Calling to canada from Antigua

[greencruiser17]

Hello all... i am headed on a Southern carribean cruise in August..

Iwant to be able to call home once a day to check on my 2 little girls..

I refuse to pay $6.99 on board the ship :eek: Has anyone dealt with this before?

Are you able to buy calling cards in the ports and do they have payphones you can call on??

I have this posted else where but was advised by another CC member to post under each port and I may get better answers??

Thanks :o

[mrcamp]

There are several options. If you want to call from the ship, and your ship has an on-board tower, you can do so. Check with your carrier how much it is. As for the posts, if you have a GSM phone with the appropriate bands, you should be able to make calls back to Canada. Again, check with your carrier how much it is to roam. If you are just going to be making a quick call home or so, just make sure you have roaming enables on oyur phone and that's it!

 

Do not waste time with calling cards, some payphones do not take them, or charge a premium for using them.

 

I have AT&T and my phone works on the ship and every island we've been to since most of them use GSM. Was recently on the southern caribbean cruise included a stop in Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Thomas, and Tortola. And my phone worked every where.

[monicajay]

My kids are now older and travel with us but when they were young I left them at home with my mother babysitting. The first time away I called a few times and it upset both them and me so much my mother and I decided that "no news is good news" was the best way to go.

 

The kids were fine and so was I.

[cantwait2cruize]

We just called home (Toronto) from Antigua in February. Buy a $10.00 calling card from the port, they are easy to find. It will give you about 10 minutes. The calling card phones are just outside the IGA store also easy to find. If you have any problems just ask one of the locals for help.

[mrcamp]

Wow! $1/min. A lot of cell phones will give you less than that. Roaming on tmobile and AT&T is not a whole lot more than that. My international sim cards United Mobile and Yackie mobile are about $0.29/min to $0.49/min.

 

I'd say if you have the appropriate phone, just use it in the ports.

 

We just called home (Toronto) from Antigua in February. Buy a $10.00 calling card from the port, they are easy to find. It will give you about 10 minutes. The calling card phones are just outside the IGA store also easy to find. If you have any problems just ask one of the locals for help.

[monicajay]

Wow! $1/min. A lot of cell phones will give you less than that. Roaming on tmobile and AT&T is not a whole lot more than that. My international sim cards United Mobile and Yackie mobile are about $0.29/min to $0.49/min.

 

I'd say if you have the appropriate phone, just use it in the ports.

 

The OP is from Canada, she doesn't have tmobile or AT&T. Anybody try with Bell or Sympatico?

[greencruiser17]

My hubby uses a bell phone?? A Blackberry 8830 so it has a roaming csrd but not sure about rates??

I knew I shouldnt have canceled my Rogers phone!!!:rolleyes:

[killface]

The OP is from Canada, she doesn't have tmobile or AT&T. Anybody try with Bell or Sympatico?

 

I'm interested in this as well. I can't even find it listed on Bell's roaming charges site (even if I could get a signal).

[pwkreis]

Hello;

 

We have been looking into this for our March 2009 cruise. Telus Canada does offer roaming in the Carribean, but the rates are $3- $5 per minute.

 

We are planning on staying in touch primarily via email, but we have always touched base at least once mid-trip to talk to the kids.

 

Good luck - if you do find a less expensive method, please post!

[DougYWG]

It's a real pain and no bargains. I have a quad-band, unlocked cell phone with two SIM cards, a Rogers Canadian and an international that works in 139 countries. Neither work in Antigua. C & W has a monopoly so all calls to and from the island are expensive. Ain't no way around it.

[mrcamp]

My AT&T phone and international sims (yackie mobile, and Maxroam) worked in all the Islands I recently visited including Antigua, Barbados, etc. See my post above. Incoming calls were free on yackieMobile. Here is a sample of my incoming call charges.

 

DateCaller IDCountryNetworkDuration

(seconds)Cost (USD)

2008-03-24 19:51:47asteriskBARBADOSDigicel [Mobile]5220.000002008-03-24 20:27:53asteriskBARBADOSDigicel [Mobile]520.000002008-03-26 12:33:45asteriskANTIGUA AND BARBUDADigicel [Mobile]510.000002008-03-26 12:36:57asteriskANTIGUA AND BARBUDADigicel [Mobile]480.000002008-03-26 21:22:44asteriskANTIGUA AND BARBUDADigicel [Mobile]1930.000002008-03-28 18:10:48asteriskVIRGIN ISLANDS (BRITISH)Fixed500.000002008-03-28 18:13:42asteriskVIRGIN ISLANDS (BRITISH)Fixed400.00000

[woodofpine]

In late 2005, AT&T didn't serve Antigua; Cable & Wireless had exclusive service. I don't know much about sat phone connections, but C&W was the exclusive when I was there staying ashore.