Affordable cell phone for cruise

I understand when we board the ship we should put our phones on airplane mode to avoid the international charges. I had planned on adding the international plan to only my phone so we could be contacted if it is an emergency, but it is $40 for 1 month. Are there any cheaper options y'all have used?

Calling from your cabin is $1.99 a minute - not horrible compared to other cruise lines. (NCL is $5.99 per minute!!) We have ATT, and their "new" plan is $10 a day if you turn your phone on in an "international" port. (St. Thomas, San Juan are free, as they are U.S. territories.) And you get free calls, texts, data, depending on what your regular plan is - no extra hidden charges. Don't know what cell company you use, but we definitely will always get the $10 a day plan when we travel out of the country. Still can't use it on the ship though, or you will get slammed with roaming charges.

Does your phone support WiFi calling? My iPhone will let me place AT&T calls over WiFi when roaming. It would require the internet plan on the ship.

I was quite surprised to learn that my Sprint plan already included an international feature that as far as I can tell on my bill, isn't costing me a thing. I was able to text for free while in Central America and when docked in Panama, called home for $0.20 per minute.

On T-Mobile, if you want to keep your phone off of airplane mode but want to avoid roaming charges, you can setup your account to block all roaming that causes a surcharge. Go into your T-Mobile account and disable roaming there. Once that is done, enable roaming on your phone.

I understand when we board the ship we should put our phones on airplane mode to avoid the international charges. I had planned on adding the international plan to only my phone so we could be contacted if it is an emergency, but it is $40 for 1 month. Are there any cheaper options y'all have used?

Your first sentence should read "I understand when we board the ship we should put our phones on airplane mode to avoid the satellite transmission fees charged by WMS (aka CellularAtSea) ."

This is the signal relay company that will charge your regular plan anywhere from $2.59-5.99 per any part of a minute used for voice, $15-30 per MB of data, $0.50-1.50 per text sent, and $0.05-1.00 per text received while on the ship. The charges will show on up to 2 billing cycles after the cruise. On board the ship there is no way to use your mobile phone in the traditional sense once away from port, there are no cell towers anywhere out on the water.

For phone use in ports of call it depends on what options you regular mobile carrier offers in conjunction with your current plans. Some carriers have different options within their company based on your current contract, like for us with Verizon my phone can get a vacation a limited use international plan for $5 a day specifying exactly what days I want it for, the limits allow for 100 minutes voice, unlimited texting in but a per text out charge of $0.50, and 1 MB of data daily. Meanwhile my husband's contract also through Verizon can not get the daily option but can get a $20 vacation international plan with unlimited calling & texting, but practically no data for when we are in the Caribbean.

Just get the Social Media plan and if you need to be reached they can message you on FB Messenger or WhatsApp or one of those.

We was on the Triumph in November and used the media package and called home via Facebook and it was awesome and wasn't charged any fees from AT&T. Also if you sailing out of NOLA you can be on your phone up until you get to the Gulf of Mexico which is about 6 hours from the time of sailing.

We was on the Triumph in November and used the media package and called home via Facebook and it was awesome and wasn't charged any fees from AT&T.

Was this the Premium ($17/day) plan, or where you able to make calls (irregardless of terms given: "Note: Does not include in-app calling") using the Social ($5/day) plan which includes Facebook?

Plans/prices may have been different then.??

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I understand when we board the ship we should put our phones on airplane mode to avoid the international charges. I had planned on adding the international plan to only my phone so we could be contacted if it is an emergency, but it is $40 for 1 month. Are there any cheaper options y'all have used?

If you truly only want a way to be contacted if there is an emergency, provide those that may need to reach you with the phone number Carnival publishes for contacting passengers if there is an emergency and be done with it.

I understand when we board the ship we should put our phones on airplane mode to avoid the international charges. I had planned on adding the international plan to only my phone so we could be contacted if it is an emergency, but it is $40 for 1 month. Are there any cheaper options y'all have used?

Yes, you can do this for $0.00! It's called pay per use. Use your phone, and you pay for what you use. All smart phones today, you can turn off your data roaming. So when you are "international", you won't have use of your "data". To be extra safe, turn off data only, and than you will only have access to wifi. This will shut down all data on your phone. Next, leave your phone on, and don't worry about the airplane mode. Most phone companies will charge you for incoming and outgoing texts. Incoming is only $0.10. Tell you friends don't text you unless it's an extreme emergency. Same thing with phone calls. Just don't answer the phone. Let you family know, that you won't answer the phone.

I end up with maybe an extra $2-$3 on my phone bill each cruise. I just ignore all irrelevant texts I get.

Of course if you get 100 texts a day, and you are addicted to it, than maybe it's not a good idea.

Planning on taking triumph out of Nola next April, when you say can be on phone for about 6 hrs, do you mean you won't be charged by ship? Plan on putting mine on airplane mode, but traveling w/my older sister, she'll probably want to call husband, children, etc

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Just get the Social Media plan and if you need to be reached they can message you on FB Messenger or WhatsApp or one of those.

