SIM card for Norway cruise (and Amsterdam pre-cruise)

[MisterBill99]

I'm searching for a SIM card to buy for our upcoming 2 week Norway cruise. I've narrowed it down to Vodafone NL and Three UK. I'd likely order the Vodafone on ebay ($8) and get it set up prior to leaving the US, although I could also use my Verizon package and pay $10 for the first day and buy a SIM when I get to Amsterdam. I'd have to pay 10 euro for a 2gb data package (including the bonus they give you for the first reload) after I activate it.

 

The other option is Three UK. I can buy a SIM on Amazon that gives 30 days of service and either 1gb, 3gb or 12gb of data and supposedly needs no setup, it just works. It would cost me $13, $24 or $30 depending on the amount of data. So the cost is a bit higher but it shouldn't require any actual sertup prior to using it.

 

The complicating thing here is that it appears that Three UK only gives you 3g service outside of the UK and it may be even worse (2g) in Norway. Vodafone seems to give very good service in Amsterdam and Norway and would likely be 4g, although I don't know whose network they use.

 

Does anyone have any experience with either provider in Norway? Will I be able to get data service while the ship is sailing in the fjords? I'm not sure how close to land we'll be.

 

Thanks..

[kaisatsu]

I can't comment on the throttling of service by foreign companies, since I've only had domestic Norwegian mobile subscriptions. However, I can confirm that within the fjords you will most likely have phone service. In some of the more remote areas between towns, it may drop down to 3G (or very occasionally Edge), but areas around towns and cities almost always have good 4G coverage.

 

That applies to sail-in/sail-out and scenic cruising within the fjords. If you're on a traditional cruise (i.e. not the Hurtigruten coastal ferry), any full sea days will be spent in international waters, so you'll be too far out for land-based cellular coverage.

[MisterBill99]

So I ordered the Vodafone NL SIM on ebay for $7 shipped. Hopefully it will work well in Norway. I'll report back on my experience. I found a thread on Fodors where someone reported success in Amsterdam and elsewhere in Europe with the same SIM, but he didn't visit Norway.