How to stay in touch with home....

[sbelle]

Cruising this Sunday, January 27th and called my cellular provider since the ship mentioned that they have cell phone coverage while at sea, to see what the rates were and such. WOW! $4.99 per minute to use my cell phone while on board. I know that is probably a bargain compared to using the ship phone, but still that is crazy to me. Question is what other options do I have when trying to reach loved ones back home? Just wanted to see what others do.

 

Thanks for your replies!

[eandj]

Some ships offer an email only account that you can use to send and receive emails. Cost..2.00 for each email. No internet connection needed. We use this all the time....Celebrity or Oceania lines. You can buy internet minutes to connect to a free email service like a yahoo acct. in packaged amounts. But if the connection is slow that day, you sit and wait...to me not worth the time and cost.

 

A lot of people use the facilities at the ports. Generally there are internet cafes with lower cost minutes. Also if you ask your waiters or other staff, they will tell you where at each port you can buy a cheap phone card and where the public phones are. THEY have all the best ways of communicationg at each port as that's their link to home. And the staff is always willing to share that info with passengers.

 

Cell phones are very expensive and the ships phone is great for emergencies only.

[cb at sea]

Basically, we DON'T stay in touch! It's only 1 week! We may send an e-mail once or twice, but we don't make calls after the ship sets sail!

The folks at home know how to reach us in an emergency, so we just don't worry too much about "checking in". We'll catch up when we get home!

[sbelle]

leaving the kids behind for this one so I just wanted to be able to call them. Is anyone familiar with purchasing prepaid calling cards?

[kitty9]

Don't bother with those prepaid cards as they don't work on the islands. You have to purchase separate cards in every port of call. Don't bother with those so-called international phone cards that you buy at places like Walmart because they won't work in the foreign phones. Email is the cheapest way to keep in touch. Also, if you only use your cell phone in port, the charges are usually cheaper than if you use the ship's satellites with your cell. I've paid as little as $.99 a minute, depending on the location of the port. Some ports the call will run you $1.99 a minute and if you call from places like San Juan or St Thomas, it will be even cheaper.