how can you use your cell phone at sea?

[sfc]

I have both Verizon and a pay as you go Virgin Mobile. Virgin Mobile even out of the country is .25 on the first call of the day and then .10 per minute from there on till days end.

Verizon is 2.49 per min.:eek:

Still cheaper than calling from the ship phone which is, what about $50.00 per sec.;)

Tim:cool:

 

Does Virgin Mobile work on RCI Serenade of the Seas and how much will it cost per minute? Thank-you

[GotDrums]

When I called Virgin Mobile their comments was about any cruise ship where you can use a cell phone and were out of the country. Best bet is to hear this from Virgin though.

Tim:cool:

[Sominex30]

Ok... I use VERIZON WIRELESS

 

I was on Fascination back in September-2005. First stop was Key West and then out to sea towards Cozumel Mexico. I continued making and receiving calls until we were a few miles outside of Keywest and far into sea. I kept my phone "ON" for most of the trip out at Sea but it just said "No Signal". When we got to Mexico it has all 4 bars on, but the roaming indicator turned on as well. So I turned it off.

 

Once we made our way back to Miami and we were close enough sure, the phone got reception again and all my texts and voice mails I missed came in at once. I wasn't charged anything extra on my bill at all.

 

1. Has something changed since I went in 2005?

 

2. Are some of you saying that if I just have my phone turned ON, I will get charged something from my cell phone company?

 

 

I am headed on another cruise in October and would like to find out

 

Thanks-

[dnj1]

Thats crazy, we use Motorola walkie talkies to find someone and its free :D

 

how much are the walkie talkies? Will any walkies work? Which is the best buy?

[aprilvw69]

Hello...

 

Cingular tower ?? There are no cell phone towers at sea !

 

If you use your cell phone on the ship while at sea, you will be using Carnival's system, thus $2.49 a minute.

 

 

 

I know there are no towers in the middle of the ocean. I was told that carnival has some kind of system that my phone would be using. I never said anything about a cingular tower on the ship. Also cingular never said anything about paying extra to carnival to use my phone only to use my laptop. So Idon't know where the information is coming from I am just repeating what cingular told me

[sfc]

Cingular does provide service on the newer Royal Carribean and Carnival ships. On Royal Carribean the cost is $2.49 per min. Check cingular.com for details.

[welldone60]

We cruised on the Star in feb, we have cingular service and added mexico to our calling plan. $5.00 per month. Our charges while in Mexico were .75 per Min. on the ship was same as being stateside. My DW called her mother (moms 95) everyday and we called home to check in several times. No problems.

[mckavett]

Some of the ships have agreements with the cel phone companies. We took a Mexico cruise on Royal Caribbean last September and my cel charge on Verizon was so high they advised me not to turn my phone on while on the ship. My sister has AT&T and they have an agreement with some of the Royal Caribbean ships and she paid 99cents per minute, no roaming. While on land in Mexico to call the U.S. you dial 011 then the area code and the number.

[Top-Cat]

Again, I am confused. I have Verizon and are goin on the Liberty in two weeks. So if my cell phone is turned on, I am charged, evenif it never rings or I don't make a call??

 

Who can answer this for sure??

[aprilvw69]

Ok I got tired of hearing several things so I called cingular up again and here is what they told me....

 

We have to get the international calling put on however many phones will be used during the cruise which is prorated of 5.99.

 

It will be 2.49 a minute while on board, when in port yes turn your phone off then back on if it was already turned on. Then while it port (for us bahamas) it will be 1.99 a minute.

 

If someone else at home needs to call you from a cellphone(like ours is a family plan sil needs to keep in contact) they need to temporaily have the world connect 3.99 then it will be prorated as well.

 

As far as text messages, pictures, they are an extra 20 or 25 cents I think the rep said.

 

And yes keep your phone turned off until you think you might be going to get a call or need to make a call.

 

So the way I look at it which is cheaper calling from cell phones or using your interent.....Niether

 

And I also understand and agree with others on here when you need to keep in contact with someone at home for children or elderly family members then you have to have your phones no matter what. We have 3 elderly ppl and our very young daughter so for us we need to keep in contact.

