Prepaid Cell Phones

[jch628]

I know there have been a lot posts mentioning the use of cell phones and texting, but I vaguely recall soemone mentioning they bought a prepaid cell phone and used that so that they( meaning the ship) couldn't access their regular cell phone. Has anyone done this before? If so were the results positive? What company did you go with? I was thinking At&T would be most logical since that is who the ship uses, but I would think any carrier would work. My thought is that if I know how much money is on the phone than I will not spend over that. The phone would cut out when my minutes were up right?? Please excuse my ignorance, but I have never had a prepaid phone so I have no idea how they work, but I really need to be in touch with land because my four year old daughter will not be accompanying me on my honeymoon, and I would feel better checking in with her every so often. If this question has been answered I apologize in advance. My search function is touchy most days. THANKS!

[Cruise-Crazy]

I have a TracFone as a backup phone. I have had it work on some of the ships. It did not work on the Fascination last week. My regular at&t phone worked fine though. Don't know about the pre-paid at&t phones.

[earlethepearl]

I had posted last year and recently about using a TracFone onboard. I have never had a problem but haven't used it in several months. I am going on the Liberty again in Sept. and will try it then. The one thing I was told was to not use it in Port. Because they will detect (Phone Co. not Cruise) you are using it out of the US and will deactivate it. I don't know if this is true, but have heard of people claiming theirs was.

[Pegs222]

I have a TracFone as a backup phone. I have had it work on some of the ships. It did not work on the Fascination last week. My regular at&t phone worked fine though. Don't know about the pre-paid at&t phones.

 

Where did your TracFone work? I really want to to take ours to Europe, even though TracFone say you can't. I am not sure if you can't use them as "they" will not work OR they do not want you to use them in Europe.

 

If we can't use them on land, I would like to use them on the ship. We have a lot of "units" that we can use and I do know the roaming charges willl cut into them.

[LuvBNatC]

I have a prepaid AT&T Go Phone with national service, and I was able to use it on land in Boston and Bar Harbor recently to call Virginia, but could never get a signal while on the ship at sea. From those ports I was also able to place calls to my sister in SCOTLAND for about 50 cents a minute, which I had never tried before.

 

However, the phone would not work in Halifax to call into the U.S.

 

I've never let my phone run completely out of minutes (it replenishes every 3 months via credit card - you can pick how often and how much you want to replenish), but I assume it wouldn't let you make calls if you had no money on it. At the end of every call, it tells you how much that call cost and how much you still have left on the phone.

[stx-is]

Pre-Paid phones will not work with the Cellular@sea system. The Cellular@sea was still negotiating with the different companies about prepaid phones. So far there is no agreement :(

[big_duck]

Where did your TracFone work? I really want to to take ours to Europe, even though TracFone say you can't. I am not sure if you can't use them as "they" will not work OR they do not want you to use them in Europe.

 

If we can't use them on land, I would like to use them on the ship. We have a lot of "units" that we can use and I do know the roaming charges willl cut into them.

 

Almost all NA phones don't work in Europe. When I got my eurorail tickets in the mail they came with the offer of a free pre-paid GSM card. I got it and a cheapy phone, it worked OK for texting and calls off the ship and sometimes for texting on the ship.

 

I'm going to bring it with me in the fall again as a backup.

[Pegs222]

Almost all NA phones don't work in Europe. When I got my eurorail tickets in the mail they came with the offer of a free pre-paid GSM card. I got it and a cheapy phone, it worked OK for texting and calls off the ship and sometimes for texting on the ship.

 

I'm going to bring it with me in the fall again as a backup.

 

Thanks Don. I guess we could take them and if they work they work if they don't they don't. I am going to take my laptop so I can send emails.

[martek]

My tracfone worked great as long as I was in port, such a Key West and Miami. I think it even worked ok in Puerto Rico but not out to sea. Also would not work in Mexico, but otherwise no problem. No unexpected bills as it is all prepaid on the card you buy. I love mine

[Lady Librarian]

My husband and I both use prepaid cell phones everyday. On our cruise last November, we had service while in each of the ports (Cabo, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan). You can call the cell phone provider and ask what the rates per minute would be. You can do the same with the provider you use for your regular cell phone. Compare the cost of buying the prepaid cell phone AND the prepaid minutes to the cost of just using your regular cell phone.

We also used our prepaid phones this past March while on a trip to Malaysia and Singapore. We bought SIM cards once we landed in Malaysia and recharged them when needed. Remarkably, calls to the US were 5 cents/minute.