UK Mobile phones/ Internet on RC in the Med

[Reina del Mar]

Please give your personal and recent experience of using  a British mobile phone in the Med. on a Royal Caribbean ship (Oasis in this case) 

 

Since our recent cruises have been mainly further afield, we put phones into aeroplane mode to avoid charges....and using free Princess Internet on Ipad.

 

I am now in dispute with my daughter who seems to think we can use our 4G roaming on the ship, at no charge, as it will be a Med cruise (Obviously European laws).

 

I think we will still be charged for using ship's towers so could run up a huge bill.

 

If anyone can share information, I would love to prove my daughter wrong without having a huge bill ( she gets about 30 What's App messages every hour!!!!)...as she thinks I am fussing over nothing !

 

Thanks in advance.

[Clarea]

If you phone can do WiFi calling, and you ourchase the ship's internet service, then you should not have any charges from your cell carrier.

 

Otherwise, you need to contact your cell carrier (or check their website) for charges while on a cruise ship at sea.  Sometimes this is called Cellular at Sea.

[dadofjessie]

You will have to make sure that your phone is on airplane mode.

[Reina del Mar]

Thanks for your reply.

 

Was not thinking of buying ship's internet for  8 mobile phones (8 of us travelling) but all phones have 4G...so Daughter was thinking that would cover us on the ship as UK phones are no longer charged roaming in Europe.

 

Good idea to phone carriers.

 

Anyone in UK with experience of this please ?

 

Many thanks

[kernow]

I've always understood it as we would be charged while at sea but once we are in port and on the local network it is included as part of the free roaming in Europe. Usually once you are in port you get a text message from the local network and as long as you are on that it's OK. If you are on the ships network you will be charged.

[Reina del Mar]

4 minutes ago, kernow said:

I've always understood it as we would be charged while at sea but once we are in port and on the local network it is included as part of the free roaming in Europe. Usually once you are in port you get a text message from the local network and as long as you are on that it's OK. If you are on the ships network you will be charged.

 

Thank you...you put that very well,  in clear terms that a technophobe might understand.

 

What you said is exactly what EE have just told me...so aeroplane mode at sea, normal use on land.

 

Thanks again !

[little britain]

@Reina del Mar - When the ship is sailing you are no longer in the EU!

You are connected to the ship satellite connection in Miami.  And it is EXPENSIVE!

I can assure you that data roaming whilst at sea is not free!!! 

In fact she should always have her phone in Flight mode and then only turn on data roaming when she is ashore and make sure she turns it off the second you are back on board again.  We have a tradition where we say 'phone off' to each other least one of us forgets

 

I have only today done battle with O2 who have charged me for data roaming in Gibraltar ( I was on board all day) saying I was connected to Morocco (not in EU)..... so even in EU roaming spots you may still have issues. I never got a Welcome to Morocco text (to my sunlounger) so they refunded the £78 charge!

 

Mum 1: Daughter 0

Edited May 17, 2019 by little britain

[dwhe]

Edit: sorry it has already been answered.

 

On land and in an EU or an economically associated country you will not be charged roaming.

At sea you will be using the ships tower and you will be charged a fortune.

 

In short:

In an EU port you're OK (check with your carrier what non EU countries are included.

At sea airplane mode.

Edited May 17, 2019 by dwhe

[Mierin828]

To add- you'd be surprised how much of a signal you can get.  I'm just on the last day of a Med cruise right now with a European phone, and have been able to get data/4g through European carriers for a surprisingly long time after we've sailed away from each port- so it wouldn't surprise me if you're able to get a decent signal for quite a bit of the time you're at sea.  

[dwhe]

True I forgot to mention that, especially if your sailing close to land. You've just got to make sure you're not connected to the ship.

[grapau27]

36 minutes ago, Reina del Mar said:

 

Thank you...you put that very well,  in clear terms that a technophobe might understand.

 

What you said is exactly what EE have just told me...so aeroplane mode at sea, normal use on land.

 

Thanks again !

I have the EE essentials plan and have unlimited free calls and texts and 10GB of internet in Europe.

