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Viking Ocean - cell phone use


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If your phone is new enough (I have an iPhone 6), you won’t need cell service on the ship. Your phone can make and receive calls via their WiFi service, which is free. (It was also pretty crappy on the Sky, but that seems to be par for the course.)

 

I believe the terms for cell service are handled by your provider. FWIW, AT&T’s international day plan does NOT cover calls made at sea; those cost much more. If your phone can’t handle calls made over a WiFi connection, I would get your carrier’s best international plan and only use it when you’re on shore. Or get a newer phone. ;)

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Most cell carriers charge pretty outrageous fees for cruise ship cell service. We have Verizon and use the Wi-Fi for communications while at sea. When we got back from one trip we discovered a $95 charge for a brief call from the cruise ship. As it turned out, the call was made in port from the dock, but the ship tower was stronger than the local cell tower and so the call was routed through the cruise ship tower, hence the exorbitant bill (at least that is what Verizon told us). I was able to prove that we were not on the ship when the call was made and had no way of knowing the call was handled by the cruise ship cell service so Verizon reversed the charge. In other ports, we made calls from the balcony of the ship and had no problems with those calls being picked up by the local towers. I have no idea how the technology works, but just a word of caution if you are using your cell phone on or near the ship while in port.

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If not on flight mode your flight will connect to Maritime which is hideously expensive and your mobile phone company are the ones sending you the bill for it.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Most cell carriers charge pretty outrageous fees for cruise ship cell service. We have Verizon and use the Wi-Fi for communications while at sea. When we got back from one trip we discovered a $95 charge for a brief call from the cruise ship. As it turned out, the call was made in port from the dock, but the ship tower was stronger than the local cell tower and so the call was routed through the cruise ship tower, hence the exorbitant bill (at least that is what Verizon told us). I was able to prove that we were not on the ship when the call was made and had no way of knowing the call was handled by the cruise ship cell service so Verizon reversed the charge. In other ports, we made calls from the balcony of the ship and had no problems with those calls being picked up by the local towers. I have no idea how the technology works, but just a word of caution if you are using your cell phone on or near the ship while in port.

 

https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/travelpass-faqs/

 

Check this out. TravelPass is very good. It worked for us on the cruise (you would need to list countries you will visit on the cruise) and our son during his travel in Europe. He used his phone all the time and the charge was $10.00 per 24 hours. This international plan works against of your current plan. We have unlimited data, text and minutes but if you have a limit, you would need to monitor your usage.

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https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/travelpass-faqs/

 

Check this out. TravelPass is very good. It worked for us on the cruise (you would need to list countries you will visit on the cruise) and our son during his travel in Europe. He used his phone all the time and the charge was $10.00 per 24 hours. This international plan works against of your current plan. We have unlimited data, text and minutes but if you have a limit, you would need to monitor your usage.

We do use the Travel Pass in countries where it applies. My point was to caution people that even with Travel Pass (or some other version of it from other carriers) if you are not careful, you may inadvertently access the ship’s cell tower even when you are off the ship, depending on the strength of the nearest local cell tower and where you are using the phone. In our case, we were using the phone on the dock right next to the ship, thinking we were accessing the local cell service (and therefore covered by the Travel Pass rates). It only happened to us once (I think in Zadar or Kotor) but the result was a nearly $100 phone call.

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We do use the Travel Pass in countries where it applies. My point was to caution people that even with Travel Pass (or some other version of it from other carriers) if you are not careful, you may inadvertently access the ship’s cell tower even when you are off the ship, depending on the strength of the nearest local cell tower and where you are using the phone. In our case, we were using the phone on the dock right next to the ship, thinking we were accessing the local cell service (and therefore covered by the Travel Pass rates). It only happened to us once (I think in Zadar or Kotor) but the result was a nearly $100 phone call.

Phone usage on the ship is covered. I called from the ship and was billed $10.00 only. Please note that I made several calls that day.

I'm not sure what happened in your case but I specified the line and ship names as well as countries we will be visiting.

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Phone usage on the ship is covered. I called from the ship and was billed $10.00 only. Please note that I made several calls that day.

