Question about access to cellular networks while in ports (Mediterranean)

Looking for some insight into cell reception while in port...is it generally easy to pick up a signal while on the ship in port? (we have a balcony). On the NCL site it says that the CellAtSea service gets turned off " when a ship is entering port", is this the same as the "12 miles offshore" that I have read/mentioned in other discussions?

Thanks!

We found the service in Europe 'hit & miss' and quite slow while in port. I had purchased a plan for $10/day when in port and I basically just used it to check messages from home & get some emails. The ships wifi was better; we purchased a package & found it acceptable.

Cheers,

Sandy

Looking for some insight into cell reception while in port...is it generally easy to pick up a signal while on the ship in port? (we have a balcony). On the NCL site it says that the CellAtSea service gets turned off " when a ship is entering port", is this the same as the "12 miles offshore" that I have read/mentioned in other discussions?

The ship's cell tower gets turned off when you are in range of land-based towers. You have to have good line of sight to a land-based tower, so that is more like 2 miles.

Again, whilst in port, your phone needs to be able to see a cell tower (vs. trying to go through the metal hull of the ship). And it depends on the port. If multiple ships all dock at the same time, and there are 10,000 people all trying to download email, it will be slow.

I used at&t day pass in port on our Epic Europe cruise a couple weeks ago and the service in port was fantastic.

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The ship cell tower is SUPPOSED to be turned off. And exactly when???

Your phone will show which carrier it is logged to. If you have any sort of plan with your carrier, the rates will be lower than the ship. The carriers are offering much better plans than even a year ago. Double check.

And, even though nobody asked, if you call your cabin mate on their cell, that is two "long distance" calls.

Even though they are only 100 ft away.

Looking for some insight into cell reception while in port...is it generally easy to pick up a signal while on the ship in port? (we have a balcony). On the NCL site it says that the CellAtSea service gets turned off " when a ship is entering port", is this the same as the "12 miles offshore" that I have read/mentioned in other discussions?

 

 

 

Thanks!

I just got back from a Mediterranean cruise. We actually picked up a SIM card at the airport for $30 and it had 4g of data. Worked all the time while in all ports as well as for an hour or while we were leaving port! Best option out there!

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Now what about on the Pride of America? Anyone have experience with service near the islands?

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Thanks for the replies :) My plan (Rogers in Canada) has what they call "Roam Like Home" which in Europe will be $10 per day to a max of $100 in one month, unlimited calls and texts to Canada and to numbers within the country where I am, 5GB data.

Calls will be the most important to stay in touch with the kids (and texting). Data, not so much so if its slow it will not be THAT important.

Good point by Garycarla...you would think that the ship would keep the tower on to benefit from phones locking onto their signal. Is turning off the ship's tower required? Or a courtesy to the passengers? Of course one can see which network you are connected to, but by turning it on/taking off airplane mode wouldn't all the waiting text come pouring in?

We had the Verizon $10 a day plan for each 24 hour period after turning on the phone in port. It worked great and I rarely didn't have a signal. I put it back on airplane mode when I returned to port. Imagine my surprise when I got my bill I was charged $10 times 12 port days plus an additional $135. I called Verizon and was told that NCL charged Verizon for the use of their cell towers even though I never had my phone turned on while onboard. I was very upset and Verizon agreed to split the $135 with me. I asked Verizon how far from the dock the NCL towers reached and they didn't know. So I really don't know what I will do on our next international trip.

While in port and still on the ship, we are always able to get a cell reception when we are on the upper deck.

I just got back from a Mediterranean cruise. We actually picked up a SIM card at the airport for $30 and it had 4g of data. Worked all the time while in all ports as well as for an hour or while we were leaving port! Best option out there!

I would agree with this.

I can't believe how much you Americans are charged for mobile phone service, and even the add ons for roaming in Europe can cost more for a few days than a European Sim costs for a month. You can get monthly contracts which could save a massive amount compared to your roaming charges.

Now what about on the Pride of America? Anyone have experience with service near the islands?

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We never lost service (ATT) going between Hilo and Kona, as we skirted the island. As soon as we got into eyesight of any of the islands, our phones picked up the ATT signal. We had no problems what-so-ever when on the islands with service.

As to Hawaii coverage... those on the side of the ship facing the Islands have a better chance of a signal vs being out the outboard side and inside a steel shell.

I just got back from Europe last week. I have T-Mobil and I had free data, free texts and calls were 20 cents a minute. I was always able to get and send email at all the ports except Gibraltar.

In March I went on a land trip to Barcelona and Madrid with my husband and son. My son uses T-mobile so we switched cell service from AT&T to T-Mobile mainly because T-mobile offers free text and roaming when in Europe. I was able to keep up with news, twitter, cruise critic, etc. We had no additional costs to our regular cell bill.

In Barcelona, we saw an NCL ship in port. Not sure if cell service was available on board. But we never experienced any connectivity problems in the port area.

