How do I call home?

[bride93006]

I've read in the manual that it's over $7.00 a minute to call directly from your room. Wow!! Is it possible to use a phone card? If not, how can I call home? I don't think my cell phone service would do us any good.

 

Thanks!

[gambler]

In most all ports, there is an internet cafe close to the pier, just ask a crew member. You can usually make a call there for around 75 to 95 cents a minute. Phone cards will not always work and never use your own credit card.

[DukeFamily]

Can't use a phone card on the ship. My cell service (cingular) didn't work the whole trip, even in port; which, given roaming charges is probably a good thing. You either suck it up and pay the horrendous rate to call from your stateroom, or wait till you're in port in purchase a phone card. From my own experience (and yours could be different) I had to use the phone card I bought in Grand Cayman IN Grand Cayman only; ditto for one bought in Coz.

[wrp96]

The cost on the ship is $7.95 per minute. Calling cards will not work on the ship.

 

Some ships have cell towers that work. The cost is something like $1.99 per minute - if you have Cingular. Cingular should work in most Caribbean ports but you have to call and add international calling to your phone before you go. Other US cell carriers may work but not all, you have to check with your carrier.

 

The best option is to ask your waiters where you can buy and use a cheap calling card in each port. Most of the calling cards you can buy in the US will only work to call FROM the US, not to the US.

 

If it is a case of just needing to be able to keep in contact with people at home, the cheapest and most reliable option on the ship is email which costs $.50 per minute (but there are packages that can bring it down to as low as $.33 per minute).

[MissKise]

Depending on the ports you go into.........you can get international calling cards to use while in port. You need to call to find the calling codes prior (know what numbers you need to dial to get to the home phone)

 

You may call your cell phone provider to see if they offer service to the ports you are going to. We had service while in port, but lost it when we went out to sea (obivously there are no towers out there!)

[CaribbeanCrush]

We knew that we would have to call home to check on the kids. We purchased a phone card and called from the ports.

[pjinaz]

I have looked into this extensively. Supposedly on most, not all, but most, ships Cingular service will work and T-Mobile service should work. You must have a phone that has the technology that works, but most Cingular and T-mobile phones have it. You also must have international calling activated on your phone or it will not work. It is $2.49 a minute with Cingular and I think 4.95 a minute with T-mobile. If you go to the Cingular and T-Mobile web sites they tell you which ships they work on and also what type of technology your phone needs. I am probably not wording the technology thing correctly, it has to do with 900 mz or 1800mz, kind of confusing but the cell phone carriers can tell you. Also Verizon and many others work in foreign ports, but you have to activate international service.

 

Hope this helps and I am really hoping my cingular or t-mobile phone will work on the Rhapsody in a week and a half.

[Tigergenesis]

Is there an additional cost to add the international roaming with Cingular?

[Grumm]

I've read in the manual that it's over $7.00 a minute to call directly from your room. Wow!! Is it possible to use a phone card? If not, how can I call home? I don't think my cell phone service would do us any good.

 

Thanks!

 

You could befriend a little boy named Elliot....you know the rest!:)

 

Alan

[MGoBlue2]

Can't use a phone card on the ship. My cell service (cingular) didn't work the whole trip, even in port; which, given roaming charges is probably a good thing. You either suck it up and pay the horrendous rate to call from your stateroom, or wait till you're in port in purchase a phone card. From my own experience (and yours could be different) I had to use the phone card I bought in Grand Cayman IN Grand Cayman only; ditto for one bought in Coz.

You're free to use a Phone Card from the ship, only the ship will still charge you the $7.95/minute for their side of the connection, so there's not much advantage.

 

I know because I waited in line at the Purser's Desk for about 15 minutes one time while a couple debated the issue with them. Unfortunately, as I recall, their Room Steward, Waiter, etc. turned out to be the real losers since they didn't have enough money to pay both the phone charge and tips.

