Beware: Cell phone charges on a cruise

It’s a safe bet that most readers have been upgraded to “smart phones” from cell phones in the last few years, and of course we take our phones on vacation to stay in touch with family and friends. But unlike your old cell phone, most smart phones download a steady drip of data throughout the day and night. You know what I mean: weather, news of your favourite sports team, perhaps the latest on the Kardashians. I myself have never been able to turn off the daily drip, drip, drip of mostly useless drivel, but normally it doesn’t matter. I have a monthly plan that includes a certain number of talk minutes, a fixed number of text messages, and so many megabytes of data download. If I stay within the plan’s limits, I pay nothing extra.

But on vacation, and ESPECIALLY ON A CRUISE, the smart phone’s downloading can add up to big bills.

Your cell service provider wants to sell you a roaming package, and that is probably not a bad idea, depending on your travel plans. Roaming packages work through a service provider at your destination who has a contract with your home company. These packages can help control the cost of text messages and talk time, but those data downloads are not so easy tamed. They just keep coming at you, day and night, wherever you happen to be, silently eating away at your roaming package. That would be bad enough. But on a cruise, the moment your ship leaves the cell zone, all that data start coming at you via satellite – and satellite links are not part of any roAMing package. That can mean big bucks added onto your bill, and in a real hurry.

On a recent cruise I got a text message warning me that my phone had downloaded more than $50 of data in less than 24 hours, a bit more than $2 per hour. Later, when I could view my usage pattern on my home computer, I could see that, for example, at 7:03 AM on Monday 28 September I downloaded over 10 MB of data at a cost of nearly $11. But at 7AM on the morning in question, I was asleep in my cabin! My phone was in the drawer! I wasn’t using it, but it was downloading God-knows-what and draining my bank account like an internet phishing expedition.

Back on the ship in a near-panic, I just shut off the phone, and I didn’t turn it back on until I was safely home. (It spent about five minutes happily chirping and vibrating as the pent up data downloaded all at once, but at least it wasn’t costing me anything.) Of course, shutting down meant I was travelling the remainder of my cruise with a silicon chip paperweight rather than a telephone, but better that than digital bankruptcy.

So how can you prevent the silent haemorrhaging of your earthly wealth while on a cruise? The simplest way is to turn off data downloading while you are roaming. That way you can still use your phone for the traditional services you probably want – talking and text messages – while eliminating the threat of major charges just for drivel. Here’s how I do that on my phone (see note below):

Go to “Settings” (grey coloured gear icon). Select.

Under Wireless & Networks,” chose “More.” Select.

Choose “Cellular Networks.” Select.

Find “Data Roaming. Connect to data services when roaming.” Set to “Off”

Go back to your home screen.

That works on my smart phone, which is a Nexus 5, and my wife’s Moto G, both Android devices, and each about as middle-of-the-road as it gets. Your phone may differ, of course, but you can usually Google “data download roaming” followed by your phone’s model (e.g. “iPhone 6”) and odds are good you’ll find explicit instructions on how to kill data downloading when you’re off home base. Keep in mind that this won’t affect downloading when you’re at home, but it will stay in the “Off” position forever unless you turn it back on. That means when time comes for your next vacation or cruise, you won’t even have to remember to set it.

Do it now. You’ll thank me. I promise.

(Just a note: I am a retired academic, not affiliated with any cruise line or cell phone service provider. I should also give credit to the cell phone technical representative who explained to me what had happened and walked me through the shut-off steps outlined above. Oh, she also gave a $50 credit on my account. Thanks.)

Torontobert68

Um, just put your phone on airplane mode when you board. Even if you buy the wifi plan on the ship, you can turn on wifi while on airplane mode.

what he said. Turn it to airplane mode. you can use Wifi in port if you chose. phone can still be used for a camera etc. On the carnival freedom an outgoing call from your room cost I think 1.99 per minute. not too bad.

Tell home to send an e-mail on important stuff and check when you get to a port with free wifi service.

my 02

Michael

We just put our phones on airplane mode so we can use the camera feature if we want to

it is common knowledge for any smart phone user that airplane mode is the easiest least complicated way to avoid this.

For an iphone 6...

Setttings

Click on "cellular"

Find "data roaming" it's right at the top. Make sure it is turned off. If the tab is green, it is ON.

Yes airplane mode will fix this also, but I do like to turn my phone on occasionally to send a quick text. Plus on the cruise I usually buy a wifi package. Then I can send iMessages for free. So Airplane mode doesn't always work for me. You really want to make absolutely certain that if you think you may turn you phone on you double check this setting before you go.

We turn ours off, and put them in the safe...we are on vacation, after all.

We turn ours off, and put them in the safe...we are on vacation, after all.

Yup.

Given the many, many questions asked here regularly that use of the Search facility would render redundant I think Bert's post is actually very useful for a not-insignificant % of users with little to no 'techie skills' in general.