I'm not sure what happened in your case but I specified the line and ship names as well as countries we will be visiting.

Cruise ship rates on Verizon are a separate category of international rates and are not covered by the $10/day Travel Pass Plan. I just re-verified that on Verizon’s website (which incidentally did not list Viking as among the cruise lines that they cover with their cruise line rates). See https://www.verizonwireless.com/solutions-and-services/international-travel/. If you sign up for the cruise ship plan it is a “pay as you go” plan at $2.99 a minute and 50 cents for each incoming and outgoing text message. As I mentioned in my original post, if you are in port you can often use your Travel Pass coverage while on the ship as long as your phone pings the local tower and not the ship’s cell antenna. At sea, however, when you are out of range of local, land-based carriers, I believe you will be paying very high rates even if you have the cruise ship plan.

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Cruise ship rates on Verizon are a separate category of international rates and are not covered by the $10/day Travel Pass Plan. I just re-verified that on Verizon’s website (which incidentally did not list Viking as among the cruise lines that they cover with their cruise line rates). See https://www.verizonwireless.com/solutions-and-services/international-travel/. If you sign up for the cruise ship plan it is a “pay as you go” plan at $2.99 a minute and 50 cents for each incoming and outgoing text message. As I mentioned in my original post, if you are in port you can often use your Travel Pass coverage while on the ship as long as your phone pings the local tower and not the ship’s cell antenna. At sea, however, when you are out of range of local, land-based carriers, I believe you will be paying very high rates even if you have the cruise ship plan.

 

Good to know. We are getting an international plan through AT&T ($10.00 per day if you use the phone). We were more concerned about getting separated in port so hopefully using a phone onboard ship will not be an issue unless there is an emergency at home.

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Good to know. We are getting an international plan through AT&T ($10.00 per day if you use the phone). We were more concerned about getting separated in port so hopefully using a phone onboard ship will not be an issue unless there is an emergency at home.

 

 

We had the AT&T international plan and only paid $40 for the entire two weeks. We left our phones on airplane mode nearly the entire time, which still allowed us to connect to the ship’s WiFi to make calls. We also used our hotels’ WiFi while on land. There were 2 ports where we needed connectivity while out walking around, so we turned off airplane mode while on shore those 2 days and paid the AT&T fee. The minute we got back to the ship, we turned on airplane mode again. Worked great.

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you can also text each other while on the ship through the WiFi which make communicating super easy...just be aware onoccassion WiFi was slow or message did not go through...or spouse just chooses to ignore you and blames WiFi!!!

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you can also text each other while on the ship through the WiFi which make communicating super easy...just be aware onoccassion WiFi was slow or message did not go through...or spouse just chooses to ignore you and blames WiFi!!!

:')

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Post #8 and Post #10 are all good comments/suggestions. We also got hit with a large bill from AT&T, so please allow me to summarize:

 

1) Your $10/day International Plan only covers land-based cellular network, it does not cover maritime network.

 

2) Even though Viking provides free WIFI 24/7, over the course of a cruise there were times when WIFI was momentarily down. If you happened to be in the middle of using WIFI to send out pictures, and if you forgot to turn your smartphone's 3rd party roaming off, then unbeknownst to you, the ship's maritime cellular network automatically kicked in, racking up a large bill for you.

 

3) To prevent aforementioned (2) from happening, it is prudent to leave your smart phone at Airplane Mode all the time while on the ship. Then turn WI-FI on to connect to the ship's WIFI network. This way you won't use anything if the ship's WIFI network were temporary unavailable.

 

4) To make phone calls while on the ship, install one of the internet free-call APPs. I use SKYPE which is not free but at a few cents per minute I stick with it.

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  • 1 year later...
On 5/16/2018 at 7:26 PM, Reading54 said:

Post #8 and Post #10 are all good comments/suggestions. We also got hit with a large bill from AT&T, so please allow me to summarize:

 

1) Your $10/day International Plan only covers land-based cellular network, it does not cover maritime network.

