Internet or Text?

[SadieC]

Just wondering what the best way to stay in communication at home. How effective is the internet connection on the ship? Texts are 75 cents each-going out and coming in. I've heard varying answers to that question, but not all boats have been Celebrity. We are on the Equinox in the Med in just a few days!!!!:) Access on land I'm sure will be around, but variable. Have an elderly Mom in care and wondering what the best way to stay connected is if need be.

[Baseball fan]

I have AT&T and get the international package when traveling. I don't use data but I may use phone and text. I pay about $5 per month (you can turn it on and shut it off at anytime). Phone calls (incoming or outgoing) were about $2 per minute and texting was free for incoming (goes against my plan) and 50 cents for outgoing. I use it for emergencies only. I try to pick up free wifi off the ship for email.

 

 

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[ghstudio]

The best way is to have a small computer with you and to sign on to the internet to download mail, then sign off....read and answer the mail and then sign on to send it (or wait until the next day when you sign on again to get mail. This costs about $5 a day in computer time. Do all your setup and testing at home before you go.

 

The worst way is to sit at a terminal in the computer room and read your mail online.

[gfkcruiser]

I have AT&T and get the international package when traveling. I don't use data but I may use phone and text. I pay about $5 per month (you can turn it on and shut it off at anytime). Phone calls (incoming or outgoing) were about $2 per minute and texting was free for incoming (goes against my plan) and 50 cents for outgoing. I use it for emergencies only. I try to pick up free wifi off the ship for email.

 

 

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I have been getting the international texting for all of our med cruises. Keep it for a month and then cancel. There are different packages and I don't cancel before the billing cycle ends. I have att and your provider can answer questions

 

Many times when you are docked in a foreign port you can pick up free wifi from shoreside establishments. In Malta we were on the port side and I picked up wifi while we were docked from a bar ashore.

If you are using a smart phone be sure your data is shut off unless you are on wifi. You can turn off the cellular portion.

 

Gail

[tunaman2011]

Greetings

 

One easy way is to take a laptop or tablet and then when in port look for crew members. They will be at the closest place with WiFi checking their emails.

 

Good Sailing

Tom

[neverbeenhere]

We are all for the above mentioned methods. When it comes to keeping track of what's going on with your mother it's very important. BUT, if you have kids at home they will be safe in jail waiting for you when you arrive back home.:)

[Lovey26]

We are all for the above mentioned methods. When it comes to keeping track of what's going on with your mother it's very important. BUT, if you have kids at home they will be safe in jail waiting for you when you arrive back home.:)

 

NOW that one cracked me up as I am also leaving two older teenagers home and an elderly mother. And should they get in trouble, wait in jail is exactly what they will do, even the kids ;)

 

In reality, my sister is "babysitting" the house and the kids while we are gone. My mom is stuck with my brother in law...or is it the other way around...

[cadburysmom]

AT&T offers 50 texts for $10

 

Purchased for our recent Med cruise....

 

Perfect for son with needy girlfriend. ;):rolleyes:

[SadieC]

Thanks everyone. Unfortunately living in Canada we dont have anywhere near the deals AT and T offers. I think we may be stuck with 75 cents a text and calling for emergencies only. Not too concerned if our university aged kids are in jail-they will be taken care of until we are back. :D

Just need some sort of contact with home-re my Mom and her caregiver, which will be phone I think for obvious reasons.

[Lsimon]

Thanks everyone. Unfortunately living in Canada we dont have anywhere near the deals AT and T offers. I think we may be stuck with 75 cents a text and calling for emergencies only. Not too concerned if our university aged kids are in jail-they will be taken care of until we are back. :D

Just need some sort of contact with home-re my Mom and her caregiver, which will be phone I think for obvious reasons.

 

if I were in your shoes I'd just rely on texts or cellular calls and keep usage as low as possible under the circumstances. The cellular service at sea is OK but not great. Sometimes texts go through quickly and sometimes they are delayed a little. Every now and then there is no service available and sometimes the service in one area of the ship is not good and you have to go to a central area. On shore, and when the ship is at port or within range of land, the international texting or mobile calls work fine as long as your phone is compatible with the local system. Your mobile phone company probably has a page with rates for each country or island.

 

The wifi at sea is expensive at a constant $0.75/minute whenever your are connected with a discount for buying blocks of time in advance. And the service at sea is extremely slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.

[ceba]

I have AT&T and get the international package when traveling. I don't use data but I may use phone and text. I pay about $5 per month (you can turn it on and shut it off at anytime). Phone calls (incoming or outgoing) were about $2 per minute and texting was free for incoming (goes against my plan) and 50 cents for outgoing. I use it for emergencies only. I try to pick up free wifi off the ship for email.

 

 

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This is what I do. Just remember to keep your phone turned off and just turn it on to check for messages. I didn't turn mine off in Jan and my roaming charges gave me quite a shock!!

[ceba]

This is what I do. Just remember to keep your phone turned off and just turn it on to check for messages. I didn't turn mine off in Jan and my roaming charges gave me quite a shock!!

 

 

 

oops, sorry I just read on and saw that you live in Canada, therefore I understand your plans may be different. I'm pretty sure that it still holds true about leaving your phone turned off and just check for messages. My mom is also elderly and I like to be in contract with the people keeping an eye on her. As far as my kids go,,,,I figure if my kids aren't asking for money or in jail, its a good day!!!!;)

[Milhouse]

Just wondering what the best way to stay in communication at home. How effective is the internet connection on the ship? Texts are 75 cents each-going out and coming in. I've heard varying answers to that question, but not all boats have been Celebrity. We are on the Equinox in the Med in just a few days!!!!:) Access on land I'm sure will be around, but variable. Have an elderly Mom in care and wondering what the best way to stay connected is if need be.