[jphc318]

Did Eastern and Western Carribean this summer and my cell(cingular)worked everywhere but nassau bahamas(gotta love batel)so if you have cingular it should work oh the cost was 2.49 per minute which is cheaper that the ships phone.They also have a world traveler plan where the minutes are cheaper if you travel alot.I will be looking into that.

good luck and enjoy your cruise.

[pjinaz]

You should be able to add basic international service for free. Cingular has other plans like world traveler and world connect that do cost extra. By looking at the web site it looks like it is $2.49 a minute with whatever plan you have from the ship. However, I was told on the phone that if you purchase the plan that is an additional $5.99 per minute it is only .99 per minute. I don't really know if that is the case or not. I think with T-Mobile it is 4.95 a minute no matter what as they have to pay Cingular to use their towers. If you have T-Mobile you also may have trouble connecting, but if this happens, you can go through your menu on your phone and pick Cingular as your carrier and then it should work.

 

Good luck.

[Lowcountrygal]

I have T-mobile and own a very old Nokia (it's a nearly 3 y/o workhorse that won't die!). My Nokia is only a dual-band phone compared with today's newer tri-band and quad-band world phones. I cruised the W. Caribbean and was able to get service in all ports except Labadee, Haiti.

 

My charges were $1.49 per minute while in port and $4.99 per minute while at sea since satellite is used. I was able to call home while in port and even received quick calls while at sea when family needed me. Even the at-sea charges are less than the calling from the ship's phone! The $1.49 charge in port wasn't too bad and certainly MUCH more convenient than purchasing a phone card that you had to use there and having to talk on a public pay phone! Knowing that I could be reached at any time on my cell phone was valuable too -- this way family wouldn't have to go through the hassle of making a shore to ship call, plunking down their credit card number to make the call, and I might not even be in the room.

 

Chances are very good you have a newer phone than mine ;) and with Cingular service you should be fine. If you remain in North America, your phone needs to be able to recognize the GSM or GPRS network and be able to operate at either the 850MHz or 900MHz frequency. Your wireless website should be able to tell you all of this info.

 

My T-mobile website told me which ships had service and I was able to learn how much the rates were with each country -- in my case, they were all the same: $1.49 in port and $4.99 at sea.

 

Subscribing to the International Phone plan was free for me with T-mobile. I never had a dropped call, the connections were always clear -- even at sea.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Rose

[logan1_2000]

I have T-mobile and own a very old Nokia (it's a nearly 3 y/o workhorse that won't die!). My Nokia is only a dual-band phone compared with today's newer tri-band and quad-band world phones. I cruised the W. Caribbean and was able to get service in all ports except Labadee, Haiti.

 

My charges were $1.49 per minute while in port and $4.99 per minute while at sea since satellite is used. I was able to call home while in port and even received quick calls while at sea when family needed me. Even the at-sea charges are less than the calling from the ship's phone! The $1.49 charge in port wasn't too bad and certainly MUCH more convenient than purchasing a phone card that you had to use there and having to talk on a public pay phone! Knowing that I could be reached at any time on my cell phone was valuable too -- this way family wouldn't have to go through the hassle of making a shore to ship call, plunking down their credit card number to make the call, and I might not even be in the room.

 

Chances are very good you have a newer phone than mine ;) and with Cingular service you should be fine. If you remain in North America, your phone needs to be able to recognize the GSM or GPRS network and be able to operate at either the 850MHz or 900MHz frequency. Your wireless website should be able to tell you all of this info.

 

My T-mobile website told me which ships had service and I was able to learn how much the rates were with each country -- in my case, they were all the same: $1.49 in port and $4.99 at sea.

 

Subscribing to the International Phone plan was free for me with T-mobile. I never had a dropped call, the connections were always clear -- even at sea.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Rose

 

Rose you made the classic mistake--you demonstrated detailed knowledge and actual experience on something involving technology -- thus, you are now an expert in my eyes and I shall ask you follow up questions. See what you got yourself into (I make a similar speech to young support staff at my law firm when they demonstrate familiarity with anything more advanced than pointing and clicking when it comes to our computers...)

