Idea about skype and calling home-what do you think

I was trying to come up with a cheaper way to keep in touch with my 85 year old mom who doesn't have a computer and isn't technical in the least (in Canada).

My husband came up with an idea. We Skype one of our friends at home and at the same time they call my mom holding the phone up to the computer and we should be able to hear each other. Sounds like a great idea to me!!!--what do you guys think, do you see any problems with this idea??

How is the internet connection on the Paul Gauguin 10 night cruise?

If we have to use our cell phone--did that work for you? Thanks

Internet is up and down great at some times and awful other times.

DH has often used a blackberry without a problem.

If you have internet access and you're planning to use Skype, you can just call your Mom directly (and avoid the middleman). Even if your Mom doesn't have a webcam you can still do a voice-only call directly to her regular home phone.

You could purchase credit on your Skype account and make a call from anywhere to Canada for pretty cheap. Let me check... It shows as 2.3 cents per minute or $2.99 per month for unlimited. Skype Rates

The call rates are the same price no matter where you are calling FROM. The rates are based on where you are calling TO. You do have to have an internet connection on the near-end wherever you are calling from and Skype then uses a local hop-off on the far-end (in this case Canada) to connect to a local phone carrier whether that's a land line or a local cell tower.

Keep in mind that the cost for internet services on ships are usually fairly steep so that's where your costs will be greatest. Also, the connections are usually slow so you wouldn't want to try a video call anyway! Voice-only calls have a much better chance of working from a ship but even then I'd look at odd-hours when there are less people sharing the ships connection.

You could wait until you're in port somewhere and either find a free service in a local restaurant or coffee house, or find a local internet cafe where the rates would be much cheaper and the connection much faster.

For a more convenient setup when in port (and what might be a more advanced process for some), I'm going to change the SIM card in my iPhone to use a local Tahiti cell carrier. The carrier is VINI so I'll get a SIM with a big data plan. Then I'll be able use that data plan to make Skype calls directly from my iPhone anywhere in French Polynesia (as long as I have cell coverage that is). From their website, it looks like Air Tahiti apparently sells VINI SIM cards at Duty Free (on the plane maybe?) for $20. One more thing about changing a phone SIM card is that there are about 3 different sizes of SIM card. They're all the same but are "physically" different sizes. I purchased a SIM card cutter on Amazon (about $7) that I'm taking with me so that if the VINI SIM cards I purchase are a larger size (which they probably will be) I can carefully, and precisely cut them using the cutter to fit the micro SIM slot that my iPhone 5 requires. Here's the cutter I purchased but I can't make any recommendations as to how well it works until I get to Tahiti next week.

Good luck! :D

Thanks for the detailed response! If you don't mind, let me know after your cruise how everything worked out. I will pass all this info over to my husband--Have a wonderful time!

Thanks for the detailed response! If you don't mind, let me know after your cruise how everything worked out. I will pass all this info over to my husband--Have a wonderful time!

Thanks for the detailed response! If you don't mind, let me know after your cruise how everything worked out. I will pass all this info over to my husband--Have a wonderful time!

Well, this worked out fairly well... I was able to buy a VINI data card, cut it to fit a nano SIM slot, and installed it in my iPad Air. It worked great for the two days I was in Moorea and Tahiti during my pre-cruise. The problem was that the extra cards I purchased turned out to be voice-only. I still cut and used those in my iphone. I was able to make local calls throughout the trip whenever we were in ports or close to populated islands. This was helpful for arranging excursions.

Since I didn't have another datacard, I just purchased 250 minute blocks of time onboard ship (as of 2/5/14, about $60).

Next time I'll get a bigger data plan plus make sure I'm sold the right replenishment cards.