 

It's pretty much a multi-pronged approach depending on a number of factors such as how much you're willing to pay, convenience, are you bringing a laptop/tablet, etc.

 

We're from Vancouver and cruising the Mediterranean also but in Oct and we've been looking into various connectivity options ourselves, particularly cell plans.

 

On the ship

Internet Access

Just to repeat what others have said...

If you bring a laptop or tablet and buy an Internet package, you can log in, download your messages, log off, compose your replies, log in, send your replies, and then log off. This will limit your Internet usage/cost.

 

Cell usage

Using a cell phone on the ship is pretty pricey. If you're with Telus, the rates are:

• $7/min for voice
  
• $0.60 per incoming and outgoing text message
  
• $15/MB of data
  

There is no travel package for cruise ships which use satellite connectivity.

And I'm not sure if there's any additional fees the ship charges for connectivity.

 

In Port

Internet access

Again, as others have mentioned an easy & relatively cheap option is to find an internet cafe in port.

You have to be a bit cautious though because you really don't know what kind of security the computers have. Obviously don't do any financial stuff on them. And I normally try to change my email passwords after using a public machine.

 

Wifi

Ideally, you might be able to find free wifi (eg. Starbucks?, resorts, etc) or cheap wifi hotspots that you can use your smartphone to connect to and download & send mail; use Whatsapp, Google Hangout, Skype Messaging, to send instant messages; Skype (with a plan) to make phone calls; etc, etc.

Note1: Wifi connectivity is not the same as data roaming.

Note2: You also have to be cautious about using wifi hotspots, particularly unsecure ones for a variety of reasons.

 

Cell Usage

Personally, we have unlocked phones and my buddy has been trying to find us a prepaid sim with a cheap data plan that works across Europe (for pre-cruise, ports during the cruise, and post-cruise). We think we found one but you have to order it so the solution probably won't work for you since it sounds like you're leaving in a few days.

 

Another option is to buy a local carrier's prepaid sim while in port. (Note: You have to have an unlocked phone.) You need to do some research here though because some countries require you to register the sim before using it, you need to know what data plan to get if you want data usage, how to activate the data plan (eg send sms text), you will have to waste port time to find a vendor, etc, etc.

 

Third option (we've researched others but to keep the discussion simple) is to buy a travel pass with your Canadian cell carrier. Assuming you are with Telus, Telus has International Travel Passes which offer a bundle of voice, SMS texts, and data for a set price. Examples:

Zone 1 (essentially Europe excluding Turkey) combo pass 50 costs $50 and gives you:

• 50mins of calls,
  
• 50 texts (outbound, incoming texts are free), and
  
• 25MB of data.
  

Combo pass 125 costs $125 and gives you:

• 150mins of calls,
  
• 200 texts (outbound, incoming texts are free), and
  
• 100MB of data.
  

If you go over your package amounts, calls cost $0.60/min, texts are $0.30each, and data $1/MB.

To add the travel passes, you just have to call customer care.

I'd recommend using an app to track your data usage because 100MB could go fast depending on what you use.

 

Final word of advice:

If you're bringing your phone, know how to track your data usage and turn off data roaming to ensure you do not encounter crazy data usage bills back home.

[Chicago Boy]

Just wondering what the best way to stay in communication at home. How effective is the internet connection on the ship? Texts are 75 cents each-going out and coming in. I've heard varying answers to that question, but not all boats have been Celebrity. We are on the Equinox in the Med in just a few days!!!!:) Access on land I'm sure will be around, but variable. Have an elderly Mom in care and wondering what the best way to stay connected is if need be.

 

Using the Internet Cafe can be frustrating and confusing. As I understand it, Celebrity leases out the Internet Cafe to a provider. When we bought minutes we were not told, that each person in the stateroom who wanted to use the internet, had to have their own package. We thought the minutes were for the stateroom. It started to get really expensive. Celebrity refunded the money because we had not been told that each person had to have their own package. The other thing is the people who ran the Internet Cafe did not tell us is that they sell classess and the times that were available were restricted. We would go to use the internet and it would be closed due to a class being held or it was simply full. When we left the ship we still had a fair amont of money in our internet account. We called Celebrity and again they refunded the unused portion on our account. Celebrity treated us well but we don't feel we can say the same for the people who ran the Internet Cafe. Bottom line is I doubt we will take another Internet package. :)

[SadieC]

Wow Milhouse you have certainly done your homework! Thank-you so much for sharing-a real wealth of information! The cell companies here in Canada are so unreasonable compared with our counterparts in the U.S. We use Rogers, with limited success on how reasonable they are compared to other companies.

I think we will go with 75 cents a text outgoing and 25 cents a text incoming, and like so many of you have suggested try to get internet on land if at all possible. Have another emergency plan in place for my Mom if need be. Again thanks so much for all your responses. So very much appreciated!

[Milhouse]

Just one follow-up.

Rogers has travel bundles too but they split the call & SMS text bundles from the data bundles. Their cheapest call & text bundle for Europe (won't cover the ship) is $40 and includes 15mins of talk and 100 outbound texts (inbound is free). Can't hurt to just call Rogers customer care and just ask about the travel call & text bundle packages. (IMO, the data packages aren't worth it.)