wifi and phone calls

[mayrubgar]

Whats the norm far as charges for wifi and if somone calls you while youre on the ship. As for calls incoming from home or out going from cell or will it work?

[CruiserBruce]

It may vary by cruise line, so research on the appropriate board for the cruise line involved would be recommended.

 

In summary, expensive, and in case of wifi, slow. There are some improvements coming on some cruise lines.

[Keith1010]

CruiserBruce has this right.

 

Wifi does vary by cruise line and cell phone calls can vary by cruise line as well along with your own carrier.

 

Keith

[fishywood]

Well not to be pedantic, but as soon as you turn on your laptop or other portable device you will be connected to the ship's WiFi network. But if you wish to log onto the World Wide Web, it will (as all have said) be very slow and most ships charge about 75 cents/minute, though they will likely also offer prepaid packages at a discount.

 

Most cellular carriers from the US allow roaming through the ship's provider; average roaming charge is about $2.50/minute. Many only charge a few cents per message to receive texts--but a lot more for you to send them; you will want to check with your carrier.

[Steviewonder1]

Also remember that while you are in port there will be tons of places with WiFi and alot of it is Free like coffee shops. This is your opportunity to download and upload your email and the time may be free instead of paying on the ship. Our last trip we bought 100 WiFi minutes on the ship for a 12 day eastern med cruise. We just did use all of them. On shore we used 10 free spots and 4 where we bought coffee and got it free. You will see WiFi signs in lots of places and most are attached to Food or Drink. In other words stop by, have a latte and do some email while you watch the world go by! We bought 80 minutes of International Calling from ATT and used almost all of them. Basically we go on a cruise to get away from what is back at home and relax, not to stay in touch. Unless you have a VOIP App for your phone you will not likely make calls on WiFi. We tried using Friend Caller and I could hear the landline side but they could not hear the ship side. Selective data port disabling is done to stop Wifi phone calls on the ship and at some land based WiFi locations.

[kingoftheicedragons]

I use T-Mobile, so I'll say this:

 

With T-Mobile, if your phone rings and the call goes to voice mail because you didn't answer it, you will be charged for the amount of time that the caller is on voice mail--starting at one minute and could be more.

 

T-Mobile does have their international plan that allows you free data usage and cheap text rates in certain countries, so if you need to use your phone for calls and/or data, don't do it on the ship at sea, wait until you're in port and can do it there.

[noahgosplat]

The wifi and cellular service at sea is really expensive. It's not really worth it. A weird tip though, I sailed with Princess and when I went on my iPhone it would connect to the wifi but not actually log on. Even though I was not logged on and not paying anything all of the push notifications still came through so I could still stay up to date on what was going on in the world.

[paul929207]

The cost of wifi will vary by cruise line and the size package you decide to purchase. As an example, I think on Princess it ranges from 75 cents per minute if you don't by a package to about 30 cents per minute for the largest package.

[TinCan782]

• 
  Check the website for your wireless carrier...they should have info on international roaming including cruises.
  Check the website for your cruise line...they should have info on their WiFi plans and other wireless info.

[trish1c]

The more minutes you buy, the cheaper the per minute cost. You don't get a refund for unused minutes but you usually get some "extra minutes" if you sign up the 1st day or like them on FB from the ship. If you don't need on-board access you can make due with free or lower costs wifi or internet cafes in the ports.

 

Contact your cell phone provider for their costs. It is usually about $2.50 per minute.

[mayrubgar]

Wifi is a joke from your cabin

[Steviewonder1]

The big issue with WiFi is the size and power of the WiFi radio in your phone, Tablet, or computer. The bigger the device the bigger the radio and extra antennas. We have no issues using our MacBook Pro with WiFi in our cabin, but the iPhone does not work unless you get down the hall towards the center of the ship. Our iPads work ok if you leave the door to the suite open to the hall. Best time to use ship's WiFi is late at night or early in the morning. YMMV

[peety3]

In summary, expensive, and in case of wifi, slow. There are some improvements coming on some cruise lines.

I recognize I'm being somewhat pedantic, and I'm certainly not going to say that on-ship wifi is blazing fast, but there are "two dimensions" to "speed": latency and bandwidth. Aboard a ship, the biggest problem is going to be latency - most of the satellite wifi services rely on satellites that are in "geosynchronous orbit", which means you can aim an antenna towards them and (if on land) tighten all of the bolts - in other words if you were to look at it in the sky, it will appear to remain parked in one spot. To stay in one apparent place, it has to be 22,300 miles above the Earth's surface. Even at the speed of light, it still takes about 1/4 second for the data to travel up to the satellite and back down to Earth. The replies will also take 1/4 second, so each exchange takes 1/2 second. If you're doing something "interactive", such as a multiplayer game, you'll be lagged, and all of your shots will be lagged as seen by everyone else. However, if you do something that involves a longer stream of data (view big pictures on a website, or some forms of streaming videos), the stream can get established and then flow at a decent rate because it only needs a certain amount of acknowledgement to keep things going.

[badtwin]

Also remember that while you are in port there will be tons of places with WiFi and alot of it is Free like coffee shops. This is your opportunity to download and upload your email and the time may be free instead of paying on the ship. Our last trip we bought 100 WiFi minutes on the ship for a 12 day eastern med cruise. We just did use all of them. On shore we used 10 free spots and 4 where we bought coffee and got it free. You will see WiFi signs in lots of places and most are attached to Food or Drink. In other words stop by, have a latte and do some email while you watch the world go by! We bought 80 minutes of International Calling from ATT and used almost all of them. Basically we go on a cruise to get away from what is back at home and relax, not to stay in touch. Unless you have a VOIP App for your phone you will not likely make calls on WiFi. We tried using Friend Caller and I could hear the landline side but they could not hear the ship side. Selective data port disabling is done to stop Wifi phone calls on the ship and at some land based WiFi locations.

 

This was definitely the way to go for us as Verizon didn't seem to have good options at the time. Got on the plane for Europe and turned the phones on "plane" mode and didn't turn them back on until we were in the states again. (Be sure your phone is internet capable in plane mode) We enjoyed free wifi with our phones in ports with lunch or a beer. Told everyone that mattered to contact us by email not text. For actual emergencies, we left instructions on how to call the ship and reach our stateroom.

[Rogueperson]

At this time, AT&T has a cruise ship package for the Caribbean for only Royal Caribbean branded ships. For 30 bucks, they gave me 50 minutes of talk time on land or cellular at sea. Texts could be received for free, but outgoing texts cost 10 cents I think. There was a 60 dollar package for texts and voice and 120 dollar package for voice, data and texts. I forget the amount they give you. Over the limit, they charge you a reduced charge per minute/text/data

 

 

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