cell phone calls from ship $2.00 per minute

[JJPacer]

We used our cell phone to call our daughter. We were 2 days out to sea, almost to Aruba. We paid $2.00 per minute roaming charges. We have Cingular. I was surpised it was so low, considering ship to shore on the ship phone was $16.00 / minute. Our tablemates told us they used their cell phone to call home. We never even thought about it. We thought we wouldn't have any cell coverage that far out at sea. We were pleasantly surprised!

Just thought I would pass it along.

[jhannah]

I've also been surprised to have a signal sometimes ... even when we weren't in sight of land. The roaming charge certainly IS better than the ship-to-shore phone fee.

[pisces223]

I just checked out the TMobile website because that's what I have. We'll be leaving in a few days on the Veendam to Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Costa Maya. TMobile has coverage on those islands for $1.49 a minute. Excellent! However, there's no coverage in Costa Maya. They also have cell phone coverage on the Volendam. Now, that would be fantastic! :)

[mariner]

My Cingular plan costs me nothing extra and the cell strength is pretty strong throughout the Caribbean.

[bruceh4]

I've also been surprised to have a signal sometimes ... even when we weren't in sight of land. The roaming charge certainly IS better than the ship-to-shore phone fee.The ship to shore fee is something of a mirage. You can go to the front desk and purchase a phone card which when I last used it on the Prinsendam cost $25 for 10 minutes. When you want to make a call just pick up the phone in your cabin and follow the instructions and put in the codes and talk. I used this on the Prinsendam on the Amazon river when my mother past away. It sure beat $16 per minute. I found out about it when I was perusing the loose leaf book in the cabin which explains everything about the ship.:)

[kryos]

I think a lot of the ships are soon gonna offer cell service right from onboard ... no matter how far you are out to sea. While I personally think this is a good thing ... there are unfortunately some of us who need to be able to stay in touch ... I sure hope they only offer the service in certain "hot" areas of the ship, and not ship-wide. It would be awfully annoying to be sitting in the Pinnacle watching five people around you talking on their cell phones. It would remind me too much of real life at home ... and on a cruise, that's not a good thing.

Blue skies ...

--rita

[cruznon]

WE recently switched to Cingular so we could use our cell phone. (Just wasn't possible on Verizon.) it was very nice one night to call our daughter from our balcony on a recent Mexican Riviera cruise as we cruised off the Mexican coast.
I agree with kyros, if cell phone are used widely on board, might be unpleasant.

[cheric]

I have cingular too and on our recent cruise I called home from St. Thomas and San Juan. there were no roaming charges at all. I couldn't get a signal for most of the cruise though but was pleasantly surprised when my Cingular bill came in and there was no charge. I agree with the previous poster who would not like cell phone conversations all over the ship. I hate that back here on dry land!

[mariner]

I'm all in favor of banning cells anywhere where someone else can hear them. Nothing makes me think of work that hearing/seeing someone else with a phone at the ear.

The only thing worse (IMO), those darned walkie-talkies BEEP BEEP