Phone Service On Ship

[garnet115]

Have I misunderstood how the cellular service works? I thought that when the ship is docked, that I would use my regular carrier (verizon), not the pricey "cellular at sea" service. If I am onboard the ship, can I still access my regular carrier while we are in port? My daughter will need/want to call her father each day, and I had hoped to avoid some of the costs by having her make calls that are in my plan, but I expected her to be able to call from the privacy of our cabin. Anyone BTDT? how does it work?

Thanks!

[lvz2cruz]

You can use your own phone and it is billed through the ship. We never had good reception in our cabin and had to go on the top deck to get service.
I have read on here stories about people getting home and having cell phone bills in the hundreds and even thousands of dollars after a one week cruise.
I bought a Verizon pay as you go phone for $15 that had $10 airtime included. I can go through the phone and add in $15 increments to my credit card. I figured that way I would not have to worry about a crazy bill. You can get these at Target or Wal-Mart.
We used it to Bermuda and texts I sent were .50 and ones received were .05. I think calls were $2.50 per minute. It displayed my balance above the time on the front of the phone. I didn't worry if it was stolen on the beach because it did not have all my contacts and cost little.
I only gave my number to my kids at home, so I did not get tons of texts and calls.
It might work well for you.

[garnet115]

Thanks, Becky.
That's what I was afraid of. Ex-dh will pitch a fit if he can't talk to my daughter daily, and I don't know that I'll be able to limit the conversations in duration. He certainly won't cut the calls short to save me money. I guess I'll just have to take it as it comes, and at least I know what to expect. I'll just brace myself for a larger phone bill next month. *sigh* I guess it's worth it for the chance to take this kind of trip. :)

[Mary Ellen]

The costs and availability for using Verizon will vary by the ports visited. Your local Verizon store can print out the costs for your specific countries/ship. I've made calls from Puerto Rico and St. Thomas that were covered under my normal Verizon plan, so no additional costs. Adding International for a recent cruise, we found that calling from Australia was less than the ship's costs, but it was less per minute to pay the $2.50 USD/per minute for the ship's service than call from on land in Singapore. Check with Verizon, they'll have more accurate info than you can find here.

[Essiesmom]

The ship is supposed to turn off the tower while in port, so that you would be using local towers, which still might be expensive unless you are in a US possession (San Juan,St. Thomas, St. Croix) or have an international plan. EM

[lvz2cruz]

For some crazy reason Verizon considers Puerto Rico as part of the national plan but shows St. Thomas as roaming which means it does not come out of your monthly minutes but has additional cost. When we had T mobile both were in the nationwide calling plan.