checking it at home while you're away....

[2preschoolers]

We are going on a wedding/honeymoon cruise next summer and my 2 kids will be staying home with grandparents or their dad. I'm not technology savvy at all. So I have 2 concerns/questions...

 

-- How do I tell them to get ahold of me if there is an emergency? (Can I turn Wi-Fi off and just deal with phone charges if they do need to call? Will I be able to check voicemail or email?)

 

-- If I want to call them once or twice while we're gone (or text, or facetime) what's the least expensive way to do that?

 

THANK YOU!

[Gunner22aa]

Take advantage of the free wifi offered in many places in many ports. The ships internet service will be slow and expensive. Also all ships have phone numbers and can be reached from land in the case of an emergency. Your cruise line web site will have it listed so leave it with whomever they are staying with. You can also call home from the ship but expect it to cost about $12/minute

[gymbomb]

Having them call the ship only in case of emergency is probably the best way for them to talk to you. Otherwise, texting is generally much cheaper than calling although can add up quickly if you do it a lot, and free wifi is available in some ports. Check with your cell phone provider for prices of calling vs texting from the ports you will be visiting. For example, I was able to text free from US territories including Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, but calling would have had a per minute charge.

[NMLady]

Take advantage of the free wifi offered in many places in many ports. The ships internet service will be slow and expensive. Also all ships have phone numbers and can be reached from land in the case of an emergency. Your cruise line web site will have it listed so leave it with whomever they are staying with. You can also call home from the ship but expect it to cost about $12/minute

 

Although ship phone charges used to be $7.95 per minute most cruise lines now charge only $1.99 per minute.

[Colorado Kat]

If you want free wifi just off the ship, see where the crew are with their laptops.

 

I would try to set up a time to call, taking time zone changes into account. Hate to call long distance, and then have nobody home.

[cb at sea]

All cruiselines have an emergency phone number so you can be reached. That info should be in the cruise brochure or on their website.

 

Since the kids will be with their trusted and loving grandparents, you shouldn't need to do the "contact" thing often! You can also use the ship's computers and e-mail, for a reasonable fee.

[gatorsfam]

Phone costs have come down a lot over the years.. I think it was $2.99/min. on our recent NCL sailing. But like others mentioned, leave the ship's phone number and they'll relay any emergency information to you. For peace of mind, the cost isn't too bad really if you limit your time, or call from land. WiFi can be found at most ports for cheap or free, and even the ships wifi has dropped in price too. Budget in a little bit for peace of mind communication and have a great time!

[Tiggertastic]

we find free wifi and use the chat function on f...book or instant messaging

 

the crew always know where the free wifi is at each port

 

we also text when on shore as the charges are much lower than on the ship - in fact whilst sailing we turn off the phones completely

 

they also give you a ship email address just for your cabin that they can email but should only contact the ship in an emergency

 

with parents we just do a 'landed or arrived safely' but for the kids who are all adults, they get an off check in on f...book

 

the kids contact grandparents if they have an issue or contact each other

[SPacificbound]

Any time we are out of the US I put the International or world plan on our phones for calls and text. I turn cellular off. :)

[Steviewonder1]

We did international calling for 80 minutes plus 240 minutes (plus 40 more for internet booking) on our last Eastern Med Cruise. Remember that there are sometimes large time differences between where you are and where home is. We got a call from our Outdoor Lighting folks while in Venice Italy at 11PM! Cruising the Carribean is not much of an issue as doing things from Europe. The Free WiFi spots at your ports are very easy to use, especially at the corner bistro or coffee shop. Email there works very well. Just remember that in the event that someone has to call from home to the ship and your cabin, you likely will not be there to answer the call. Cell calls on the ship are around $3 per minute plus roaming and up to $12 per minute to your cabin phone. Texting and email are the easiest. Remember also, how value added are you to an issue back home 8000 miles away and 12 to 20 hours by air from your next port? Maybe that needs to be handled by someone at home. We have delegated authority for major issues to those back home.

[reedl]

It depends on a lot of factors..

 

1) Does the ship have a cellular connection?

2) Do you have an AT&T cell phone?

 

If either of these is true, then you can purchase a $30 package that gives you 50 minutes of talk, and each additional minute of talk is $1 which is quite acceptable if you keep the conversations short.

 

Also if you have AT&T incoming texts are free. This can be quite useful as a notification system to get messages from home. Outgoing texts are $.50 per text so they can add up.

 

As to facetime, skype, etc. If sign up for skype with some credit, you can make phone calls using wifi at ports for around 2 cents a minute. Even on the ship if you use WiFi at 65 cents a minute it is still cheaper than the cell phone calls. In the case of the RCCL Allure of the Seas which has unlimited internet for $179, you can use Skype to make as many calls as you want for 2 cents a minute. Pretty cheap. You can also use Facetime everywhere you have internet access of course.

