T-Mobile at sea

[goldencruiser]

Has anyone used their T-Mobile cell phone while on a cruise? We are curious if there is an additional charge from the ship as well as T-Mobile. We will be on the Reflection in November.

[WestLakeGirl]

It costs about $2.50 a minute to connect to the ship's Cellular at Sea system

[goldencruiser]

I thought I read somewhere that the Reflection was using a new carrier named On-Wave. Has anyone had any experience on the Reflection using their cell phone with any carrier with On-Wave? Can you let us know what is the best way to communicate from the ship to home on the phone?

[spookwife]

the best way is to find a free wifi hotspot in port and use a laptop or tablet.

 

anything on board will incur ship charges on top of whatever your cell provider charges. texts run about 50 cents to send, receiving may be less,

 

in port you will need an international plan to avoid roaming charges.

[WestLakeGirl]

Calling home is expensive, texting will probably cost less, email is also probably a good option especially if you can find free or inexpensive wifi on shore, but expect phone calls to be pricey

[Lsimon]

Cell phone service from the ship is expensive regardless of the service provider used on the ship. Also, service can at times be poor or unreliable.

 

Check with your carrier for their cruise ship rates. These do vary by wireless company. The rates are set by your carrier and will be billed on your cell phone bill. Celebrity does not set the rates and does not do the billing. The only rates and billing Celebrity sets is the on board wi-fi service which starts at 75 cents for every minute you are logged on.

 

The lowest rate for phone calls, and the most common, is around $2.50/minute. Some carriers offer packages of blocks of minutes of phone time for a slightly lower rate. Some carriers charge more. Rates at port, on land, are generally much less expensive.

 

Text messages are usually around 50 cents per outgoing message with incoming messages ranging from free to a small charge.

 

Cellular data is extremely expensive on board if it works at all. Do not attempt to use your cellular data (email, web browser, Facebook, etc) on board or out of the country without investigating the rates.

Edited October 8, 2013 by Lsimon

[cruzin princess#1]

This is my first post so please bear with me. I only have one word of advice to you: If you have a newer phone that has internet the phone will keep roaming and update the service all the time while you incur charges!! I went on a 14 day and my husband never shut off the phone, we only called home once, just received a few text messages. Received bill from T-mobile $450.00 that month!!!! :eek: We HAD international on the phone, our old plain phones didn't cost anything if you didn't use it, even if it was on. If you are at sea the phone can roam 4-5 times a day to the closest tower occurring from $4.00 to $7.00 per roam and updating charges.

Called T-mobile to see if there was anything they could do (since my husband put the international on the phone and they could have at least told him that he would get roaming charges 24/7 while the phone was on!) All they said was oh well, too bad, you should have known.

We will not make that mistake again.

[Orator]

This is my first post so please bear with me. I only have one word of advice to you: If you have a newer phone that has internet the phone will keep roaming and update the service all the time while you incur charges!! I went on a 14 day and my husband never shut off the phone, we only called home once, just received a few text messages. Received bill from T-mobile $450.00 that month!!!! :eek: We HAD international on the phone, our old plain phones didn't cost anything if you didn't use it, even if it was on. If you are at sea the phone can roam 4-5 times a day to the closest tower occurring from $4.00 to $7.00 per roam and updating charges.

Called T-mobile to see if there was anything they could do (since my husband put the international on the phone and they could have at least told him that he would get roaming charges 24/7 while the phone was on!) All they said was oh well, too bad, you should have known.

We will not make that mistake again.

 

You need to place your phone in "airplane mode". Welcome to Cruise Critic.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Orator

[Lsimon]

You need to place your phone in "airplane mode". Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

This is not necessary. In airplane mode you can not use your phone for calls or text messages. You can easily set your phone so it will not incur data charges while still leaving it enabled to make and receive calls and texts. This is done by use of the "Data Roaming" setting.

 

Every smartphone I've seen has a setting for "Data Roaming". Data service is the part of your cellular service that allows you to get email, Facebook web browser and use apps that need an internet connection to work. Roaming means service in an area outside of your normal service area. So Data Roaming means your phone will use data services away from your included areas, such as on a ship or foreign country. If Data Roaming is off then your phone will not incur data roaming charges. If Data Roaming is on then your phone will incur out of area data charges and this could happen even if you don't think you're using the services. So the safe bet is to check the setting and make sure data roaming is turned off - this is the default setting on iPhones but you should double check in any event.

