Using your Smartphone for calling from Riviera

[Fam_Cruise]

When we leave port, in the evening, and DH has to do some work, will his AT&T connect. I don't believe so. I think he would have to by the ships minutes in order to do that.

I was on a conference call when I provide my answer above and see that a more detailed explanation may be in order.

 

If I have to do work as a result of an email I received during the day, then I would purchase ship minutes and charge them back to my company. Doing any extensive work on a smart phone is not recommended, IMHO.

 

I also find that depending on where I cruise (I don't do Caribbean cruises, and have yet to do a SA cruise) that the bulk of my email is already delivered when I wake up in the morning in the case of Asia/SWP, or I don't get email until the afternoon/evening for European cruises. Now that is for my travel patterns and others' travels and timings may differ. If the email only requires a quick answer I will send it via my smart phone, if not then I can do a more detailed email when I return to the ship in the evening or the next morning depending on which time zone I am located; in which case whoever I am responding to will receive my response either the next morning or the previous afternoon/evening in the case of Asia/SWP email sent in the morning. All my business dealings are with continental US time zones, so this may vary for others.

 

FWIW, the vast majority of use of my smart phone is for personal purposes. Navigating cities I am visiting, doing City Tours as the iPhone apps are great as I discovered when I was in Rome a few years ago. I hadn't used one before so I decided to click on it and it started telling me about the sight I was standing in front of and then told me where to go next. Awesome! Checking email and keeping in touch with friends is nice too. Uploading pics to FB and using its seamless interface to document my travels and sightseeing is a breeze. And yes, I do occasional business, but as I said earlier, any ship minutes needed get charged back to my company; whereas, the $60 or $120 for AT&T Global Add-on package comes out of my pocket as most of that use is personal.

[kimanjo]

I was on a conference call when I provide my answer above and see that a more detailed explanation may be in order.

 

If I have to do work as a result of an email I received during the day, then I would purchase ship minutes and charge them back to my company. Doing any extensive work on a smart phone is not recommended, IMHO.

 

I also find that depending on where I cruise (I don't do Caribbean cruises, and have yet to do a SA cruise) that the bulk of my email is already delivered when I wake up in the morning in the case of Asia/SWP, or I don't get email until the afternoon/evening for European cruises. Now that is for my travel patterns and others' travels and timings may differ. If the email only requires a quick answer I will send it via my smart phone, if not then I can do a more detailed email when I return to the ship in the evening or the next morning depending on which time zone I am located; in which case whoever I am responding to will receive my response either the next morning or the previous afternoon/evening in the case of Asia/SWP email sent in the morning. All my business dealings are with continental US time zones, so this may vary for others.

 

FWIW, the vast majority of use of my smart phone is for personal purposes. Navigating cities I am visiting, doing City Tours as the iPhone apps are great as I discovered when I was in Rome a few years ago. I hadn't used one before so I decided to click on it and it started telling me about the sight I was standing in front of and then told me where to go next. Awesome! Checking email and keeping in touch with friends is nice too. Uploading pics to FB and using its seamless interface to document my travels and sightseeing is a breeze. And yes, I do occasional business, but as I said earlier, any ship minutes needed get charged back to my company; whereas, the $60 or $120 for AT&T Global Add-on package comes out of my pocket as most of that use is personal.

 

 

I understand this. He/we travelled to Europe last year and he does use his iPhone when on land.

 

We will be on the 5/6/2013 on the Riviera, dep Venice. I still an unclear, when we are in port, he will use his iPhone/iPad with a data plan to do any business, but i assume when the ship leaves port in the evening, we will not be so close to shore as to pick up any cell phone towers,so we will need to have the ships WiFi package if he needs to be in "live" connection.

[Fam_Cruise]

I still an unclear, when we are in port, he will use his iPhone/iPad with a data plan to do any business, but i assume when the ship leaves port in the evening, we will not be so close to shore as to pick up any cell phone towers,so we will need to have the ships WiFi package if he needs to be in "live" connection.

Maybe.

 

As I mentioned in my previous post, if you can see land you will probably have land-based mobile service. After departing some ports I had mobile service for a few hours, other ports I only had mobile service for a half hour or so after leaving port. It depends on how far away from land they sail, and which side of the ship your cabin is on. I try to pick the side of the ship that has a land view. For a Venice to Istanbul cruise this would be the port side. For a Venice to Barcelona cruise this would be the starboard side (most of the time). Generally the side of the ship that is land based is the one that books up first.

 

If he needs the ships Wifi then he can go purchase some minutes. Or it sounds like you plan to purchase a package up front for him to take care of business; that works too. My guess is that it is a moot point as his company will pay for any Wifi or AT&T data fees as his use appears to be primarily business. No matter what he does, hopefully he is not working so much that he doesn't enjoy the cruise.

 

FWIW, if you didn't gather it from my previous post, I will pay for ship's Wifi if the need arises and my company will reimburse me. That being said, I haven't had the need to use the ship's Wifi for a few years now as AT&T Data plan has met my needs; after all I am on holiday.

[kimanjo]

Maybe.

 

As I mentioned in my previous post, if you can see land you will probably have land-based mobile service. After departing some ports I had mobile service for a few hours, other ports I only had mobile service for a half hour or so after leaving port. It depends on how far away from land they sail, and which side of the ship your cabin is on. I try to pick the side of the ship that has a land view. For a Venice to Istanbul cruise this would be the port side. For a Venice to Barcelona cruise this would be the starboard side (most of the time). Generally the side of the ship that is land based is the one that books up first.

 

If he needs the ships Wifi then he can go purchase some minutes. Or it sounds like you plan to purchase a package up front for him to take care of business; that works too. My guess is that it is a moot point as his company will pay for any Wifi or AT&T data fees as his use appears to be primarily business. No matter what he does, hopefully he is not working so much that he doesn't enjoy the cruise.

 

FWIW, if you didn't gather it from my previous post, I will pay for ship's Wifi if the need arises and my company will reimburse me. That being said, I haven't had the need to use the ship's Wifi for a few years now as AT&T Data plan has met my needs; after all I am on holiday.

 

 

I guess the best thing to do is to get a one of the Global data plans with AT&T (as we did last year), and buy ship's minutes (package) if he thinks he will need it.

 

In a perfect world, when on holiday, people could "log-off" and "disconnect" completely. He is not one who can, or feels he can...

[Fam_Cruise]

In a perfect world, when on holiday, people could "log-off" and "disconnect" completely. He is not one who can, or feels he can...

Believe me, I understand. I have been telecommuting full time for the past 15 years. The past few years I have traveled the world about 4+ months a year including a few cruises, and 2 land based RTW trips and 3 land based Circle Pacific trips. Telecommuting gives me the freedom to do that. The flip side of that is work has to still be done. Generally on the land based trips I am more easily able to stay on top of work, but for cruises I am more off-line unless something crucial pops up. The same goes for the 2 weeks I was in India as connectivity was hit and miss, mainly miss. I did use my iPhone a lot in India though, but again mainly for pleasure and what work I did was just checking email and keeping up to date on any pertinent issues. There were a few hours that required me to address things with iPhone email - not fun.