Anyone use the Cellularatsea through their carrier

[braz88]

Has anyone activated the Cruise ship cellular service through their cell phone carrier?

 

We have verizon and the rates for texting don't look that bad.

The roaming charges for actual voice calls seems a little steep but the data charge doesn't seem that bad either. (In case we want to send an email, etc)

 

Are there any other charges besides what is charged by my phone carrier?

 

Here is the cruise ship rates from Verizon;

 

http://businessportals.verizonwireless.com/international/Cruise_Ships/index.html

[CapeCodCruiser]

On my last cruise I had the data enabled - it was non-existent most of the time. Cellular at Sea does not seem to have the bandwidth for data. The phone service was fine. I did not text - incoming is fairly cheap but outgoing is a little steep to have a conversation but for occasional check-ins not bad.

[debee1015]

I have done it 3 times.

 

I find the data seems to be more existent on the E Caribbean routes than the Western.

 

It's also easier to use at night. If I turned on the data at 11 PM I would usually get service and I could check e-mails and make sure everything was fine at home.

 

The one place I would advise you not to turn on your phone even with the data enabled is Belize. It's a separate charge, $8+ a MB. I made that mistake for 20 seconds and the services is less than 1G.

 

This year I may just pay Carnival for the wi-fi on board versus trying the phone. And just use the phone to send texts. Verizon used to have this unlimited $60 a month data plan and they would pro-rate it for the length of your cruise. At the time I had 2 blackberries on my account on the cruise and it was like $30 for the week, rubbing in your cruise randomly on Facebook and sending pictures in e-mails, it was great. But due to people like me (I use the data on my phone more than my phone) Verizon lost money hand over fist and had to go to this crappy $25 a month for 100 MB plan.

 

100 MB is nothing.

 

So I guess Carnival is going to get my data plan allowance money this cruise. And I'll just make sure Verizon knows I can use the phone I have now on the cruise for calls and text (St Thomas is on the VZW domestic data plan! Yeah! Guess who's going to be posting on FB in St Thomas! LOL)

 

I know people are like you're on vacation put your phone away, but if something happens to my home or one of my animals I want to know now (even though there is nothing I can do but give direction or guidance on what I want done next) versus coming home to find out that something happened. But that's just me.

[CruzCrazy]

We have Verizon and used the text feature at sea on our cruise in March, incoming .05, outgoing .50. We also made about 3 voice calls. (We used the ship's package for e-mail. That seemed to work out for us since DH had to check e-mail very often for business. We turned data off on our phones). This was an 8-day cruise, and we figure it cost us about an extra $25-30 total on our Verizon bill when it came in (gotta count on those extra taxes that get tacked onto everything with wireless carriers).

[MissMichelle]

Just got our bill from last month on the Miracle....Cellular At Sea is $2.49 per minute....and they count the time as soon as you dial (so even if the other party doesn't answer it's $2.49). Be careful as far as data is concerned....if things "automatically update" you could end up with big charges for "Data Roaming".....found this out the hard way.

[smc0320]

They also count the time for voicemail.....if your phone is turned on, someone calls but you don't answer it & they leave you a voice mail, you get charged for the length of time the sattelite is being used to carry that voice message to you....even if you never answer the phone.

 

It is MUCH cheaper to have International calling enabled on your phone (FREE from Verizon) and wait until you are in port to make phone calls. Many places in port are only $0.99 per minute. Verizon will ask where you are going and they will tell you the per minute rate for each port.

[fergusonvt]

Has anyone activated the Cruise ship cellular service through their cell phone carrier?

 

We have verizon and the rates for texting don't look that bad.

The roaming charges for actual voice calls seems a little steep but the data charge doesn't seem that bad either. (In case we want to send an email, etc)

 

Are there any other charges besides what is charged by my phone carrier?

 

Here is the cruise ship rates from Verizon;

 

http://businessportals.verizonwireless.com/international/Cruise_Ships/index.html

 

 

No, we enabled Global roaming in January. We kept in touch with our son in college and because it was texts it only amounted to about $3.00 more on my bill. I saw no other charges except for the texts. I plan on enabling global roaming again next Feb.

[kelkel2]

I used it for both texting and phone calls. I thought the quality of the call the times I used it were good. If you want to just check in at home texting is by far much cheaper.

My sister just came home and got smacked with $75 in charges for phone calls and texts. But, when she called it was as clear as if she wasn't in the middle of the ocean!

I however, do turn my data and "push notifications" off on my iphone so all my apps are not trying to pull data or notify me of things. I tend to turn my phone on once or twice during the cruise and I don't want my facebook and email going nuts when I do turn it on.

[cortneyward]

Be very careful with data usage. I have ATT, not Verizon but when I called to find out rates for them, they gave me all the info on text and call but failed to tell me data charges OR that it was best to turn the data off. I found out my last cruise day when they gave me a "courtesy call" to tell me I had already accrued $2000 in data. I only removed my phone from the safe to go into port "just in case" as my grandmother wasn't in the best of health. Never sent an email or even checked facebook, nothing. It took me several weeks, roughly 40 phone calls, and finally an email to the BBB to refund the charges (I called, they didn't tell me, their fault). Highly reccommend using the ship package for email and turning the data off.

[bako cruiser]

I am so confused!!! We are doing the Western Caribbean this Sat so I called VRZ to ask about pricing. Rep told me we have no service in ports, but then gave me the pricing ($2.49/min voice and $.50 or $.05 per text) for intl. roaming. I asked why he was giving me prices if my phone didn't work in port and why did it work on our last cruise. He said we could get a free loaner phone from them that would work ($20 S/H). He said otherwise we are subject to Carnival's high pricing while at sea. I can't find pricing for Carnival itself...everything looks like the same prices as above even with the CellularatSea service. I understand about turning off the data roaming, but not what/who is charging me per voice and text while out at sea. Am I just paying the VRZ intl. roaming and Carnival is not charging me a separate per minute fee?

 

We are leaving our 4 little ones at home with Grandma and NEED to be able to check in on them!