Verizon Phone and Caribbean Coverage

[Justicedog]

Hi,

We are cruising for the first time in a week on Freedom of the Seas. We've never been out of the country and I'm trying to figure out what's the best option for dealing with our phones.

 

We've got Verizon.

 

According to their website they have Cruise Ship Rates where Voice is $1.79/minute, test is .50/message sent and $.05 message received and data is $2.05/MB or $0.002/KB.

 

What happens when one is in port? Will it take from the ship or go to an international plan?

 

Then there's a pay as you go international plan or one that you pay $25 extra and get 100MB data. Both have sms text at .50 or .25 for MMS sent or .05 SMS/.25 MMS received and $.99/min or $1.79/min for voice calls.

 

I'm assuming this data is cellular data, so if that's turned off on the phone, we should be safe.

 

I think it would be nice to have text messaging on board. It may be worth .55 cents to me to locate a teen kid.

 

There are too many choices.

 

What do you guys do for cellular service while cruising the Caribbean?

 

My teen kids would love unlimited everything. They use snap chat mostly. Husband and I would be ok with nothing, except an emergency or check in on a few things at home by text.

[Clarea]

... What happens when one is in port? Will it take from the ship or go to an international plan?....

When the ship gets to within a certain distance of land, it turns off it's cell tower, so then your phone connects to the land-based towers and your rates become based on that particular country.

Edited July 20, 2016 by clarea

[Tony O]

This may help .This is the Travel Pass plan from Verizon Wireless.

 

http://www.verizonwireless.com/plans/travelpass-countries/

[TravelerThom]

Hi,

We are cruising for the first time in a week on Freedom of the Seas.

...My teen kids would love unlimited everything...

Freedom sails on 24 July to the Western Caribbean, and on 31 July to Eastern Carib. If you are doing Eastern Carib note that St. Thomas is covered under most US plans.

 

When you settle on your phone plan, I suggest some discussion of ground rules with your kids. Some kids (but certainly not yours:p) have been know to run up many hundreds of dollars on a phone bill in a week.:eek:

[mattg43]

$2 per MB is very expensive.

 

If you want connectivity, buy wifi from the ship and use something other than standard text messages.

 

If you do nothing, but want to check in every couple days when you stop at a port, many businesses will have free wifi with your business or for a fee. For example in Nassau, Starbucks was charging $3 an hour per device I think.

Edited July 20, 2016 by mattg43

[Carmen37]

Verizon has a global plan for $40 I used it in April on Indy and will use it again in October. I do not use their cruise ship plan. Call and talk to customer service. It's 100 minutes plus 100 outgoing text and free incoming text & 100gb data. Which I don't use the data.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Carmen37

[Clarea]

Verizon has a global plan for $40 I used it in April on Indy and will use it again in October. I do not use their cruise ship plan. Call and talk to customer service. It's 100 minutes plus 100 outgoing text and free incoming text & 100gb data. Which I don't use the data.

I read here recently that Verizon had discontinued the cruise ship plan.

[Carmen37]

I've never used it cause it's ridiculous in price.

[setsail]

We have verizon and never buy any plans from them or the ship. Calling and texting is very cheap plus you don't need data to make calls or text. You do need to make sure international calling is turned on on your phone, done by Verizon, no charge. The Verizon site has very good info and also the cost for calling/texting from ports

We just do pay as you go. The largest bill we have ever had for a cruise was 28$ extra on our bill

 

We also don't go online. If you want to use the Internet then you will need a plan as that can use data

[The Scurvy Pirate]

We signed up once for the Travel Pass. As explained to me, you pay a flat rate of $10/day per country in many countries ($2/day in Mexico) and it lets you use your current cell phone/data plan for no additional charges. Also, they don't "charge" you unless you use the service (make sure you turn off cell service if you don't want to be charged, though) So, if you go to 3 different countries, its only $30. Also, if you get the Voom package, you can turn off the cell service and simply use wi-fi to send texts, etc. while on the ship. We found it a lot easier/cheaper than trying to go through some of the other international and "ship" plans. Also, you don't have to call to sign up for each subsequent cruise, it simply stays "active", but since we don't otherwise leave the country except for cruises, there are no additional charges. Although be careful, as I had read one ship got close enough to the Bahamas that someone got dinged for a $10 charge even when they were just passing by the islands.

[reallyitsmema]

We signed up once for the Travel Pass. As explained to me, you pay a flat rate of $10/day per country in many countries ($2/day in Mexico) and it lets you use your current cell phone/data plan for no additional charges. Also, they don't "charge" you unless you use the service (make sure you turn off cell service if you don't want to be charged, though) So, if you go to 3 different countries, its only $30. Also, if you get the Voom package, you can turn off the cell service and simply use wi-fi to send texts, etc. while on the ship. We found it a lot easier/cheaper than trying to go through some of the other international and "ship" plans. Also, you don't have to call to sign up for each subsequent cruise, it simply stays "active", but since we don't otherwise leave the country except for cruises, there are no additional charges. Although be careful, as I had read one ship got close enough to the Bahamas that someone got dinged for a $10 charge even when they were just passing by the islands.

