Cell phone use

[potts]

What US cell phones will work on the USVI ?

[richtersl]

Yes. We have Verizon and wound up paying roaming charges on a stay on St. Thomas. Getting a signal varied depending on what part of the island you were on but for the most part, placing a call was not a problem -- you just had to keep it short so it would not wind up costing you $$$$. ;)

[Betsy's Mom]

There are no roaming charges with our AT&T service.

B.

[Ms411]

Sprint and AT&T are the only cell phone providers that include Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands in their national plans.

 

Some people get pay as you go phones for use when traveling, because they sometimes have more flexible access especially if you're traveling international.

[jtyerspc]

Shhhh!!!..........Keep it down will you? I don't want my boss to know about this!!;)

[beachchick]

Sprint and AT&T are the only cell phone providers that include Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands in their national plans.

 

Some people get pay as you go phones for use when traveling, because they sometimes have more flexible access especially if you're traveling international.

 

We have Verizon Nationwide No Roaming. The USVI and Puerto Rico are included with our particular family plan. I specify with our particular plan because there are so darn many!

 

potts: It's really impossible for us to tell you whether your specific plan with your provider covers the USVI and/or Puerto Rico. Some plans (such as ours) cover them as part of the "nationwide, no roaming charges" area; others might be usable (if they have an agreement with another provider to share service), but at roaming and/or "international" rates; still others do not have service available at all.

 

Who is your provider, what is your plan, and (most important) what does your provider say is covered in your plan? For Verizon, you can go online, enter your phone number, and pull up a coverage map. I assume (probably shouldn't, but I am in this case anyway) that the other providers have a similar online process. That's really the only way to know whether you'll have coverage and whether it will be at roaming rates or included.

 

beachchick

[mister exec]

Yes, AT&T and Sprint are the two nationally supported providers in the VI, but know you will NOT always get a signal everywhere you go. Sometimes AT&T phones will pick up signals from the BVI and check your bill to see if they charge you the 69 cents/min roaming fee. They have finally seemed to have stopped charging this, but iof they do just call them and they will remove those charges as they promise no roaming fees.

[love2vacation]

Shhhh!!!..........Keep it down will you? I don't want my boss to know about this!!;)

Exactly what my husband says! He has AT&T and I have Verizon.

[Bloomdog10]

I have had Sprint and Verizon and both times had cell service and used my phone with no extra charges.....just make sure u check your screen for roaming before u call anyone.

[bankonus]

I hope my 16 year old daughter is not reading this thread. As "We are tearing her away from the love of her life for 7 WHOLE days!" If she realizes we have phone service (Sprint) we will never get her off the phone!! We have told her the phones will not work.:D

[beachchick]

I hope my 16 year old daughter is not reading this thread. As "We are tearing her away from the love of her life for 7 WHOLE days!" If she realizes we have phone service (Sprint) we will never get her off the phone!! We have told her the phones will not work.:D

 

The use discussed here (on land in Puerto Rico and the USVI) is not the same as that onboard the ship. Many ships now have cell service available, but it's (obviously) not like on land where there are cell towers all over the place. The cruise line(s) contract with a specific cell provider to have an onboard cell "tower" that routes calls via satelite. There is always a charge through the ship (per their contract with the cell provider onboard). This charge is in addition to any roaming fees your own provider charges for "service at sea" (which is not part of any nationwide plan). You could end up paying the ship charges (which seem to range between $1.5 to $3 per minute) and roaming charges from your provider (which seem to be at least $0.50 per minute and usually more).

 

Many's the member who has posted a thread here complaining that they or their kids (usually the latter) ran up a several hundred dollar phone bill because "We didn't know we'd have to pay for having service at sea." (Sorry, but to me that's a non-excuse. Exactly how did they think the cell service was being provided? It has to go through a satelite uplink, and that costs money. And it is part of the "fine print" in the onboard information given to pax. Yes, you do have to read through other stuff to find it, but that's still not a reason to try to demand that the ship reverse the charges levied by both the ship's provider and the pax own provider.)

 

When you're in port, the ships are supposed to turn off their cell towers. Then any service you find will be from available land towers. Depending on your plan, you may or may not have service or pay roaming fees.

 

Anyway, it's best to have her simply leave her phone at home, IMO. Other than that, your best bet is to tell her flat out and she will be responsible for any and all charges if she runs up a cell phone bill during the cruise. Especially because you will be charged the ship's fee for incoming calls as well--and you don't want her friends calling every hour to find out "What are you doing now?" Besides, if she wants to spend 7 days with a phone propped up to her ear, she can just as well stay home to do that, IMO. (That's what we would have said to our DD: We're going on a family vacation and plan to spend time together away from everything--including cell phone chit-chat.)

 

beachchick

[BigGuy25]

We have Alltel and had no problems using the phone in St. Thomas or San Juan.

[bobnatt]

Hey folks you are on vacation. Leave the cell phones home! Then it costs nothing...

[licruiser1]

We cruised last year and used our Net 10 phone the whole and no roaming! Everyone else couldn't get a signal with their AT&T phones but we had no problem. They were all using the internet to connect home. We used it even at sea! It was great to be able to call home every day and talk as long as I wanted. Will do the same in June when we go. Everyone was jealous!