 

2) Even though Viking provides free WIFI 24/7, over the course of a cruise there were times when WIFI was momentarily down. If you happened to be in the middle of using WIFI to send out pictures, and if you forgot to turn your smartphone's 3rd party roaming off, then unbeknownst to you, the ship's maritime cellular network automatically kicked in, racking up a large bill for you.

 

3) To prevent aforementioned (2) from happening, it is prudent to leave your smart phone at Airplane Mode all the time while on the ship. Then turn WI-FI on to connect to the ship's WIFI network. This way you won't use anything if the ship's WIFI network were temporary unavailable.

 

4) To make phone calls while on the ship, install one of the internet free-call APPs. I use SKYPE which is not free but at a few cents per minute I stick with it.

I don't believe #1 is correct.  Mobile data when using "Travel Pass (Verizon)" or any other international calling plan, uses land-based data network.  No maritime network exists on a ship, (unless you might be referring to a ocean cruise).  We're going on a Viking "river cruise" and this is my 3rd one, and I seemed to recall if you make a wifi call/text using the ship's wifi, there "could" be a charge?  I called Viking they assured me "wifi is free", but I don't think they understand making a mobile phone call using wifi is different?  I recall. . not using wifi calling until we got ashore, say in a coffee shop, rather than connected to ship's wifi.  Or if in port, turn off the ship's wifi and use any available (free) shore wifi.  Not sure if this is correct, but will ask when I board tomorrow. We do have Verizon Travel Pass, but that's using mobile data (roaming turned on), and $10 for 24 hrs.  That's our back up plan.

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3 hours ago, toohip4u said:

I don't believe #1 is correct.  Mobile data when using "Travel Pass (Verizon)" or any other international calling plan, uses land-based data network.  No maritime network exists on a ship, (unless you might be referring to a ocean cruise).  We're going on a Viking "river cruise" and this is my 3rd one, and I seemed to recall if you make a wifi call/text using the ship's wifi, there "could" be a charge?  I called Viking they assured me "wifi is free", but I don't think they understand making a mobile phone call using wifi is different?  I recall. . not using wifi calling until we got ashore, say in a coffee shop, rather than connected to ship's wifi.  Or if in port, turn off the ship's wifi and use any available (free) shore wifi.  Not sure if this is correct, but will ask when I board tomorrow. We do have Verizon Travel Pass, but that's using mobile data (roaming turned on), and $10 for 24 hrs.  That's our back up plan.

 

This forum is Viking Ocean, so we are talking about maritime and cell phone service on ocean-going ships and not river ships. Reading54's item #1 is correct; Travel Pass only covers calls on land-based cellular networks and not maritime or satellite networks.

 

If you have questions about mobile phone usage on river ships, ask in the River Cruising forum.

 

On 5/16/2018 at 9:26 PM, Reading54 said:

Post #8 and Post #10 are all good comments/suggestions. We also got hit with a large bill from AT&T, so please allow me to summarize:

 

THANK YOU! Great summary. Very clear.

 

We use What's App for texting and emergency calls home while on board. It is free.

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FWiW ... I have used the AT&T $10/day plan for a few years (on ocean and river) and have had no issues.  It is nice to be able to use your phone just as you do at home.  When I had the I Phone 6 the phone would indicate which cellular service it was accessing in the upper left hand corner of the home screen.  Watching that I could monitor whether or not it was "safe" to call home to DH.  It clearly indicated when it moved to the Maritime service which meant it was time to move to airplane mode.  My new phone (movin' on up!) doesn't have this indicator so I will probably use one of the WIFI programs for our next trip .... NEXT WEEK !!! In case you were wondering, YES, we are excited!!!

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I have AT&Ts $10 plan enabled but never used it as I was always able to find free WiFi even when on excursions. As previously mentioned, ALWAYS keep your phone in airplane mode. If your on a tour or just walking through a town on your own, chances are good there’s free WiFi near the restrooms of tour sites - and in towns, I just stand in front of a McDonald’s or other restaurant/store and look for free WiFi.

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  • 3 years later...

I know this is an old thread, but as of November 2022, exorbitant cell charges on Viking ships are still a problem.  I have a bill showing charges of $2.99 US per minute, when I thought I was connected to the local cell carrier when in or near port. 