As long as we get the EE,Orange or local signal we are okay but once we leave port and the maritime signal is displayed we turn off our phones.

[Reina del Mar]

10 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

I have the EE essentials plan and have unlimited free calls and texts and 10GB of internet in Europe.

As long as we get the EE,Orange or local signal we are okay but once we leave port and the maritime signal is displayed we turn off our phones.

Thanks for that.

 

Not sure what the maritime signal is,  but we turn our phones off as we get on the ship after each port.... it's easier to do that routinely, as....

old age = forgetfulness !

[grapau27]

48 minutes ago, Reina del Mar said:

Thanks for that.

 

Not sure what the maritime signal is,  but we turn our phones off as we get on the ship after each port.... it's easier to do that routinely, as....

old age = forgetfulness !

Probably best but we always use our phones on board if it shows EE,Orange or the local provider.

I will take a screenshot of the maritime signal next Friday when we are out at sea and will post when we are on land.

Graham

[Reina del Mar]

2 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Probably best but we always use our phones on board if it shows EE,Orange or the local provider.

I will take a screenshot of the maritime signal next Friday when we are out at sea and will post when we are on land.

Graham

 

Thanks, Graham...that's very kind.

 

Bon voyage!

[grapau27]

4 minutes ago, Reina del Mar said:

 

Thanks, Graham...that's very kind.

 

Bon voyage!

Your welcome.

 

[little britain]

1 hour ago, Reina del Mar said:

Thanks for that.

 

Not sure what the maritime signal is,  but we turn our phones off as we get on the ship after each port.... it's easier to do that routinely, as....

old age = forgetfulness !

It will say Cellular at Sea.  

[grapau27]

1 minute ago, little britain said:

It will say Cellular at Sea.  

That sounds right,I will still screenshot it.

[SRF]

Yes, on RCI it will say Cellular at Sea.

 

That means you are connected to the ship's cell tower.

[grapau27]

6 minutes ago, SRF said:

Yes, on RCI it will say Cellular at Sea.

 

That means you are connected to the ship's cell tower.

On EE we always get a text welcoming us to whichever countries network we have connected to.

We also get a text saying you have connected to a maritime network and that's when we turn our phones off.

Thanks for reminding me on RC

It does say Cellular at sea and next Friday I will do a screenshot on a RC ship and post.

Edited May 17, 2019 by grapau27

[Sancho_proudfoot]

Its true that some land based signals reach out quite far into the sea.  We are both on 3, which has excellent roaming. We make sure to disconnect from Cellular at Sea, and sometimes, well out of sight of land, the phone will connect to a local carrier.  

 

 

[grapau27]

On 5/17/2019 at 3:42 PM, Reina del Mar said:

Thanks for that.

 

Not sure what the maritime signal is,  but we turn our phones off as we get on the ship after each port.... it's easier to do that routinely, as....

old age = forgetfulness !

As promised this is the signal at sea. Graham

[Reina del Mar]

On 5/25/2019 at 10:46 PM, grapau27 said:

As promised this is the signal at sea. Graham

Thank you so much for the information.

We were able to use our phones on 4G  for most of the cruise, but the last two nights we had the Cellular at Sea Symbol come up, so didn't use the phones.

[grapau27]

1 minute ago, Reina del Mar said:

Thank you so much for the information.

We were able to use our phones on 4G  for most of the cruise, but the last two nights we had the Cellular at Sea Symbol come up, so didn't use the phones.

Your welcome.

Pleased you were able to use your 4G for most of your cruise.

[misslottie]

Thank you for posting about the cellular at sea. A question if I may: do you auto-connect to the “cellular at sea” service? I just wonder if your phone auto-connects once you’ve left port, would you be charged by your carrier?

 

I’m with O2 and when I’ve travelled to Greece and Spain there’s been no charges under the new rules for 4G usage, so I understand that once in port I’ll be under normal charges.

[Reina del Mar]

I did not connect to Cellular at Sea as I understand that incurs charges.

We were able to use 4G in port and also at sea when we were close to land. For our cruise it was almost all of the time as it was a very port intensive cruise and we were almost always close to land.