AT and T on Royal Princess

I will admit right away that I am a moron (read cruise neophyte) and I need a very detailed description of cell phone texting, calling and wifi usage on board ship.

If I have ATT, do I have to buy wifi access from the ship for the cruise? If I buy wifi, will my family be able to text between ourselves when at sea? Or do we need a special level of service to achieve this?

When we are at port, if we have wifi, will be we able to text between those on an excursion and those on board. I ask this last understanding that this is not always possible, but is it conceivable?

My largest concern is being able to exchange texts between 4 people on a regular basis.

With regards to maing phone calls, I'm only concerned with one phone being able to do this. What is my best option to achieve this?

Please advise, Mary Louise

I will admit right away that I am a moron (read cruise neophyte) and I need a very detailed description of cell phone texting, calling and wifi usage on board ship.

 

If I have ATT, do I have to buy wifi access from the ship for the cruise? If I buy wifi, will my family be able to text between ourselves when at sea? Or do we need a special level of service to achieve this?

 

If you use your phone on the ship, your bill will be awful. You pay the ship's rates not AT&T. You should keep your phone on airplane mode while onboard.

The ships now have Princess at Sea Intranet. You can text other people onboard at no cost.

Buying WiFi will enable you to use the ship's internet.

 

When we are at port, if we have wifi, will be we able to text between those on an excursion and those on board. I ask this last understanding that this is not always possible, but is it conceivable?

When you are in port, you will be using AT&T, so it would depend on your plan. You should call them and ask.

 

My largest concern is being able to exchange texts between 4 people on a regular basis.

Also depends on your plan. With Sprint, I have free texting internationally. T-Mobile does too. So call AT&T and ask

 

With regards to making phone calls, I'm only concerned with one phone being able to do this. What is my best option to achieve this?

 

Call ATt&T.

Please advise, Mary Louise

Maybe someone with AT&T will know the carrier specifics.

I'm an AT&T customer who spends about 30 days a year on Princess ships and works from the cabin a couple days a week. So I live this problem. It's the biggest factor that keeps me from spending 90 days a year onboard.

Let's treat this as two problems: on-ship and off-ship. This applies to most AT&T plans and most devices unless otherwise noted.

On-ship, when the ship is approximately 12 miles offshore, MCS CellAtSea service kicks in. There is no AT&T feature package that affects rates on Princess. Remember when cell phones cost $4K and roaming was an expensive luxury? Welcome back to the mid-80s. Received SMS and MMS are free. Sending SMS is 50 cents. Sending MMS picture messages is $1.30 Voice calls, either sending or receiving, are $2.50/minute.

Data works - in a way. There's either 1G GPRS or 2G EDGE at glacial speeds - 0.064 to 0.128 Mbps, compared to about 15Mbps for LTE from land-based service. To add insult to injury, it's priced at $8/MB.

To avoid data charges while still receiving complimentary texts, turn off data roaming on your device.

Big exception: iPhones. iMessage doesn't use SMS/MMS by default. They come in with data. So when you turn off data roaming, if you have iMessage enabled, senders with iPhones will see an error message asking them to resend as SMS, and you will get the same message when you try to send back to them.

The service is generally reliable when you're out of sight of land.

WiFi on the ship is generally reliable in public spaces - cabins are pretty variable. If you're sailing after the Ocean Medallion Class upgrades are performed, this should no longer be the case, but nobody knows if the improvements are real or marketing hype yet.

Connecting to the ship's WiFi is free. This enables use of the Princess@Sea intranet site for daily schedules and person-to-person and group messaging. This actually works pretty well, except that there's no alert that you've received a message. So unless you check, you don't know. *grumble*

Internet service is priced per minute you're logged in to internet access. With packages and bonus minutes, you'll pay between 29 cents a minute (680 minute plan) and 59 cents (120 minute plan). I actually don't recall the per-minute rate without a plan. It might be 79 cents.

Quality wise, it's generally slow - like EDGE/2G service or low-end 3G service. It's consistently good enough for Skype audio-only calls or FaceTime Audio. Video calling tends to be less successful. The service is filtered for certain adult sites.

Plans can be shared by multiple users but only one can be logged in at once.

Sticker shocked yet?

Off-ship, in general, the US (including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the USVI) is all your home plan. Data in all the Alaska ports is either 4G or LTE.

Canada and Mexico really, really depend on your plan. There are various features, bonuses, monthly subscriptions or day passes to make it non-extortionate. Do NOT turn on data in Canada or Mexico and blindly expect it to be cheap. You need a feature which may or may not already be on your plan.

For the rest of the world, it's even more confusing. Call AT&T.

When you're in port, the Cell at Sea service is off, and you'll be able to text on or off the ship using the local cell sites. Check with at&t for pricing. Coverage in interior or low decks may be marginal but in general, if you can see daylight you'll have cell coverage.

The main thing I've learned...put your cell phone in airplane mode when at sea. And in most ports you can find free Wifi, just look for a Starbucks or McDonald's (they are everywhere!). Don't check your emails or post pictures until you're sure it's safe to do so without getting a huge bill...learned that the hard way on our first European cruise.

Maybe someone with AT&T will know the carrier specifics.

Thanks apeller!

with regards to this part of your reply:

If you use your phone on the ship, your bill will be awful. You pay the ship's rates not AT&T. You should keep your phone on airplane mode while onboard.

The ships now have Princess at Sea Intranet. You can text other people onboard at no cost.

Buying WiFi will enable you to use the ship's internet.

Does this intranet you speak of work on the ship when your phone is in airplane mode?

Thanks

Mary Louise

Does this intranet you speak of work on the ship when your phone is in airplane mode?

Thanks

Mary Louise

Yes it does.

However, be aware that there is no audible text notification when you text using the Princess@Sea app. You have to be looking at your phone and have the app open in order to know you have received a text.

Here's the link to the Princess webpage describing the free Princess@Sea intranet using free WiFi which no longer requires any app.

http://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/onboard-experience/activities/princess-at-sea/

"Getting started with Princess@Sea is easy. Simply connect to the ship’s WIFI once onboard, open the browser on your computer, tablet, mobile phone or other device, and Princess@Sea will be the default page that appears. It even operates in "Airplane Mode". No cellular or data charges required!"

Yes it does.

 

However, be aware that there is no audible text notification when you text using the Princess@Sea app. You have to be looking at your phone and have the app open in order to know you have received a text.

Thank you! Mary Louise

Look look for the app "Find Free Wifi" which will direct you to free Wifi spots. Another way is to ask crew members that have already figured out the spots. Yes, Mc Donald's & Starbucks are excellent choices for free Wifi connection. I have noticed before, with a lot of crew members inside the location, the connection speed can be slow. I have also asked a tour guide which may have helpful information.

Tom😎

I have successfully used WiFi calling on AT&T from a ship. Put the phone in airplane mode; then turn on Wifi and log into the ship's internet. It uses data instead of cell service to call anyone in the US at no charge, except for the charge for the ship's internet. Since DW and I both have Platinum internet, I don't know how much it would cost if you were paying for the data.

AT&T has several international plans to add to your service - text messages just 15 cents. Just in case you need a bit of mobile roaming in town. Princess fees are hefty. Make sure you put your cell phone on Airplane mode. When wi-fi is available, I use facebook to share photos and facebook messenger to make free calls to family in USA (callee also needs to have same apps to receive your call). It's free and you have the option to use video mode to see each other. I think skype has something similar. Also remember to sync email when you have free wi-fi.