Help! Unable to Make Free 800 Calls with Verizon Travel Pass

[Flatbush Flyer]

22 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

 

 

 

Glad you resolved your problem.  I receive an email each month with my upcoming due bill information, and then about two weeks later, one that confirms my auto payment.

 

I have used WiFi Calling on a river cruise while on the river, but never tried it while out at sea on a cruise ship.  Additionally, it is my understanding that WiFi Calling is no longer supported by Verizon when out of the country.  Can anyone confirm or deny? 

What a lot of folks don’t understand is that WiFi calling still may require involvement of multiple cellular providers along the transmission. And you may see a charge from one of them on your future bill from your provider. 
And some providers (e.g., AT&T on iPhones) allow wifi calling primarily as a hand-off when cellular service is weak to non-existent (you can’t choose their wifi calling in place of cellular - perhaps that is what you’re hearing now from Verizon).

[harryw]

Everything is working fine now, except that my iPhone  and my wife’s 

 calls to each other go straight to voice mail.

[Harry Lake]

34 minutes ago, harryw said:

Everything is working fine now, except that my iPhone  and my wife’s 

 calls to each other go straight to voice mail.

Why do you call each other????  My husband used to travel internationally for business a lot and we would check in with each other maybe every two weeks.  Our daughter and her family go "off grid" several times a year and we never talk.

[harryw]

There might be a scenario on the cruise when we would want to contact 

each othet.

[harryw]

Oh, I just checked. Mutual calls work now. 

[Snaefell3]

30 minutes ago, harryw said:

Oh, I just checked. Mutual calls work now. 

Assuming you're at sea...

 

If you're both "WiFi calling", great!  🙂

If either is off Airplane Mode?  Prepare to get a loan.  😢

 

Glad you can get back to enjoying your cruise.  🛳️

[harryw]

In port now, but thanks, I will keep that in mind. Maybe some spouses don’t mind being incommunicado. But she is the Apple of my eye.

[Snaefell3]

2 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

What a lot of folks don’t understand is that WiFi calling still may require involvement of multiple cellular providers along the transmission. And you may see a charge from one of them on your future bill from your provider. 
And some providers (e.g., AT&T on iPhones) allow wifi calling primarily as a hand-off when cellular service is weak to non-existent (you can’t choose their wifi calling in place of cellular - perhaps that is what you’re hearing now from Verizon).

Uhh...

 

The WiFi Calling data stream comes off the internet at your cellphone provider's data center.  Any charges downstream of *your* cellphone provider appear as roaming charges to the called party.

 

The most costly transport of cellular voice is via tower bandwidth.  VoIP (WiFi calling) bandwidth is much cheaper.  Verizon has noticed this, and I suspect AT&T has, too 😉

Edited December 5, 2023 by Snaefell3

[Iamthesea]

7 hours ago, edgee said:

We have Verizon service and had no trouble making wifi calls while on Oceania Vista a few weeks ago and also in Israel and Europe in August. Calls seemed to work a little better when we used Whatsapp for calls between DW and me on the ship and our kids at home who have the Whatsapp app. But regular calls on wifi worked pretty well too.

 

Please explain how Whatsapp works?  I used it once in Europe to alert our German friends that we had arrived.  I really didn't understand what I was doing,  Only followed directions from my friend, on arrival.  If we are on a Carribean cruise with no Internet plan/WiFi, does it still work to call home to the states?   Or will we have to wait until we are in a place in Nassau or Freeport that offers free WiFi?

 

Also, I do plan to have the Verizon $10 a day plan that will only be used on shore.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Iamthesea

[edgee]

8 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

 

Please explain how Whatsapp works?  I used it once in Europe to alert our German friends that we had arrived.  I really didn't understand what I was doing,  Only followed directions from my friend, on arrival.  If we are on a Carribean cruise with no Internet plan/WiFi, does it still work to call home to the states?   Or will we have to wait until we are in a place in Nassau or Freeport that offers free WiFi?

 

Also, I do plan to have the Verizon $10 a day plan that will only be used on shore.

You can make voice or video calls or send texts on WhatsApp. However both parties must have downloaded the whats app app. So have folks you call like your spouse or relatives back home download it and you are good to go. We found many businesses in Europe had the app in their phone systems so we could call them on whats app. Here is link to an explanation:

 

WhatsApp Voice Calling: Everything You Need to Know (makeuseof.com)

[Snaefell3]

57 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

 

Please explain how Whatsapp works?  I used it once in Europe to alert our German friends that we had arrived.  I really didn't understand what I was doing,  Only followed directions from my friend, on arrival.  If we are on a Carribean cruise with no Internet plan/WiFi, does it still work to call home to the states?   Or will we have to wait until we are in a place in Nassau or Freeport that offers free WiFi?

 

Also, I do plan to have the Verizon $10 a day plan that will only be used on shore.

WhatsApp is a program on your device that connects to WhatsApp programs on other folks' devices via Google's computers -- which means you both need an internet connection.

