T Mobile and ship Internet need help with avoiding roaming charges

Im not too techy when it comes to wifi, roaming, and all that jazz, looking for help from those who have recently been on ncl escape and used phone and text as means of contact

Trying to make sure i dont incur roaming fees

Heard horror stories of huge bills.....

what phone features do I need to disable on phone?

I Have a tmobile simple choice plan and will be buying the cruise ship Internet pkg also

Needing to keep in contact with family via text , or email (and phone if possible)

Thank you for your responses

Below is summary of tmobile phone plan

-Mobile's wearable plan gives you unlimited minutes, unlimited messaging, limited international roaming (not included with Simple Choice No Credit Check Plan), and more! And it's all from the convenience of a smartwatch! The wearable plan includes: Up to 500 MB of high-speed data, unlimited talk, and text.

The description to the plan you gave is for the wearable plan (watches etc). I am on tmobile and just spoke with them regarding this. We have TMobile One so it may be different then yours. I am fairly tech wise, but you didn't mention what phone you have, so I will give you some general steps.

1) Check here to see what the charges are for your rate plan at each port stop. (about midway down the page)

2) When on the ship or in a port that is not included in your plan place the phone in airplane mode, then turn wifi back on so you can use the internet or free wifi places you find at your stops.

This will eliminate any chance for overages. TMobile also has an option that they can turn on to prevent any data roaming charges. I would suggest your call them and turn that feature on. It will not stop you from using data when its included in your plan, just when there is a charge.

1) Make sure you turn off mobile data if you have a smart phone

2) Make sure you turn ON your wifi and get the password for the package you choose.

3)Make sure they explain how to check the amount of minutes of wifi you have used.

4) Get a bigger SD card, take lots of pictures and videos, send emails sparingly, and don't LOSE your phone.

5) Get off the internet and go have fun! :)

The number one thing to do is turn off data roaming. Data roaming charges cost in the vicinity of $2-$8 a mb; and remember a gigabyte that you prob pay $20ish for at home had 1,000 mb in it.

I'm really confused what that package is your quoting cause it looks like a smart watch plan??? If you want to call/text you'll either need to pay roaming charges or get an international plan. Depending on what you plan to do, rates aren't terrible. $.50 per texts usually and $2ish a minute for calls. An international plan can cover those but usually that's only in port and not at sea.

If you don't want to pay any of those costs then turn voice roaming off too. Simpliest to just put phone in airplane mode and then turn wifi back on.

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First like everyone else says, DISABLE DATA ROAMING. That means you can still get texts but you won't get any attached pictures if someone sends you one. Those are the things that cost money. A plain text costs about 50c to send (text only, no pics) and only 5c to receive. If you can use text instead of phone to stay in touch, that's the way to do it. You should not have to buy an international roaming plan at lease for calls made onboard. I would wait until I got to a port and look for somewhere with free wifi to send emails and pics. Ship internet speed is S L O W. You have to be very careful to log in, get your email and then log out and compose your reply offline and I wouldn't be sending pictures either. They could take forever to upload or never upload it's so slow. And all the while your internet minutes are ticking away. Where are you going on your cruise?

I apologize for the wrong cell plan info....this is the correct plan I have and I have a coolpad android phone

Simple Choice Plan: Unlimited Talk + Text Currently active $50.00This plan includes:

• 
  
  • No annual service contracts.
    
  • Your choice of additional high-speed 4G LTE data.
    
  • Unlimited talk, text & data while on our network with no overages. Ever.
    
  • Unlimited international data and text while roaming in 140+ countries and destinations and calls are just $0.20 per minute.
    
  • Unlimited streaming from great services like Pandora and iHeartRadio that doesn’t count against your 4G LTE data included at no extra charge with a Simple Choice Plan.
    

Sounds like your plan is similar to mine use the link I provided to check the ports for coverage. You should have voice text and data in port for most of your stops. As for the ship flip it on airplane mode and turn on wifi. If your phone supports wifi calling you will be able to use that to communicate while on the ship.

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Just FYI to anyone researching this. I have a Tmobile One plan, so free 2G data in most countries in Europe. We were on the Norwegian Getaway for a 9 night Baltics cruise. The best thing about the Baltics is that for a large part of the time, you're close enough to land to reach cell towers for data, so sometimes I would get online. The bad thing is that my iPhone would occasionally automatically switch over to a cell tower with the name "Maritime". I put it on airplane mode as soon as I saw it, but alas, now that I'm home, I see that I wasn't fast enough. The rate was $15/Mb. Lesson learned, if you are online and see your phone connecting to a cell tower that has Maritime in the title, put it on airplane mode immediately!

I apologize for the wrong cell plan info....this is the correct plan I have and I have a coolpad android phone

 

 

Simple Choice Plan: Unlimited Talk + Text Currently active $50.00This plan includes:

• 
  
  • No annual service contracts.
    
  • Your choice of additional high-speed 4G LTE data.
    
  • Unlimited talk, text & data while on our network with no overages. Ever.
    
  • Unlimited international data and text while roaming in 140+ countries and destinations and calls are just $0.20 per minute.
    
  • Unlimited streaming from great services like Pandora and iHeartRadio that doesn’t count against your 4G LTE data included at no extra charge with a Simple Choice Plan.
    

I have the same plan.

When you get on the ship, use the ship's wifi. Do this by turning your phone to Airplane Mode, and then turn WiFi on.

When you get off the ship, turn off Airplane mode. You can keep wifi on or turn it off to save power. You'll get a free Tmobile text message "welcome to ?? country...." there'll be a warning that you might get charged (but you already checked that link provided above to confirm the country is included, didn't you?) you can then turn on Data Roaming on your phone to get free, unlimited 2G data, free texting to anyone in that country or USA. The text message will explain phone call rates. (Don't turn on roaming in US outliers, like Puerto Rico and USVI. But I've found T-mobile doesn't work well or at all in St Thomas.)

