For Canadians re international phone

[Juanita462]

Can anyone give me info on phones and phone plans for our
cruise to the Med so we can keep in touch with family.

we have a cell phone with telus but am sure that it is not
compatible for international calling from abroad.

Any help much appreciated.

[vancouverpacific]

Bell Blackberry World Edition works everywhere!

[cruise101]

You will need to check on a couple of things before you go:

1. You may already have a world phone. If you are not sure call Telus and ask them. They have all the info on your phone and will be able to tell you whether your phone is a world phone or not. It'd be handy to have your phone model number ready, in case the operator does not have that info handy.

2. If you have a world phone ask Telus if they have a special pre paid pkg (say 50 or 100 minutes or whatever number of minutes you require). They have these packages at various prices depending on the time you want to buy in advance. When we cruised Hawaii and Alaska, we got a roaming pkg for x minutes in advance. The flip side of this is that you do not get any refund for minutes not used, and if you use more than your pre purchased minutes they ding you with a fairly pricey per minute rate in excess of what you have pre purchased.

Another thing you could do is if you have a friend who has a spare unlocked phone, take that phone with you and buy a SIM card in Europe and pre load that sim card with what you expect to use while on vacation.

However, buying an advance Europena package from Telus (assuming they have one) would be your best bet.

Good luck and enjoy your European vacation.

[Rebecca33]

Hello, we are Canadians living in the UK (were) and took the Med Cruise in July on Zuiderdam.. We just called from the ship. It was 25.00 US per call under 15 ,mins to let people know where we were... Our World wide phones from UK didn't work in Turkey.. Hope that helps.. Wendy:)

[YXU AC*SE]

TELUS is a CDMA carrier. You will know if you have a GSM compatible phone if you remove the battery and see a SIM card (chip) underneath. I'm with Bell (also CDMA) and they didn't have a billing and collection agreement with Wireless at Sea, who is Holland America's onboard wireless provider, so whilst I had signal, I couldn't dial out.

My advice -- go to eBay and buy an unlocked GSM phone (or borrow from a friend), and prior to embarkation purchase a pre-paid SIM card which are widely available at convenience stores and newspaper kiosks. Did this on the Amsterdam from Santiago to Rio last month. Waaaay cheaper than paying the ridiculous roaming charges that Canadian WSPs charge.

Scott.

[Juanita462]

Thanks everyone - very helpful info. Will look into everything suggested.

rebecca33 - I heard that HAL charged $16 a minutes for phone calls from the ship to shore - what you paid is considerably less than that. Have they changed their phone system? and charges?

[gophercruiser]

You should be able to buy a prepaid phone card from the ships front desk. The $25 card will give you 12 minutes of air time or a little over $2 per minute, and you can phone from the comfort of your own stateroom.