Connectivity - (Canadians)

[darlacat]

Hi, I'm asking Canadians this question because our cell phones are attached to both Rogers and Bell.

 

This will be our first cruise, (Western Caribbean) and I looked into a Travel pack for each country, (super expensive - and only available by the week), so I anticipate we will be turning our cell phones off during the cruise - including ports.

 

Still feels weird to be so out of touch though - I'll have a laptop with me - is there WIFI on the ship?

 

Is there any other information I should know? I understand there are computers on the ship by internet is super slow and super expensive - is this the only option for checking home email etc?

 

Thanks!

[Out to sea!]

Yes there is Wifi on the ship (for a price). Also, if your cell phones have wifi capabilities and are smart phones (Android), you can either download an app (or use the one that comes with your phone if it has one) that allows you to make calls via wifi. This is what we did so in every port, I would just walk around the shopping area till I found some free wifi and then called my son at home just to make sure everything was alright. You can't accept incoming calls via wifi but you can make them.

[DirtyDawg]

We tend to turn our phones off. The data charges for Canadians abroad are out of this world!

 

The ship has wifi which we use for checking emails mostly. So beforehand we tell our kids and grandmas to email us if something comes up. We also bring along a tablet to use in the ports if we want free wifi. Best to Google free wifi locations in the ports you will be visiting. There are usually cafes near the port terminals or at the terminals themselves.

 

Frankly, we give too much money to those wireless evil empires already!:mad:

;)

[soccersharon]

There will likely be areas on shore that you can catch free wi-fi to keep in touch :)

[darlacat]

Just got a new phone yesterday so I'll try to figure out how to makes calls via wifi - had no idea it could be done.

 

We Canadians are so ripped off when it comes to cell phones - our consumer affairs people definitely did not protect us!

 

Thank you again - you are all so helpful here!

[JUST TRIPPIN']

Last year while doing a southern Caribbean cruise, we used our tablet at almost every port to check in back home or see if there were any emergency emails. The ships wifi is just too expensive and slow.

 

There are two other options. Get an international phone at any drugstore or Walmart in the States for about $20. Add a pay as you go card for $20 or $30 dollars everytime you vacation out of Canada. I phoned our son from our balcony on the ship one morning! The other way is to use a chat line provided by the Carnival website. The roll call section to be specific. As long as you and anyone back home know where to look, it is free. You use the computers onboard to do that.

[ronandannette]

Last year while doing a southern Caribbean cruise' date=' we used our tablet at almost every port to check in back home or see if there were any emergency emails. The ships wifi is just too expensive and slow.

 

There are two other options. Get an international phone at any drugstore or Walmart in the States for about $20. Add a pay as you go card for $20 or $30 dollars everytime you vacation out of Canada. I phoned our son from our balcony on the ship one morning! The other way is to use a chat line provided by the Carnival website. The roll call section to be specific. As long as you and anyone back home know where to look, it is free. You use the computers onboard to do that.[/quote']

 

Good idea as long as you get the right product. We bought a pair of "burner" phones a couple of months ago for a Disney vacation - activated with pre-paid on Virgin Mobile. Worked very well for our purposes but be careful to understand what you're buying. The least expensive of these (like we bought) cannot be used for international calls and have a limited "shelf-life"; ours deactivated themselves after 90 days of no activity.

 

For limited outgoing calls you could also use the ship-to-shore in your stateroom; Carnival actually has really good rates if you can keep it short.

[Froufie]

Yes - definitely mucho $$$ and I turn mine off and keep it in the safe most of the time. I do purchase an IT plan and use it accordingly - yes it's slow but better than nothing. Other suggestions are good too - like finding free wifi in your ports or posting to Carnival funville which has free access on the ship computers (just remember everyone can read what you're posting!!)

[Out to sea!]

Just got a new phone yesterday so I'll try to figure out how to makes calls via wifi - had no idea it could be done.

 

We Canadians are so ripped off when it comes to cell phones - our consumer affairs people definitely did not protect us!

 

Thank you again - you are all so helpful here!

 

Once you get the app, make sure you put the phone into "Airplane"mode so as to not accidentally use cell service, then turn the wifi on, then activate the app (this is to ensure the app does not require cell service to start up) and make a test call at home so that you get used to using it and to make sure it works properly.

[dancemum]

From one canadian to another our cell phones outside of Canada our $$$. Whenever I travel I put my phone on airplane mode and then use the free WIFI in restaurants and malls to communicate with my daughter back home. I have a couple free phone call apps (talkatone, GV phone) that use WIFI to make calls. They work well as long as the WIFI signal is good. I also have a TEXT+ app for texting back to home that uses WIFI. The only thing is you have to tell the person you are texting that it is you because the number that displays on their end is not your cell number. All these apps use your contact list in your phone so you dont have to remember everyone's phone numbers. I hope this helps.

[SadieN]

Carnival has a message board similar to CC. The whole of carnival.com is free to use onboard. Everyone posting needs to be registered.

 

carnival.com-community-currently onboard (under user groups)

http://www.carnival.com/Funville/forums/20274.aspx

 

We set it up ahead of time and email everyone our link. Make sure no one posts photos as they take forever to download onboard.

 

We figure if there is an emergency those back home will call the ship.