Phone Service

My husband and I are going on a river cruise later this month. We want to get a Europe calling plan for while we are there. We will be in Paris, Prague and many cities in Germany. Verizon is our carrier. My husband has an IPhone and I have an Android. Would one type of phone work better than the other in those countries?

My husband and I are going on a river cruise later this month. We want to get a Europe calling plan for while we are there. We will be in Paris, Prague and many cities in Germany. Verizon is our carrier. My husband has an IPhone and I have an Android. Would one type of phone work better than the other in those countries?

Both should work fine. Just expect to pay quite a bit if you actually make and take calls. You will probably want to set up a data plan with them if you are going to use the phones for internet or maps, translation aps etc.

jc

My husband and I are going on a river cruise later this month. We want to get a Europe calling plan for while we are there. We will be in Paris, Prague and many cities in Germany. Verizon is our carrier. My husband has an IPhone and I have an Android. Would one type of phone work better than the other in those countries?

A lot depends upon the type phones you have. Most European phone services are GSM, most Verizon phones are CDMA. Consequently most Verizon phones do not work effectively in Europe. Verizon does have a world traveler program where they will send you a world phone that is GSM.

(ATT phones are GSM)

I carry a Verizon phone in the US, however when I travel I have an unlocked (not limited to a single carrier) GSM 4 band smart phone that I use when I travel internationally. That way I can either get a local sim to use in it if I am staying primarily in one country or I use a global sim card that I got through ekit, which tends to have low per minute rates. The smart phone that I carry internationally I got through Amazon (unlocked Nokia smart phone which cost about $65). The ekit sim cost $30 plus the talk time.

I have used that set up in numerous countries without problem.

On my last trip (Switzerland, Italy, Germany, France, Netherlands) that setup worked without a hiccup, while several people we were traveling with were having major problems getting their US based phones to work through their carrier plans.

It also has the advantage that I am less concerned about having a $65 dollar phone stolen while traveling then the $500-600 dollar smart phone that I use in the US.

here is the link to Verizons international program

http://www.verizonwireless.com/landingpages/international-travel/

This is very carrier dependent. Also, if your phone is "locked," you probably can't just drop a new SIM into the phone. I know that for AT&T if you bought the phone at a discount, you can't unlock the phone until you've completed your contract obligation--typically two years.

You specifically mentioned a calling plan. I assume that you don't want data. I would call your provider or check their web site. I know that AT&T charges $1.00 per minute for European calls. Also be sure you understand about texts if you text a lot. AT&T advertises "free texts" for Europe, but only the incoming texts are free. If you text back, you're charged $0.50 per message sent.

If you do want data in addition to the ship's wifi, consider renting a wireless hotspot. See the link below for my review of the TEP hotspot.

FuelScience

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2248978&highlight=tep

My husband and I have Android phones with Verizon. They aren't locked - in December we bought prepaid sim cards in Germany (at a mobile store) and used them just fine in our phones:D (however- they only worked in Germany -so if you want multicountry sims you'll have to buy elsewhere - There are several places online you can research what might work best for you) This Flytertalk thread is a nice place to start (I'm researching for our Asia cruise next year - haven't found an option that covers all the countries yet, but tech changes so fast - who knows what'll be in place for next year?)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/1447563-list-prepaid-sim-threads-country-specific-multi-country.html

Some of the newer smart phones such as the Samsung galaxy S6 or Iphone 6 will support both CDMA and GSM. It is device dependent and needs to be able to support GSM for Europe.

Verizon has announced plans to phase out of CDMA in favor of LTE. LTE is the future of GSM. They had announced that all phones sold by Verizon starting in 2014 would be LTE phones. So if your phones are recent ones then you can probably use them in Europe. If they were purchased prior to 2014 then probably not. Your phone manual should say.

Did the Danube this summer with extra time in Budapest, Nuremburg and Hamburg (waiting for QM2 for trip home)

called verizon and added international access to iPhone 5 no problem in about 5 minute conversation with a rep. There were several plans available for various numbers of minutes/megabites/messages etc. We just wanted it as a backup as we had WiFi most of the time .... smallest plan which I think was 100 minutes, 100 text and 10G was something like an additional $25 for a month (and they prorate ... it started the day we arrived in Budapest)

if you have a 'current' iPhone it is NO problem ..... just call 'em (I tried to do it on the web page but could not find Queen Mary in their list of cruise ships ... calling resolved that mystery)

We have T Mobile and I phone 5s. If we make a call it is .20 per minute, data (although a bit slow) free and text messages free from 120 foreign countries. This has saved us when we were 5 weeks in a small German city without wifi in our apartment. In fact our friend who was on a cruise with us got an I phone and t mobile as she travels a lot.

Virtually every smartphone I have seen is a multi-band phone so that the fact that Verizon uses CDMA in the US is irrelevant. The smartphones automatically change to GSM or LTE in Europe. You can also swap the SIM in and out to have local carrier service outside the US. This obviates the cost of roaming.

My Verizon Android phone is two years old and it worked just fine all over Europe. I added the international calling plan and an international data plan for $25/month. These are considered features so you can start and stop whenever you need them. This is not considered a plan change.

Try looking at a company called iRoam. You need an unlocked phone but you get...no roaming, no long distance, etc.

Coverage around the world. Prices depend on what country you are in when you use the service.

It worked flawlessly for us last year in Europe.

Also no charge for incoming texts.

It has been so good for us that we have switched from our previous cell provider to iRoam for our every provider.

I added a month of international service on my Verizon plan, but it was $40 for the 100 minutes of calls, etc. I get a discount through my work so that knocked it down to $32. Ended up not using it, except for getting a @%#^#$! spam text from a payday loan place, and a Bed, Bath and Beyond text with a coupon! Then later I sent my sister a text just because I paid for the access! LOL.

Virtually every smartphone I have seen is a multi-band phone so that the fact that Verizon uses CDMA in the US is irrelevant. The smartphones automatically change to GSM or LTE in Europe.

That is generally true now, but as recently as the iPhone 4, phones that were CDMA only were not at all uncommon.

From the iPhone 4S on the iPhones have been 'world phones' from a hardware perspective.