Cell phones... why?

[PattyW]

I will never travel without my Blackberry. I absolutely would stress too much at the thought of having hundreds of e-mails waiting for me upon my return to the office. Much better to check them daily/as they come in and deal with the situation. If I didn't, by day 4 of the vacation I would just get a horrible sinking feeling about how far behind I was going to be at work on Monday morning.

[dixieboz]

After reading all of these pages, I was surprised not to see the reason I will be using my cellphone. My 16 year old daughter and her friend will be on the cruise with us, and the thought of me having no idea where she is or when she will return has made me uncomfortable. It is either a cellphone or walkie talkies! No one has a choice but to listen to the walkie talkies.

[sullyair]

We own our own businesses but the cell phones are turned off once we sail. We do check our e-mail once or twice a day to see how things are going.

I also own a business and check email a couple of times a day. I'm glad to know I could call if there was an emergency --- but it never has happened.

[sullyair]

After reading all of these pages, I was surprised not to see the reason I will be using my cellphone. My 16 year old daughter and her friend will be on the cruise with us, and the thought of me having no idea where she is or when she will return has made me uncomfortable. It is either a cellphone or walkie talkies! No one has a choice but to listen to the walkie talkies.

You can rent phones from customer service that only work on the ship -- the same type the crew use. I can't remember what their name is, but I know the price is reasonable. I certainly understand wanting to be able to contact a teenager.

[jules815]

We always turn our cell phones off and put them in the safe when we sail. This year, however, our teens won't be traveling with us. I plan on emailing them, but we were thinking about calling them from St. Thomas.

[aimmike&meg]

We too always turn ours off and put them in the safe.

 

Years before cell phones what did everyone one do in case of an emergency?

 

We used to own our own business and in 2000 when we sailed VOS we did check email a few times in case of emergency but there is an emergency number that family can call you on if there is an emergency and need to get in touch with you.

 

There is nothing I could do in the case of an emergency thousands of miles away anyway so I am not sure what good it would do.

 

Our best friends went with us on the NOS in '06 and their daughter was texting away like a mad person on the ship and off plus they called home from each port to family when they got home their cell phone bill was in the thousands!!!!

 

Sorry that sounds like more of an emergency to me and talk about the stress factor when you receive a bill like that ... ummm no thanks not for us!

 

Maybe we are just lucky too my DH is a Flight Paramedic and I am a Safety Engineer when we are on vacation, we are ON vacation! No work involved in any way shape or form!

[K1200S]

On my last cruise I actually needed my cell. Our car decided it did not want to go all the way to Miami, it broke down in West Palm. On the day before we returned to Miami I called the repair shop to find out if the car was fixed and could they come get us for a fee. The car was fixed and we had a fine ride home except for the phone call to let me know my hot water heater decided to leak. If the car had not broken down then my cell would not have been turned back on until I was back in the car headed home. I don't check for message during the cruise. I tell people to go through the cruise line should they have to reach us. I can understand calls home to check on a business or the health of a loved one but a chit-chat call makes no sense to me.

[dixieboz]

You can rent phones from customer service that only work on the ship -- the same type the crew use. I can't remember what their name is, but I know the price is reasonable. I certainly understand wanting to be able to contact a teenager.

 

Thank you for your great info! I will check it out asap! I just got off the phone with Sprint, who has an agreement with RCCL. The Caribbean is not considered International, so we don't have to get an add on to our plan. But calls are .49/min. My big fear is Text Messaging. My daughter must have 50 or more messages going in or out a day, and at 20 cents each, they would add up. Sprint told me I could call the day of the cruise to put a temporary stop on text messaging. Also, if DD doesn't answer calls from her friends, she would not be charged the .49 min. charge, even if they leave voice mails.

 

I have to admit, your idea would be so much easier!

[dixieboz]

Here is another thought for those who want to keep in touch, and that is Skype. We paid pennies to call my sick Mom when we were in Argentina. If you are going to be using your lap top, then sign up for Skype. My DH loaded on $10.00 to his account, and still has over $7.00 on it after several calls from Argentina and other places. Check out Skype.com.

[kidless]

:( On our cruise on the Carnival Legend the day we boarded we got word my Mom was sick. So unfortunately I used my cell phone a lot on that cruise but always in the privacy of our cabin, and also unfortunately she passed away and we had to leave ship and fly home from Belize.

 

:mad: On the other hand we have been on ships with people screaming into their cell phones "GUESS WHERE I AM , NO REALLY GUESS!" On our last cruise a couple weeks ago, every time we were in port the lady in the balcony above us was always calling people, talking loudly they did not sound like important or necessary calls just telling people what they were doing on the cruise, I didn't really like hearing about what a horn dog the sea air had turn him husband into but hey to each his own.

 

I guess for me if you need your phone for business or just cause you have to stay in touch use it in the privacy of your cabin. I don't think people realize how loud they are speaking while on a cell phone.