Best way to stay connected with our children while on our cruise

[kteg1752]

Hi all. My husband and I are taking a cruise on the Norwegian Getaway in a few weeks. What's the best way for us to stay in contact with our children back home? Our kids are young and we will miss them dearly. I know cell service is most likely not possible during sea days. What have you done in the past to contact your children? Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[bonniboo1]

Email

[silvercrikhix]

Not sure about NCL....(does NCL offer this?) but on Carnival you can use the phone in your cabin to call for $1.99 a minute.

We found this to be a bargain compared to the other options out there!

A couple of minutes a few times is much less $ then sketchy wifi/internet.

[*Luv2Cruz*]

Cell service should be available at sea but cost a few dollars. I usually use text messaging at 50 cents and 10 sends to send/receive!;)

Edited September 18, 2014 by *Luv2Cruz*

[roger001]

We are Verizon. Using your cell phone while the ship is at sea is $2.49 a minute. While at a port stop, the charge will be what ever your carrier international rates are. However, we text. For Verizon, it's .50c each text sent and .05c for each text received. That is while at sea and connected to the ship's cell tower. To text, leave "voice on while roaming". Just don't answer calls if you don't wish to be charged for that. Do turn "data" off, or "data off while roaming". That is where you can get outrageous bills.

[All-ready2cruise]

I think email is best. No surprises from your cell provider when you get home.

[lzybeanie]

I would assume paying the Wi-Fi daily charge and using email or FB messenger.

[justhere]

We are Verizon. Using your cell phone while the ship is at sea is $2.49 a minute. While at a port stop, the charge will be what ever your carrier international rates are. However, we text. For Verizon, it's .50c each text sent and .05c for each text received. That is while at sea and connected to the ship's cell tower. To text, leave "voice on while roaming". Just don't answer calls if you don't wish to be charged for that. Do turn "data" off, or "data off while roaming". That is where you can get outrageous bills.

Depends on the port. For Verizon, if you are in St. Thomas, for example, your texts and data are just part of your domestic plan. So if you have unlimited texts then you won't have any additional charges for them and as long as you don't go over your monthly data amount, you won't have any charges for using data either. Calls are charged at US$1.99/minute if I remember correctly.

[spidybabe]

AT&T::: I foward all my calls to home, and leave my phone open for for text messages only. No cost to recieve texts( we have unlimited text messages) and 50 cents to send message home. I even taught my elderly mom how to text, so she can keep in touch with us. We always relax better when we know all is ok at home.

Safe sailing

[sunflower47]

AT&T::: I foward all my calls to home, and leave my phone open for for text messages only. No cost to recieve texts( we have unlimited text messages) and 50 cents to send message home. I even taught my elderly mom how to text, so she can keep in touch with us. We always relax better when we know all is ok at home.

Safe sailing

 

 

Did you have to sign up for the Global Messaging with AT&T before you left?

[dltvermont]

On our cruise, our first, this past April/May, we left our older teens at home alone. We signed up for one of the ATT texting packages and as soon as we were off the ship on an island, we would make contact and "Catch Up". Once we hit St Thomas, it was included in our domestic package anyway so we were good there.

[spidybabe]

Did you have to sign up for the Global Messaging with AT&T before you left?

 

No we did not...I did nothing except forwarding my calls to home. Didnt need to get anything extra since incoming text were free. I just had my children and mom text daily. We only responded here and there, and called from free ports. We have done this every time we have cruised. .AT & T has a live chat...you can double check with them, or call...they are very helpful

Safe sailing

Edited September 18, 2014 by spidybabe

[luddite]

Call'em on the cel phone. Or use the phone in the room.

It IS kinda spendy.

The other option------tell'em you're goin' on a cruise and you'll see'em in week.

[kcwingwalker]

Call'em on the cel phone. Or use the phone in the room.

It IS kinda spendy.

The other option------tell'em you're goin' on a cruise and you'll see'em in week.

 

I really do agree with luddite.............it's a cruise and one of the best things about a cruise is getting away from everything.

 

But if you can't resist email is great and you can send and receive photos, etc. with a pricey onboard plan. My DD was Skyping with my SIN in California while we at sea.

 

It's your cruise so have a great time and do it your way:)

[spoiledbyvilla]

In the "old" days of the internet, I took my laptop along, typed my message in my cabin using Word, transferred the message to a floppy, then uploaded it quickly in the ship's internet room, which was the only place you could get internet. You could still do something like that now by typing your message before actually getting online. Also contact your cell provider. We're planning a Baltic cruise and discovered we can get a one-month data plan pretty cheap. They also have a voice plan but we don't care too much about that since our kids (adults now) will be with us. Enjoy!

[andriamay]

We will be doing the same thing and we did this four years ago when we had super young kids. My suggestion send them a postcard when you get into FL and when you get on the ship while you have wifi maybe FaceTime them assuming u have iPhones. There is wifi at the ports so you could do the same possibly there. Verizon has a cruise plan if you call them ahead of time you pay $25 and get 100MB and then pay 50cents to send text messages and 5cents to receive I believe and calls are 2.49/minute. You could also take videos and send them via email and see if they do the same.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kteg1752]

Thank you all for the great suggestions. They are still quite young, so going a week without contact is not possible. My little guy will stress if he doesn't hear from us. I've been given so many great ideas by all of you. Thanks so much.

[dltvermont]

Spidy,

 

Id try that on our next cruise too but there is no way, no how my wife would be able to receive texts and NOT answer all of them immediately. My cell bill would be more than my cruise fare!! haha

 

D

[hamgela]

We have iPhones. I bought a small wifi package and called home using facetime. It worked very well. :)

[gottogetaway2]

We have young kids, and we cruise without them at least 2 times a year. I usually call right before the ship leaves, I also let grandma know what days we will be in port and have internet so she knows when to check in with us. When we get into port there is an email waiting for me, to which I respond to while in port. We also use google voice so I can usually make a call home while connected to the internet in ports with out occurring charges. This seems to work well for us!