$$$CELL PHONES are a GO on ALL PRINCESS SHIPS Sarting TODAY, WOW!$$$

Good or Bad?:eek: :D Cruise History is in the Making, Cell Phone Service, International Rates, is Now Available on the Golden & All Princess Ships as of this Morning on Your Cell Phone, Billed by your Cell Phone Co, all You need to have is International Service avail, through your service provider! Wow, Princess asks only use your phone in your cabin or upper decks! Will they? More to follow later.............. Your opinions Please! Bill (Live on the Golden!)

Not sure that I like this idea ..... everywhere you go, people are on their cell phones. It's nice to get away and not have to deal with others talking on their cell every time you turn around - me included!!! It is good, though, for emergency purposes, especially if you don't have to pay $7.95 a minute like you do on the ship.

Not sure that I like this idea ..... everywhere you go, people are on their cell phones. It's nice to get away and not have to deal with others talking on their cell every time you turn around - me included!!! It is good, though, for emergency purposes, especially if you don't have to pay $7.95 a minute like you do on the ship.

Hi,

It will be interesting to see how much Cingular & MCP decided to charge per minute?:eek: It will be good when you HAVE to use it, but I hope it is High$$ :eek: so it won't be used much, only in an Emergency! It will be Nice to have, if needed on the 102 World Cruise, that is going to help if needed!;) Bill

One of the things I like about cruising is that there are no cell phones etc so we can have a real break from it all.

Guess they will make it $$ which hopefully will keep the usage down and let us still enjoy the cruise as there are so many policies that are not enforced already so limiting it to certain places will probably become one of them!!!

Where'd you learn this?

Bill,

Let me get this straight, you can use your cell phones only in your room and the upper decks.

The Good, is for emergency purposes and to be used in your room.

The Bad, upper decks, when someone is trying to take an afternoon siesta (sp?) by the pool and generally people who talk on the phone, talk louder than normal, they can be very disturbing. Or when someone is trying to sleep in the next room and hears the phone ringing or again the person talking on the phone.

The Ugly, just who is going to enforce these new rules, some people who board ships will not follow rules.

My two cents worth,

Dollar Bill

This was available on Grand Princess last week. My brother in law used his phone, at sea, from his cabin and said the signal was great. He could not use his phone on the upper decks (he tried). Apparently, the places you can use your phone are very limited. We received a separate questionnaire regarding cell phone avialability and usage with our post-cruise survey.

I have no problems with cell phone availability so long as those areas where phones are usable are strictly limited. If there is a way to limit their usage to passenger cabins only, I have no complaints.

As far as enforcement goes, there is no need to worry about that so long as the signal is provided in limited areas. As my BIL found out, it appears to be available only in passenger cabins. There was a very subtle note about being able to use cell phones in the stack of stuff that greets you when you board, it might even have been buried in the embarkation issue of the Princess Patter.

:eek: :eek: and another :eek: !

In my humble opinion (as if I ever had one of those) this will be abused just like chair hogs, jeans in the dining room, diapers in the pool and the list goes on. I can just hear them ringing in the dining room and show lounges now. Since people abuse the use of them on dry land I see no reason to expect they will not do so aboard a cruise ship. Here's hoping I am wrong - won't be the 1st time.

I have no problem using the cell phone in the room. I will be leaving a nine year old and a teenager at home. What a relief that I can stay in contact. They will be with thier Grandma however it will be peace of mind for me. I will be able to enjoy my trip so much more!!!:D

 

As far as enforcement goes, there is no need to worry about that so long as the signal is provided in limited areas. As my BIL found out, it appears to be available only in passenger cabins. There was a very subtle note about being able to use cell phones in the stack of stuff that greets you when you board, it might even have been buried in the embarkation issue of the Princess Patter.

Oh Rob I so hope you are right!

Princess actually lags behind other cruise lines in adding this cellular service. As of 12/6, only one Princess ship was listed.

Here is the link to the ships equipped with Cellular at Sea and rates for Cingular customers. Other cellular customers may charge more. Only GSM equipped phones will work.

http://www.cingular.com/travelguide/coverage/cruise_ships_rates.jsp?PIDL=DIR%7CWC%7CWCM&dsessionid=FQQQm0GWJ346fgdrZlXhkXRNw2qvFdB2mlqm4cmjlxf1BHNGHHGJ!-1282084815!1157660688544

FYI

LL

I sure hope they ban them in the dining rooms. There's nothing worse than trying to have a nice meal and someone is yelling into their cell phone at the next table.

