Seeking guidance in dealing with $500 cell satellite bill

[rjbean4]

Thanks for that great post rjbean. I'm going to take your advice and get a travel package from my carrier to cover me at the US destinations and the Caribbean ones.

 

One question though. Once you have arrived in port, can you use your carrier's travel pack even while on the ship or can you just use it while on land?

 

Thanks again for taking the time.

 

 

I have found that while on board the ship and docked in port I have been able to use my international data plan once I get my phone connected to a shore side tower. Then when I go off just continue with the connection. Just don't forget to put your phone back in to airplane mode when you sail. One reason I just put my phone into airplane mode is so that I can use my cell to take pictures to send to friends, family, etc. Oh one other thing. When at a port where the ship has to tender keep a eye on the distance from shore. If your ship is sitting too far out you don't want to have a problem. For example I have been OK using my phone at Grand Cayman as all ships have to tender there but are always pretty close to the island and cell towers. But once again soon as you sail or even before don't forget to change to airplane mode.

[rjbean4]

Don't be so hard on yourself. I'm sure you have other abilities.

 

*Miss G* Thanks for backing me up.

 

If a post looks too long then don't read it.

Edited February 8, 2018 by rjbean4

[rjbean4]

On a Caribbean cruise if you are on AT&T or Verizon the one day Travel Passes are probably going to be a better deal than the monthly packages that rjbean used. For example last December I did a seven day cruise and used a 24 hour travel pass for every port. I am on AT&T. Total cost was $40. With the Travel Pass I have the same features I have at home on my domestic plan when roaming. For me that is Unlimited Data, Voice and text. And Mexico and Canada. AT&T offers two thirty day packages. $60 for 1GB of Data and $120 for 3GB of data. So on a seven day Caribbean cruise the one day travel passes were a better deal than those monthly packages for data use.

 

Once you arrive at a port you can use your carriers travel pass or travel package while on the ship. The ships must turn off Cellular at Sea within 12 miles of land. So you roam on a local carrier at non US ports. Remember to turn on data roaming when you arrive at a port and turn it off when when leaving if you want to use data.

 

 

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Remember we were just on our recent cruise for 14 days. Maybe what you did with the $40 was enough for you for a 7 day cruise. That times two for us for 2 weeks would have been $80 and $20 more. Never a bad idea to have more MB's this way so that you don't have to pay more on top of that later cause of going over. I've seen it happen.

[Charles4515]

Remember we were just on our recent cruise for 14 days. Maybe what you did with the $40 was enough for you for a 7 day cruise. That times two for us for 2 weeks would have been $80 and $20 more. Never a bad idea to have more MB's this way so that you don't have to pay more on top of that later cause of going over. I've seen it happen.

 

 

For the seven day cruise with four ports there is no way to go over. My domestic plan is Unlimited. So I had unlimited voice, data, text each port. $40. So of course it was enough for me. I couldn’t have gone over with Unlimited......If I had bought a package for the seven days it would have been $60 and I would only have 1GB plus voice has a fee. Keeping under 1G would have been difficult since I post to social media. Your domestic plan and others plans may not be unlimited like mine but it is probably more than 1G per month. For a longer cruise like yours people have to do some thinking but I did a longer cruise last summer in Europe. On my itinerary I used the travel passes and it cost me $80 as there were only 8 days I could use a travel pass and I had Unlimited data and voice. Using the current rates the alternative would have been a 1GB package for $60 or a 3GB package for $120. For two weeks it would have been difficult for me to keep under 1GB. Others might be able to keep under 1GB.

 

Obviously we all don’t have the same itineraries, domestic plans, carriers, usage habits. So one day travel passes might be best on one trip and the monthly packages might be best on another. Rates change, packages change, travel passes are relatively recent so it makes sense to find out the latest info and not do the same old, same old, based on the past when newer options might be better. I have to say though that having used the travel passes on two cruises it would be difficult for me to go back to the monthly packages.

 

 

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Edited February 8, 2018 by Charles4515

[rjbean4]

Obviously we all don’t have the same itineraries, domestic plans, carriers, usage habits. So one day travel passes might be best on one trip and the monthly packages might be best on another. Rates change, packages change, travel passes are relatively recent so it makes sense to find out the latest info and not do the same old, same old, based on the past when newer options might be better. I have to say though that having used the travel passes on two cruises it would be difficult for me to go back to the monthly packages.

 

 

For sure. No everyone has the same usage habits. Wireless plans are always changing and not everyone has unlimited features to them. Us included. Years ago had unlimited Data with AT&T till it was discontinued and had to give it up. Now maybe its back but we have not made any recent changes with our plan to get it back. I also post to social media and just feel its better to have too much than not enough. I have heard stories of people receiving a text from their provider during a cruise well after going over their limit buy a lot and then in the end costs them more to add more data to cover it. So in the end we all have plans that work best for us for our circumstances. The international data plan that I mentioned doing back in 2016 was perfect for doing a 2 week cruise and then staying with our friends in the Netherlands for almost another 2 weeks and never had any problems.

[rjbean4]

From Charles4515

 

Obviously we all don’t have the same itineraries, domestic plans, carriers, usage habits. So one day travel passes might be best on one trip and the monthly packages might be best on another. Rates change, packages change, travel passes are relatively recent so it makes sense to find out the latest info and not do the same old, same old, based on the past when newer options might be better. I have to say though that having used the travel passes on two cruises it would be difficult for me to go back to the monthly packages.

 

 

For sure. No everyone has the same usage habits. Wireless plans are always changing and not everyone has unlimited features to them. Us included. Years ago had unlimited Data with AT&T till it was discontinued and had to give it up. Now maybe its back but we have not made any recent changes with our plan to get it back. I also post to social media and just feel its better to have too much than not enough. I have heard stories of people receiving a text from their provider during a cruise well after going over their limit buy a lot and then in the end costs them more to add more data to cover it. So in the end we all have plans that work best for us for our circumstances. The international data plan that I mentioned doing back in 2016 was perfect for doing a 2 week cruise and then staying with our friends in the Netherlands for almost another 2 weeks and never had any problems.

[kerryincork]

I was manually make sure I am on the land cell service. Its quiet easy.

 

Also if you are on board and sailing close to land you can often pick up land cell towers too.

 

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[Jade13]

Remember we were just on our recent cruise for 14 days. Maybe what you did with the $40 was enough for you for a 7 day cruise. That times two for us for 2 weeks would have been $80 and $20 more. Never a bad idea to have more MB's this way so that you don't have to pay more on top of that later cause of going over. I've seen it happen.

 

 

 

This is a good reason to have an unlimited plan.

 

 

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[rjbean4]

This is a good reason to have an unlimited plan.

 

 

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Unfortunately our current plan does not include unlimited data. As I shared in a previous post we had it at one time but when AT&T discontinued it we lost it. It has been close to two years since we have looked into making any changes with our plan or replaced our phones so there have been a lot of changes with plans since then. The plan we have does not include coverage in the Caribbean except for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands which are both U.S. Territories. This is why I add a international data plan to use in the rest of our ports. I'd rather pay for the extra data and have peace of mind knowing I have the coverage for the time we are cruising. Its still way cheaper than the internet plans on board the ships and its always so slow. While in port I use my phone to check email, go to the internet, send text messages, WhatsApp, post my blog with friends and neighbors on Facebook, etc.