Castaway Cay, but who knows?

 

[darnheather]

Honestly, I told my teen we were on vacation and that meant no wifi. She wasn't happy at first but learned to live with it and has loved all three of our cruises.

 

[TortoiseTaughtUs]

I’m in Cozumel on the Fantasy right now. (The weather’s been terrible today! ) We’re using Verizon TravelPass while we’re docked—for $10/24hrs we can use our talk, text, and data allowance as we normally would at every port. It’s great because the app is pretty horrible and we can’t use it to communicate. iMessage works on the DCL-GUEST wifi, but unfortunately for me ¾ of smartphone users in my family have Androids.

 

[SG131]

I’m in Cozumel on the Fantasy right now. (The weather’s been terrible today! ) We’re using Verizon TravelPass while we’re docked—for $10/24hrs we can use our talk, text, and data allowance as we normally would at every port. It’s great because the app is pretty horrible and we can’t use it to communicate. iMessage works on the DCL-GUEST wifi, but unfortunately for me ¾ of smartphone users in my family have Androids.

Piggybacking on the thread. I have verizon too and leaving soon on the Fantasy. I was considering using the $10 a day thing, but am a little unsure about it. So it only works when docked? Does Castaway Cay work too? I would like to be able to go on and just look at the news from time to time (including dis news of course) and be able to call home and check in.

 

[TortoiseTaughtUs]

Piggybacking on the thread. I have verizon too and leaving soon on the Fantasy. I was considering using the $10 a day thing, but am a little unsure about it. So it only works when docked? Does Castaway Cay work too? I would like to be able to go on and just look at the news from time to time (including dis news of course) and be able to call home and check in.

It only works in port, as far as I know; we were at sea yesterday and carried the wave phones. Before we left, I signed up for TravelPass on the Verizon website and listed all the countries we’d be in during the trip. After we docked, I turned off airplane mode and my phone connected to the local service (it says “Movistar”). I triggered it by loading a webpage with WiFi turned off, and then I got a “Welcome to Mexico” text from Verizon. I expect it to work similarly throughout the trip. Data speeds here are comparable to Boston, and better than the Connect@Sea ship WiFi.

 

[ctc917]

Thanks everyone for the information. So to connect to the app we turn on airplane mode and wifi and that will connect us to the new app that they are now using for the Navigators and we can also use that to text each other while on the ship, am I right? if not, can someone steer me in the right direction. Now to use the free 50mg they give you, make sure updates don't update automatically, then turn off plane mode, use your email send it, then turn airplane mode back on? or am I totally off and if so, help!!

Thanks
ctc917

 

[cvjw]

Thanks everyone for the information. So to connect to the app we turn on airplane mode and wifi and that will connect us to the new app that they are now using for the Navigators and we can also use that to text each other while on the ship, am I right? if not, can someone steer me in the right direction. Now to use the free 50mg they give you, make sure updates don't update automatically, then turn off plane mode, use your email send it, then turn airplane mode back on? or am I totally off and if so, help!!

Thanks
ctc917

Never turn your airplane mode off while at sea unless you have a plan from your carrier that works at sea. AT&T has a cruise package.

To use your 50 MBs at sea, you go thru the dvc navigator app while airplane mode is on. You are using the ship’s WiFi.