Carnival now has cell phones at sea

[gizmo]

Here is a snipit from the press release:

 

Wireless Customers, Including Those From Cingular and Other Carriers, Can Now Use Their Personal Cell Phones on Carnival Cruise Lines' 'Fun Ships'

 

Through an exclusive agreement between Carnival Cruise Lines and Wireless Maritime Services (WMS), a joint venture of Cingular Wireless and Maritime Telecommunications Network, Carnival guests sailing aboard the "Fun Ships" can now enjoy a new communications option that allows them to stay in touch with people back home using their personal cell phones while in port or at sea.

 

:mad:

[K&RCurt]

If this "amenity" gets added to the HAL ships I hope they make it so that there is no signal in the DR and showlounge. Just what we need, all the hyper "Type As" yammering away 24-7 while on a cruise. It sure will add to the ambiance!

 

I also hope that if HAL goes this way my BOSS doesn't find out! I always get the old "Make sure you cell phone is on in case we need you". The vacations I choose I can usually say..."Sorry, there's no service in...(The back woods of Maine, The middle of the Caribbean, etc).

[noblepa]

HAL has a similar arrangement on the Volendam. I don't know if it is done through the same provider, but, when I called Cingular earlier this year, about setting my phone up to work in Mexico, I found out that they have it on the Volendam.

 

Its coming! I imagine that, within a few years, this will be as standard as wifi is now.

 

Paul Noble

[peaches from georgia]

All I can say is :mad: ! I hope it will be allowed only in VERY restricted parts of the ship, like one's own cabin. This is one intrusion into my vacation I will not be silent about if someone is carrying on a cell phone conversation within my space!

[Sage]

I'm afraid that it is already in effect on the Volendam. We had service in April and May on the ship. It is through Cingular, and I believe the charge is $2.50 a minute. We didn't see a lot of people using their cell phones, but then I don't think many were aware of the additional service.

[Randyk47]

They did have a test program on the Volendam last February and all indications were that it would go fleet-wide within a year or so. We are Cingular customers but I didn't try to "phone home" while on the ship. I did turn my phone on in every port as kind of a private research project and found it worked throughout the cruise at every port. I agree that it'd be nice if they tried to control where the phones were used though that would be hard to do. I'd particularly like to see them keep cells out of the dining areas. Maybe they need "Designated Cell Phone Area" signs. :D

[K&RCurt]

I agree that it'd be nice if they tried to control where the phones were used though that would be hard to do. I'd particularly like to see them keep cells out of the dining areas. Maybe they need "Designated Cell Phone Area" signs. :D

 

Actually, it would be VERY EASY to do. They make fairly inexpensive electronic devices which can "jam" cell phone signals in a limited area. These have been used succesfully in theaters and other such venues. The problem is that it is not legal to use them within the US. The FCC regulates the use of these devices and you are not allowed to interfere with or transmit radio signals on US soil without an FCC liscence. A privatly owned, foreign flagged ship at sea is another matter entirely.

[jhannah]

I have mixed feelings about having cellular service onboard ship. I know it would be a very reassuring thing for travelers who have aged parents or seriously ill family members back home. But along with some of you I fear this service could get out of hand. I know many folks who depend on their cell phones second only to air to breathe! I can just hear all the yammering now as I'm trying to enjoy the peace and tranquility of my verandah while my next door neighbor is chatting it up. While most folks will be courteous, there are always those who are inconsiderate. We'll just have to see how it all pans out.

[MikeT718]

OH NO Cell phones on Cruise ships this SUX:mad: ..We are Real Estate Agents (DW and myself) and we take one major vacation a year and I like the idea of cruises because we can leave all but 1 cell phone home, and that one we take is to contact our ride from the peir...I do not need clients or friends calling us while we are on vacation, because there is NOTHING I can do for them..

Also I do not want to hear someone esles phone conversation while I'm on my vacation, and yes I know it's their vacation also so let them go back to their cabin and talk untill their blue in the face:p

 

What di we all do 10 years ago when there were no cell phones???/

 

So I say cell phone & cruising is a BAD Mix

Ok Let the flaming begin

[crzn4fun]

My family used our cell phones on the RCI Explorer of the Seas in March. We only used them to keep in touch with each other on the ship because we all scatter to the four winds when on board. The conversations were short and to the point, not 30 minute yackfests. I much prefer the use of cell phones over the use of walkie talkies.

[bookworm0911]

While most folks will be courteous-----

Why in the world would you think that? A mix of people on a ship is no different than a mix of people on land. I see very very few cell phone users worry about being courteous. Have you been to a grocery store, movie, restaurant, or have you been standing on a line anywhere lately? Only a tiny minority think of anyone else except making that call wherever they are. :(

[Randyk47]

MikeT - You won't get flamed by me. We too have our cell phones with us but like you, as I understand your post, only to get from our home to the port and from the port to our home. Once we're on the ship they go in the safe and stay there until the last day when we get them out to charge for the trip home. Yep, I did pull mine out last cruise but that was because of many questions here on CC on whether or not cell phones worked or didn't work in different ports. I made no calls and don't intend to make any calls on future cruises. Do I think there are going to be "abuses" now that it looks like there will be cell phone access? Absolutley! When I said "hard to control" earlier in this thread I was speaking generically and not just about blocking (jamming) use in the dining rooms. I don't look forward to laying out by the pool or on my verandah while somebody goes on about their great cruise while they're disturbing mine! :mad:

[bruceh4]

If you need a cell phone while on a cruise, why leave home!!!!!:confused::eek:

[sail7seas]

GROAN........the same rude boars who scream into their phones everywhere we go at home are bound to all be on whatever cruise I'm on. I just know it!!!! :(

 

 

 

 

 

[sail7seas]

sorry for the double post.

