AT&T Cell phones

[MS52]

The plans are good if you will be making or receiving calls and texts, they do cut the cost, BUT AT&T prorate the minuets and texts allowed if you cancel the plan, so if you put the plan on before your cruise and then cancel right after the cruise, you will only have the plan for a week, and therefore will only be allowed 1/4 of the calls/texts.

 

The best way is to add the plan on the first day of the billing period that the cruise is in, and then cancel it on the last day of the period. That way you get the full benefit of the plan while cruising.

 

That wasn't our experience when we purchased in January. You had to buy a block of minutes. We purchased 50 minutes of talk for $30. It was put on our account for a one month billing period. The cruise was within this period. We did not have to call and cancel or anything. I used 49 minutes so I found it worthwhile!

[CruzieSue]

We are AT&T iPhone users. On our first cruise, we left our son with his grandparents and agreed to text with each other, usually in the evening after we got back from an excursion or before going to eat. We were charged 50 cents per text sent, which was usually 3 or 4 from the phone at home and our phone at sea (total of 8 +/- total per day). When our next month bill came it was only $12.00.

 

Second cruise we had our teenage son with us and the three of us used texting as a way to keep in touch when needed, also a few texts during the week to check with the folks back home - make sure the elderly parents were okay and let them know we were okay. Again, 50 cents per text sent. I think our bill was $24.00 +/- this time, but not bad for 3 phones.

 

One note, there were times our son was in the teen "living room" area that texts would not go through for some reason or there was a delay in the text arriving. We only had to "run him down" once or twice to let him know we were ready to go eat or had changed plans from what we had previously discussed. But most of the time texts were sent and received promptly.

 

If you want to use your phones strictly for texting, just be sure to turn off Cellular Data, Data Roaming, Notifications from apps that are unnecessary, etc. - anything that could incur unwanted and costly charges. I always called AT&T before the cruise to find out if there have been any changes to the rates, etc. They can tell you what will work best for you in your particular situation.

[DrD]

iMessage - a solution looking for a problem! SMS/MMS messaging is industry standard, extremely reliable, works with ANY phone and is so cheap that almost everyone has unlimited texting. So what does Apple do? Invent a new text service that goes through Apple servers, is ONLY compatible with Apple phones, has lots of issues (my friends are always complaining) and doesn't work while you're cruising! Yeay Apple! :rolleyes:

 

Sent from my Galaxy S4 via Tapatalk

 

Well one advantage is you can use internet minutes instead of an AT&T plan to send texts (to other ios devices.) This is very useful if you have minutes otherwise, although you would have to log onto wifi, so messages would not be instantaneous. (I think that's how the ship's wifi works anyway.) You could also go on shore, get cheap wifi, and go to town on texts.

 

I also like that my imessage texts come through on both phone and ipad, it can be a lot easier to type a long response to a text on my ipad. Also nice for looking at pics, etc.

 

So not completely useless.

[LetsGetWet!]

Well one advantage is you can use internet minutes instead of an AT&T plan to send texts (to other ios devices.) This is very useful if you have minutes otherwise, although you would have to log onto wifi, so messages would not be instantaneous. (I think that's how the ship's wifi works anyway.) You could also go on shore, get cheap wifi, and go to town on texts.

 

I also like that my imessage texts come through on both phone and ipad, it can be a lot easier to type a long response to a text on my ipad. Also nice for looking at pics, etc.

 

So not completely useless.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot that - can't do that without iMessage - unless you have some other app for communicating, sending long responses and exchanging pictures using an internet connection. Hmm, is there any other industry-standard app out there to communicate like that, with ALL devices, not just Apple? Oh yeah, email! :)

 

Sent from my Galaxy S4 via Tapatalk

[Ocean View]

Slightly different trip. I was in Mexico last year for a wk I was kinda new to using an iPhone while away. I kept it turned off trumped it on once a day to ck messages from home. I did keep it in airplane mode for taking pictures. On like the 3rd day I get like 4 texts from AT&T telling me I was like 300.00 dollars over data and roaming time allowed on my plan! I freaked I called the 800 number in the message and in about 20 min they back dated a plan and all was well

 

 

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[niksmom630]

That wasn't our experience when we purchased in January. You had to buy a block of minutes. We purchased 50 minutes of talk for $30. It was put on our account for a one month billing period. The cruise was within this period. We did not have to call and cancel or anything. I used 49 minutes so I found it worthwhile!

