Best way of Staying in touch...

My Parents will be sailing on Saturday on brittania to the fjords. They want to keep in touch with us. What's the best way .using a mobile, using there iPad and paying for wifi onboard.or does p&o still have the facility to use the free community webpage on p&o webpage?

My Parents will be sailing on Saturday on brittania to the fjords. They want to keep in touch with us. What's the best way .using a mobile, using there iPad and paying for wifi onboard.or does p&o still have the facility to use the free community webpage on p&o webpage?

Hello,

Unfortunately, the community section of the P&O website no longer exists :(

They can purchase an internet package, I believe if they purchase it beforehand via their cruise personaliser they can get some additional 'free' minutes.

However, the internet can be very slow on board the ship so it's an idea to prepare any emails in draft / off line & just connect when they're ready to be sent.

Alternatively, follow the crew off the ship as they will invariably know where all the local 'free' wifi hotspots are :)

Hope this helps & that your parents have a wonderful cruise.

Joan

does p&o still have the facility to use the free community webpage on p&o webpage?

You can get the P&O website for free but the community forum message system was discontinued when the forum ceased. So basically you can just browse booking more cruises and looking into details of the ships etc.

Regards John

The normal Fjords cruise does not have many sea days and a mobile phone connection should be available in ports for a quick email. They may also find a free wifi connection in port but this relies on their experience. I would think the quick port email would be cheaper than ships wifi. Depending upon your parents provider and mobile plan It may be a mobile phone call would be cost effective. It may be worthwhile checking the plan.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We find Wifi slow and expensive on board ships (unless you have some Wifi credit). We compose emails on board then use free WiFi in port - most cafes offer free connection - and if not we move on to another! We also text or phone when on land though not on board which is expensive. It's worth checking your provider's rates as they can vary a lot!

these are the charges for ee

make calls 15.6p

receive calls 4.1p

3..if you pay monthly, it comes out of that...OH has all inc/no limit on his mobile, so me thinks I will be using that

or if you do not have an allowance 15.6p

Looks like it may be worth their while getting a 3 sim, if they can.

Be careful using free wifi hotspots. Many are unencrypted and unscrupulous people can get your email log in details.

I use my tablet ashore with free wifi all the time. As long as you don't use your bank and other secure sights, it's pretty safe. Also, you can change your settings to ensure security.

With their own laptops, emails aren't wildly expensive. You write the email first; then log in, fire off the email, download any incoming emails (or copy and paste), and log out. All over in less than 5 minutes a day, and probably in fact about 2 minutes.

You can set up a specific email address ["mumanddadonholiday@xyz.com"] if you want to avoid looking through the ones they don't want to see - give the new address only to people they want to (and expect to) hear from.

My Parents will be sailing on Saturday on brittania to the fjords. They want to keep in touch with us. What's the best way .using a mobile, using there iPad and paying for wifi onboard.or does p&o still have the facility to use the free community webpage on p&o webpage?

I think the Wifi is ropey. You may be better off going into town and finding a cafe that does Wifi or similar :)

iPad and Mobiles (assuming a smart mobile) are pretty much the same thing, it's just a matter of size. (iPhone = large iPad basically !) Any reasonably new iPhone or Android phone (samsung sony et al) will do (or Blackberry/Windows phone).

2 chat options basically : install them before you go - Skype which has video calling and Messenger which is text only (though you can send pictures). We've just been to Egypt on an AI and the hotel was nice though the Wifi was pretty ropey and Skype worked well enough. Practice before you go if your folks aren't very tech-savvy.

You can also use text messages ; some carriers have pretty good text rates for non UK texts/calls, some are appalling.

If your folks have an unlocked phone you could buy an international SIM card which might be useable as well. Most phones you buy from the usual shops are locked (e.g. they accept O2 Sim cards and nobody else's) though they usually will unlock them if you ask nicely.

Be careful using free wifi hotspots. Many are unencrypted and unscrupulous people can get your email log in details.

as long as your email accounts have passwords you're fine.

these are the charges for ee

make calls 15.6p

receive calls 4.1p

3..if you pay monthly, it comes out of that...OH has all inc/no limit on his mobile, so me thinks I will be using that

or if you do not have an allowance 15.6p

Looks like it may be worth their while getting a 3 sim, if they can.

O2 have a Travel plan for Europe as well with their charges being: -

50p to connect a call then the first one hour is included with that. So 50p for a one hour call is pretty damn cheap - I've used it many times the last couple of years to keep in touch with family back home.

£1.99 a day for unlimited data so you can browse the web, send & receive emails and do whatever you want for the entire day. If you don't use it say on a sea day, then you don't get charged.

5p to send a text (free to receive).

as long as your email accounts have passwords you're fine.

It depends how you log in to your email account. For example, if it's web-based and the site does not use https:// addresses (i.e. HTTP over SSL) then the password is sent in cleartext, and it's then very easy to capture the username and password.

VP

I highly recommend - WhatsApp

I`ve copied this from its official website for you and for everybody else

WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia and yes, those phones can all message each other! Because WhatsApp Messenger uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing, there is no cost to message and stay in touch with your friends.

In addition to basic messaging WhatsApp users can create groups, send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages.

I use this and just about everybody I know uses whatsapp because its great, I`ve got friends that are cabin crew for British Airways and they are always flying off in each direction so we stay in touch via whatsapp - its great !!

I agree with the last poster. Install Whatsapp on your phone. It is instant messaging, as opposed to email which could take time.