My husband has Verizon and I have t mobile. Husband did the $10/24 hour a couple days out of 14 nights on the ship and a few land days. We didn't experience anything extra. He was billed properly for the couple 24 hour periods. My Tmobile typically picked up a service provider when I could see land. Cosmos, vodaphone.. equals free text, internet and .20/calls. The phone would text me; welcome to Croatia or welcome to vodaphone Italy or wherever when I was in range. I think I switched to airplane mode on sea days unless we could see land. If you call provider they'll tell you what to do to avoid charges. This is good to have on record in case you get a big bill after following their directions.

There are essentially two aspects to the OPs question - technical and tariff.

Technical is relatively easy to answer. If you can see land from where you are, you are virtually guaranteed mobile phone coverage. On a Western European cruise circuit you will be fine in all ports and probably OK for all except the sea days when you will probably be out of sight and so out of coverage. On Eastern European cruises, you will almost always be in sight of land up and down the Adriatic and round the Greek Islands.

As for the tariff question, there are a number of options and charges that will depend on the operator you chose. These will almost certainly be different for phone data, wi-fi data, telephone calls and texts. Whichever you chose you will not only need to know the tariff you are on, but you will also need to be comfortable with the technical options on your phone.

The most "cost dangerous" option on the phone is the choice of phone data. Users have little control over when the phone data is being used if you enable it. Apps can decide to call "home" for updates and news services can wake up and consume your data in the background. Many tariff charges for phone data are horrendous and unless you have some protection on upper limits, the charges can climb very rapidly without you even knowing until the bill arrives. Best to disable phone data and phone roaming data options when you are abroad unless you are absolutely sure of your tariff charges. The other thing to be careful of is attaching images to texts - these can normally only be received via phone data and are often not contained within packages, so use something like Whatsapp for this when you are inside a free wi-fi or ship data package. In Europe texts are normally free to receive and only a nominal amount to send.

Many people get a Europe SIM card at their first port of call and those charges are often quite low. Be careful though and read the small print to see if the pre-paid charges are all that you can be held to. Sometimes you will be asked to give financial information in order to register the SIM and this can lead to ongoing charges if you go over the pre-paid limit. Be aware that you will have a different phone number when you have that SIM in the phone and it is quite likely that friends back home using that number will be charged for overseas mobile charges if they ring you! Also you can only use one of these SIMs if your phone is "unlocked".

The key to using your phone overseas is to only do it if you are either so rich it doesn't matter, or you fully understand both technical and tariff options of what you are using. You could, of course take a break from the thing and enjoy the break - that's free of both cost and worry.

Oh, I forgot to add - set the choice of network on your phone to manual so that you can be sure which local network you are connecting to.

There are essentially two aspects to the OPs question - technical and tariff.

 

Technical is relatively easy to answer. If you can see land from where you are, you are virtually guaranteed mobile phone coverage. On a Western European cruise circuit you will be fine in all ports and probably OK for all except the sea days when you will probably be out of sight and so out of coverage. On Eastern European cruises, you will almost always be in sight of land up and down the Adriatic and round the Greek Islands.

 

As for the tariff question, there are a number of options and charges that will depend on the operator you chose. These will almost certainly be different for phone data, wi-fi data, telephone calls and texts. Whichever you chose you will not only need to know the tariff you are on, but you will also need to be comfortable with the technical options on your phone.

 

The most "cost dangerous" option on the phone is the choice of phone data. Users have little control over when the phone data is being used if you enable it. Apps can decide to call "home" for updates and news services can wake up and consume your data in the background. Many tariff charges for phone data are horrendous and unless you have some protection on upper limits, the charges can climb very rapidly without you even knowing until the bill arrives. Best to disable phone data and phone roaming data options when you are abroad unless you are absolutely sure of your tariff charges. The other thing to be careful of is attaching images to texts - these can normally only be received via phone data and are often not contained within packages, so use something like Whatsapp for this when you are inside a free wi-fi or ship data package. In Europe texts are normally free to receive and only a nominal amount to send.

 

Many people get a Europe SIM card at their first port of call and those charges are often quite low. Be careful though and read the small print to see if the pre-paid charges are all that you can be held to. Sometimes you will be asked to give financial information in order to register the SIM and this can lead to ongoing charges if you go over the pre-paid limit. Be aware that you will have a different phone number when you have that SIM in the phone and it is quite likely that friends back home using that number will be charged for overseas mobile charges if they ring you! Also you can only use one of these SIMs if your phone is "unlocked".

 

The key to using your phone overseas is to only do it if you are either so rich it doesn't matter, or you fully understand both technical and tariff options of what you are using. You could, of course take a break from the thing and enjoy the break - that's free of both cost and worry.

 

Oh, I forgot to add - set the choice of network on your phone to manual so that you can be sure which local network you are connecting to.

Thanks Old Nutter...excellent info and just what I was looking for.

My plan in Canada allows me to use all my services abroad (in most countries) as if I was at home for $10/day to a max of $100/month. So for $100 I will be able to use it for all 14 days of our holiday. What it does NOT cover is at sea mobile, i.e. the ship's tower/service. That's why I was asking about in port reception (I don't need to be constantly connected, am trying to get away from that!) for the once-a-day responding to calls/emails. One of my concerns was getting connected accidentally to the ship's network while in port etc. Your last comment about switching to manual selection is spot on! Should have thought of that myself, thank you for that suggestion. :):):)