[diversmom]

While the walkie talkies are fine, you then end up with carrying it with you and then keeping track of the darn thing. From past experience I have bought a small dry eraser board so when we leave the cabin we can write where we are and find each other that way. Last cruise we had two teen grandkids. Kept having to look for piece of paper to leave notes. so the dry marker might work good for us.

Anyone cruising on the Triumph on October 13, 07, Eastern Caribbean.

Sherry

[Sominex30]

Again, I am confused. I have Verizon and are goin on the Liberty in two weeks. So if my cell phone is turned on, I am charged, evenif it never rings or I don't make a call??

 

Who can answer this for sure??

 

 

 

I am very interested to find this out too. Can anyone clarify??

[aprilvw69]

Well from what I am seeing and after talking to carnival if people need to keep in contact with family back in the states use a laptop or their computers. I called carnival and jad asked them about their policies on cell phones and their rates on wireless internet. They told me it would be $55 for 100 minutes of internet or 250 minutes for $100, to me that is a heck of alot cheaper than what my cell phone bill is going to be, So to me it looks like the way to go if you can is through the internet so I bought myself a little portable webcam and hopefully I can keep in touch with my sil to check in on our daughter. So I hope this little bit of information helps because for that 100 minutes on a cell phone can you imagine how much that bill would be....we would all be bankrupt.....

[lizardhowson]

I am very interested to find this out too. Can anyone clarify??

 

Yes, if anyone calls you, leaves a voicemail or text message

 

YOU GET BILLED ! Even if you don't answer !

 

 

It is SOOOOO simple.

 

If you don't mind the $2.49 a minute take it with you

 

If you do mind the $2.49 a minute, put it in the safe or the suitcase turnned off.

[MaryZ]

I realize some people have to really worry about paying their cell phone bill,but for us that's not a consideration.

Whatever the charge, it's fine. We will have our phones on as we are leaving our children at home. if they need to call us, they can. we plan on talking to them once a day at least by phone and will buy computer time to email back and forth with them.

If I didn't have cell phones, I'd be willing to pay the ship charge to use their phone to check in with kids.

everyone is different. Some of us want to make sure our families at home are fine and some of us need to be in reach for business.

Not everyone is comfortable with the attitude of "turn off your phone or you will be a fool and have a large bill to pay".

That works for him, because obviously that is a huge consideration in his life.

Me, I could care less. Just write the check. Even if you talk to your kids for 5 minutes a day, what is that? $15??? that's not going to break my bank account.

[keishashadow]

Walkie Talkie Q?

 

Anyone use these effective onboard or while in port?

 

While @ Disney there are so many other people evidently trying to use them, even w/the rather pricey multiband ones I bought; they were useless. All you could hear were stoopid kids goofing around, singing, etc. :mad:

 

Just wondering if I should bother dragging them along?

[Sominex30]

Yes, if anyone calls you, leaves a voicemail or text message

 

YOU GET BILLED ! Even if you don't answer !

 

 

It is SOOOOO simple.

 

If you don't mind the $2.49 a minute take it with you

 

If you do mind the $2.49 a minute, put it in the safe or the suitcase turnned off.

 

 

No offense, but it's really NOT that simple. As I said before. I had reception all the way till about 3 hours outside of Key West out at Sea. At which point my phone lost reception. It had NO reception again until Mexico and the "roaming" indicator" popped up. I turned it off, and then back on again AFTER leaving Mexico. So there were no "calls" to receive out at sea (far enough away from the Keys), and in face once we got back towards Miami at the end of my trip, all the calls and texts came flooding in once I was in range again.

 

I am no rocket scientist... but seeing as how I had NO extra charges on my bill, and also had NO reception at sea after Key West, it's really NOT a simple issue :)

 

Thanks for chiming in all the same though!

[aprilvw69]

No offense, but it's really NOT that simple. As I said before. I had reception all the way till about 3 hours outside of Key West out at Sea. At which point my phone lost reception. It had NO reception again until Mexico and the "roaming" indicator" popped up. I turned it off, and then back on again AFTER leaving Mexico. So there were no "calls" to receive out at sea (far enough away from the Keys), and in face once we got back towards Miami at the end of my trip, all the calls and texts came flooding in once I was in range again.

 

I am no rocket scientist... but seeing as how I had NO extra charges on my bill, and also had NO reception at sea after Key West, it's really NOT a simple issue :)

 

Thanks for chiming in all the same though!