 

 

You are correct, this is how the plan works today. I just purchased it last week. The cruise minutes packages are not prorated. $30 for a block of minutes, good for a period of 30 days from when you add the service.

 

 

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[marklodi]

Got it! :D

 

But what of the need to make a call/text prior to arriving at the first port. Why is that needed?

 

Here's my best guess: When you are on board, the cell provider is "Cellular at Sea", but when you are off the ship on a Caribbean island, you are with whomever is the provider on that island. I believe this plan is in partnership with ATT and Cellular at Sea, and my guess is that using your phone just once "registers" it (or checks it in) with Cellular at Sea, which appears to be required for the plan to work.

 

Again, just my best guess, since it isn't clearly spelled out.

[DrD]

Oh yeah, I forgot that - can't do that without iMessage - unless you have some other app for communicating, sending long responses and exchanging pictures using an internet connection. Hmm, is there any other industry-standard app out there to communicate like that, with ALL devices, not just Apple? Oh yeah, email! :)

 

Sent from my Galaxy S4 via Tapatalk

 

True, but many people (like my kids) just send texts and do not check email on their phones. Or they might not have my email address but do have my number from last time we talked. Also email doesn't alert right away, unless you set it to (in which case you get alerts constantly) or if the sender is in your VIP list.

 

So I find iMessaging somewhat useful overall.

[LetsGetWet!]

True, but many people (like my kids) just send texts and do not check email on their phones. Or they might not have my email address but do have my number from last time we talked. Also email doesn't alert right away, unless you set it to (in which case you get alerts constantly) or if the sender is in your VIP list.

 

So I find iMessaging somewhat useful overall.

Hey, to each their own - I really am not trying to start an "Apple vs. _____" thing, because those always go exactly nowhere. I'm an electronics engineer and software guy by background, and it just always irks me when (any) company decides they need to come out with some proprietary thing which only works with their hardware and is therefore less functional than a perfectly good universal, industry-standard service which has been around for a long time! :)

[reedl]

I like the iMessage system myself on a cruise since I recently was on the Allure with the unlimited WiFi plan. I kept my phone turned on in WiFi mode and was able to communicate to my hearts content with no additional charges via iMessage.

 

Plus iMessage is much more secure than text messages.

 

One other nice advantage to iMessage is that you KNOW that the message was received and read on the receiving device.

Edited February 18, 2014 by reedl

[reedl]

I bought the $30 AT&T 50 minute plan for the month during which we were going to be on a cruise. It allowed people to call us for free. What we did was have people call us, and then we called them back using Skype using the Allure's unlimited Wifi plan. We had a medical issue to deal with at home, so this saved us over $200 even including the purchase of the Allure internet plan.

 

Plus since we had unlimited data, we could iMessage text as much as we wanted. With text messages, we would have had to pay for each outgoing message.

[Clarea]

I like the iMessage system myself on a cruise since I recently was on the Allure with the unlimited WiFi plan. I kept my phone turned on in WiFi mode and was able to communicate to my hearts content with no additional charges via iMessage.

 

Plus iMessage is much more secure than text messages.

 

One other nice advantage to iMessage is that you KNOW that the message was received and read on the receiving device.

Secure from whom? Certainly not secure from Apple.

 

As mentioned above, you could have used email with the unlimited WiFi on Allure, and communicated with everyone, not just with people that have Apple devices.

 

Email has also been capable of read receipts for many years.

Edited February 18, 2014 by clarea

[DrD]

Hey, to each their own - I really am not trying to start an "Apple vs. _____" thing, because those always go exactly nowhere. I'm an electronics engineer and software guy by background, and it just always irks me when (any) company decides they need to come out with some proprietary thing which only works with their hardware and is therefore less functional than a perfectly good universal, industry-standard service which has been around for a long time! :)

 

I certainly didn't take it that way, just a discussion. I know lots of times the consumer and the engineer have different takes. And I'm not saying iMessaging is the best thing since sliced bread by any means.

 

I'm sure you've heard this : "how many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a lightbulb? None, they just define darkness as the new industry standard."

[LetsGetWet!]

I like the iMessage system myself on a cruise since I recently was on the Allure with the unlimited WiFi plan. I kept my phone turned on in WiFi mode and was able to communicate to my hearts content with no additional charges via iMessage.

