Cell phone coverage Panama cruise- help

[Qualicum]

We are Canadians leaving for the Panama on Feb. 20th. Have an ill Mother so family would like us to keep in contact. Does anyone know if our Telus Molbility cell phone will work down there and how does the roaming thing work? Remember seeing something on this site about the ships now having a new system that allows cell phones to work. Would appreciate some feedback as we now have this concern about Mom and keeping in touch. Many thanks

[TrentS]

Yes, SOME ships have the ability for certain companies or certain types of cell phones to roam at sea (only at sea, they have to turn it off in port), but I don't think it's on ALL ships yet and I'm not sure about the Legend. You should probably contact RCI to ask about the Legend and about your specific cellular provider.

[dc-snoopy]

The service you are thinking of is AT&T's Maritime Services. Unfortunately when I called RCI just before our Jewel of the Seas cruise 2/6 - 2/13, they told me that they did not support Maritime Services yet.

 

I had sporadic SprintPCS service while in the Caribbean. I would suggest that you purchase an International calling card with lots of minutes on there (you can get ones for 1000 minutes for less than $100 here in the Washington DC area) and call home each day from you port of call. In an emergency, they can call you on the ship in your stateroom, but it costs $7.95 per day. It is much cheaper to purchase the International calling card and use it. The reason that I suggest that you get lots of minutes, the rates are not always 1-to-1. It takes something like 14 minutes to connect Internationally and then depending on location, it may charge you 2-to-1 for minutes. For the contact number for your ship, it should be in your travel documents you got from RCI. There is a section on emergency calls from the ship. And if you have to, you can call out from your stateroom to a land line, but again it is $7.95 per minute.

[TrentS]

The service you are thinking of is AT&T's Maritime Services. Unfortunately when I called RCI just before our Jewel of the Seas cruise 2/6 - 2/13, they told me that they did not support Maritime Services yet.

It's on some ships already, but I don't know which ones other than the Navigator. It works okay, but there's a delay between when you say something and when the person you're talking to hears you, and keep in mind that there IS an International Roaming charge (determined by your cellular provider) if you leave your phone on.

[dc-snoopy]

The service you are thinking of is AT&T's Maritime Services. Unfortunately when I called RCI just before our Jewel of the Seas cruise 2/6 - 2/13, they told me that they did not support Maritime Services yet.

 

I had sporadic SprintPCS service while in the Caribbean. I would suggest that you purchase an International calling card with lots of minutes on there (you can get ones for 1000 minutes for less than $100 here in the Washington DC area) and call home each day from you port of call. In an emergency, they can call you on the ship in your stateroom, but it costs $7.95 per day. It is much cheaper to purchase the International calling card and use it. The reason that I suggest that you get lots of minutes, the rates are not always 1-to-1. It takes something like 14 minutes to connect Internationally and then depending on location, it may charge you 2-to-1 for minutes. For the contact number for your ship, it should be in your travel documents you got from RCI. There is a section on emergency calls from the ship. And if you have to, you can call out from your stateroom to a land line, but again it is $7.95 per minute.

 

Correction. It costs $7.95 per minute. Not the fee you want to pay to check in daily.

[bluehorizonlover123]

In Panama our guide at a Cingular phone and service but our phone did not work.

[dc-snoopy]

In Panama our guide at a Cingular phone and service but our phone did not work.

 

Call Cingular and see what's involved to use your phone Internationally. I had to call Sprint and have them add the International Roaming feature to my phone. It didn't cost extra, but they had to set it up for me to use it internationally.

[Honey's Gal]

I could not use our phone on the Pacific side our our PC cruise in October, no signal. I acutally didn't get a signal until we were in Aruba. It didn't cost me too much to call home. I made three calls from a beach in Aruba, one each to the three children and it cost me about $10.80. Each call was 4 minutes. Still alot cheaper than calling from the cabin. Once it cost me almost $40 for one call, a few minutes (~4).