Edited to add: (IF you use a third party voicemail or otherwise forward all your calls to another number, stop that while on vacation. If you're not in airplane mode while onshore, get a call and it gets forwarded, Tmobile will charge you one international minute.)

I apologize for the wrong cell plan info....this is the correct plan I have and I have a coolpad android phone

 

 

Simple Choice Plan: Unlimited Talk + Text Currently active $50.00This plan includes:

 

• 
  
  • No annual service contracts.
    
  • Your choice of additional high-speed 4G LTE data.
    

   

  • Unlimited talk, text & data while on our network with no overages. Ever.
    
  • Unlimited international data and text while roaming in 140+ countries and destinations and calls are just $0.20 per minute.
    
  • Unlimited streaming from great services like Pandora and iHeartRadio that doesn’t count against your 4G LTE data included at no extra charge with a Simple Choice Plan.
    

Have the same plan. I just turn on airplane mode when onboard. Then turn it off when in port to do text, or connect to wifi on hotspots. Been very useful in our trips outside the US.

Get a wifi only iPad mini

It's a great little device....so great in fact that I never even use a laptop at home any more

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... The bad thing is that my iPhone would occasionally automatically switch over to a cell tower with the name "Maritime". I put it on airplane mode as soon as I saw it, but alas, now that I'm home, I see that I wasn't fast enough. The rate was $15/Mb. Lesson learned, if you are online and see your phone connecting to a cell tower that has Maritime in the title, put it on airplane mode immediately!

WARNING WARNING

If you on the ship, the chances are you will connect to the ships tower - Maritime. (it SHOULD be off while in port) Most phones have something running in the background and will suck up your data fast. If you on the ship, do not wait to see if you are on Maritime. Turn DATA ROAMING OFF.

As to Tmobile while in port. They have an excellent intl plan.

T-Mobile is very easy to configure. Here’s how you can allow international roaming for data, but not accidentally expose yourself to surcharges.

WARNING! Please verify any advice I give you with your phone carrier. Do not assume what worked for me will work for you!

1. Go to your T-Mobile account online and go to your profile. Click on “Blocking.”
   
2. Turn on “Block charged international data roaming.”
   
3. Turn on your phone’s “Data roaming” option. For Android, it should be under “Mobile networks.” It will give you a scary prompt about extra charges. If you did the above block on your account, you can ignore this warning and should be fine.
   

If you log in to your T-Mobile account, there are account level controls for roaming that you can turn on. I'll try to grab a screen shot.

I was on a recent Baltic cruise on Princess and just received my cellular phone bill. I'm on the T-Mobile One plan and needless to say, I was surprised when I received extra charges on my phone bill for 12 text messages. I had my phone on the entire time and never put it in airplane mode. I wanted to be available at all times and I knew the ship would sail close to land during many points in the voyage, so it would be nice if my phone could connect to the land-based towers from time to time so I could get my emails, connect to the Internet briefly, etc. And yes, I did not pay for wifi on board because I wanted to save some money.

Luckily, I was only charged $6.50 for the 12 text messages. I had previously discussed this with another T-Mobile customer support person before my trip and the person indicated I would not have any charges! Anyway, when I mentioned this to the T-Mobile customer support person, she generously removed the $6.50 charge from my account.

I was also very lucky that the cruise ship cell station only offered voice and text. If it also offered cellular data, then I probably would have accumulated very large charges as I was not on airplane mode and also did not block cellular data!

However, this is definitely a word of warning for those who cruise. If you want to use T-Mobile while you cruise, want to stay connected all the time, and still be able to use free international texting and data (while on the partner T-Mobile international carrier network), I would suggest the following:

• Set up your blocking options on the T-Mobile website as follows. This will allow you to use the T-Mobile international partner carriers for free texting and 2G/3G data. There will not be any roaming charges. However, you would still need to pay for phone calls. Remember, when you're connected to the cruise ship cell station, this does NOT apply! Go to Profile > Blocking:
  
  • Block international roaming: off
    
  • Block charge international roaming - This will prevent the selected line from incurring any international data roaming charges that can be incurred in countries not included in your plan: on
    

  [*]To be sure that you do not incur additional charges while your on the cruise ship AND you are connected to the cruise ship's cellular station (I think they will typically have the name * Maritime - I think mine was Telenor Maritime DK), turn on airplane mode while you are on the ship.

  • If you are not on airplane mode while you are on the ship, at least block cellular data on your phone or make sure the ship's cellular station does not support cellular data (only supports voice and text). Remember, you will still be charged for incoming texts and calls while connected to the ship's cellular station, but at least you won't be accruing data charges at a per kilobyte basis which would be really difficult to track and the data charges can pile up quickly!
    
  • If you still want to allow the phone to be able to connect to land based cellular networks on T-Mobile's partner networks AND the ship's cellular station only allows voice/text - make sure you don't send any texts or initiate calls while on the ship's cellular network. Be very careful and check the cellular network you're on before initiating calls or sending texts as well! You will also want to make sure your friends don't send you any texts or make calls to you when you're on the ship's cellular network (at least don't pick up the call) as you will be charged the ship's rate for the incoming texts and calls. According to the T-Mobile customer support rep, the ship can charge whatever rates it wants!
    

The lesson is, although T-Mobile advertises Free overseas texting & roaming, this does not apply when your cell phone connects to the cruise ship's cellular station!

Fool proof way to avoid charges, turn off phone, leave it in the room safe.