ohh my my!!! Roaming charges on cruise

[Tammylyne]

Didnt know this but I had my cell phone on during most of the cruise..though I did not use the phone..I just got my bill today and can I tell you my eyes went like this :eek:

 

Beware if you have your cell phone on your company may charge you roaming charges even if you don't make any calls, or even use it. Simply having it on will rack up a pretty penny :)

[crazycath]

How much?

 

Cathy

[nanuak]

Didnt know this but I had my cell phone on during most of the cruise..though I did not use the phone..I just got my bill today and can I tell you my eyes went like this :eek:

 

Beware if you have your cell phone on your company may charge you roaming charges even if you don't make any calls, or even use it. Simply having it on will rack up a pretty penny :)

 

Thanks for the great information. I never would have thought, that one would be charged roaming charges. We turn ours off and put them in the safe. I give all family members the ship number for emergencies. Only time we are ever out-of-touch.....ahhh vacations :).

[unklez]

..........your company may charge you roaming charges even if you don't make any calls, or even use it. Simply having it on will rack up a pretty penny :)

 

Never heard of that. Which company?

[Tammylyne]

Verizon...I recieved some texts but when I called Verizon I was told yep you are charged even if your not using it..its roaming and those roaming charges apply as long as your phone is on :eek:

147.00 :eek: :eek: :eek:

[Indyrobb]

Last time I was only charged for what I used, however, I'm with Sprint, and had a phone with no internet capabilities. On my next trip, I'll have the Pre, and will make sure it is turned off so I don't get hit with data usage charges.

 

Sorry to hear about your bill, that would suck to get stuck with a bill for something you didn't really even use.

[rbrb1951]

I like to text and it is inexpensive on the ship(I think it was .50 to send and .20 to receive but I did have voice mail temporarily removed. I have ATT and I checked with them before I cruised to make sure of the do's and don'ts. Please remember to remove voice mail so it doesn't hunt you and leave the messages.

[Tammylyne]

ahh i did have quite a few voicemails...dumb silly ones like "ohh your sooo lucky to be cruising its raining here" "Hey hows the cruise going" " When you getting back " LOL

Guess those helped with the bill :p

 

See I was under the impression as long as I didnt call anyone or answer any calls I would not incur roaming charges..Truth be told I only kept the phone on for the time, forgot my clock :D

[FantasyLineAddict]

Sorry to hear this!

 

People can get charged 2 minutes of international roaming for calls that aren't answered and then go to voicemail and aren't listened to. That can easily turn into $5+ per call.

 

This won't happen if the phone is off or set to "airplane" mode.

[ksatte03]

Thanks for the heads up. I am a text addict! My coworkers were making fun of me today in the break room because i was texting the whole time i was eating lunch!:o

[unklez]

Calls that go to vm are not charged. It is the text messages that got you. Disable them before you cruise. I have them disabled period.

[lappy22]

My cell phone is the first thing that makes it in the safe when we get to the room on the first day. Heck it makes it in the safe faster than my wallet and other items of value.

[lizardhowson]

Didnt know this but I had my cell phone on during most of the cruise..though I did not use the phone..I just got my bill today and can I tell you my eyes went like this :eek:

 

Beware if you have your cell phone on your company may charge you roaming charges even if you don't make any calls, or even use it. Simply having it on will rack up a pretty penny :)

 

Sorry for your experience, but this has been well covered on these boards. If you use your cell phone, or even leave it on, during the cruise, you are gonna rack up loads of charges. There have been dozens of threads about this each month.

 

Everytime your phone rings, even if you don't answer it, you get charged. Depending on phonee type, you might get charged everytime the phone notiifes you of a missed call or voicemail.

 

Every outgoing call, incoming call and text message you will get charged.

 

Generally the excess runs between $2.49-$4.99 per minute and for every partial minute.

 

You're lucky it was only $147, some have posted they got bills in the $$$ thousands !

 

It pays to read all the threads here on CC.

[pe4all]

My cell phone is the first thing that makes it in the safe when we get to the room on the first day. Heck it makes it in the safe faster than my wallet and other items of value.

 

Same here! All 4 phones go into the safe as soon as we hit the cabin. It is pretty funny watching dd17 go thru withdrawal those first few hours. This is a young lady who sends/receives over 7,000 texts a month!:eek: Luckily we have unlimited texting on our plan - LOL.