 

Okay, so, if I am calling a 404 (Atlanta) number, and I am in the Bahamas, for example, with my T-mobile phone (maybe a year or less old samsung), and i have the international calling activated on my phone, how would I do it? what would I dial? I guess it confused me last time, when i paid the roaming charge for having turned my phone on but couldn't figure out how to dial because my phone is also a 404 number...so, 011...something something something? And is there a difference when dialing from grand cayman, or cozumel, or mo bay?

 

All help appreciated. All the way down to details like "do I dial a '1' between whatever codes i need to enter and the 404, or whatever other area code in the U.S. I might be calling...

 

And as a general statement for anyone reading this, not just my personal tech consultant Rose, wasn't part of the charm of the cruise that you were out of touch and forced to relax...i really dont want to be poolside on a day at sea, or even in port, and listen to the guy in the next chair on his d*mn cell phone...if i wanted that, I'd take a nice "relaxing" (not) vacation in midtown manhattan...

[bilyclub]

My LG Verizon phone always had a very good roaming signal aboard Freedom, I was not interested in trying it out and getting a big bill.

[Sunshine101]

We knew that we would have to call home to check on the kids. We purchased a phone card and called from the ports.

 

Thanks for the post.....did you purchase your phone call in each individual port?

[Autumnrose]

Used my Sprint phone on my Eastern Caribbean cruise with no problems and also recently while in Cabo. Even during the hurricane it worked beautifully even when no one elses phones would work. Also I did not have to have any international anything turned on ahead of time.

[lmmn]

I've read in the manual that it's over $7.00 a minute to call directly from your room. Wow!! Is it possible to use a phone card? If not, how can I call home? I don't think my cell phone service would do us any good.

 

Thanks!

 

Can you email instead? I do this with my family to keep in touch. I set up an email through hotmail before I leave. I send and retrieve emails daily from the ship. The cost is around 50 cents a minute, but if you read fast and keep your emails short, the cost is minimal.

[Lowcountrygal]

Rose you made the classic mistake--you demonstrated detailed knowledge and actual experience on something involving technology -- thus, you are now an expert in my eyes and I shall ask you follow up questions. See what you got yourself into (I make a similar speech to young support staff at my law firm when they demonstrate familiarity with anything more advanced than pointing and clicking when it comes to our computers...)

 

Okay, so, if I am calling a 404 (Atlanta) number, and I am in the Bahamas, for example, with my T-mobile phone (maybe a year or less old samsung), and i have the international calling activated on my phone, how would I do it? what would I dial? I guess it confused me last time, when i paid the roaming charge for having turned my phone on but couldn't figure out how to dial because my phone is also a 404 number...so, 011...something something something? And is there a difference when dialing from grand cayman, or cozumel, or mo bay?

 

All help appreciated. All the way down to details like "do I dial a '1' between whatever codes i need to enter and the 404, or whatever other area code in the U.S. I might be calling...

 

And as a general statement for anyone reading this, not just my personal tech consultant Rose, wasn't part of the charm of the cruise that you were out of touch and forced to relax...i really dont want to be poolside on a day at sea, or even in port, and listen to the guy in the next chair on his d*mn cell phone...if i wanted that, I'd take a nice "relaxing" (not) vacation in midtown manhattan...

 

Hi Logan!

I had to laugh! :D I am by no means a techie, I just stumbled onto this info before my last cruise because I needed to be available for my dog-sitter! Yes, you read that right!! I have a special needs dog (Addison's Disease) together with parents who were getting over an illness at that time and most certainly valued the comfort of knowing I could be reached efficiently if necessary. Checking in every other day and learning that everything is okay allowed me to really enjoy my vacation without worry!

