Baltic Cruise - Cell Signal from Shore?

[Skaught77]

We're taking a Baltic cruise in June on the NCL Getaway. On previous trips to Europe we've rented a wifi device that allowed our family of four to all connect while out and about. It was especially useful for navigation, finding hotels and figure out what to do. We also love to share photos and video as we go. We'll be driving across Norway before the cruise so we'll be getting another device for this year's trip. I was wondering, though, about the cruise ship. Being a bit closer to shore much of the time, does the cell service reach the ship? If so, we could keep the wifi going through the cruise and save money. It's usually around $10 a day for unlimited data and up to five devices connected at a time.

 

With an elderly mother-in-law at home we need to make sure we can communicate, so this is especially important on this trip. Thanks for your feedback!

 

Scott

[KeithJenner]

You will occasionally pick up some

service from the land, but not very often.

 

For a lot of the time, you will be too far away from the land to get any signal. Even when you are a bit closer there isn’t necessarily coverage anyway. A lot of coastal areas don’t have great coverage even when you are on the land itself when away from towns etc.

 

i certainly wouldn’t rely on this. It may be ok if you were just hoping to occasionally get a bit of service to check in, but not if you need to rely on it.

[ziggyuk]

Never do this on the cruise, fine on land but not at sea.

The moment you turn on roaming (which you need to do to connect to overseas network, your device maybe already has this turned on) your device will connect to the ship's mast which is hugely expensive.

I turned on roaming on my phone as I sailed away from the UK on my first ever cruise, I had no idea the ship had its own mast, I just expected my phone to connect to european towers that are included in my package. I was getting texts throughout the night warning me the costs I was racking up while I slept but my phone is set to silent during the night. I woke in the morning with a shocking bill.

I'm told they turn off the ships tower while in port but at sea you risk huge unexpected costs.

[thinfool]

You would be better served  by becoming familiar with 'wifi calling' thru the ships internet service.  It tends to be less costly and more reliable than on again/off again cell signals from land towers.

Most cell phones manufactured in the last 5 years are equipped with the ability to make wifi calls.

Check it out.

[Skaught77]

I never turn on roaming overseas. I turn on wifi only so no fear of connecting to any local or ship towers. For phone calls we use Skype which will provide you with a phone number so you can make and receive calls over wifi. We did this on our trip to Italy and the UK in the past few years and it worked great. All for under $10 a day for a family of four.

 

I had read a few comments out there in the ether that signals are available to some degree. I really don't want to have to pay the very expensive (times four people) ship wifi if I can avoid it. I'll probably just stick with my plan even if it only works in port. 

 

Thanks,

 

Scott