Lola in Hamilton

Oh Rob I so hope you are right!

As others have mentioned, your phone has to be configured a certain way or it won't work. My wife tried her phone and couldn't get a signal. I left mine in the car in Galveston, on purpose. :D

I have no problem using the cell phone in the room. I will be leaving a nine year old and a teenager at home. What a relief that I can stay in contact. They will be with thier Grandma however it will be peace of mind for me. I will be able to enjoy my trip so much more!!!:D

did you not realize that they could stay in contact by calling your room phone...or that you could call them using the room phone? Even without a cell phone, you can still have peace of mind.

I sure hope they ban them in the dining rooms. There's nothing worse than trying to have a nice meal and someone is yelling into their cell phone at the next table.

 

Lola in Hamilton

Lola - we have only cruised RCI to date, but I have to agree with you - the dining room is not a place for cell phones... however, we all know how well the cruise lines enforce other "rules" imposed in their dining venues...(like dress codes) :D

LL

So the last chance to "Escape Completely" has come to an end. 'Tis a sad day.:(

I read an article recently on this and the cruise line companies have an option to create "zones" where cell phones can be used and not used. For example, a company may create a zone which makes it so that cell phones can not be used in the dining room and theatre. It is up to the company on where they want them used.

On Carnival you can use cell phones at sea but the calls are costing like 2.99 a minute for roaming.. even if you have the international plan.

I wonder if people are aware of this? Its not gonna be cheap thats for sure.

For that reason I dont think the cell usage on a ship will be like on land. THe people you see having long conversations will be the ones that think the calls are free.

$2.99/minute isn't going to stop anyone who thinks they need to make a call when I'm trying to relax.

Anyone know if Celebrity allows phones?

One day a cruiseline is going to ban them and watch folks flock over to them!

This sucks.

Lola - we have only cruised RCI to date, but I have to agree with you - the dining room is not a place for cell phones... however, we all know how well the cruise lines enforce other "rules" imposed in their dining venues...(like dress codes) :D

 

LL

You sure are right about that!!! Cruising isn't what it used to be.

Lola in Hamilton

$2.99/minute isn't going to stop anyone who thinks they need to make a call when I'm trying to relax.

 

Anyone know if Celebrity allows phones?

 

One day a cruiseline is going to ban them and watch folks flock over to them!

 

This sucks.

Actually, Celebrity and RCI were the first lines to implement cell phone roaming. We've sailed twice on ships that have it available, Summit in 2005 and Century last week. In a total of 20 days on these ships, we saw NO evidence of abuse. Don't know that we even saw anyone on their phone. Maybe its the price, maybe something else, but just wasn't a problem. And this is without any suggestion, from Celebrity, that phones only be used in cabins or on open decks.

I have no problem with cell phone availability if the "zone" is only in cabins and only available at certain hours during the day. (The last thing you want is someone yelling into their cell phone on their balcony at 3AM.)

FYI, you can turn on international roaming on Cingular for $5.99/month. I used my phone, using Cingular, on my Russian riverboat cruise in September. It was amazing... here I was in the middle of absolutely nowhere yet I had a signal. And yes, I used it only in my cabin.

Most of the Caribbean is $1.99/minute. Here is a link to the Cingular page with the phone rates (click on "Compare with standard rates."): http://www.cingular.com/learn/international/roaming/affordable-world-packages.jsp

Perhaps it will be different now that the ship is "offering" cell service, but it the past, even if you could get a cell signal, if you had an inside or OV cabin, you weren't able to get the signal in your cabin. Thus, don't assume that everyone who uses a cell phone on an open deck is doing it to spite you.

did you not realize that they could stay in contact by calling your room phone...or that you could call them using the room phone? Even without a cell phone, you can still have peace of mind.

It cost about 10.00 a minute to do that. It will be better to know I can call them and not have that cost hanging over my head. I love the idea, I will stay in touch daily.

Tammy

I don't think I'll tell my husband! If he finds out and then his corp. office finds out, he'll be getting his usual 100 phone calls a day!!!

No cell phone coverage is WHY WE CRUISE!!!