cell phones in Hawaii

[Gon2hwe]

We will be going to Hawaii on Pride of America 6/2/07. We have nation wide calling . Will we be able to use our cell phones (cingular) free or do they charge roaming? Thanks

[mikedw]

I would check with you cell phone provider to make sure your nationwide coverage applies in Hawaii, if it does, you'll be fine when on land. Not sure about when your at sea, they may route everything through the ship's system.

 

Take care,

Michael

[ChelleMMS821]

I have verizon... and also have nation wide calling. I asked them the same question b/c I will be on POA 6/17-6/24. They said it does cover Hawaii b/c it is the US... just be sure to only use it in port not while at sea. Hope this helps!

[Goofyisme]

Our Cingular plan included all calls in Hawaii and back to the mainland last year.

[bjbdlb]

Unless you want a huge bill, only use it while in port. Hawaii is US and is included in most of our US plans. Even our Sprint service, which is spotty at best, gave us no problems in Hi.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

You can use it for free whenever you get signal. The Pride of Aloha/America/Hawaii dont have towers onboard the ships (thats why some people get huge bills) When I was on the POAmerica never had a strange bill over the 3 billing periods.

[melika091900]

we just went from CA to Hawaii on a 14 day cruise and our cingular phone worked every day ,

it said cingular at sea. but i dont know if it charged roaming or not

according to the person i talked to when we left, it should have been like normal, since we were in the US still , and no roaming, but we will see when i get the bill ,

i was just suprised it worked the whole time,,

call them to make sure

melissa

[Goofyisme]

melika,

When you get your bill I believe you will be charged $2.49 per minute for calls made on sea days. That is the Cingualr at Sea rate. Sometimes takes a few billing cycles for the charges to hit your bill.

My previous response that Cingular was in accordance with your plan only applied to calls through land based cells in Hawaii.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

we just went from CA to Hawaii on a 14 day cruise and our cingular phone worked every day ,

it said cingular at sea. but i dont know if it charged roaming or not

according to the person i talked to when we left, it should have been like normal, since we were in the US still , and no roaming, but we will see when i get the bill ,

i was just suprised it worked the whole time,,

 

 

call them to make sure

melissa

 

Your going to get hit pretty bad depending on how much you talked. Your lucky that you had a cingular phone tho bc then its only I think $2.99 a min vs tmobile thats $4.99 a min because when you were at sea getting a signal you were getting it via the ships tower.

[Gon2hwe]

Thanks everybody for all the advice. Now I just need to figure out when to call home because of the time difference.

[OK_Gal]

We wet on POH last year and have ALTELL. When we were in port we were able to use our phones to talk to each other as well as friends back home. We did not have any roaming charges. We usually had to go to an upper deck or by a window. Other times we did not have service.

[junebug8]

Does this apply to texting also? I have a teenager that has unlimited texting and was wondering if the charges would only apply while at sea? If so, that cell phone is mine until port days.:)

[ohioNCLcruiser]

Does this apply to texting also? I have a teenager that has unlimited texting and was wondering if the charges would only apply while at sea? If so, that cell phone is mine until port days.:)

 

If your ship gets service while at sea, they will charge for texting even if you have the unlimited plan. If your on one of NCL America's ships (po hawaii, po aloha, poamerica) then it would be free whenever you get cell service.

[jmo1]

My Cingular phone works with no roaming charges at Hawaii. The Cingular at Sea charges from last cruise in October were $1.99 per minute. Just look at your display before placing or answering a call and see whether is says "Cingular" or "Cingular at Sea".

[Guest Spo]

Does anybody have any experience with Verizon while at sea? We're booked on the Diamond from LA to Hawaii and would like to know what to expect (or if there's even any service) while in the middle of the Pacific Ocean:D

[thunderfox]

We have Cingular, and used our phones quite a bit to keep our group connected (texting mostly). We called Cingular ahead of time and were told that because the ship never really leaves the US service area (more than a certain distance offshore) then all calls and texts were charged according to our plan.

 

Basically the ship doesn't have any cell towers (like most ships *do*) so either you have service (from land towers) or you have no service at all.

 

BUT... the simple disclaimer always applies - check with your mobile service provider to see what your plan does and doesn't cover before you go.

[daveco58]

I had cell service(t-mobile), with no roaming for the entire cruise except from about an hour out of Kuaui, until we got close to Honolulu.

[ecs66]

We have Verizon wireless, and there were no extra fees added for calls made to/from Hawaii in December.

[MisterBill99]

Basically the ship doesn't have any cell towers (like most ships *do*) so either you have service (from land towers) or you have no service at all.

And that is a very *good* thing if you want to avoid unwanted surprises like hefty roaming charges.

 

I am hoping to use my cell phone as a modem. I have a cable but need to try out the software and get dial-up access for a month. It may be slow but at least I won't be paying the NCL rates.

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

I have Qwest cellular service and I checked their website for coverage and all the ports in Hawaii where our ship docked was under the plan. When you are driving a distance from port, like in Kauai when we went north shore up to Ke-e beach, we didn't get a signal. I could not get a signal in my cabin on the ship either. I had to go up on deck to get a signal then it worked fine and free. My phone kept beeping with the "trying to find signal" message because my phone is set to home service area to avoid roaming charges.

[MisterBill99]

I got the cable to work and was able to connect to the Internet using my cell phone last night. Unfortunately it appears that Verizon no longer gives free data access and may charge you if you don't sign up for their service. So maybe I will sign up before we leave and cancel when we return. It should cost me around $20 for the portion of the month but that will still be cheaper than even a few minutes on the cruise ship. Of course, this assumes I have service on the ship.