It seems that on the ocean cruises where the ship may leave the range of the local cell towers, the Viking ships are equipped with some sort of maritime link.  Perhaps this link performs a useful service when the ship is far from land, but it seems to "take over" your call when you are near land and you believe the call is being handled by the local cell towers.  I am not aware of any way to determine whether your call has been hijacked by this onboard "service" or not.  Being in sight of land is not enough to ensure that the call is being handled by the local carrier, and therefore covered by packages such as Verizon's "Travel Pass". 

Verizon has a clause in the Travel Pass contract stating that the cruise ship charges are not covered.  I also noticed that other folks on this thread were charged in Croatia, which is where my most egregious charges were incurred as well.   Reading54 describes it well in a 18May-2018 post. 

Here is where I think I got tricked:  Cell coverage and internet are non-existent when the ship is far out at sea.  You fall into the habit of trying to make calls to "test" if you have connectivity or not.  Everything works great when you are walking around town in the ports.  The grey area occurs when you are skimming the coastline, like the Adriatic cruises tend to do.  You can make calls, so you assume that you must be connected to the cell towers on the mainland, which you can see just a few miles away.  This was sometimes true, as I can see calls on my bill where this worked as expected.  But there are other calls where the dreaded "Cruisesh/, ZZ" appears on the bill as the Origination of the call.  Apparently, the maritime link took these calls rather than the local cell towers.  So the call is no longer free, instead it is billed at about $3 per minute.   Just beware.  Personally, I wish Viking would just disable this extra link for cruises of this type.  It doesn't seem to extend the coverage range beyond the local cell towers and it only upsets passengers like me.  Otherwise, it was a fantastic cruise! 

 

 

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26 minutes ago, Todd Mc said:

I know this is an old thread, but as of November 2022, exorbitant cell charges on Viking ships are still a problem.  I have a bill showing charges of $2.99 US per minute, when I thought I was connected to the local cell carrier when in or near port. 

It seems that on the ocean cruises where the ship may leave the range of the local cell towers, the Viking ships are equipped with some sort of maritime link.  Perhaps this link performs a useful service when the ship is far from land, but it seems to "take over" your call when you are near land and you believe the call is being handled by the local cell towers.  I am not aware of any way to determine whether your call has been hijacked by this onboard "service" or not.  Being in sight of land is not enough to ensure that the call is being handled by the local carrier, and therefore covered by packages such as Verizon's "Travel Pass". 

Verizon has a clause in the Travel Pass contract stating that the cruise ship charges are not covered.  I also noticed that other folks on this thread were charged in Croatia, which is where my most egregious charges were incurred as well.   Reading54 describes it well in a 18May-2018 post. 

Here is where I think I got tricked:  Cell coverage and internet are non-existent when the ship is far out at sea.  You fall into the habit of trying to make calls to "test" if you have connectivity or not.  Everything works great when you are walking around town in the ports.  The grey area occurs when you are skimming the coastline, like the Adriatic cruises tend to do.  You can make calls, so you assume that you must be connected to the cell towers on the mainland, which you can see just a few miles away.  This was sometimes true, as I can see calls on my bill where this worked as expected.  But there are other calls where the dreaded "Cruisesh/, ZZ" appears on the bill as the Origination of the call.  Apparently, the maritime link took these calls rather than the local cell towers.  So the call is no longer free, instead it is billed at about $3 per minute.   Just beware.  Personally, I wish Viking would just disable this extra link for cruises of this type.  It doesn't seem to extend the coverage range beyond the local cell towers and it only upsets passengers like me.  Otherwise, it was a fantastic cruise! 

 

 

We worried about this on our last cruise, but T-Mobile alerted us when our phone tried to connect to the ship's service.  

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4 hours ago, Todd Mc said:

It seems that on the ocean cruises where the ship may leave the range of the local cell towers, the Viking ships are equipped with some sort of maritime link. 

