Cell Phones & Laptop

[RusticCreations]

Since this is our first cruise (Carnival Breeze Jan. 2017), we have some concerns but MANY questions!!!

 

1: Cell Phones (AT&T) or laptop or both?

 

2: Since these are AT&T Cell Phones, do you contact AT&T and get data only international plan or voice and data?

 

3: Ships wifi, which service plan for two cell phones?

 

4: What apps to use (Shipmate, Whatsapp, etc...)?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[originalgeek]

1. My laptop is a beast. 17" of Asus gaming rig and it weighs a ton. I left it at home and didn't miss it. I did take a tablet and a phone and used them both extensively for pics and games and reading and stuff.

2. I have T-Mobile and my unlimited data plan covers me for most of the Caribbean and Mexico at no extra charge. I got consistently decent 2/3g connections in ports but nothing on ship. It was enough to check email and send a pic or a text home to daughter every once in a while but I wouldn't have wanted to stream anything or try video-calling. (I did catch a Pokemanz in Belize but don't tell anybody - some folks think I'm not vacationing correctly if I look at my phone ever.) You should definitely call AT&T and let them know what you're doing and find out what they offer.

3. If all you want to do is be able to text each other, the 5 dollar a day plan will be fine. IF you need to do much more than that, bump it up. You get a price-break if you order it for the whole cruise. The cheapest plan works with a few different texting apps including Facebook messenger and iMessage.

4. I didn't use any of those so not sure - we just used phones in ports. But someone here will come along and fill in the blanks - plenty of nice folks have used all these plans.

Edited August 8, 2016 by originalgeek

[coevan]

I always take both. We like watching movies on the airplane. We also have Team Viewer which allows me to log into my work account. We have AT&T and have the international plan. There are some voice and data packages, but you still need a signal, so it only works in ports. The ship's internet is very slow, streaming is painful, unless you are off busy usage hours. The internet is also per device, so you would need 2 packages. I could sign off my laptop and log onto my iPhone, easy to switch back. We don't use ship board apps.

[SadieN]

Need to ask some questions...

 

1. How are you going to use your laptop? Can you do that any other way?

 

2. How are you going to use your phone?

 

Our phones are kept in the safe. Only to be brought out to make calls, if need be. Onboard we use old fashioned ways to keep in touch.

 

Non-plan calls from your cellphone are $2.49/minute. Calls from your cabin phone are $0.99/minute.

 

Can't help with the other questions.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[originalgeek]

Oh wait, the Breeze has the Carnival Hub app - you can use that onboard for free to see sign and sail charges, ship maps, daily fun times in electronic form and additionally you can pay just 5 dollars per phone for the whole cruise to chat with each other - 10 bucks total but it only works within that app. No using that to get outside to anywhere else on the internet.

 

The Hub app does not require you to purchase any of the internet plans.

[Wheatie59]

AT&T international voice and data plans are not applicable when you're out at sea. In port, yes. But if you use your cell phone out at sea you're going to be getting service through Williams Marine (or some such) at $2.50 a minute.

 

Carnival has three levels of wifi. The lowest supports only a few apps such as Facebook, Facebook Messenger and a few others. Not general web browsing or e-mail. Is $5 a day, $25 for a seven day. The other two plans are more general. The middle one is $60 for a seven day cruise, don't recall the daily rate. The highest one is (IIRC), $99 for a week. It does not support video streaming. These plans can be used on one device at a time, but you can connect any number of devices. As soon as you connect it disconnects whatever was connected before.

 

Some ships have the Hub app that will let you communicate with each other on the ship.

[RusticCreations]

Need to ask some questions...

 

1. How are you going to use your laptop? Can you do that any other way?

 

2. How are you going to use your phone?

 

Our phones are kept in the safe. Only to be brought out to make calls, if need be. Onboard we use old fashioned ways to keep in touch.

 

Non-plan calls from your cellphone are $2.49/minute. Calls from your cabin phone are $0.99/minute.

 

Can't help with the other questions.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Well, I was thinking we would just use the laptop in our room to download the daily pictures we took and maybe access email/facebook.

 

The phones would be used to take some pictures, mainly will use my dslr, but would also like to text and send some pictures to friends and family.

[RusticCreations]

I forgot to mention that we will not be streaming any data at all. Not expecting to make any calls from sea. Generally just looking to keep into touch with our family and friends. Will use them in the ports.

 

Thanks again for all your helping in answering these questions...

[torwa]

If I remember correctly, I got the Social plan, ($5 per day) and was able to use FB Messenger to stay in contact with family back home. It worked really well on the Breeze in February of this year.

[divinmule]

So on my Facebook messenger I can text my contacts that are not on Fb ...it conversation the sms message...will this feature work on the ship or can I only text individuals on Fb?

[RusticCreations]

I just installed the What'sApp on my Android phone. I set it to airplane mode, then activated the WiFi. I was able to text and send pictures to a friend's phone. So in theory it should work on the cruise ship. The recipient of the text needs to also have the WhatsApp for this to work. Hope this helps.

[torwa]

So on my Facebook messenger I can text my contacts that are not on Fb ...it conversation the sms message...will this feature work on the ship or can I only text individuals on Fb?

 

I'm not sure as the people I was in contact with were on FB Messenger. I didn't try to contact anyone that wasn't on messenger.

[stevec999]

ATT has an add on plan that gives you unlimited texts and a small amount of data. I think it was $30 for a month and it is a one time charge and expires after 30 days. It works well for sending texts while off the ship. It also gives a discount on calls but the calls are still a bit expensive.

 

Remember it only works in port. On the ship you pay the ships rates.

 

Now if you only want to do texts, while on the ship receiving texts is free but goes against your limit on your cell provider. It will cost 50 cents to send a text. Not sure about picture (MMS) texts.

 

We switched to T-Mobile after our last cruise because international texting and data is included and calls are 20 cents a minute.