Before you buy the ship's internet connection

[Geezer Cruiser]

This isn't so much a question, as it is advice, which I hope some find helpful.

 

As some of you may know, my recent first cruise was a trip around Iceland. Rather than buying the $200 unlimited ship Wi-Fi connection, which others reported later they found rather slow, I decided that I would rely on my phone plan instead.

 

Just looked at my bill for the month which covers the entire trip, and there was absolutely no data charge whatsoever. I found a signal almost the entire time, although there were a few brief periods in very remote parts of the island where we may have been further off shore where there wasn't one, or it was incredibly slow and weak. Most of the time the signal was fairly decent, if not exactly blazing.

 

Again, my point is a reminder to look into your carrier's options before leaving home.

[easyboy]

Did you use your phone onboard while ship is sailing?

[Geezer Cruiser]

Yes, both while the ship was docked and at sea, too.

[Hey Tina]

I'm going to guess you have T-Mobile? They're known for their international plans..............

[Geezer Cruiser]

Yes, but I understand other carriers offer similar plans, in an effort to play catch up.

[easyboy]

Just curious. What is your cellular provider and your plan that you were able to avoid using the ship's satellite when the cell sites are not accessible?

[Geezer Cruiser]

Cell sites were available most of the time. Some folks automatically buy ship minutes assuming all mobile phone use coats a lot extra in all cases.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

Keith

[easyboy]

I'm going to guess you have T-Mobile? They're known for their international plans..............

 

 

 

I have the T-mobile plan and I still need the ship's wifi while sailng, unlike what the OP is describing.

 

 

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[les37b]

This is not just dependant on your provider but the country your contract is in and where you are.

 

For example for people in the UK cruising in the Med on Vodafone pay monthly contract should be ok. That is, provided you are in a country that Vodafone do allow free roaming in. This obviously applies while on land or while docked. Leaving ports and not too far from the coast, you should still be able to connect.

 

However, stray too far and you will eventually hook onto a maritime satellite connection as I've found.

 

Luckily (and we all know how modern smart phones work downloading in the background) no one called me or sent a text or I'd be hit be high costs. That applies to making or receiving. I was lucky mine didn't decide to download the latest version of IOS whilst it was. I disconnected as soon as I saw maritime and was lucky.

 

In the Caribbean, roaming in *some* Islands, I would have been covered by vodafones £5 per day scheme whereby no matter how much you use (inside your personal contract limits) you'd be charged £5 for receiving one text or downloading a couple of gigabytes.

 

On my next trip, Vodafone does *not* have any roaming agreements in Vietnam as far as I know and my phone will be permanently have phone and data connections off.

 

So in short, I'm not challenging what the OP personally found on their trip (where was it you went and where are you from?) I'm just saying be careful on what you connect to and not assume you are fine to roam. You may end with a very nasty shock.

 

Within EU countries things have dramatically improved for people from counties in the EU. I'd just be vary wary of risking high charges in the hope it'll be ok.

 

All my recent trips have been great and I've either had unlimited wifi onboard or sailed within countries my provider allows free roaming. That said, I was still charged for making calls to an 0800 number as they claimed it was outside of their roaming agreement and not a normal landline number - even though it's a freephone number and I was in mainland Spain at the time and using a contract that gave me 25gb of roaming data and unlimited calls and text. There was still a gotcha involved. Luckily I argued my case and they agreed to drop the charges.

 

 

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