Question from UK passenger about mobile phone use when on a TA

[excitedofharpenden]

I'm asking this on the Celebrity board rather than the general one as it relates to using a mobile phone on a Celebrity ship. I'm doing a TA in October and know that with the right equipment I can use it whilst at sea (for a price). I use a T-Mobile pay as you go mobile now, but try as I may I could not get it to work last year when I was at sea. Does anyone have experience of a UK sourced phone provider that does the trick when I'm out in the Atlantic? Ideally I'm after a pay as you go affair that I can use as necessary rather than relying on the ship to shore phone as I did last time.

 

Many thanks for any help.

 

Phil

[terrierjohn]

I'm asking this on the Celebrity board rather than the general one as it relates to using a mobile phone on a Celebrity ship. I'm doing a TA in October and know that with the right equipment I can use it whilst at sea (for a price). I use a T-Mobile pay as you go mobile now, but try as I may I could not get it to work last year when I was at sea. Does anyone have experience of a UK sourced phone provider that does the trick when I'm out in the Atlantic? Ideally I'm after a pay as you go affair that I can use as necessary rather than relying on the ship to shore phone as I did last time.

 

Many thanks for any help.

 

Phil

Most ships now have a mobile facility via their satellite system and you should be able to use it anywhere at sea, obviously at a price.

However our vodaphone PAYG seldom works in the USA or on ships for voice calls, but is OK for text messages, and we have used it without problems on our last few cruises, and texts do not seem to be any more expensive than normal o/seas texts.

[Project_gal]

We have a vodapone contract and a Tri-band phone and can use it onboard without any problems [but rarely because of the cost]. You need to have international roaming switched on by your network provider and then the phone will pick up a network. What I do not know is if a non-Tri-band UK 'phone will work. It may well be your 'phone rather than your network which will not work.

 

Celebrity used to handout a leaflet onboard but I did not keep it and cannot remember what it said. I have not looked to see if there is anything on their website [because our 'phones work and I haven't needed to].

 

Sue

[little britain]

I'm on O2 and my phone has always worked on board - I remember I left it on by accident when we left Bermuda and it scared the life out of me when it suddenly went 'beep beep' with an sms coming in during the night whilst in the middle of the Atlantic!! Phone bills have never been astronomical when I get home, considering I send a lot of sms's and update FaceBook daily too.

[Dylandude]

Travelled TA (E-W) on Constellation 2 years ago.

At the time I had a Nokia 6300 tri-band, on an O2 contract.

Even in the middle of the Atlantic I was receiving daily phone calls.

There was a slight time time delay on the incoming voice, but the reception was otherwise excellent.

If I remember correctly the cost to receive was about .20pence per minute.

[Lsimon]

Hi Phil!

 

Don't know if this is your issue but, on our USA AT&T plan our phone only works at sea, or in foreign countries, if "International Roaming" is enabled with AT&T. There is no charge for this unless you use it but for some reason the default setting with our cellular company is "disabled", perhaps this is done for security purposes. Once we found we couldn't make calls when we arrived in Europe and using another's phone we contacted AT&T and found it had been turned off for non-use even though we'd enabled it a year or two prior. So now before we head out on a cruise we call our cellular company and make sure it is turned on and all set to work. They'll do this without any hassle other than trying to sell us a fee based international discount package that gives slightly lower international roaming rates on land but doesn't give any discount for use at sea.

 

I don't know if this is your issue or not but you might want to call your carrier and confirm that you are enabled for international roaming and also confirm that the at-sea service on Celebrity is available to you and what the rates are for you as this does vary by carrier.

[excitedofharpenden]

Thanks for the replies (hi Larry:)). I think it is one of those things I'll need to route through T-Mobile in the UK and see if I can get some sense from them. I just thought I'd ask here and see if anyone said "yes, know what you mean and we did this.......".

 

Thanks again.

 

Phil

[Karynanne]

Hi Phil,

 

We also use our A.T.&T. International roaming, when out of the US. Works very well, and the rates aren't too bad whatsoever.