 

The common advice is "if it uses the internet and it's free, you are the product not the customer".  I do not know for a fact that WhatsApp mines your communications for ad leads to sell, but Google's GMail is known to do so.

[Fam_Cruise]

9 hours ago, Snaefell3 said:

I do not know for a fact that WhatsApp mines your communications for ad leads to sell

The appeal of WhatsApp is that it's encrypted end-to-end so they, or anybody else, can't mine your communications; however, WhatsApp (Meta) does have information on who you're calling so they can use that info for marketing purposes if their TOS and privacy info allows that.

 

It's very popular in Europe as European mobile plan users are charged for text messages and phone calls to US and other international phone numbers (outside the EU). If you're from the US and travel a lot, T-Mobile is the way to go IMO as they provide international roaming with free text messaging and data, and phone calls are only 25¢/minute. If you're planning on making lots of calls when abroad you can also purchase a daily, 15 day or 30 day international data plan for $5, $35 or $50 respectively that includes unlimited calling. Like other US mobile providers, neither their basic international roaming service nor their international data plans include data or calling whilst at sea via Cellular at Sea.

 

BTW, WiFi calling works when in airplane mode and/or if you're only on WiFi. I, and my traveling companions, used it to call and text each other and to call friends/family back home on our October/November Med cruise when at sea. With T-Mobile if you use WiFi calling to a US/Canada (+1) phone number it is free; however, if you use WiFi calling to call an international number then with T-Mobile you will be charged 25¢/minute unless you've purchased one of their data plans that includes unlimited calling. This is when you would want to use WhatsApp via the ships WiFi if you didn't purchase the unlimited calling plan or would otherwise be charged (using other mobile providers) for international calls. 

[bob brown]

I used my VZW iPhone at sea for WiFi calling with no problem while in airplane mode. 
The first time I tried, a couple of years ago, I had trouble, because you have to initially set it up while you are still connected on land with the cell signal active.  Once you do that, you can enable WiFi calling on and off, any time .

As for making calls at sea, when using WiFi, I will sometimes use Apple’s Facetime for video calls, or if calling someone, I know has an android phone, I’ll use Whatsapp.

Edited December 7, 2023 by bob brown

[1985rz1]

1 hour ago, bob brown said:

I used my VZW iPhone at sea for WiFi calling with no problem while in airplane mode. 
The first time I tried, a couple of years ago, I had trouble, because you have to initially set it up while you are still connected on land with the cell signal active.  Once you do that, you can enable WiFi calling on and off, any time .

As for making calls at sea, when using WiFi, I will sometimes use Apple’s Facetime for video calls, or if calling someone, I know has an android phone, I’ll use Whatsapp.

Yes, that was my experience with our Androids when we had VZW as our cell service.  Set up WiFi calling on land, then after that you can use it with the phone in airplane mode and WiFi turned on.

[Snaefell3]

2 hours ago, 1985rz1 said:

Yes, that was my experience with our Androids when we had VZW as our cell service.  Set up WiFi calling on land, then after that you can use it with the phone in airplane mode and WiFi turned on.

...and your cellphone is logged onto the ship's WiFi

 

Yeah, you, @bob brown, and I know it, but there's gonna be someone reading this who doesn't.

[Iamthesea]

On 12/5/2023 at 9:11 PM, Snaefell3 said:

WhatsApp is a program on your device that connects to WhatsApp programs on other folks' devices via Google's computers -- which means you both need an internet connection.

 

The common advice is "if it uses the internet and it's free, you are the product not the customer".  I do not know for a fact that WhatsApp mines your communications for ad leads to sell, but Google's GMail is known to do so.

 

That's just it...I did not have WiFi when I contacted our friends in Germany.  I had just gotten off of a train.  I was signed up with the $10 a day Verizon Travel, so maybe that kicked in when I made the call.

[Snaefell3]

27 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

 

That's just it...I did not have WiFi when I contacted our friends in Germany.  I had just gotten off of a train.  I was signed up with the $10 a day Verizon Travel, so maybe that kicked in when I made

the call.

A smart phone is equipped with radios on three different frequencies ("cell phone", WiFi, and Bluetooth) and really doesn't much care which it is using.  When at sea, you and your wallet do care.

 

Verizon Travel Pass includes unlimited internet connectivity via cellphone towers (aka "cellular data") when ashore.  Very likely that is what kicked in.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Snaefell3

[bob brown]

1 hour ago, Snaefell3 said:

A smart phone is equipped with radios on three different frequencies ("cell phone", WiFi, and Bluetooth)

 Most smart phones also have a GPS receiver that tracks your position. If you have an iPhone 14 or 15, you also have a satellite phone, that can be used only for SOS messaging in an emergency, when you are out of WiFi and cellular range. 

[PaulMCO]

Since the OP had a billing issue they could always use FB and the message function and chat with a customer service representative.  Have used this with Verizon and T-Mobile to solve billing and technical issues with service.

[Jaynay]

Why does it have to be so confusing??!!!