 

Yep, as it should be - since that unlimited shipboard WiFi plan is MUCH more expensive than the AT&T text message plan.

 

Plus iMessage is much more secure than text messages.

 

As an experienced software engineer, I have to take issue with that statement. Text messages go through the cellular system. iMessages go through BOTH the cellular system AND an Apple server. Definitely not more secure.

 

One other nice advantage to iMessage is that you KNOW that the message was received and read on the receiving device.

 

Comments in red above...

[LetsGetWet!]

I certainly didn't take it that way, just a discussion. I know lots of times the consumer and the engineer have different takes. And I'm not saying iMessaging is the best thing since sliced bread by any means.

 

I'm sure you've heard this : "how many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a lightbulb? None, they just define darkness as the new industry standard."

 

Haha, yes I've heard that - with "Apple", "Microsoft" or other companies used interchangeably! :)

 

I'm not a Microsoft apologist either - for instance, I'm wholly UNimpressed with Windows 8! Their marketing slogan - "One user experience across all devices!" Excuse me, I have no desire for my desktop computer to work the same way my smartphone does!?!?!?

[vargasjv]

I used the AT&T cruise plan on the Jewel. Purchased the $60 for text and talk time. My text would not go through and when I called AT&T they said that since I had an iphone I would need to turn off the imessage and anyone I would text would have to turn off their imessage. since my family members all had iphones I chose not to text. I did use phone to talk to my family members. When I returned home, called AT&T and was told there were no extra phone charges. I complained about not using the text and they gave me a $30 credit. All good.

 

so basically you didn't know how your iPhone worked and 'complained' to AT&T and ask for a refund?

 

wow... amazing (and not in a good way)

[glm7777]

I will be cruising the Dawn in May and went to my local AT&T to find out the most economical way to keep in touch with home. She told me to get international texting - $10/line for 50 txt messages. When I called AT&T to get more info, he said international texting does not apply while on board - only in port. So I called back and got another person who told me that the only package that could be used on board was the package with data and voice included for $50/line! At this point I am ready to just say the heck with it - I'm going to pay the $.50 per text once or twice a day and call it a day!

[Anguillafan]

I see where this seems to work well in the Caribbean, but does anyone know about Canada? We're cruising to Alaska through Vancouver, and I'm wondering if we need the cruise plan and an international plan. My husband is a sole practitioner and needs to be available to his customers if they call or email. I also can't figure out if he needs the Internet plan from AT&T or if he should have the ship's wifi plan. Thanks in advance.

[vargasjv]

I see where this seems to work well in the Caribbean, but does anyone know about Canada? We're cruising to Alaska through Vancouver, and I'm wondering if we need the cruise plan and an international plan. My husband is a sole practitioner and needs to be available to his customers if they call or email. I also can't figure out if he needs the Internet plan from AT&T or if he should have the ship's wifi plan. Thanks in advance.

 

In Vancouver you can get the Canada plan:

 

http://www.att.com/att/global/affordable-world-packages/?calling

 

Then on Board - you probably want the Cruise Ship package to be able to take and receive calls.

 

You might want to check online or call AT&T and review the options.

[webteach]

We used this plan in July for our Bermuda trip - worked great at sea and on land. For our January trip last month, I thought I had arranged for it but I guess the person I spoke to didn't know about it because we were on an international plan for ONE day of the cruise and then got charged per minute for the rest. When I called about this whopping bill, the person just took it all off!

 

For our three night coming up, I am just not getting any plan. I don't want to go through all the phone stuff again after the cruise so we will rely on Internet for that time.

[headinsouth!]

Does the package work with ATT GoPhones? My daughter has a go phone and wondered if she will be able to use it onboard for texting.

[cruzinlisa]

If you are only looking to text, then look at the numbers to determine if you want to buy a package. Without a package, sending a text is $0.50, receiving is free. Note that these are SMS (text only) messages, no photos, videos, etc.

 

So you don't need to do anything to sign up in advance for this right?

[Clarea]

So you don't need to do anything to sign up in advance for this right?

Usually no. However, we were on a plan that did not allow any foreign service, so we had to call AT&T end get our phones enabled for foreign service. This was several years ago, so I don't know if this process is still necessary. You can call AT&T & check.