 

We chose not to sign up for a travel pass in advance because I did not want to be charged if we chose not to use our phone in a specific port. Once we were within range on cell towers in each port, we received a message from Verizon, offering us the travel pass for that country. All we needed to do was acknowledge the text we received. The pass was good for 24 hours from the time we first used the service. It was great to check email and make a few calls while we were in Cozumel. Mexico is a $2 country so we figured we would give it a shot. We weren't charged for anything while in Mexico but we were charged 5 cents for the text we received on the ship telling us the pass was going to expire. I didn't bother trying to recoup it, wasn't worth my time.

 

We have always used pay as we go since the cruise ship plan was more than we ever spent. Now that that doesn't exist anymore, we might consider trying Voom.

[cruzinlady1947]

If you are doing Eastern Carib note that St. Thomas is covered under most US plans.

Verizon does not have free coverage in St. Thomas...my son learned the hard way with a bill for a couple hundred $'s. We have Sprint and ours was free coverage, so he thought Verizon was too. Verizon is only free in Puerto Rico, not St.Thomas.

 

Better check before you go....

 

 

Gwen :)

Edited July 20, 2016 by cruzinlady1947

[Dett]

I got the international plan last December and January with Verizon. I paid a flat rate per month. It was unlimited incoming text, It included phone calls, data and text messages. I did tell them that I was on a cruise ship but they also asked what countries I would visit. When in port, it did change to a local carrier. Not sure what the plan includes now. The reception was very good and I was able to talk to family in the US from all of the ports. We had to make the phone calls short because I had limited minutes. I don't remember the amount included. I think that it was about $30 extra per month. This may have changed since the time that I used the plan.

[Daghis]

Verizon may have changed their handling of St. Thomas. I just checked, and they're now saying it's included. It could be related to the plan one has.

 

Edited July 20, 2016 by Daghis

[reallyitsmema]

Verizon does not have free coverage in St. Thomas...my son learned the hard way with a bill for a couple hundred $'s. We have Sprint and ours was free coverage, so he thought Verizon was too. Verizon is only free in Puerto Rico, not St.Thomas.

 

Better check before you go....

 

 

Gwen :)

 

It is covered now, Verizon international coverage and plans have changed a lot. It is best to check just prior to sailing. I use the interactive trip planner online and it will detail everything out for every ship and port you choose.

[cruzinlady1947]

It is covered now, Verizon international coverage and plans have changed a lot. It is best to check just prior to sailing. I use the interactive trip planner online and it will detail everything out for every ship and port you choose.

Thanks, I'll have my son check it out. We are cruising again in Dec. and St. Thomas will be one of our stops, but not San Juan. He talked an hour or more when he was in St. Thomas the last time and thought he was covered. That was a couple years ago. Glad they changed it.

 

 

Gwen :)

[Yanks6296]

We have verizon and never buy any plans from them or the ship. Calling and texting is very cheap plus you don't need data to make calls or text. You do need to make sure international calling is turned on on your phone, done by Verizon, no charge. The Verizon site has very good info and also the cost for calling/texting from ports

 

We just do pay as you go. The largest bill we have ever had for a cruise was 28$ extra on our bill

 

 

 

We also don't go online. If you want to use the Internet then you will need a plan as that can use data

 

 

When you do pay as you go, cellular data is on , correct? It will not work in airplane mode?

 

 

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[Clarea]

When you do pay as you go, cellular data is on , correct? It will not work in airplane mode?

You can call and text with cellular data off. If you turn on Airplane mode, you won't be able to call and text.

[TravelerThom]

Thanks, I'll have my son check it out. We are cruising again in Dec. and St. Thomas will be one of our stops, but not San Juan. He talked an hour or more when he was in St. Thomas the last time and thought he was covered. That was a couple years ago. Glad they changed it.

Apparently he was on the "hang up the phone and enjoy the port you are in" plan, rather than the "make your friends envious" plan. It is always important to select the plan that best matches your desires.

[BettyPC]

We have used the $25. International Verizon plan - which is for a month. Have used it on cruise and also on a Viking River cruise. We cancel it for the next month when we return.

[setsail]

When you do pay as you go, cellular data is on , correct? It will not work in airplane mode?

 

 

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Cellular data is off as Bob stated

[cruzinlady1947]

Apparently he was on the "hang up the phone and enjoy the port you are in" plan, rather than the "make your friends envious" plan. It is always important to select the plan that best matches your desires.

 

 

No, he just thought that Verizon had the same free service in St. Thomas that we had with Sprint. He had free service in San Juan, so thought it would be the same for ST. He didn't even think to ask before he left on the cruise. Verizon was kind enough to lessen the bill by 50%. Lesson learned.

 

 

Gwen [emoji3]

[Yanks6296]

You can call and text with cellular data off. If you turn on Airplane mode, you won't be able to call and text.

 

 

Thank you, I want to make sure I do it right

 

 

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[Bigbluegal]

I am recently off of Freedom of the Seas with my two sons (17) and (23). I purchased the 3 device internet in order to connect to wifi. All phones were placed in airplane mode as to be sure no use of data. Download the application WhatsApp. and have all those you would like to communicate with land and sea do the same. Through the application you can text and make phone calls and you will incur no extra charges with Verizon.

[sderick]

What if my husband and I simply want to text only each other on board; if we split up and want to meet up etc...is there a charge? Cruising Boston to Bermuda and we both have Verizon. Thank you!

 

 

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