Mobile Hot Spot

[mandysmom2]

Does anyone know if I can use an Air Card or Mobile Hot Spot at sea for Internet use?

[Lsimon]

Generally the answer would be no.

 

I presume you are referring to a service that is using cellular data purchased from your cell phone company. There are two issues with this:

 

1. The service out of the country is extremely expensive unless you purchase an international data roaming package and even then it is relatively expensive. With some companies, like Verizon the packages are theoretically good on the ship but with others, like AT&T, the packages are only good on land and the cellular data at sea is super expensive.

 

2. Even if you have a package that covers cellular data at sea, such as one of Verizon's international data packages, it probably will not work at sea. The only report I've read on Cruise Critic from someone who tried this was written by Host Andy (one of the Cruise Critic moderators) and he reported that he never could get a cellular data signal to work.

[kyriecat]

I have Verizon and purchased an international data package to use on my October cruise. I was able to get a 1G data signal onboard but not always. If someone has more time and patience than I have, internet is available but REALLY SLOW and unreliable. I found it easier to buy the WIFI package onboard and use that. I used the data package during port stops.