[bleuiz]

Last time I was only charged for what I used, however, I'm with Sprint, and had a phone with no internet capabilities. On my next trip, I'll have the Pre, and will make sure it is turned off so I don't get hit with data usage charges.

 

Sorry to hear about your bill, that would suck to get stuck with a bill for something you didn't really even use.

 

I do have a Pre....and I called Sprint last week to inquire and be listed for international/ship......I was told about the price (I forgot) to send and receive calls, but nothing was mentioned about being charged for just having the phone on.....

I will call again today....

[ehfl]

I'm not sure how you could not know that your phone's radio was not off. You usually have to go through specific steps to turn it on and off. It doesn't go on an off randomly.

 

In any case, I always turn the radio off while aboard, so I'm never hit with unexpected charges.

[halos]

When we were on a Mexican Riviera cruise this past March, I had my phone on (Verizon)...there, unfortunately there was a death in the family while I was on board. There were quite a few calls back and forth.

I had no roaming charges.

 

Isn't that weird??? :confused::confused:

 

We were scared to DEATH waiting for the phone bill and it was normal when it came in.

 

 

I won't have my phone on in the Caribbean.....I seriously don't think I'll be lucky like that ever again.

[pamouselover]

Subbing to show Hubby later. I was pretty sure we would get roaming charges, if we used the cell phones on the cruise.

[chasinraynbowz]

My DH has Verizon also and on our last cruise we made 3 calls from the ship while we were docked at Cozumel. We had no roaming charges and the calls were "normal" calls. Other than those calls though, the phone was off.

[PaulMedik]

We have ATT and have been lucky not to rack up ANY charges other than normal. I have even made calls to my parents back home and to work and not been charged roaming fees.

[zqvol]

Calls that go to vm are not charged. It is the text messages that got you. Disable them before you cruise. I have them disabled period.

 

Unanswered calls are charged. The charge is based on your carriers roaming rate plus the Carnival phone at sea rate. Unanswered calls run about $3.00.Text messages are not charge that way. If you want to stay in touch use text not voice. Text message are about 20 cents each.

[Cobra1365]

Yet another reason my cell phone stays on the kitchen counter when I go on vacation!!!

[cruiser_new]

Interesting that some people get roaming and some don't. I am about to take my first cruise but here is what I was told by AT&T. If you turn on your phone and it picks up the international tower, even if you then turn off your phone for the rest of the trip, you will be charged $2.49/min for all calls made to your phone (even if it's off!). The $2.49 price applies when you are at sea. In the ports the prices vary...I thnk for my cruise it ranged from $.99 in Cozumel to $3.99 in Roatan.

 

Doesn't seem fair to charge you for calls while your phone is off. We are thinking about telling everybody we know not to call us that week, and using the phones for texting to keep in touch with family members on the ship. Another option was to ditch the phones altogether and use 2-way radios to keep in touch, but I have read on this board that the radio option is pretty annoying for everybody, including yourself and other cruisers around you. Opinions welcomed on this subject.

[murcielago]

ahh i did have quite a few voicemails...dumb silly ones like "ohh your sooo lucky to be cruising its raining here" "Hey hows the cruise going" " When you getting back " LOL

Guess those helped with the bill :p

 

See I was under the impression as long as I didnt call anyone or answer any calls I would not incur roaming charges..Truth be told I only kept the phone on for the time, forgot my clock :D

 

 

 

With all due respect, I think you may want to dispute those charges. Simply having your phone on will NOT incur any roaming charges. Either you received too many voice/text mesages or someone else used it.

Call your phone co. and ask for a detailed bill. By the way, calling your voice mail count as airtime.

[Willie T]

Just a little warning about pre-paid phones. Mine is mainly for business, but I took it once, just in case I needed it. Used it once out to sea, to call someone on the ship (duh!:o). Well, I did'nt know about special International settings, or whatever. Anyway, fried my sim card. The company had to send me a new one, I got my minuets, but lost that number, which meant a new number, new business cards, trying to call all my clients, and totally losing some who thought I had just vanished! It's a funny story now....not so much then.

Make arrangments with the company before you go! LOL