 

I miss seeing you here! Hugs.

[excitedofharpenden]

Hi Phil,

 

We also use our A.T.&T. International roaming, when out of the US. Works very well, and the rates aren't too bad whatsoever.

 

I miss seeing you here! Hugs.

Hi Karyn! I'm on the case with my carrier. I'm set up for international roaming so it should work. I'd really like to stay with them and my phone which I really like so we'll see how I get on. Trouble is I'll only know for sure when I'm on the ship.

 

Hope to see you soon.

 

Phil

[norn iron]

Phil

If you remain on 'Pay as you go' and your phone works, your costs for receiving a call whilst transatlantic will be huge, probably £2-£3 per minute if not higher.

Contracts are considerably cheaper, circa .30p per minute to receive.

[Project_gal]

Hi Karyn! I'm on the case with my carrier. I'm set up for international roaming so it should work. I'd really like to stay with them and my phone which I really like so we'll see how I get on. Trouble is I'll only know for sure when I'm on the ship.

 

Hope to see you soon.

 

Phil

 

Phil

 

No one seems to have answered my query about the type of phone you have. If it is important to you to be able to use a phone onboard, I think you need to try to find out if you need a tri-band phone.

 

Sue

[excitedofharpenden]

Sue, thanks for your persistence in trying to clarify. I checked my phone and it is GSM and tri-band. T-Mobile's customer service was no help at all. I have come across something on their website which says in order to make a call from certain areas (ship for example) I have to use the international automated service and it gives a link to a page that doesn't seem to help me in how to use this service. I think I'm just going to cut my losses and get a Virgin phone on a contract (after checking before I get it that the thing will work on a ship!).

 

Thanks again.

 

Phil

[Moeve]

T Mobile works at sea HOWEVER!!! it is horrendously expensive due to the sat. fees so you might want to restort to Email. If it is important have them send you a SMS and check that 3 times daily other wise turn off the phone.

 

If it is work - hey you are on vacation tooo learn to deligate now and not only when the baby has been thrown out with the bath.

 

If it is personal then a TA won't help you either - you are not going anywhere in the middle of the ocean.

[Project_gal]

Sue, thanks for your persistence in trying to clarify. I checked my phone and it is GSM and tri-band. T-Mobile's customer service was no help at all. I have come across something on their website which says in order to make a call from certain areas (ship for example) I have to use the international automated service and it gives a link to a page that doesn't seem to help me in how to use this service. I think I'm just going to cut my losses and get a Virgin phone on a contract (after checking before I get it that the thing will work on a ship!).

 

Thanks again.

 

Phil

 

Phil

 

I know when we wanted to buy our tri-band phone, no one was of any help. There are so many phone shops on every high street and they can offer no real advice at all. In the end we just went for the cheapest [at Tesco] so, if it did not work, we had not wasted too much money.

 

Sue

[excitedofharpenden]

Sue, I emailed Captains Club in the UK yesterday and they provided me with some good details including "Your mobile phone must be tri- or quad-band, capable of operating on the 1900MHz frequency and enabled for international roaming by your home network provider." They quoted O2 and Vodaphone as two network providers that they had knowledge of working on the ships at sea. Perhaps I just haven't been dialling properly. I dial +44 then the number including dropping the first zero in the dialling code. I agree that the range of phones and tariff is mind boggling and there's really no way of being absolutely sure until you get on the ship and try it. I may take the phone I have which seems to have the correct specification, see how I get on and if it doesn't work then prepare my elderly mother for incognito status. Thanks again for your input.

 

Phil

[Lsimon]

Sue, I emailed Captains Club in the UK yesterday and they provided me with some good details including "Your mobile phone must be tri- or quad-band, capable of operating on the 1900MHz frequency and enabled for international roaming by your home network provider." They quoted O2 and Vodaphone as two network providers that they had knowledge of working on the ships at sea. Perhaps I just haven't been dialling properly. I dial +44 then the number including dropping the first zero in the dialling code. I agree that the range of phones and tariff is mind boggling and there's really no way of being absolutely sure until you get on the ship and try it. I may take the phone I have which seems to have the correct specification, see how I get on and if it doesn't work then prepare my elderly mother for incognito status. Thanks again for your input.