 

First thing, you can get a wealth of info at the following T-mobile link. Here you will learn the rates from each port, if your ship has wireless service including the "at sea" roaming rate and frequency used. A handy bit of info is text messaging costs. Each text message you send is only .35 cents and each text message you receive is but .10 cents -- making this a handy and economical alternative for quick messages vs. those expensive "at sea" rates. Incidentally, ALL T-mobile phones function in Canada and Mexico without doing anything special. Here's the link for international rates, ships, etc:

 

http://www.t-mobile.com/International/RoamingOverview.aspx?tp=Inl_Tab_RoamWorldwide

 

Anyone that calls you on your cell phone from your local calling area (Atlanta) is not charged anything because they are calling a local number. YOU incur the roaming rate (port or "at sea") depending on where you are when you take that call. This is a major plus that family doesn't have to plunk down their credit card number and go thru a special operator when calling shore to ship.

 

Now for specific international dialing instructions. It's really easy, just need to add the "plus" sign: You follow this same procedure no matter what country/port you are calling from:

 

Traveling outside the US:

 

Calling back to the US --this is what you'll probably use most.

Dial the plus (+) sign... info on how to dial the (+) below:

1

area code

local number

 

Calling to another country

Dial the plus (+) sign

country code

city code

local number

 

Calling within the country

city code

local number

 

Traveling inside the US

 

Calling from the US to another country

Dial the plus (+) sign

country code

city code

local number

 

What is the plus (+) sign and how do I use it?

The plus (+) sign makes international dialing on your wireless phone easier than from your home phone. It allows you to make international calls without having to know the international access code of the country from which you are calling.

 

NOTE: To access the plus (+) sign, you said you had a Samsung phone:

Samsung customers - press and hold the 0 key until the plus (+) sign appears.

 

Should you need help with making a call while on your cruise, you can call T-mobile Customer Service for FREE so long as you are calling from a T-mobile device:

Call Customer Care at +1 505 998 3793.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Looks like you are cruising the Radiance again for Thanksgiving. We will sail the Radiance for the first time in Dec.

 

It would also appear that we both live in Georgia, I'm in Savannah. Since you mentioned midtown Manhattan, we used to live in NY. Since you mentioned your law firm, I will add that my husband is an attorney. We can examine the six degrees and find out that we know each other!! :)

 

Take care!

Rose

[nancy anne]

I'm going to Europe next year on BOS. What kind of phone or service do I need for international calling on the ship and from the ports. Right now we have a contract with Sprint for cell phone service but that will be up soon. Someone told me that I could rent or lease an international phone for 2 weeks. Any advice is greatly welcomed!

[Lowcountrygal]

Nancy,

 

I'm not a Sprint customer, so I will offer some general information.

 

1. If your contract is soon to be up, and you still want to maintain cell phone service, you should be able to go month to month without any obligation. Renting an international phone is often costly and I think you need to be an active customer anyway -- double check Sprint's requirements & rental costs.

 

2. I do believe that activating international service with many wireless phone companies is FREE. You will pay roaming fees which are higher at sea than in port. (See my note below to Logan). Call Sprint or visit their website to learn more about International service, if they have service on the ship you will be sailing, if there any fees for adding the International plan, and roaming charges from the countries you will be visiting.

 

3. Having cell phone service while cruising is certainly much more economical than using the ship's phone at $8.00 a minute -- at least from the Caribbean. You will need to check the Sprint rates from those European countries, but my hunch is that it's not that much more costly than from the Caribbean.

 

Good luck!

Rose

[logan1_2000]

Hi Logan!

I had to laugh! :D I am by no means a techie, I just stumbled onto this info before my last cruise because I needed to be available for my dog-sitter! Yes, you read that right!! I have a special needs dog (Addison's Disease) together with parents who were getting over an illness at that time and most certainly valued the comfort of knowing I could be reached efficiently if necessary. Checking in every other day and learning that everything is okay allowed me to really enjoy my vacation without worry!

