Electronics: Cell? iPad? Wifi?

[laparente]

Me again! Can you tell I'm getting excited for this trip!?!?

 

This will be my first trip to Hawaii, but I have cruised before (most recently, Disney to the Baltic.)

 

My question is: should I plan to be able to use my cell phone on this trip? I'm a T-Mobile customer (and yes, I'll call them - but face it, you guys know more about this stuff than the poor T-Mobile customer service agent.)

 

Also, I'd like to bring my iPad, maybe, if Wifi is available. I've used ship's internet, and I know it is slow, but sometimes it is necessary. From the Baltic, it was expensive and slow, but I was OK with that. Is Hawaii also generally expensive and slow - or can you pop into a cafe and grab a little Wifi time?

 

I sound like a digital addict - that's not entirely true - but I will say, in my defense, last time I was on a cruise with my mom, she was the one sucking up all the bandwidth, uploading cruise pics to Facebook. I kept saying, "MOM!!! It's seventy-five-cents per minute! Can't this wait until you get home!?!" This trip is also with my mom - and I'm sure we are BOTH going to want to upload pictures :)

 

Thank you for your advice. I'm really getting nervous - and I haven't even BEGUN to think of packing!

[Just4You]

Me again! Can you tell I'm getting excited for this trip!?!?

 

This will be my first trip to Hawaii, but I have cruised before (most recently, Disney to the Baltic.)

 

My question is: should I plan to be able to use my cell phone on this trip? I'm a T-Mobile customer (and yes, I'll call them - but face it, you guys know more about this stuff than the poor T-Mobile customer service agent.)

 

Also, I'd like to bring my iPad, maybe, if Wifi is available. I've used ship's internet, and I know it is slow, but sometimes it is necessary. From the Baltic, it was expensive and slow, but I was OK with that. Is Hawaii also generally expensive and slow - or can you pop into a cafe and grab a little Wifi time?

 

I sound like a digital addict - that's not entirely true - but I will say, in my defense, last time I was on a cruise with my mom, she was the one sucking up all the bandwidth, uploading cruise pics to Facebook. I kept saying, "MOM!!! It's seventy-five-cents per minute! Can't this wait until you get home!?!" This trip is also with my mom - and I'm sure we are BOTH going to want to upload pictures :)

 

Thank you for your advice. I'm really getting nervous - and I haven't even BEGUN to think of packing!

 

I have an iPhone with ATT. When the ship is in port my iPhone worked, even in our cabin. I was able to receive and reply to emails, search google, I sent a nice review to one of the local tour companies, and used the GPS (didn't need internet on ship). Once the ship pulled away from port I no longer had service.

 

I don't know about T-Mobile.There are some internet cafes on the islands with free internet, do a google search to see where they are located.

[samtgrizz]

If you want to use the ships wifi on the sea days, I have found that you can save money by purchasing a package before the cruise. They give you extra minutes if you do this.

[herdingdogmom]

From your rental car post, I think you are on the POA. There are no sea days on the POA and the POA does not have/use ship cell towers. My smart phone used the AT&T land based towers with no roaming/extra charges.

 

As Just4You said, once you are away from land when sailing at night, you will have no service. Be sure to turn off your devices or they will be dead in the morning after trying to search for a tower all night.

 

There is an internet cafe onboard where you can buy internet packages, but it is expensive and very slow. I used it to print my boarding passes on Friday and it took 20 minutes.

 

Have a great trip!

[tommui987]

should I plan to be able to use my cell phone on this trip?

Also, I'd like to bring my iPad, maybe, if Wifi is available.

 

Like the song in Oklahoma! ... "everything's up to date ..."

 

Answer - yes and yes. As the POA sails during the evening (except from Kauai to Oahu), you can use your phone on shore and there are WiFi's everywhere - usually at stores like Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, and a lot of the usual tourist stops. You will have to be concerned with location on the particular island if you intend to hit the internet up in the mountains however, but usually there should not be a problem at the ports or on the shorelines nearby.

[chipmaster]

In port your coverage will be whatever T-mobile does for you.

 

As to wifi wherever its available, I'd not want to spend time on the internet while at sea as its always pitfully slow. As to in port find a free wifi hot spot, but you know you are in hawaii, why would you feel the need to surf the internet when you can do real surfing. I know I never wanted for internet except for work, but my teenagers sadly didn't appreciate the beauty till I dragged them to the beach and they tried real surfing :D

[brettsmom2004]

We sailed on POA back in 2008 and I had AT&T cell service and Sprint broadband for my laptop....no extra charges from either of them while we were in port, on the ship or off the ship. The further away from the islands the weaker the signal gets and soon you are without signal completely...but that's ok, because there is alot to do in the evening aboard the ship as it's cruising to the next island....ya wake up in the morning in port and can use your electronics again....

 

This time I have Verizon for both my cell and laptop...should be the same as before....and as others have suggested, there are restaurants and cafes on shore that offer free wifi.

 

Aloha!

gg

[jmk242]

Is the safe in the room on POA big enough for an iPad? I want to bring mine, but I didn't want to carry it around with me when I was off the ship. Thanks!

[welove2cruise*]

If it is the standard size (as I am assuming from the other NCL ships we have been on) then yes, it does fit. I had mine with me on our last two cruises (Epic an Sun) and could put it in to store.

 

I checked the NCL website and it looks like they do have cell service on the ship. I am hoping that is the case as I leave my phone on all the time in case my son needs to conact me. BTW - I just switched to an IPhone in December. Be aware that you need to call Verizon (or your provider) to have them turn off your voice mail if you going to be traveling and do not want voice mail to pick up a call that you would ignore when roaming. There is no way to do this manually from the phone that I have found.

[chihuaha]

I checked the NCL website and it looks like they do have cell service on the ship...

 

True for all NCL ships, except for POA. She has no onboard cell site ("tower"). [Well, one may actually exist, but since the POA doesn't ever clear out of the US into international waters, it is never turned on.]

 

You will however get good cellular service almost all the time, except maybe for a couple hours in the overnight period while underway. Many of the shore-based towers are high and have a fairly long range, so during the normal waking hours when you are either in port or not far offshore, you'll have usable coverage. And since even between ports you are not really out of line-of-sight of land, there is likely a usable signal out in the open on an upper deck if you really need to make that 3 AM call.

[herdingdogmom]

True for all NCL ships, except for POA. She has no onboard cell site ("tower"). [Well, one may actually exist, but since the POA doesn't ever clear out of the US into international waters, it is never turned on.]

 

You will however get good cellular service almost all the time, except maybe for a couple hours in the overnight period while underway. Many of the shore-based towers are high and have a fairly long range, so during the normal waking hours when you are either in port or not far offshore, you'll have usable coverage. And since even between ports you are not really out of line-of-sight of land, there is likely a usable signal out in the open on an upper deck if you really need to make that 3 AM call.

 

The info about the cell tower on the POA is correct - it is not turned on. However, I found that I had no cell phone service at night from Maui to Hilo and Kona to Kauai and Kauai to Oahu. I did not go out on deck at 3:00am, but can't imagine that would make a difference. The ship is really moving those nights. As I said in post #4, if you do not turn your phone off at night in your cabin (when the ship is away from the land towers), it will search all night for a land based tower and will be dead in the morning just when you may want to use it.

 

You can buy internet time on the ship, but it is expensive and very slow.