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Mobile phones and staying in touch onboard


Balticadventurer
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Hi all, I'm a first time cruiser and confused about the most cost effective and best way to stay in touch on such a huge ship (we are travelling on the Regal Princess next August - Baltics) and also whether getting mobile roaming is worthwhile given the cost.

Usually when I travel I purchase a pre paid SIM card in the country I am travelling in and use free wifi wherever possible to save on data, but I'm not sure that's possible due to the satellite wifi they use on the ships.

Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance :)

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If getting in touch with co-passengers onboard, you can use the Princess@Sea app for texting but as paul29207 said, there is no notification.

If getting in touch with those at home, you can check your cell provider. Our T-mobile plan gives us free text, free cellular data and $0.20/min call when outside the US. We also use free wifi at some hotspots in port.

 

 

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A local sim card or international roaming does not apply on board the ship, only in port.

 

You will have to buy wifi access on board (unless included for free). And cellular service is charged by the cruise line, and typically is expensive.

 

For shore side, I am also with T-mobile and they have probably the best international roaming plan. 140+ countries, unlimited data, unlimited texting, and 20 cent per minute calling. They also support wifi calling. However, in some cases, even with wifi calling, you may be charged the 20 cents per minute. This happened to me in a country that was NOT one of their supported countries.

 

AT&T requires that you pay a fee for international roaming for 30 days access. You get unlimited texting, some data, and either $1 or 50 cents per minute, depending on how much you pay.

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Is the OP referring to keeping touch with those traveling with him/her on board, or calling home while on board?

 

The title says staying in touch onboard, and then post says staying in touch on such a huge ship.

To me, that implies keeping in touch with others who are also on the ship.

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The most cost effective way to keep in touch is sticky note pads and a pen!

Who wants to lug around their phone all day? Read the daily "newspaper" and find out what you are going to be doing the next day, then you can say you'll be here X until X:00

The ship isn't that big, I wouldn't really worry about being in contact with someone 24 hours a day.

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The title says staying in touch onboard, and then post says staying in touch on such a huge ship.

To me, that implies keeping in touch with others who are also on the ship.

 

Sorry, I got confused

 

best way to stay in touch on such a huge ship

 

getting mobile roaming & t I'm not sure that's possible due to the satellite wifi they use on the ships

 

 

With mobile roaming and satellite, I got the impression they wanted to make calls home or where ever.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ditto to what shipgeeks said. Your cabin phone will have voicemail available and you should even be able to personalize the greeting on it if you desire. I travelled with a large group of friends and after the evening show let out, we would make a quick phone call from the phone in the hallway just outside the theater to let our non-show-going friend that we were headed to the dining room so he could meet us. In the mornings I'd usually put a post-it note on the outside of my cabin door saying which venue I'd gone to for breakfast. The old-school version of communication worked well for us. Once you keep an eye out for them, you will notice there are quite few phones all around the ship and you just need to dial the cabin number and can leave a voicemail if no one is "home".

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TALK to the others in your party! TALK! That's all you need. Have them tell you their plans...you tell them YOUR plans...and you will not have an issue finding each other. There are only so many PUBLIC areas. 95% of the ship is cabin space....you will never need to explore every hallway and deck. Just tell each other your plans..and all will be well.

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Some people use FRS radios but they do have problems with range on ships due to the massive amounts of steel. But still, if you're willing to walk about in those situations while calling for them eventually you will succeed, and for "I can't find you amongst the crowd on the lido deck" scenarios they work fine. Just make sure you have a set that have a lot of privacy codes on the channels as my past experience with them is that the channels get very crowded aboard a ship - probably less now that there are other options, but keep it in mind.

 

Forget your cellphone while aboard - cellular at sea is notoriously expensive, you will regret it. Generally, unless you have a specialized roaming plan for your ports of call, leave it off there as well otherwise you will regret it when your bill comes in.

 

More cruise lines are offering wifi-based chat/messenger options while aboard. Carnival for example offers a $5/per person (per cruise, not day) chat plan that works just like text messaging while aboard - it will be hands down the best option with the highest reliability of working when you need it.

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Forgot to mention...the good old fashioned planning and sticky notes options work well in addition.

 

On past cruises we have used both. A whiteboard stuck to your stateroom door is a simple way of leaving notes for family members, or for friends in other staterooms to leave YOU notes. Sticky notes do the job as well.

 

In the past the good old fashioned planning thing works too. We always told our teens to meet us back in the stateroom at such-and-such time (and make them set an alarm on their phones to remind them) and we regroup that way.

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Ditto to what shipgeeks said. Your cabin phone will have voicemail available and you should even be able to personalize the greeting on it if you desire. I travelled with a large group of friends and after the evening show let out, we would make a quick phone call from the phone in the hallway just outside the theater to let our non-show-going friend that we were headed to the dining room so he could meet us. In the mornings I'd usually put a post-it note on the outside of my cabin door saying which venue I'd gone to for breakfast. The old-school version of communication worked well for us. Once you keep an eye out for them, you will notice there are quite few phones all around the ship and you just need to dial the cabin number and can leave a voicemail if no one is "home".

 

But the person has to go to their cabin to hear the voice mail. There is no way to retrieve voice mail from other phones.

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