I agree. I use my phone as normal off the ship. But I said I knew people who would not. Likely some folks don’t have phones that would even connect outside the US. Between those, the ones who refuse to pay $10, and the ones who pride themselves on disconnecting and connect to come here to tell us us about it, a ship can never reach everyone in an emergency.
it really sounds like HAL did a great job in this case. I’d like to think if I heard bombs my inclination would be to get back to the ship immediately. And to call the ship…again, another reason to have an operational phone!