 

Perhaps this link performs a useful service when the ship is far from land, but it seems to "take over" your call when you are near land and you believe the call is being handled by the local cell towers.  I am not aware of any way to determine whether your call has been hijacked by this onboard "service" or not.  Being in sight of land is not enough to ensure that the call is being handled by the local carrier, and therefore covered by packages such as Verizon's "Travel Pass". 

Verizon has a clause in the Travel Pass contract stating that the cruise ship charges are not covered.  I also noticed that other folks on this thread were charged in Croatia, which is where my most egregious charges were incurred as well.   Reading54 describes it well in a 18May-2018 post. 

Here is where I think I got tricked:  Cell coverage and internet are non-existent when the ship is far out at sea.  You fall into the habit of trying to make calls to "test" if you have connectivity or not.  Everything works great when you are walking around town in the ports.  The grey area occurs when you are skimming the coastline, like the Adriatic cruises tend to do.  You can make calls, so you assume that you must be connected to the cell towers on the mainland, which you can see just a few miles away.  This was sometimes true, as I can see calls on my bill where this worked as expected.  But there are other calls where the dreaded "Cruisesh/, ZZ" appears on the bill as the Origination of the call.  Apparently, the maritime link took these calls rather than the local cell towers.  So the call is no longer free, instead it is billed at about $3 per minute.   Just beware.  Personally, I wish Viking would just disable this extra link for cruises of this type.  It doesn't seem to extend the coverage range beyond the local cell towers and it only upsets passengers like me.  Otherwise, it was a fantastic cruise! 

 

 

 

You don't' say whether you have an Apple or Android phone, but in either case I would suggest you do a bit of research from your manufacturer's website.

 

Every cruise line I've sailed has an offshore cellular service - it's simply one more cell network that services cruise ships via satellite. A common one is called "Cellular at Sea". These services are prohibited within a certain distance from shore (although land may well be visible) and do not "hijack" you when in port or close to land-based networks. The simplest way to see what network you are connected to is to look at your phone - it will show the cellular network you are connected to (at least on Apple devices). If you see the 'martime" network, don't connect to it by making a call, texting or emailing.

 

This type of cruise line cell coverage is indeed available "far out to sea", contrary to your statement. It is used by pax for connectivity when out of range of land based networks,  Internet is also available, although you would need to access it either through the maritime cell coverage or the shipboard wireless internet connection.

 

Don't "make test calls" to determine coverage - that guarantees higher bills. Look to see which  network is displayed on your phone, and verify that it is covered by your provider roaming package. If you don't' know, don't call.

 

Take heart - you're not the first person to run afoul of coverage rules when travelling globally - but it's important to understand the do's and don'ts surrounding them. 🍺🥌

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2 hours ago, Todd Mc said:

Oh, that would have saved me a few hundred $!    Score one for T-Mobile.

Except for when we forget 🤔, we always put our phones into WiFi calling mode when we return to the ship to insure we don't accidentally get connected to the ship's cell service.  The warning we got was when we forgot to do that switch immediately.

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We love T-Mobile's service since it has free unlimited international data & texts, 25 cents per minute for voice calls.  I have Samsung, wife has Apple phones.  

we always place phone in Airplane mode once onboard, then turn on wifi to use Viking's free wifi, to make voice calls via WhatsApp, Viber, or Tango apps.  So voice calls are free to other cell phones on same app, One cent per minute for voice calls on Viber to land based lines (office, business phones, etc), based on a package I bought 10 years ago for $10, which I still have about $4 left...

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13 minutes ago, NavyCruiser said:

We love T-Mobile's service since it has free unlimited international data & texts, 25 cents per minute for voice calls.  I have Samsung, wife has Apple phones.  

we always place phone in Airplane mode once onboard, then turn on wifi to use Viking's free wifi, to make voice calls via WhatsApp, Viber, or Tango apps.  So voice calls are free to other cell phones on same app, One cent per minute for voice calls on Viber to land based lines (office, business phones, etc), based on a package I bought 10 years ago for $10, which I still have about $4 left...

Other than having a balance to use up on Viber, why don't you simply call as normal using T-Mobile's WiFi Calling.  T-Mobile doesn't charge anything for text or talk as it's using your normal data plan, as if you were in the US.  No third party app is needed.

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