 

Phil

 

Phil - the system operator does have some general system information here: http://www.cellularatsea.com/guest_services.htm This indicates using a dialing code of 011 plus the country code (I think this is the 44 for the UK). Seems unusual since usually this is what is done for a land line in the USA but most cell phones just want the + instead of the land line. I'd still confirm with your carrier to make sure what the codes would be. I believe the system is routed through ATT in the USA so the dialing is probably based on making calls from the USA back to the UK.

 

But I'd recommend calling the operator

[wotaripper]

Hi Karyn! I'm on the case with my carrier. I'm set up for international roaming so it should work. I'd really like to stay with them and my phone which I really like so we'll see how I get on. Trouble is I'll only know for sure when I'm on the ship.

 

Hope to see you soon.

 

Phil

just be careful with international or world wide roaming as you are then charged not just for any calls or messages you make but any you recieve aswell so be careful and check who is calling before you answer.

[excitedofharpenden]

Phil - the system operator does have some general system information here: http://www.cellularatsea.com/guest_services.htm This indicates using a dialing code of 011 plus the country code (I think this is the 44 for the UK). Seems unusual since usually this is what is done for a land line in the USA but most cell phones just want the + instead of the land line. I'd still confirm with your carrier to make sure what the codes would be. I believe the system is routed through ATT in the USA so the dialing is probably based on making calls from the USA back to the UK.

 

But I'd recommend calling the operator

Larry, I think you may have hit on something here. This is the first time I have seen mention of dialling "011". I'm going to print that off and take it with me. If it doesn't work out then so be it. I'll have managed the expectations at home. Thanks a lot for this information.

 

just be careful with international or world wide roaming as you are then charged not just for any calls or messages you make but any you recieve aswell so be careful and check who is calling before you answer.

Thanks for this too. I do switch the voice mail off and friends will know not to call me whilst I'm away. Love the screen name by the way. I kind of guessed where you are from;)

 

Phil

[Project_gal]

Larry, I think you may have hit on something here. This is the first time I have seen mention of dialling "011". I'm going to print that off and take it with me. If it doesn't work out then so be it. I'll have managed the expectations at home. Thanks a lot for this information.

 

Phil

 

Although always written as +44, I have only ever dialed 0044... I am not sure if +44 would work. What do you use when dialing from overseas but on land?

 

Sue

[excitedofharpenden]

Phil

 

Although always written as +44, I have only ever dialed 0044... I am not sure if +44 would work. What do you use when dialing from overseas but on land?

 

Sue

Pretty sure it was +44 (done by holding the "0" key down), but I think I tried every combination including "0044" and an instruction to dial #33*1234# and wait for a call back. It was in the T-Mobile instructions I took with me, but that never worked either. I haven't heard of the "011" as if calling from the US that Larry mentioned and will give that a go. I spent $150 on the ship to shore phone the last time and didn't have much time to say a lot. Worked a treat though!

 

Phil

[Moeve]

The ships carry a US based cell network and to dial out you need to do the same thing as though you were calling from the US and that is dialling 011 before the country code.

 

If you are certain you have at least a tri band and you t mobile acoount allows international calling (most of them do) and you still run into trouble then go to the pursers desk because they will try to help you. Have seen that over the passed cruises more often

 

Good luck

[excitedofharpenden]

The ships carry a US based cell network and to dial out you need to do the same thing as though you were calling from the US and that is dialling 011 before the country code.

 

If you are certain you have at least a tri band and you t mobile acoount allows international calling (most of them do) and you still run into trouble then go to the pursers desk because they will try to help you. Have seen that over the passed cruises more often

 

Good luck

Thanks Moeve.

 

Phil