Cell Phone - Zuiderdam

[Zobrina]

Was told by HAL today, that they have just recently gotten cell service for their ships. Has anyone been on Zuiderdam recently, that can give me info on the cell service.

[twinkletoes4445]

We were on the Zuiderdam at the beginning of Feb., and we were able to use our Sprint phone (most of the time).

 

From what I remember...the phone worked almost all the time while we were at sea. It did not work while we were on Grand Turk, Tortola, or their private island. We were not roaming while we passed St. Thomas (nor while we were on St. Thomas).

 

I seem to remember hubby telling me that they turn something off so you won't be able to use your phones, while in port, unless there is regular service. Then once you are out to sea a bit, they turned this back on (I don't know the technical description), and you can use your phone.

 

We did receive our cell phone bill, and we didn't even have roaming charges and were charged our regular rate (which did surprise us). HAL makes no money off this, so it's between you and your provider what you pay. We also have our cell phones activated for international calling. We only used our phones while we were in our cabin, so I don't know where on the ship they will work, but we did see a couple of people using their cell phones on the lido deck.