Cell Phone use in UK

[MSEm]

We have Verizon as our cell phone provider.  We are considering adding the(Limited) Monthly International plan for our trip (May 7-25). We will be on the British Ilsa Explore cruise. We want family to be able to contact a few times while we are traveling. Any reviews on Verizon Monthly plan would be helpful. Thanks for all the great info on this board.

[Heidi13]

Can't comment on your US plan, but if you have an unlocked phone, I suggest checking out getting a UK SIM card on arrival. On arrival, we remove our Virgin SIM and replace it with a UK SIM. In 2017, we spent 5 months in UK and the cost was about UKP 10 per month.

 

This included local calls, texts, data and International calls.

[dd57]

I can't answer directly, but last year in Europe and the UK we used Verizon's TravelPass instead.  The $10/24 hour period only starts once you receive or start a call or text.  You can leave your phone on to receive calls.  If you are only expecting a few calls (on different days), this can be a lot cheaper.  Once the 24 hour period starts, you can make and receive as many calls as you like during that 24 hours without additional charge.  You would want to turn off data so that your phone's apps don't access the internet in the background (like checking email or updates) which would start another $10/24 hour period.  Save those actions for the free wifi onboard.  The calls, text, and data under the travel pass count against your monthly limit, but there is no per call/text/MB charge in addition to the $10.  Needless to say, you only want to do this (or the monthly plan you ask about) while ashore as phone calls while onboard are quite expensive per minute no matter what plan you have.

 

 

 

[Portolan]

I might add for those with AT&T, their day pass works exactly the same as dd57 described for Verizon.  If your phone is on as you enter a new country, you'll get a free text message which tells you how to activate the day pass.

 

DD57: as in the USS Tucker?

Edited March 18, 2019 by Portolan

[Krisval]

We use WhatsApp when overseas and let friends and family know so they can do the same. Very helpful for messaging from most locations.

[azdrydock]

As mentioned earlier if your phone is unlocked a UK sim card is best. We used Tesco a few years ago and had ithe SIM card mailed to our first night hotel. 2Gb data unlimited calls for one month. Think total was less than $30 . You will get a UK number (You can fwd your US number to it and you will be charged the minimal US to UK rate by your US carrier) One word of caution there are some locations on the around UK cruise like the Faroe Islands that are not included in your plan (UK or US) and if you do not have your phone in the airplane mode and your phone updates you will be charged an outrageous rate per Mb!

[Capt_BJ]

used the Ver' International Plan on our 'midnight sun' last summer (added it for just the time we'd be 'over there')

 

worked fine all the time

 

we did a few days b4 in London (we did London to Bergen version) and used the map applications on the phone a lot as well as texting to folks back home.  It continued to work just fine throughout the trip, in Scotland and Norway.

 

If your needs are small, we also used the daily plan and it worked well too .... dw and dd went to Bergen and they lost dw bag ... used the daily plan to activate her phone so they could contact her about delivery when found vs her sitting around waiting for it.  The 'daily plan' worked perfectly.

 

*************

but don't forget you have free wifi internet on VO ... so you can e-mail to your heart's content at no charge ... no special phone access required. I don't recommend trying facetime cuz the bandwidth IS a lil low (technical crud) but if you have a newer phone that includes WiFi calling that should work most of the time (only ON the ship obviously).  For us ... e-mail worked fine especially with the time differences.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Capt_BJ

[dd57]

On 3/18/2019 at 5:46 AM, Portolan said:

I might add for those with AT&T, their day pass works exactly the same as dd57 described for Verizon.  If your phone is on as you enter a new country, you'll get a free text message which tells you how to activate the day pass.

 

DD57: as in the USS Tucker?

Nope.  Just significant initials and significant year.

[MSEm]

Thanks for all of the great info. I will try to get about 4 people to use  WhatsApp.  I only need them to be able to contact me in an emergency.  WhatsApp will allow them to text me at no cost. While in London our hotel has free Wi-Fi and also there is WiFi in the tube stations.

[Thatname]

There’s a lot of free WiFi in London, it’s always worth checking out your phone to see if there’s a free network nearby.