[Harry and Lucille]

We are going on a wedding/honeymoon cruise next summer and my 2 kids will be staying home with grandparents or their dad. I'm not technology savvy at all. So I have 2 concerns/questions...

 

-- How do I tell them to get ahold of me if there is an emergency? (Can I turn Wi-Fi off and just deal with phone charges if they do need to call? Will I be able to check voicemail or email?)

 

-- If I want to call them once or twice while we're gone (or text, or facetime) what's the least expensive way to do that?

 

THANK YOU!

 

OK. You are hundreds of miles out at sea. You get a call that one of your children has fallen, gotten hurt and granny has taken him/her to the hospital. What can you possibly do? Get off at the next port, try to fly home, rush to find out what happened? Why did you leave for a relaxing vacation in the first place? Go thru all that to find that it is just a skinned knee. Anything worse would not change your situation. Our kids know that whatever happens while we are gone will be addressed when we get home. Messing with our vacation will just upset everything and in reality, there is nothing that we can do about it at that time anyway. Maybe you should just stay home in case.:eek:

[dsrdsrdsr]

Email's cheap(ish), if you've got your own laptop. You type your email on your laptop before you log in to the ship's highly expensive internet; you then log in to the internet, open your email program, paste your message, send it, check your inbox, copy any relevant messages, paste them into your word processor, and log out. You can do all that in a minute. Twice a day, throughout the cruise, and you only need half an hour's internet time. It's better than carrying your laptop ashore and wasting precious land time, IMO.

 

Tell them not to send pictures, because they take forever to download, and maybe set up a new "holiday" email address so you won't be swamped with your regular messages.

[Lsimon]

You can use the ships phone: http://www.carnival.com/core/faq.aspx#q-544958

 

Or your cell phone: http://www.carnival.com/core/faq.aspx#q-544926

 

If you plan on using your cell phone then call your cell phone company to find out the rates for phone calls and text messages and to confirm your phone will work on board and that the proper service is enabled on your phone.

 

Unless you have advance plans to use the phone a lot the package plans probably are not needed. We just pay as we go and use the phones only for issues at home. We use text messages or emails for other contact.

 

 

Any time we are out of the US I put the International or world plan on our phones for calls and text. I turn cellular off. :)

 

If you turn cellular off then I ron'don't think your international or world plan will work.

[ldubs]

OK. You are hundreds of miles out at sea. You get a call that one of your children has fallen, gotten hurt and granny has taken him/her to the hospital. What can you possibly do? Get off at the next port, try to fly home, rush to find out what happened? Why did you leave for a relaxing vacation in the first place? Go thru all that to find that it is just a skinned knee. Anything worse would not change your situation. Our kids know that whatever happens while we are gone will be addressed when we get home. Messing with our vacation will just upset everything and in reality, there is nothing that we can do about it at that time anyway. Maybe you should just stay home in case.:eek:

 

I don't think the OP or anyone else is talking about jumping ship for a skinned knee. I know I wouldn't hesitate to rush home for a, god forbid, serious emergency.

[creativecarriet]

I've been thinking a lot about all these options as well because we will be leaving our two year old for the first time for more than an overnight. It's not so much me wanting to know about emergencies (which is a no brainer I definitely want to know!) but more for just peace of mind. I know she will be lovingly cared for but I KNOW she will miss us so I would love to be able to FaceTime or Skype every other day at least.

Even just briefly.

I have thought about making some pre-made video messages from us to her so that she can at least feel like she's seen or talked to us if something were to happen and we couldn't get the FaceTime idea to work after we were gone. I would hate for her to go that long with no sign of her parents either one haha. She will actually be close to three by then so very much aware.

She will have her older two siblings with her which will help. But I am a very attached mama as she's my last baby and really it's me whose having separation anxiety not her lol. :-)

Edited November 15, 2013 by creativecarriet

[Essiesmom]

You are sailing on Carnival. the Carnival website has an area where you can set up an account for free and communicate to/from the ship via free wifi. Go over to the Carnival forum here at CC and they can tell you how to do it/more about it. It will be public, so don't tell any secrets...EM

[ldubs]

What we do: We provide everyone the cruise line phone number so they can contact the ship directly in a real emergency. Cost is $7 to $10 per minute, but if a real emergency, we tell them to make the call. Otherwise, we keep in touch via email. On Princess we get some free wifi. For other cruise lines we would typically purchase a package of 150 minutes for a 12 day cruise (about $75). Also take advantage of free wifi spots as we tour around.

 

Hope this helps.

[2preschoolers]

I don't think the OP or anyone else is talking about jumping ship for a skinned knee. I know I wouldn't hesitate to rush home for a, god forbid, serious emergency.

 

Thank you!!! You're absolutely right.