Cell service on the Mississippi

Just a quick question as a mother of two teens. Will they be able to use there phones as we go down the river without getting hit with roaming charges?

Just a quick question as a mother of two teens. Will they be able to use there phones as we go down the river without getting hit with roaming charges?

For the most part, yes. Phones will work from the port to basically the bottom of the river (about 7 or 8 hours later). You will find, however, that service will be spotty or non-existent at times and that the network will be "extended" from time to time.

I personally found downloading email to be difficult and the ability to text or use social media sites to be a bit spotty the farther south we got. Shortly after dinner, I just decided to put my phone in airplane mode for the rest of the week and not worry about when we hit the Gulf of Mexico and possible roaming charges.

They'll work for the first 4 hours or so but once the ship fires up their own cell service it'll get expensive real quick. I'd recommend telling them to activate airplane mode whenever you stop seeing buildings/infrastructure.

In and out for 7-8 hours. I bought an Internet plan but didn't start using it until close to midnight because AT&T was faster.