[noblepa]

Before we discovered HAL, my wife and I went on a cruise on the Carnival Glory. We left Port Canaveral and travelled south to the first stop in Key West. Since we were fairly close to land for this leg of the trip, we were, apparently within range of the land-based cell phone towers.

 

The teenagers in the cabin next to us (we both had balconies), were on the phone almost non-stop from the time we left P.C. until the time we left K.W. and got out or range. It was very annoying!

 

I doubt that HAL or any other line will install cell phone jammers in the dining rooms. For one thing, you can't stop the jamming signal at the walls of the D.R. It would probably affect every cell phone on all decks at the aft end of the ship, including guest cabins.

 

Perhaps HAL could institute a policy that, in order not to interrupt what is obviously a very important call, the waiters in the D.R. will not serve a guest until he/she has finished the conversation. (tongue planted firmly in cheek).

 

In any case, its coming, whether we like it or not.

 

Paul Noble

[RuthC]

I don't like hearing cell phone conversations all around me on dry land; I would like it even less while I'm trying to relax at sea. The cruiselines need to think twice why they want to add this feature.

But, if they do decide to have cell phone availability, then they also have the responsibility to consider everyone's needs and set some rules that they will enforce. They need to restrict phone usage to inside the cabins and designated cell phone use area only. If they can do it to smokers then they can do it to cell phone users.

(And I'm not saying the smoking and cell phone areas should be the same places. :rolleyes: )

[aaerobear]

Just as bad as getting to listen to some crashing bore on his/her cellphone on an airplane. Why do people on cellphones have to act like those dopes that don't know how to speak into a microphone when using one. YOU DON'T HAVE TO YELL INTO IT. Most phones and have really good mics and do a good enough job of amplifying the human voice (no need to HELP it along)

 

On the other hand, how often have you been on your veranda/balcony and had to hear the Loud Family a couple doors down yelling at each other like they are in their own backyard?

[peaches from georgia]

But, if they do decide to have cell phone availability, then they also have the responsibility to consider everyone's needs and set some rules that they will enforce.

Ah, there's a concept-enforce the rules! I wonder if HAL would be any better with a cell phones in the dining room than they are with the dress code?

 

Ok, so what would everyone do? You're relaxing and dozing in a lounge chair at aft pool and the jerk 2 chairs down from you is loudly talking on his cell. Would you get a crew member to ask him to please go elsewhere (as if they would actually do that!), would you ask him yourself to take it somewhere private, or would you do and say nothing?

[RuthC]

Ok, so what would everyone do? You're relaxing and dozing in a lounge chair at aft pool and the jerk 2 chairs down from you is loudly talking on his cell. Would you get a crew member to ask him to please go elsewhere (as if they would actually do that!), would you ask him yourself to take it somewhere private, or would you do and say nothing?

I suppose I don't know for certain what I would do until faced with the prospect. But, if there were certain designated cell phone areas---just as there are smoking areas---and someone was using a phone where they weren't supposed to, I probably would do the same thing I have done when someone is smoking where they aren't supposed to. I speak up and tell them where they can take it.

[jhannah]

Peaches, I'm with you all the way on this one. Rules can be promulgated ... but I have a feeling they won't be enforced any better than dress code, deck chair reserving, or diapered babies in the pools. It just ain't gonna' happen.

[Tricia724]

That's all I need.....going out on the balcony to read a book or just to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet.....and have to put up with someone babbling into a cell phone nonstop. For me, that would be worse than having a smoker next door. Or sitting down to enjoy breakfast in the Lido when someone whips out a cell phone and calls everyone they know to tell them what a good time they're having.

 

My friends all know how much I dislike cell phones....or more specifically the way people use cell phones. I'm tired of having people pull out in front of me or cut me off in traffic while using a cell phone. I'm tired of people in restaurants intruding on my dinner while using a cell phone. I don't think some people even begin to grasp how rude they are to other people in social settings. I agree that a cell phone can be valuable if used as a basic communication tool or as a security measure, but I really hate that they have become a "Linus blanket" for some people. :eek: End of rant.

 

Cruising was one place we could get away from the craziness of the real world.....too bad it couldn't last.

[krewzin]

From what *I* can see...it's still only the Vollendam thus far. But there's a whole fleet of other ships listed...at least for Cingular.

 

http://onlinestorez.cingular.com/travelguide/coverage/cruise_ships_rates.jsp?PIDL=IRSD%7CIRWT

[babyher]

I agree with a few of the posters that yes , this would be a good thing for people with children or aged or infirmed relatives back home. People who need to be in contact or make contact in case of a "REAL EMERGENCY".

 

But alas, I think we all know the annoying, intrusive, mindless chit chat will far surpass any real emergency calls.

 

To paraphrase Princess's recent unpopular choice of Godmother

"This is NOT a good thing" :(

[kryos]

What about satellite phones? Can they be used onboard ship even without cell phone service?

 

My company just got in a slew of satellite phones and our department got one. I happened to mention that a satellite phone would be great to have onboard a ship ... especially on a long cruise where there were a lot of sea days and far off ports ... just to be able to keep in touch with home (my dad is 91 and I worry about him when I am cruising). It was indicated to me that I could probably borrow one from Telecom when I cruised as long as I picked up the charges for any calls I made. Apparently, the company has negotiated for a $1.00 per minute rate.

 

Would one of these work on any cruise ship ... and in any port? I would assume they would work anywhere within reach of a satellite, right?

 

As for people yacking away on cell phones all day while onboard ship, I kind of doubt it. Even regular cellular service would cost ... it wouldn't be the same rate you pay at home. I tend to think that higher rate would limit calls to just those that were important, don't you think?

 

I know I would be making record short calls if I were paying $1.00 a minute to use a company satellite phone.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita