Need ways to call home from ship

[goofy810]

Ok I have been cruising for years have over 40 cruise under my belt and am a techie person. Normaly if I ever had called home while on a cruise it was only done at the port and email was only sent to check on the dog, well now things have changed and I have a allmost 8 month old who will be staying home with the MIL. I like to see / talk to the baby every night I know its easy from the ports will just find wifii and use Facetime. Has anyone used Facetime on the ships Wifii? or skype to skype?

[Essiesmom]

Both use too much bandwidth and are blocked by most ships. A few have reported success with Skype, but they are the exceptions. More luck reported for Skype without video. EM

[kitty9]

I've not had any luck with FaceTime, Skype or VoIP on any cruise ship. The download time is far too slow and the available bandwidth that's necessary for those things just isn't there. It didn't work on Carnival, RCI, Celebrity, Princess and a couple other lines I've been on.

[Sugar*Magnolia]

We haven't had luck with Skype or facetime either (on board RCI ships using our laptops)... :o

[russianmom]

My husband and I were planning on using FaceTime while I was on a cruise in Bermuda and he was in Beijing on business.

 

When I talked to AT&T they said its a per MB charge for the international data plan. We calculated it and it would cost me a fortune! We chose to text instead....