 

If you WANT to use data services out of the country then you should call your carrier and find out the rates in the areas you want to visit and the costs for a data roaming package. You should also plan on turning data roaming on only when you are knowingly using the service and then turn it off when finished.

 

Note that phone calls and text messages are not part of Data Roaming and these services have their own separate roaming charges that you will incur when you make or receive calls or texts when you are out of your normal service area.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Lsimon

[Milhouse]

Airplane mode also shuts down the wifi so you cannot take advantage of places offering free wifi.

 

Personally, I always have data roaming turned off.

[Oxo]

Airplane mode also shuts down the wifi so you cannot take advantage of places offering free wifi.

 

Personally, I always have data roaming turned off.

 

If Airplane mode shuts off wifi how come you still can connect to the ships wifi? If you really want to 100% sure that you will not incur any service provider (T-Mobile) charges, remove your SIM card.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Oxo

[cruisestitch]

When you put the phone into airplane mode, you need to manually turn the wifi on. While Airplane Mode does turn Wi-Fi off by default, it doesn't prevent you from turning it back on.

 

From Apple Support:

 

When you enable airplane mode from the Settings screen, an airplane icon () appears in the status bar at the top of the screen and the following wireless connections and services are turned off:

 

Cellular (voice and data)

Wi-Fi

Bluetooth

GPS

Location services

 

If allowed by the aircraft operator and applicable laws and regulations, you can re-enable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth while in airplane mode:

 

Wi-Fi: While airplane mode is on, tap Settings > Wi-Fi, then turn Wi-Fi on and choose a Wi-Fi network.

Edited October 10, 2013 by cruisestitch

[Milhouse]

I stand corrected! Yes, you can manually turn wifi back on.

That tells you how much I use airplane mode not on the airplane. :)

[Cruisin'Lady]

I always turn my phone off when on a cruise. I only turn it on when in port as I have international calling. Then I can talk to family/friends if it is needed. As to others getting a hold of me, I also buy a ship board wifi minutes and use about 100 minutes for 2 week cruise. I check my email and work related accounts nightly. Haven't ever had a problem with overage data or cell use this way!

 

When I go on a cruise, I am really trying hard not to bring my everyday life with me!:D

[khristian4]

Tmobile is rolling out new international packages Oct 31st with amazingly cheap rates that include free data. They have a list of about 100 countries these plans will work in.

[debbs0723]

I have a question and I swear I'm not trying to bash Tmobile as I've had them for a couple of years and saved a great deal of money. However, sometimes my service is super spotty. When everyone else is getting service, I have problems. Even in my own city, which is Houston BTW, so its not like I'm in the middle of nowhere.

 

I'm going on a cruise over Thanksgiving on the allure. My teen daughter and I have Tmobile, my parents have ATT and my husband has Verizon. We all have no problem turning off our data as I like the internet break. However, it would be really nice if we were able to text each other just to give a heads up as to where we were. Mainly communication between the teen daughter and us would be nice. thought about renting dect phones just to avoid any other costs.

 

Have any of you used Tmobile and actually had it work on the ship? I swear I was in a restaurant over the weekend. My daughter was at a slumber party and I was trying to communicate with the other mom. I could not send a text to her for the life of me. Just kept saying cellular service not available.

 

Thanks,

Debbie

[Rachel302]

I've used a variety of different TMobile phones on 6 cruises in the past 7 years. Never had a problem with poor service, huge bills or anything unexpected. I always keep my roaming data turned off, turn the phone off completely when not using it and make occasional calls from ports and on the ship to home. I also text - incoming is free (included in my plan, unlimited) and outgoing has ranged from 10 cents to 50 cents over the years. My bill has never been more than an extra $30.

Really excited for my first cruise with their new international plan, next month! Love tmobile.

[debbs0723]

This is extremely good news. Thank you so much.

[Biker19]

Celebrity would become more popular if they followed the lead of another cruise line which has an app allowing FREE on board messaging.

[goldfish1111]

Just an FYI: T mobile lets you use there phone while at port at many of the islands and countries for only 20 cents a minute back to the US. Wait till your at port to make your calls. I think its called the simple global list and its a new feature. Worked great for us

[LarissaRose]

Just an FYI: T mobile lets you use there phone while at port at many of the islands and countries for only 20 cents a minute back to the US. Wait till your at port to make your calls. I think its called the simple global list and its a new feature. Worked great for us

 

Data is free though :) instead of calling for 20cents a minute you can use Skype on your phone

 

Also, TMobile works WAY better in foreign countries than in the US.