ATT Cruise Ship Plan vs Shipboard Surf&Stream

[Coochuck]

Going on a back to back cruise on the Radiance in September/October.  ATT offers a ship plan good for 30 days for $100..Includes unlimited onboard calling, texts, and 1GB of data + $10 for every 100 MB over that amount.  Will be onboard for a period of 24 days.   What is your opinion of which plan to purchase?

[gumshoe958]

How much data do you think you’ll use? 1GB may not get you very far for 24 days and you could find yourself racking up those extra $10/100MB charges quite quickly. Only you know how much you’re likely to be online.

[Charles4515]

58 minutes ago, Coochuck said:

Going on a back to back cruise on the Radiance in September/October.  ATT offers a ship plan good for 30 days for $100..Includes unlimited onboard calling, texts, and 1GB of data + $10 for every 100 MB over that amount.  Will be onboard for a period of 24 days.   What is your opinion of which plan to purchase?

Probably the ship WiFi. If you are only going to text or make voice calls it might be a good option. If you surf the web, do Facebook you could easily go over in 24 days. Send an email with attachments…And there are apps on your phone that use data in the background. Most of the time at home I am on my home WiFi yet I still use at least 4-5 Gigabytes per month. 

[Grumpella]

I will let you know how it goes for me in a few weeks.

 

Since my cruise is 14 days long, it is cheaper for me to buy the ATT cruise ship plan and the International Day Pass (which includeds unlimited data, talk and text) as I am in ports for 9 days. I do not plan to use any data on the ship so I will not go over. I know to shut off Background Refresh for the apps, not have Data Roaming on and will not be checking email. I will only be texting (and not Imessage, as that needs data) lol

[Coochuck]

18 hours ago, Grumpella said:

I will let you know how it goes for me in a few weeks.

 

Since my cruise is 14 days long, it is cheaper for me to buy the ATT cruise ship plan and the International Day Pass (which includeds unlimited data, talk and text) as I am in ports for 9 days. I do not plan to use any data on the ship so I will not go over. I know to shut off Background Refresh for the apps, not have Data Roaming on and will not be checking email. I will only be texting (and not Imessage, as that needs data) lol

Great, Looking forward to your results.  I did not think thst Imessage counts towards data as all texts are included within the ATT PLAN.  We also have 4 free days between us on each cruise for a total of 8 free days onboard to utilize between both cruises.  Agreed, with the $10 per 24 hour day pass good in all of our stops, Im trying to size up what to I need.

[Charles4515]

33 minutes ago, Coochuck said:

Great, Looking forward to your results.  I did not think thst Imessage counts towards data as all texts are included within the ATT PLAN.  We also have 4 free days between us on each cruise for a total of 8 free days onboard to utilize between both cruises.  Agreed, with the $10 per 24 hour day pass good in all of our stops, Im trying to size up what to I need.

AT&T included texts means SMS texts. Texts sent with iMessage, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc do use data. If you don't send or recieve photos or videos with those the data use from those will be small. 

[smokeybandit]

Stay far, far away from cellular plans.  If you need that connectivity, voom is the only thing you should consider.

[Charles4515]

28 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Stay far, far away from cellular plans.  If you need that connectivity, voom is the only thing you should consider.

People should stay away from the AT&T ship cellular plans unless they really know what they are doing and know how their phone uses data. Most people won’t have the knowledge. There could be surprise overages. Using the the AT&T and Verizion Travel passes in ports there are no surprises and I have done this on some port intensive cruises without buying a Voom package and had sufficient connectivity. But you have to remember to put your phone in airplane mode before the ship departs your ports to avoid accidental connection to Cellular at Sea when the ship is 12 miles out to sea. 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Charles4515

[RedIguana]

If your ports are all in the same region and your phone is capable of it, you may want to consider an E-Sim plan for those days. Probably find one with plenty of Data for $20-30 for the month.

[Ashland]

Years ago we used to purchase the AT&T cruise option. Now we just use Voom Surf/Stream

We put our iPhones on wifi calling and can call/text our family members as needed, and check emails. We also bring our firestick to watch Nextflix, Amazon Plus etc. etc.

