Staycation phone/internet options?

[debsjc]

Could anyone advise on the best way to stay in touch with home, on the Britannia Southampton round trip? 
I might pick up 3G/4G data or phone signal near the coast, but I don't want to be using an expensive maritime connection by mistake. 
But if I go onto airplane mode, I don't think I will know if their is a signal! 

 

How did everyone else get on?  Are there any inexpensive wifi on board options? Thanks

[rojojacko]

We did the 4 night Britannia cruise and for most of the day the coast was in sight and much of that time we had a mobile phone signal, sometimes 4G but also down to 3G on occasions. This also allowed us to use our included data. At night the ship tended to head further out so the signal was lost. To avoid using the maritime network, I put the phone on flight mode and switched that off and watched to see if it picked up my Lebara/Vodafone network which I then was able to use. My wife was on 02 and did similar. A friend on EE seemed to get a stronger signal than either of us but it may well depend upon your phone. We didn’t explore the availability of ships wifi other than using the ‘my holiday’ service which we found okay but a bit hit and miss. Good luck. 

[Denarius]

If you turn off data roaming on your phone it should only connect to your suppliers UK network.

[JohnScot]

If you switch off data roaming do emails and messages still come through when you connect to your 4G supplier.

[Pippa04]

49 minutes ago, JohnScot said:

If you switch off data roaming do emails and messages still come through when you connect to your 4G supplier.

Yes, you're just switching off the facility to connect with foreign providers.

[JohnScot]

Thanks

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, JohnScot said:

If you switch off data roaming do emails and messages still come through when you connect to your 4G supplier.

SMS messages will come through, but you need an internet connection for e-mails.

[debsjc]

I'm going off topic now, but does anyone know if you can still take a litre (actually we only want to take 1/2 a litre) of a alcohol (a liqueur) to drink in your cabin? 

[Son of Anarchy]

9 minutes ago, debsjc said:

I'm going off topic now, but does anyone know if you can still take a litre (actually we only want to take 1/2 a litre) of a alcohol (a liqueur) to drink in your cabin? 

Hope so!  We're hoping to have some balcony pre-dinner drink time next month!

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

I’m with Sky mobile and managed to get either a 4g or 3G signal most of the day but switched to Airplane  mode when not using to avoid inadvertently connecting to Maritime network.

[Pippa04]

I understand why people are nervous about running up large bills accidentally but it's a lot harder to do that than it used to be.

Most, if not all, of the major networks no longer have an agreement to use data on the maritime networks. Too expensive and ship's WiFi is much improved.  If you turn off data roaming you are effectively turning off the internet on any network but your home one. You can still send/receive texts and calls on the maritime network so you need to be careful about that if those costs worry you but I've done a 4 day cruise on Britannia with data roaming disabled and kept up with emails, WhatsApp and news etc with no extra charges. I just made sure not to send any texts when the maritime network was displayed.

Turn your phone off if you don't want to be disturbed or turn off data roaming if you want to keep up to date - either way enjoy the holiday!

[JohnScot]

Good information

[TomPoole]

Hi All

the trick for staycations is (for iPhone) not to disable roaming but take these steps:

1. settings

2. network selection

3. disable ‘automatic’

4. select your regular provider

This will stop you connecting to Maritime and you will have full use of calls, texts and data from your usual plan whilst you have a signal - which is most of the time on a staycation.

hope this helps!

[debsjc]

I found after going off the ships wi-fi it was almost impossible to get the My holiday app to work again. The first time restarting my iphone worked, but the 2nd I had to restart, then open a private internet browser and re-sign into the app. 

[tim2go]

6 hours ago, TomPoole said:

Hi All

the trick for staycations is (for iPhone) not to disable roaming but take these steps:

1. settings

2. network selection

3. disable ‘automatic’

4. select your regular provider

This will stop you connecting to Maritime and you will have full use of calls, texts and data from your usual plan whilst you have a signal - which is most of the time on a staycation.

hope this helps!

I seem to be able to go through the exact same process on my Android, so hopefully works for them too.

[JohnScot]

I am on the channel islands and French coast cruise so probably will not get any signal apart from leaving and returning to Southampton.