 

First thing, you can get a wealth of info at the following T-mobile link. Here you will learn the rates from each port, if your ship has wireless service including the "at sea" roaming rate and frequency used. A handy bit of info is text messaging costs. Each text message you send is only .35 cents and each text message you receive is but .10 cents -- making this a handy and economical alternative for quick messages vs. those expensive "at sea" rates. Incidentally, ALL T-mobile phones function in Canada and Mexico without doing anything special. Here's the link for international rates, ships, etc:

 

http://www.t-mobile.com/International/RoamingOverview.aspx?tp=Inl_Tab_RoamWorldwide

 

Anyone that calls you on your cell phone from your local calling area (Atlanta) is not charged anything because they are calling a local number. YOU incur the roaming rate (port or "at sea") depending on where you are when you take that call. This is a major plus that family doesn't have to plunk down their credit card number and go thru a special operator when calling shore to ship.

 

Now for specific international dialing instructions. It's really easy, just need to add the "plus" sign: You follow this same procedure no matter what country/port you are calling from:

 

Traveling outside the US:

 

Calling back to the US --this is what you'll probably use most.

Dial the plus (+) sign... info on how to dial the (+) below:

1

area code

local number

 

Calling to another country

Dial the plus (+) sign

country code

city code

local number

 

Calling within the country

city code

local number

 

Traveling inside the US

 

Calling from the US to another country

Dial the plus (+) sign

country code

city code

local number

 

What is the plus (+) sign and how do I use it?

The plus (+) sign makes international dialing on your wireless phone easier than from your home phone. It allows you to make international calls without having to know the international access code of the country from which you are calling.

 

NOTE: To access the plus (+) sign, you said you had a Samsung phone:

Samsung customers - press and hold the 0 key until the plus (+) sign appears.

 

Should you need help with making a call while on your cruise, you can call T-mobile Customer Service for FREE so long as you are calling from a T-mobile device:

Call Customer Care at +1 505 998 3793.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Looks like you are cruising the Radiance again for Thanksgiving. We will sail the Radiance for the first time in Dec.

 

It would also appear that we both live in Georgia, I'm in Savannah. Since you mentioned midtown Manhattan, we used to live in NY. Since you mentioned your law firm, I will add that my husband is an attorney. We can examine the six degrees and find out that we know each other!! :)

 

Take care!

Rose

 

Rose, wow, thanks for the details! I hope you will love the Radiance, I just can't get away from using the word elegant to describe her. Yet my 10 year old had a great time as well. Hidden gem--the seaview cafe, deck 11, aft, is a casual alternative eatery with some nice choices...the blackened grouper caesar salad, though not the best caesar salad I have ever had, was still a lovely treat for a cruise ship. and there is a grill in the windjammer at dinner time that will grill items to order for you, a casual yet cooked to order combination w/o any additional fee that is hard to find on a RCI ship...

 

I never get to Savannah, we're mostly gulf coast for vacations that are not on a ship, though every other year I have a CLE Institute at Amelia Island, so that is my east coast time.

 

Said you were from New York--the city, or upstate, or the guyland? I grew up in CT, went to college in the finger lakes, far above cayuga's waters.

 

We call our dog sitter before sailaway to make sure she has gotten in, see how the first night and first morning went--we totallyget the picture--our "first child" will be 13 in december, has 3--count 'em--3!--visits a day in the home, takes arthritis and allergy medicine, and is a finicky eater who has to have an audience to watch him, encourage him, and yes, praise him, so that he will eat. And pretty much the same story to go out back and do his business in the fenced yard. We used to have housesitters, but the requirement that you had to be willing to sleep with our 4 legged child got to be a bit much when our younger friends got older and got married, so we settled in on the three visit method. Adds $48 a day to our trip costs...all this for a pup whose adoption fee was $56 at the humane society all those years ago.

 

So what type of law does Mr. Rose practice?

[Lowcountrygal]

Rose, wow, thanks for the details! I hope you will love the Radiance, I just can't get away from using the word elegant to describe her. Yet my 10 year old had a great time as well. Hidden gem--the seaview cafe, deck 11, aft, is a casual alternative eatery with some nice choices...the blackened grouper caesar salad, though not the best caesar salad I have ever had, was still a lovely treat for a cruise ship. and there is a grill in the windjammer at dinner time that will grill items to order for you, a casual yet cooked to order combination w/o any additional fee that is hard to find on a RCI ship...

