WiFi and Cellphones

In 10 days we fly out to the Caribbean. I’m new to Silversea and am not familiar with how the one hour of free WiFi works. Can we connect to it with our cellphones to check texts? Would we be able to make a WiFi call to our daughter back home in Atlanta?

I looked into AT&T’s Caribbean options and it seems some cruise lines have an agreement with AT&T to provide cell service on their ships while at sea for an additional charge. Silversea is not one of them. We do have the option of signing up for a $10 per day international calling rate, but it would only work on land.

I don’t want to constantly be on the phone, but I do want to check on our daughter. It’s her first time taking care of the house and pets for a week. I’d like to be able to help her if needed.

Recommendations?

Yes you should be able to use the wifi to make calls.

Just be sure you place the phone in airplane mode.

Another good option is to put something like WhatApp on your phone and have your daughter do likewise.

Then you can use that by logging onto WiFi.

It works very well and we use it to text, to make calls and to do video chats.

Keith

I would also signup for the ATT International plan. It is offered so you are only charged each day that you use it. I would have it as a backup to use when in port. If you don't use it no charges.

Keith

Keith, you always have such good information! Thank you! My daughter and I have a Korean messaging app called Kakao. We can do messaging and phone calls with that. Nearly forgot about it.

I’ll go ahead and sign up for the international calling. Thanks!

napria, you are very welcome.

Keith

Hi Napria, just off Silver Wind here, at JFK en route to home. My experience with the 1-hour WiFi was that it was just right. Not too much, not too little.

When you log in, there is a timer that counts down so you know exactly how much of the hour you have spent. When you’re done for that session, hit the big red STOP button. The rest of your minutes are there whenever you like for the rest of the day. It resets itself around midnight (I think — I was fast asleep at that point!).

It was just enough to check in with my daughter on WhatsApp, get any other important messages, and gloat over the cold weather back home.

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Thanks Unibok! That’s good to know!

currently on the Silver Muse, we opted for the premium internet package.. which was way cheaper than we expected it to be.... We paid 268 dollars for our complete 13 nights cruise.. thats only 20,60 dollars a day... We can be online with 4 devices at the same time and the speed is very good.. and the best thing is we are online all the time .. no need to log on every time..

Just got word that Silversea is offering unlimited WiFi to all guests on their cruises. What a great perk!

Just got word that Silversea is offering unlimited WiFi to all guests on their cruises. What a great perk!

me too! free too!

yes already for this ongoing cruise, wifi was offered for free... limited speed, one device at a time.. still very good.. !

Currently on the Shadow. Unlimited 24/7 WiFi to one device at any one time.

Great if its going to be on all ships no matter where if that’s the case.

Speed isn’t fast, but it works fine. This there are restrictions in place. I attempted to post some photos last night and that no longer seems to work. Also, downloading attacments in emails appears to be blocked also.

But as a email workaround, Keith’s suggestion above to use WhatsApp works perfectly.

Annoyingly, I paid for a year contract (over and above my normal) to use in Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong. It seems the call part works, but I’m unable to use data. 12GB of data and unusable! Not good.

The current Shadow service lists the sessions you’ve had and the totals for each device. Seems Ive used up approx 700MB and my wife slightly more. No idea how, but think its probably photo attachments ..... which are now seemingly blocked. That’s my only explanation anyway.

good PR though.

We use Talkatone: Free Texts, Calls & Phone Number You can call any number you want as long as it is a US number for free . They can call you also free . They do not have to have it on there phone. We use this as a backup to our world sim card we have in our travel phone.

From Cruise industry news website.

Woohoo, free wifi for all, all day from April.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/18776-silversea-adds-free-wi-fi.html

From Cruise industry news website.

 

Woohoo, free wifi for all, all day from April.

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/18776-silversea-adds-free-wi-fi.html

Not convinced that this is actually very good news unless Silversea and all the other luxury lines have significantly upgraded their data transmission rates. Yes, it will be cheaper for some people but the end result is that for those who previously chose to pay for internet service or received it because they had paid for a premium suite will no doubt be adversely affected since you can only squeeze so much traffic down the connection.

Conchyjoe, you’re precisely right. We enjoyed our one hour and used it prudently at reasonable download speeds.

Regent (we sail half our time on Regent, half on Silversea) made internet available to all/unlimited a few years ago. Second order effect was to break their internet service for all between 8Am and 10pm. Download speed is now awful. In order to post photos on a Regent ship within a reasonable time u have to do it when hundreds if not thousands of other devices (phones, tablets) are not online (i.e., before 6 am, after 11pm).

As you intimate, now SS will have thousands of devices online at the same time—one can hope they upgraded their bandwidth.

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Just got word that Silversea is offering unlimited WiFi to all guests on their cruises.What a great perk!

We Are on The World Cruise on The Whisper and The Internet is Free fór All 24/7 but sadly it is so slow that it is not fit fór purpose. VPN will not work.