Best way to stay intouch back home

[paigemorgan]

This will be our first cruise....and was wondering which is the best way to stay intouch back home. We have 2 daughters that are staying with relatives and friends. Wanted to make sure they make it to all their dance lessons, ballgames and that our 5 cats are taken care of.

 

Thanks for any help.

:confused:

[paul929207]

You have a number of choices, but most are not cheap.

 

Cabin phone - $8 or $10 per minute

Cell Phone - $2.49 per minute on ship

Email Up to 75 cents per minute, very slow. On ship

 

Cell phone in port - depends on your plan

Email in port - Varies, but much cheaper than ship

[cb at sea]

Leave a schedule of their activities...those who you trust with your kids will make sure the get to their events!

 

Ship's e-mail is the cheapest option.

[swedie]

This will be our first cruise....and was wondering which is the best way to stay intouch back home. We have 2 daughters that are staying with relatives and friends. Wanted to make sure they make it to all their dance lessons, ballgames and that our 5 cats are taken care of.

 

Thanks for any help.

:confused:

 

Not sure if you have many sea days or not, or where you are traveling - but almost every port has an Internet area within the port - a few $ for about 20 minutes (from my experience anyway). Just ask the crew - you'll often find them on-line @ these internet places.

[Keith1010]

You have a number of choices, but most are not cheap.

 

Cabin phone - $8 or $10 per minute

Cell Phone - $2.49 per minute on ship

Email Up to 75 cents per minute, very slow. On ship

 

Cell phone in port - depends on your plan

Email in port - Varies, but much cheaper than ship

 

I think this post says it all.

 

We try to maximize the use of e mail to stay in touch.

 

Costs can be lower than those noted above depending on whether or not you purchase an internet plan and what size plan you purchase.

 

Keith

[Russell in MD]

e-mail for us.

 

We travel with our iPod touch's (iPhone without the phone) and do a quick e-mail check when we get up in the morning.

 

It can be done real quick. Log on and download the e-mail and then log off and read. Less than a minute. We generally don't send anything out but you could type it up, save to draft then log on to send it out to save $/min on the system.

 

Russell

[broberts]

Many port area internet cafes also sell phone cards and will rent you a phone handset. Depending on your ports you might be able to buy a card before you leave and use it in one or more places. I generally buy a card locally so I know it will work.

 

In some ports you will find that a number of merchants offer no cost calling to the US. Grand Cayman comes to mind, some of the stores even had a workstation or two with high-speed internet at no cost. Of course there is usually a line-up.

[Natitude61]

A related question here: We're leaving our 18-y-o daughter home. Is there a way she can get in touch with us on the ship in case of emergency (or nonemergency, ie, if she just needs to ask us how get the toilet to stop running or something?!)

[paul929207]

Yes, check with your cruise line as the answer varies.

 

Most have a phone number that can be called to get to you. Daughter should probably have the ship and cabin number to speed things along. Note that it is close to $10 per minute, so not a good thing for chatting about the weather.

[goldgirl2]

Will I be able to use an IPAD for emails? How do I find out about this from my cruise line?

[Russell in MD]

Will I be able to use an IPAD for emails? How do I find out about this from my cruise line?

 

It depends on the ship. If they have Wi Fi anywhere then yes. There should be a computer person on the ship to help set you up with an account etc. We've had Wi Fi in our cabins recently and just check it from there.

 

Russell

[paul929207]

On most ships, yes. Check to see if they have wifi.

 

There is a charge for it. Again check with your cruise line.

[Keith1010]

Will I be able to use an IPAD for emails? How do I find out about this from my cruise line?

 

You should be able to.

 

Best to post on the cruise line board to check with others.

 

We are able to use ours on the cruises we sail.

 

We go through the ships internet system and pay for the internet minutes unless we are in port where we can use the 3G network such as a USA port.

 

Keith

[broberts]

Will I be able to use an IPAD for emails? How do I find out about this from my cruise line?

 

As others have posted, yes if the ship has WiFi - and most do. Pay special attention to the instructions, people with WiFi connected devices often have to perform an explicit log off procedure to terminate their session. Otherwise the session stays open on the ship server, eating up time and adding dollars to your account balance.

[SadieN]

Will I be able to use an IPAD for emails? How do I find out about this from my cruise line?

 

On Carnival we use their Currently Onboard feature for free.

It is a public site so anyone can read it.

 

It can be found on Carnival.com --- Community & Buzz --- Forums--- User Groups --- Currently Onboard.

[excitedcruzr]

I've also read of some people having all their family sign up on Carnival's forums and making a post called "Johnson vacation" or something along those lines. Then they use this as a way to keep in contact with friends/family. The reason they make it public, is because Carnival doesn't charge to visit 'carnival.com' but they charge to visit every other website.

 

Other cruise lines might have this option.

[GinaRz]

I've also read of some people having all their family sign up on Carnival's forums and making a post called "Johnson vacation" or something along those lines. Then they use this as a way to keep in contact with friends/family. The reason they make it public, is because Carnival doesn't charge to visit 'carnival.com' but they charge to visit every other website.

 

Other cruise lines might have this option.

 

I am going to look into this!!

[buddybean11]

We just got back from Grand Cayman and Cozumel on Carnival. I left an elderly sick mom at home with my 17 and 21 year old daughters and my neice. I told them before I left that I would cut my phone on and check for texts every night around 6 see if things were OK. I texted them also to let them know we were OK. Cost .50 to send and .05 to receive but you have to get verizon to add international roaming to your service(free). For a 5 night cruise my bill was only $3.80 and I didn't have to worry whether things were OK or not. They did have Carnivals phone # and all our info if something serious really happened.

[paul929207]

This works great as long as you have the discipline to limit the use.

[Love.II.Cruise]

I thought I already posted on this and I'm not sure if it was deleted or if I didn't post properly. If someone deletes this, please educate me on what I did wrong.

 

In the past we've asked crew members how to stay in touch back home since most of them do in some way or another. We've asked where they bought their phone cards and where they make their calls when they get off ship. We did the same and had no problem when reported to home that my DH now proposed at the time! :D

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

WiFi at each port it is free....

[Tara Jane]

Where in the port?

Thanks for the info

[Underwatr]

Where in the port?

Thanks for the info

The ship's crew probably knows...

[paul929207]

Where in the port?

Thanks for the info

Ask your cabin steward or waiter. They know where all the bargains are.

[windsor123456]

I used the Celebrity internet access. Not cheap but a few minutes a day made it worthwhile. I used Yahoo Messenger chat as a way of "speaking" to my daughter to make sure all was OK. It did not use up much bandwidth either.

 

Presumably, if there was cheap wifi at a port, then making calls with Skype would be an alternative too.

 

Has anyone ever tried to use MagicJack? I have no idea if it would work or not.