Mobile phone - "Roaming Charges" - word of warning.

All of the years that we have been cruising, I have always avoided using my mobile phone, other than in the direst of emergencies. You can imaging my delight when I received a text from my network supplier (EE) to say that "Roaming Charges" throughout the EU Countries were now part of my normal plan.

Had a 17 night cruise on the QE last month and made a total of 18 calls to the UK from around Europe. Imagine my surprise when I received my bill this week and saw that I had "Roaming Charges". Ah, ha, got you thinks I, but upon checking the bill 10 of the calls are correctly listed as being made from the Countries concerned but 8 of the calls, totalling £56 are shown as being made from the QE, listed on the bill as "Ferry".

In other words, calls made from the EU Countries fall within my plan but any calls made from the ship are all chargeable. Back to the internet on the ship for me next time.

Perhaps I was a bot naïve but just thought that I should share the above with you, in case, like me you end up getting stung (my own fault I accept).

David

Thank you, great information

Jennie

Calls made from the ship go through the maritime network via satellite and are therefore excluded.

Perhaps more surprising to me was that calls made on my balcony in Southampton before we sailed went through the ships system, as roaming calls rather than the land cellular systems. I guess it depend on how close one is to a reception site.

I can sympathise. I had a £300 Vodafone shock 2 years ago sailing QM2 to the Caribbean. It was supposed to be £10 per day using Vodafone within certain Caribbean island locations. It turned out the islands included in these packages were somewhat confusing, especially when roaming different cellular locations. This year I'm keeping my phone off in preference to using e mail.

It behooves you to be intimately familiar with the display on your phone that shows what network you're connected to and how to manually select a different network. Sometimes the network will be shown as two digits, a dash, and three digits, in which case it's a gamble. But my phone company sends me a text when I enter any new country (or connect to the ship's network) telling me what the calling rate is there.

I discussed that with Vodafone as it used to be classed as World Zone 6 so not included in my World Traveller, which you'd think it would be. It's still not included in Global Roaming and states on their site cruise ships, ferries and planes have charges.

Calls made from the ship go through the maritime network via satellite and are therefore excluded.

Perhaps more surprising to me was that calls made on my balcony in Southampton before we sailed went through the ships system, as roaming calls rather than the land cellular systems. I guess it depend on how close one is to a reception site.

Rule number 1, Always check who the Carrier is on your phone.

Certainly on my iPhone it is in the top left corner.

When out of land range the 'carrier' will show a 'Maritime'.

All of the years that we have been cruising, I have always avoided using my mobile phone, other than in the direst of emergencies. You can imaging my delight when I received a text from my network supplier (EE) to say that "Roaming Charges" throughout the EU Countries were now part of my normal plan.

 

Had a 17 night cruise on the QE last month and made a total of 18 calls to the UK from around Europe. Imagine my surprise when I received my bill this week and saw that I had "Roaming Charges". Ah, ha, got you thinks I, but upon checking the bill 10 of the calls are correctly listed as being made from the Countries concerned but 8 of the calls, totalling £56 are shown as being made from the QE, listed on the bill as "Ferry".

 

In other words, calls made from the EU Countries fall within my plan but any calls made from the ship are all chargeable. Back to the internet on the ship for me next time.

 

Perhaps I was a bot naïve but just thought that I should share the above with you, in case, like me you end up getting stung (my own fault I accept).

 

David

Another word of warning on EE. switch voicemail off. My phone was switched off in my cabin on a cruise out of New York and my mum left me a voicemail and forgot to hang up gifting me the princely bill of £32 or nearly $40!!!

P