where can and can't you use your cell phone on Alaska cruise

My DW's father who will be 100 this September is recuperating from knee surgery. I know that she will want to call him as much as possible while on our 7 day Hubbard Glacier cruise on Mercury.

If she can't call him, she may decide that she won't go on the cruise.

I have cingular/at&t as my carrier and a relatively new LG cell phone . Can you tell me from your experience when you couldl and couldn't use your cell phones and how the reception was.

Does anyone know who the carrier is in AK

Thanks in advance for your help

My DW's father who will be 100 this September is recuperating from knee surgery. I know that she will want to call him as much as possible while on our 7 day Hubbard Glacier cruise on Mercury.

 

If she can't call him, she may decide that she won't go on the cruise.

 

I have cingular/at&t as my carrier and a relatively new LG cell phone . Can you tell me from your experience when you couldl and couldn't use your cell phones and how the reception was.

 

Does anyone know who the carrier is in AK

 

Thanks in advance for your help

You will be able to use your Cingular/ATT phone in all ports. Depending on your plan, your calls ashore may be no charge.

You can use your phone while at sea on X's network. Calls are $2.49 per minute and it is likely that you will need to initiate "international roaming" with ATT before you leave. Hope this helps.

I have Cingular/ATT with nationwide plan. In Ketchikan, needed to go to outside deck to get good service. In Juneau, Skagway, and Whittier, Alaska could get sufficient bars of service in cabin. If I had a balcony in Ketchikan could probably call from there.

We have Verizon phones. On our recent Mercury cruise, the only place we had no service was Hubbard Glacier vicinity; even the onboard service didn't seem to work there. But as has been posted, be absolutely certain you are aware of the fees for the onboard service, which is activated when the ship's not in port - in our case, we didn't do anything to activate it, but our phone said ROAMING, and we took that as a warning. (When in port, our phone said EXTENDED SERVICE. Haven't seen the bill yet to see what the few calls we made there will be billed as!) -- TR

I use T-Mobile and was told by representitive that Alaska is covered by my plan and I do not have to pay any roming charges.

We went to Alaska this past May. I also have Cingular/AT&T. I had no problem making calls from all the ports to home in Connecticut. Reception was good, better when we docked and I got off the ship to talk. Expensive Roaming charges. But - I was just happy to be able to check to make sure everything was ok so it was worth it.

Mardon

My Jitterbug phone worked in Sitka, Juneau, Ketchikan and Victoria.

Good question...but...

does anyone know how my service,

SPRINT PCS does up there?

We're off to Alaska this week..

Thanks. :)

I called T-Mobile and although we'd be ok in Alaska (no roaming charges), it can get tricky because many of the ships now have their own cell towers. If we route the call through the ship's cell tower it's $4 a minute! So, we're good in port I asked? Yes, but if you make a call right near the cruise ship you still might be using their cell tower. She told me to be sure to choose "manual network selection" on my cell phone to be sure. (instructions in the owners manual) I really wasn't thinking about this so thanks to the OP for asking the question and saving everyone $$ by checking in advance.

I called T-Mobile and although we'd be ok in Alaska (no roaming charges), it can get tricky because many of the ships now have their own cell towers. If we route the call through the ship's cell tower it's $4 a minute! So, we're good in port I asked? Yes, but if you make a call right near the cruise ship you still might be using their cell tower. She told me to be sure to choose "manual network selection" on my cell phone to be sure. (instructions in the owners manual) I really wasn't thinking about this so thanks to the OP for asking the question and saving everyone $$ by checking in advance.

The ship's towers are turned off when you are in port. Double check that it does not say "Cellular at Sea" for the provider, but this has never been a problem for us.

The ship's towers are turned off when you are in port. Double check that it does not say "Cellular at Sea" for the provider, but this has never been a problem for us.

thanx for the info:)

You may also notice that when you are near land the land towers take over and you can call while on board. just notice what service that pjone is using--it should show up on the screen.

My DW's father who will be 100 this September is recuperating from knee surgery. I know that she will want to call him as much as possible while on our 7 day Hubbard Glacier cruise on Mercury.

 

If she can't call him, she may decide that she won't go on the cruise.

 

I have cingular/at&t as my carrier and a relatively new LG cell phone . Can you tell me from your experience when you couldl and couldn't use your cell phones and how the reception was.

 

Does anyone know who the carrier is in AK

 

Thanks in advance for your help

I can't speak for others but I sailed to Alaska on the Mercury and have At&T and had no problem using my cell phone to check up on the kids at home at any time. You may encounter some problems when out to sea but never while in port. As I said, I never had problems at all.