 

I never get to Savannah, we're mostly gulf coast for vacations that are not on a ship, though every other year I have a CLE Institute at Amelia Island, so that is my east coast time.

 

Said you were from New York--the city, or upstate, or the guyland? I grew up in CT, went to college in the finger lakes, far above cayuga's waters.

 

We call our dog sitter before sailaway to make sure she has gotten in, see how the first night and first morning went--we totallyget the picture--our "first child" will be 13 in december, has 3--count 'em--3!--visits a day in the home, takes arthritis and allergy medicine, and is a finicky eater who has to have an audience to watch him, encourage him, and yes, praise him, so that he will eat. And pretty much the same story to go out back and do his business in the fenced yard. We used to have housesitters, but the requirement that you had to be willing to sleep with our 4 legged child got to be a bit much when our younger friends got older and got married, so we settled in on the three visit method. Adds $48 a day to our trip costs...all this for a pup whose adoption fee was $56 at the humane society all those years ago.

 

So what type of law does Mr. Rose practice?

 

Logan,

Thanks for the tips on the Radiance! I'll be sure to visit the Seaview Cafe as I've heard only great things about it. We also enjoy Portofino alot and was happy to learn there is a Portofino aboard the Radiance too. I will be making my final payment in just a few days, then I'll be doing the document dance! We've sailed the Mariner the past 3 cruises and have enjoyed that ship alot, but it was time for a change. My 14 y/o son always found things to do aboard the Mariner and we've been impressed with the Youth program as well. I hope he likes the Radiance too, otherwise a 6 night cruise can become tedious with an unhappy teen!

 

As far as NY goes, we lived in the Hudson River Valley at West Point. Gorgeous! I wish I were there now to see the change of color at Bear Mt. State Park! Mr. Rose practices Contracts Law. I had to laugh about "Guyland"..... I'm not a native Noo Yawkuh (from the Midwest actually) and am surprised at how often I hear that accent down here -- lots of NY transplants here in Savannah. It's sure not hard to miss Brooklyn & Queens when you hear it!

 

You manage your dog the very way we did our "first" children! I hired a Vet Tech to come in 3x a day too, left boiled chicken & rice for the dogs (colitis + spoiled rotten!), both of my dogs (ages 16 & 13) were on medication for arthritis, etc. One was losing vision, and the other hearing -- they were perfect for each other! They went to the Rainbow Bridge two and three years ago. I now have a Lab mix adopted from the Humane Society. We got her when she was just 8 months old, thinking that after dealing with geriatric dogs for several years, it would be nice to have a young & healthy pup. She was fine for 7 months and then crashed with an Addison's Crisis -- that was a year and a half ago. She's fine as long as she is carefully managed. I easily spend her adoption fee every month for meds & lab tests. You are preaching to the choir here! :rolleyes: I need to find a new dog sitter now because my neighbor recently moved out of state. She had a Golden about the same age as my Lab, and took great care of my dog when we had to be away. I'll get it figured out -- hopefully sooner rather than later.

 

Rose

[sadiecat]

When we were in Hawaii our phone service - T-Moble was better than on the mainland and free within our calling plan. We are going on the NCL Star in a couple of weeks to Mexico and our provider will charge 5 cents for each minute, which is not bad.

[cruisin'couple]

I've read in the manual that it's over $7.00 a minute to call directly from your room. Wow!! Is it possible to use a phone card? If not, how can I call home? I don't think my cell phone service would do us any good.

 

Thanks!

 

I just returned from Alaska on the Radiance and had no trouble at all using my pre-paid TracFone in any of the ports. Last year I used it, with no problem in Hawaii. You can arrange for International use, too. It just uses 2 units per minute instead of the usual 1 unit in your own roaming area.