Not Strictly A Cruise Question.....

[lindy12]

My husband and I both have pre-pay vodafone phones. Everytime we have gone overseas we have been assured our phones 'should' work, that we can contact each other and back home, but they never do. We take them into the local shops (of the country we are in), the assistant fiddles with them then says 'well it should work now, theres no reason why it shouldn't', but guess what, they still don't. Including our cruise we are going to be in europe for a month and I want my husband and I to be able to contact each other on our mobiles. So, would it be easier, and perhaps cheaper in the long run to buy a local pre-pay mobile each as soon as we land in Rome? Does anyone know if their phones are reasonably priced? Advice desperatly sought.

[Dayenu]

I never did that, but read discussions about unlocking the phone, buying SIM card. I'm sure other posters will be more helpful.

 

Just want to point out another option: renting cell phones instead of buying.

[jadzhea]

My husband and I both have pre-pay vodafone phones. Everytime we have gone overseas we have been assured our phones 'should' work, that we can contact each other and back home, but they never do. We take them into the local shops (of the country we are in), the assistant fiddles with them then says 'well it should work now, theres no reason why it shouldn't', but guess what, they still don't. Including our cruise we are going to be in europe for a month and I want my husband and I to be able to contact each other on our mobiles. So, would it be easier, and perhaps cheaper in the long run to buy a local pre-pay mobile each as soon as we land in Rome? Does anyone know if their phones are reasonably priced? Advice desperatly sought.

 

 

 

Hi

I would contact Vodafone before you go to ensure your sim cards are unlocked for international calls, that should sort the problem. I think you phone 2345 for customer services

I have a shop and we sell international sims... 3 or Lebara

So you could try one of them

 

Jane

[SadieN]

DD's in university in Rome.

Make sure your phones are Quadband. IIRC there is a cellphone kiosk in the international arrivals in Rome.

We wasted two hours at the Vodafone store in Rome.:mad:

Phones are about the same price in the Rome as in the states. Because you are not buying a plan be prepared to pay full price. We have had luck using our old Motorola RZR and some Samsung models. These were unlocked through AT&T. Another option is finding a store near you that sells used phones. DD is using a Blackberry for the internet capabilities (social, maps and translation). IIRC it costs E3 weekly for the internet. Another thing is that the companes send out tons of texts at your expense, you can request these turned off.

Another problem we had is that the sim card was not registered properly with our passport.

[SadieN]

Forgot to add it costs approx E25 for the sim card in Rome.