It's also FAR more useful to do this than to rely on 'airplane mode' (which contrary to many of the posters above, does not necessarily allow WiFi to work - in many cases it still kills all signals from the device) since once it's done, it's done. No need to remember to turn things on or off, and not just while cruising - any time you're out of your 'home zone' roaming charges might apply. With the settings changed this way you won't get stuck with unexpected charges as Data will be turned off by default anywhere that roaming charges would apply.

Also one way to avoid unwanted data charges is in app settings change download method to wi-fi only, you can also change download permission. I have mine set to ask me before updating apps. Also for news or weather apps, etc again in settings you usually choose how often they update. when I am on holiday I choose to only update once a day.

I suggest just sitting down one day and go through your settings for just 10 min to familiarise yourself with what you can do. anything to do with downloading can be changed to suit your personal requirements.

Don't be afraid to experiment with your phone as long as you don't delete or reset to factory settings , you're not going to break it.

It’s a safe bet that most readers have been upgraded to “smart phones” from cell phones in the last few years, and of course we take our phones on vacation to stay in touch with family and friends. But unlike your old cell phone, most smart phones download a steady drip of data throughout the day and night. You know what I mean: weather, news of your favourite sports team, perhaps the latest on the Kardashians. I myself have never been able to turn off the daily drip, drip, drip of mostly useless drivel, but normally it doesn’t matter. I have a monthly plan that includes a certain number of talk minutes, a fixed number of text messages, and so many megabytes of data download. If I stay within the plan’s limits, I pay nothing extra.

 

 

Torontobert68

I have not upgraded to a smart phone and I have no intention of doing so. I do have a cell phone, which I do take on vacation. I turn it off prior to the muster drill, put it in the safe and do not turn it back on until I am ready to debark the ship. As a result, I have yet to be charged for anything related to my phone while on a cruise. I've been on over twenty cruises.

I have not upgraded to a smart phone and I have no intention of doing so. I do have a cell phone, which I do take on vacation. I turn it off prior to the muster drill, put it in the safe and do not turn it back on until I am ready to debark the ship. As a result, I have yet to be charged for anything related to my phone while on a cruise. I've been on over twenty cruises.

I could have wriiten this post!

Every sentence in it also applies to me and to my husband

And never EVER use your phone as a clock when you are in port!!!!

Some ports are on a different time than "ship" time and when your phone automatically reverts to local time it could make you late getting back to the ship.

The ship WILL absolutely leave you if you are not back!!! I have seen it happen twice myself and it is sad!!

Thanks to everyone who has added this thread. I was aware of “airplane mode” (though I didn’t know you could use WiFi in airplane mode – many thanks). But I deliberately omitted mentioning this method. Here’s why: my wife and I have elderly relatives with health problems. We want to be able to receive plain old telephone calls in case of an emergency. Airplane mode shuts off all calls. With our old (non-smart) cell phones, we could leave them on and unwanted charges were never a problem. Maybe one day I will be able to throttle back all the unwanted data downloads on the smart phone, but for now being able to cruise without the expensive drivel while leaving the phone operational is a real blessing to us.

We put the phone on airport mode if we are using it for other things such as audio books.

Keith

I profess to being smartphone ignorant even though I have one & rang my provider who walked through turning off my downloads with me.

If I change to card over to a travel sim, will the downloads still be turned off?

I'm only taking it with me to text 'we are having a great time" and for emergencies.

Thanks

Here’s why: my wife and I have elderly relatives with health problems. We want to be able to receive plain old telephone calls in case of an emergency. Airplane mode shuts off all calls.

And never EVER use your phone as a clock when you are in port!!!!

What if you are on the starboard side of the ship?

...my wife and I have elderly relatives with health problems. We want to be able to receive plain old telephone calls in case of an emergency...

Most cruise lines offer plain old telephone access by last century technology directly to the ship so you can receive calls in your stateroom. Better yet, the ship communications folks can take messages if you aren't there to receive them. That's far more useful than hoping a phone call can get through to your cell phone considering all the vagaries of accessing your phone while at sea.

Just check your cruise line's website or call them directly for specifics.

Like others, I would recommend just putting it in airplane mode. That's what I do. After we set sail, my phone is just an alarm clock, flashlight, and camera.

However, for those with an iPhone, also turn off the "Background App Refresh" option. You may not realize it, but whenever your phone is connected to a cellular network or even just wifi, your apps automatically refresh and use data. Unselecting this option will stop that from happening, and will also help save your battery life.

Settings > General > Background App Refresh

I'm not sure what the Android equivalent of this would be.

Because I'm Irish and when I visit the states roaming for data is mega expensive so I get my phone provider to switch off my data and voice mail yep u know that annoying long voicemail u can receive that goes on and on can cost me $5 I've saved a fortune doing this last bill was €4 more than my normal month I did have an Internet package on the ship but even with that it paid for it's self with my text and what's app phone calls