We do this and have even been able to make calls though FB messenger by just having the Social Media plan. No extra charge.

We are off the grid, period. The phones are off and locked in the safe until debarkation.

There is absolutely NOTHING important enough to disturb my vacation.

We are off the grid, period. The phones are off and locked in the safe until debarkation.

 

There is absolutely NOTHING important enough to disturb my vacation.

I am that way I mean honestly I feel like I would rather not know some terrible bad news that would put a damper on my cruise -- I mean really would telling me that Uncle John died really help me - Nope

Planning on taking triumph out of Nola next April, when you say can be on phone for about 6 hrs, do you mean you won't be charged by ship? Plan on putting mine on airplane mode, but traveling w/my older sister, she'll probably want to call husband, children, etc

 

 

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Sailing on the Mississippi you will have regular phone signal until you reach the gulf

I am that way I mean honestly I feel like I would rather not know some terrible bad news that would put a damper on my cruise -- I mean really would telling me that Uncle John died really help me - Nope

This is how we feel too. Especially being at sea and not being able to do anything about it until we either got to our next port or back at the end of the cruise. There is no need for that torture.

The family plan is to not get in touch with the ship until we get back.

We are off the grid, period. The phones are off and locked in the safe until debarkation.

 

 

 

There is absolutely NOTHING important enough to disturb my vacation.

We really try to do that. Unfortunately, DH is a sole practitioner, while his employers can do some of the leg work, they cannot do what he does . Without being able to communicate he would have had to cancel our last cruise.

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We are off the grid, period. The phones are off and locked in the safe until debarkation.

 

 

 

There is absolutely NOTHING important enough to disturb my vacation.

I always found it fascinating that this subject was so polarizing. I doubt that many people that are so determined to be off the grid while cruising do so on vacations that are not cruises. There is no reason why someone can't go off the grid while traveling on vacations other than a cruise. Also not sure why so many people directly link being off the grid to vacation enjoyment, in all of my vacations (cruising and others) I can't remember a single time where having a cell phone was a detriment.

I understand when we board the ship we should put our phones on airplane mode to avoid the international charges. I had planned on adding the international plan to only my phone so we could be contacted if it is an emergency, but it is $40 for 1 month. Are there any cheaper options y'all have used?

I'm confused. First it sounds like you are getting ATT international plan. Right? That includes unlimited texting and "limited" data. However on the ship, it is not included. This will work in ports only. So putting your phone in airplane mode would defeat the purpose of you buying this.

On the ship, you need the ships WiFi plan. Yes this is costly. But if you opt out of this, you can leave your phone on, (not on airplane mode) and make sure your phone is set to off for data roaming. With this, you can receive texts, on the ship, which is really cheap. Phone calls cost more, but you can just not answer your phone when it rings. That's what caller id is for.

Or with ATT you can have the $10.00 per day international plan, which includes phone calls. it is activated once you use it. So 3 ports equal $30.00 which is cheaper than $40.00.

Important thing is to be careful of what you use it for, and make sure you remember to turn data roaming on and off depending on what you are doing. I do this all the time.

I have a 1 year old that I am leaving at home for the first time being gone so long. Since I have ATT and wi-fi calling I was just going to an internet package on the cruise ship so I could video chat her and or call her or if they need me. Prior to having a child I only used my phone for pics and a clock when we were at the port. Otherwise I love being off the grid. Not so much with my baby at home though.

We purchased the social media package to be able to use Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. You can text through those apps. I was also able to use the calling feature through the Facebook messenger to call my daughter. Which at times it didn't always work, but I at least talked to once per day.

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I got rid of AT&T a few year back and quit paying all of those $300 plus bills and went to their prepaid option (used to be AIO until they bought out Cricket and combined them). Now for 2 phones I pay a flat $70. SAME EXACT SERVICE!! I do get one month of the International coverage when I cruise so I am SURE to be able to place calls from land and I use Messenger and the phone portion of Messenger with the WiFi while onboard. This way if it works, it works and I have no surprise costs on a later bill. And Cricket happens to work in Mexico for sure.

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We are off the grid, period. The phones are off and locked in the safe until debarkation.

 

There is absolutely NOTHING important enough to disturb my vacation.

Not talking about "Uncle John". what if, god forbid, a parent or a child dies, are you going to say, they can wait a week? I think you would be on the next flight home. This is exactly why we always buy trip insurance.

I have a 1 year old that I am leaving at home for the first time being gone so long. Since I have ATT and wi-fi calling I was just going to an internet package on the cruise ship so I could video chat her and or call her or if they need me. Prior to having a child I only used my phone for pics and a clock when we were at the port. Otherwise I love being off the grid. Not so much with my baby at home though.

Be sure to double check this is activated under settings before you leave the US. I have noticed that sometimes I have to reactivate it every now and then which I find odd but it happens. You can't activate it if you aren't connected to a cell network either.