 

Hi I kind of figured that is how the reception would be...We are leaving for the bahamas June 3 on the victory. We are still taking our phones with us just in case and we will still use them but probably not as often for whether its reception issues or whatever. We are indeed leaving behind our young daughter with sil and would like to know everything is okay with her and sil as well as elderly parents so needless to say we still have to keep in touch no matter what. But anyway thanks for the information on what the reception was like for you.

 

 

April

[robhink]

No offense, but it's really NOT that simple. As I said before. I had reception all the way till about 3 hours outside of Key West out at Sea. At which point my phone lost reception. It had NO reception again until Mexico and the "roaming" indicator" popped up. I turned it off, and then back on again AFTER leaving Mexico. So there were no "calls" to receive out at sea (far enough away from the Keys), and in face once we got back towards Miami at the end of my trip, all the calls and texts came flooding in once I was in range again.

 

I am no rocket scientist... but seeing as how I had NO extra charges on my bill, and also had NO reception at sea after Key West, it's really NOT a simple issue :)

 

Thanks for chiming in all the same though!

 

Well I think the biggest difference is now all the ships are wired for cellular access and you will have service during most of your cruise at sea. As I understand it the Carnival service gets turned off when you dock and you would have to use the local service.

 

This is a recent addition to the ships.

[Sominex30]

Well I think the biggest difference is now all the ships are wired for cellular access and you will have service during most of your cruise at sea. As I understand it the Carnival service gets turned off when you dock and you would have to use the local service.

 

This is a recent addition to the ships.

 

 

Thank you Rob! That clarfies it for me! I appreciate you filling me in. :)

 

Have a good wekend-

[chowychow]

Here is a helpful link for Cingular customers that I found today:

www.cingular.com/international

 

You enter in your phone number and model, your itinerary (including the cruise ship), and it lets you know if you'll have service & how much it will cost.

[lizardhowson]

I realize some people have to really worry about paying their cell phone bill,but for us that's not a consideration.

Whatever the charge, it's fine. We will have our phones on as we are leaving our children at home. if they need to call us, they can. we plan on talking to them once a day at least by phone and will buy computer time to email back and forth with them.

If I didn't have cell phones, I'd be willing to pay the ship charge to use their phone to check in with kids.

everyone is different. Some of us want to make sure our families at home are fine and some of us need to be in reach for business.

Not everyone is comfortable with the attitude of "turn off your phone or you will be a fool and have a large bill to pay".

That works for him, because obviously that is a huge consideration in his life.

Me, I could care less. Just write the check. Even if you talk to your kids for 5 minutes a day, what is that? $15??? that's not going to break my bank account.

 

I don't think anyone will think you are different or a fool if you choose to use your cell phones. Responsible use will not break your bank account.

 

I think the "rub" is that the $2.49 a minute has been asked, argued & discussed to death (every 3rd post).

 

It is good to know ahead of time about the Carnival charge which will be added to your bill.

 

Enjoy your cruise !

[lizardhowson]

No offense, but it's really NOT that simple. As I said before. I had reception all the way till about 3 hours outside of Key West out at Sea. At which point my phone lost reception. It had NO reception again until Mexico and the "roaming" indicator" popped up. I turned it off, and then back on again AFTER leaving Mexico. So there were no "calls" to receive out at sea (far enough away from the Keys), and in face once we got back towards Miami at the end of my trip, all the calls and texts came flooding in once I was in range again.

 

I am no rocket scientist... but seeing as how I had NO extra charges on my bill, and also had NO reception at sea after Key West, it's really NOT a simple issue :)

 

Thanks for chiming in all the same though!

 

Sounds like you had your phone set to only work with your carrier's frequency (as I do).

 

Therefore, it won't read the Carnival system and no $2.49 while out to sea, but no access either.

 

As for Mexico, I think many of the cell carriers have a local type network in the major mexican areas so you don't get charged roaming rates (or they are reduced in price).

 

Just my "chime".

[keishashadow]

Here is a helpful link for Cingular customers that I found today:

www.cingular.com/international

 

You enter in your phone number and model, your itinerary (including the cruise ship), and it lets you know if you'll have service & how much it will cost.

 

Excellent:D , i'm on the site every month & never noticed this section (d'0h)...thanks