 

If we're spending time pre or post cruise (out of the country) we use the AT&T international calling then it's for each 24 hour period of time when used.

[steveru621]

22 hours ago, Grumpella said:

I will let you know how it goes for me in a few weeks.

 

Since my cruise is 14 days long, it is cheaper for me to buy the ATT cruise ship plan and the International Day Pass (which includeds unlimited data, talk and text) as I am in ports for 9 days. I do not plan to use any data on the ship so I will not go over. I know to shut off Background Refresh for the apps, not have Data Roaming on and will not be checking email. I will only be texting (and not Imessage, as that needs data) lol

 

You really don't have any control over data,  Emails?

[BirdTravels]

On 7/11/2023 at 5:45 PM, Coochuck said:

Going on a back to back cruise on the Radiance in September/October.  ATT offers a ship plan good for 30 days for $100..Includes unlimited onboard calling, texts, and 1GB of data + $10 for every 100 MB over that amount.  Will be onboard for a period of 24 days.   What is your opinion of which plan to purchase?

1 GB of data is one download of email. Pretty useless. You'll run up thousands of dollars in data charges with that plan. We get the wifi package and just do wifi calling. 

[steveru621]

12 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

1 GB of data is one download of email. Pretty useless. You'll run up thousands of dollars in data charges with that plan. We get the wifi package and just do wifi calling. 

 

NO, but certainly data is not predictable.  Mainly because of updates in the background.

[Grumpella]

I’m on vacation, I will not be checking any emails. I shut Push off and select manual for emails and just dont touch them, unless I want to read them when in port.

 

I shut off background refresh and any updates on my phone are not automatic.

 

I have never used data “accidently” before on a cruise with my cell phone.

[jwlane]

I'm thinking if the letters "ATT" are included it's gonna cost more.  Every.  Time.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

You can look at your ATT bill (or the website) to see how much data you use in a "normal" month.  That should give you a baseline.  

 

I don't generally stream on my phone, just use it for email, web browsing, messaging and the last four months I've had over 10Gb usage each month.  

[CruisingHogFan]

9 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

AT&T included texts means SMS texts. Texts sent with iMessage, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc do use data. If you don't send or recieve photos or videos with those the data use from those will be small. 

We get the $60 AT&T cell plan for our daughter as she only needs to be able to call/text us on the ship. We get the ship package since we want data and this combo saves money. iMessage still works fine between all of us. You just have to make sure to turn off data on the phone using AT&T and keep the other phones in airplane mode so it only uses data. No issues 

 

 

[Grumpella]

Back from my 14 day cruise with my ATT International Plan at $ 10 a day and my ATT Cruise Plan at $100 (they did have a $ 60 option).

 

I saved myself money by doing this, as I was in port for 8 days and then the cruise plan for $ 100, so less than $200, instead of the $ 280 for the internet.  

 

I had no overages or extra charges.  That being said, you have to know how to use your phone.  I put all my emails on manual, not push; shut off my background refresh; and shut off my cellular data for every app and only turned it on for the app that I was going to use at that time.  Which to me was not a big deal, as I was only using Instagram and Safari.

 

What was great about this method, was that I had unlimited talk, text and data on the International Plan, so I was able to use the internet while in port, as it does not shut off until 9 to 12 nautical miles from port.  You can see on your phone if you are using the Cellular at Sea plan, when it changes.  I had no issues with the internet speed, but I was only reading the news, checking the weather, etc.

 

So I saved money and had the use of my phone on the 8 days that we were in port all day, which I would have had no phone use while in the ports for those days.

 

I would do this again.  But like I said, you have to know how to use your phone.

[Charles4515]

3 hours ago, Grumpella said:

I would do this again.  But like I said, you have to know how to use your phone.

Great info in your post. As you said you have to know how to use your phone though. But also remembering what to to do when. That is the catch and I know that from questions I get from family, friends and neighbors there is a whole range of savvy to clueless. I have one family member who never remembers to end their call.