Cell phone or out going calls from Mariner?

I thought I read that people were able to make cell calls from the Mariner of the Seas? Was I right? We have Verizon cellular service. Also - I just called customer service for RCI and asked about the price per minutes to make a call from ship to shore and they said they had no info on this. They did say that someone could call us at 7.95 per minute, but we couldn't call home. Does anyone know the truth here??? We are sailing on the Mariner next Sunday. Thanks.

IF the ship has cellular abilities, it's with Cingular. You will be able to call from American ports, but not at sea, and service is unlikely from foreign ports. Best bet, if you MUST call home, is to buy a long distance calling card from the port where you will be making the call--and use a pay phone. Or, use the ship's e-mail--$.50 per minute--cheapest way to go!

We are on Mariner on Nov 26th 2006 and I was wondering if verizon worked as well. If anyone knows can you tell us that would be great. As for calls from ship it is 7.95 per minute when people call you. As for out going calls on our first cruise on Explorer my at the time 12 year old DD called her friend without me knowing. When I checked our bill the 10 minute call to NH was $89.00. I went running and screaming after my 16 old Son thinking he called his girlfriend. I was wrong and had to appoligize to him. Anyway, I would assume it is about $8.00 a minute. In the past on all three cruises I was able to use verizon near cuba, in certain ports and randomly at sea but you couldn't count on it. It didn't work in Mexico or anywhere near it 2 years ago. I would use a calling card from port if you need to call home.

Have a fun safe trip.

Lisa

We made cell calls on Explorer Of The Seas throughout the cruise, no matter if in port or sailing. No problems with that, but I suppose it has something to do with our foreign operators, because we heard that many people had difficulties with their own phones. I have no idea about the price, but I think it wasn't too much, since I don't remember it. :D

We were on the Mariner in April and could have made calls all week. Just checked on Mom and our cost was $2.99 per minute.......we have Sprint.

I thought I read that people were able to make cell calls from the Mariner of the Seas? Was I right? We have Verizon cellular service. Also - I just called customer service for RCI and asked about the price per minutes to make a call from ship to shore and they said they had no info on this. They did say that someone could call us at 7.95 per minute, but we couldn't call home. Does anyone know the truth here??? We are sailing on the Mariner next Sunday. Thanks.

Call you cell phone provider and ask for your phone to be activated in the region you are going to. They will hook you up, and tell you the rates. That way, (the cell companies usually have agreements with other company's networks in other countries but you have to call to activate the service on your account) you will be able to use your phone on land and in port. Most of the ships are around $8-10 US per minute in and out going.

We were on the Jewel a few months ago, and I tried to log into my email account, but for some reason the connection was not stable enough for me to log in - I kept getting rejected, I finally gave up trying. Other users were complaining about how incredibly slow it was. If the ship has some sort of outgoing email service that you can send out messages, that might be best, but I would not depend on their internet service as it is satellite based and the connection may not be ideal.

Have a great cruise!

Thank you for the responses. We sail tomorrow. Can't wait. I guess we'll see if the cell phone works. I have a phone card so we can call from st. thomas and st. martin. Bye for now....

I have Verizon and have used it RIGHT outside St.Maarten and St.Thomas during both cruises that we have been there. When you are sailing around the islands, the Verizon cell works. I was able to talk for a while as I stood on the balcony.

The 2nd time I needed to use it because we had a medical emergency onboard and I needed to connect with doctors back in the states...so I KNOW it worked. It also worked on our way to the Bahamas. But once again, you had to be close to the port.

May be old information but here's some stuff from several threads on the subject.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=340012&highlight=verizon

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=335321&highlight=verizon

Don't know if it will help, hope it does. Based on info from a Feb 2006 Cruise Travel article, Verizon won't work since they won't sign a contract with MTN, that may have changed since April when I was on Mariner and I had no service out to sea on my Verizon service phone.

Verizon should work. They recently signed an agreement. You have to make sure international dialing is enabled on your phone. Below is the Verizon page discussing this:

http://mobileoptions.vzw.com/international/roaming/rates/Mexico.html