A phone for international use?

[cruisestitch]

That would be your carrier's charge.

[Christine Frances]

I checked out iMessage at the ap store and it gets horrible reviews. Interesting that it seems to work for you.

 

My daughter and I have unlimited texting on our plan, so don't see the need to purchase an ap that may or may not work. YMMV.

 

I think the Message app that is on iPads, iPhones and iTouchs are preloaded. It works perfectly between all above Apple products. I have no idea what the "purchased" app is or how it works. Is it for android phones?

 

 

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[Christine Frances]

My favorite cheap way to make phone calls is Skype. You can't use it on the ship, but there are free wifi spots in most ports. Most restaurant / cafe's have them, if you sit down and get a coffee or bottled water they will give you the access code. It's like 5 cents a minute, or so cheap that I loaded $20 3 cruises ago and i still haven't loaded more $.

You can get the free Skype app for iPhone or android phones. It's easier than making a cell call because there are no access or country codes to figure out.

I use text and email on the ship, and Skype in every port or excursion.

 

Kevin, have you tried Skype "texting" on the ship? Wonder if that would work. We chat with our OZ friends by txt as the video is spotty most of the time.

 

 

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[Lsimon]

Larry, who is assessing this $.50 charge per outbound message? Is this your carrier or the ship? My upcoming cruise will be my first with a smart phone, so I'm curious to learn the ins and outs. With my old phone which didn't work outside the country, I just tossed it in the safe and forgot it during the cruise.) Our plan with Verizon provides for unlimited texts as part of our service.

 

The $0.50 message cost is accessed by the carrier, in my case ATT, and included on your ATT bill the same way the $2.49/minute charge for phone calls would be billed. I'm certain Celebrity gets a commission on it but you won't see that directly. There are no direct charges by Celebrity for using your cell phone unless it is an iPhone or Android or similar smart phone and you've logged into the ship's wi-fi system to access the internet. And for wi-fi the billing is just like using a laptop or computer in the ship's internet cafe.

 

If you want to see where I got the $0.50/message for outgoing text messages from look at the very bottom section of the following page: http://www.wireless.att.com/travelguide/coverage/coverage_details.jsp?CIDL=1579&MNC=CING

 

You can get to this page, and similar information for land based international destinations from this ATT page: http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/international-roaming.jsp

 

Now all this is for ATT service and not Verizon so you'll have to check Verizon's web site for their info but generally the rates and terms are pretty similar. Note that on ATT the $0.50 per message is only for outgoing messages. Incoming messages are based on the plan you have at home - so if you have unlimited text messaging at home there is no extra charge for incoming text messages on the ship with ATT.

 

While your Verizon service may include unlimited text messages that is probably just while you are in the USA coverage area and probably does not apply to service when you are outside of the country be it on land or on a cruise ship.

 

I checked out iMessage at the ap store and it gets horrible reviews. Interesting that it seems to work for you.

 

My daughter and I have unlimited texting on our plan, so don't see the need to purchase an ap that may or may not work. YMMV.

 

iMessage is an integral part of the more recent versions of the system that runs on iPhones, iPads, etc. If you've upgraded the software on your iPhone, iPad or iPod since October 2011, or bought one since then, it is automatically a part of the system. On the iPhone iMessage runs pretty much invisibly with regular text messages as port of the iPhones text message app. It uses iMessage if it can and if it can't it uses regular text messages. If you don't specifically look to see if a message is sent or received with iMessage you won't know the difference.

[Kevnzworld]

Kevin, have you tried Skype "texting" on the ship? Wonder if that would work. We chat with our OZ friends by txt as the video is spotty most of the time.

 

 

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Never thought of that. The problem would be having to pay for and keep the ships wifi on, or preplan a " text " conversation.

I find it easy to send a few text updates to my wife, and then write a more detailed email at the end of the day. ( sea days ).

The free wifi spots are so common now that I easily found one in every port on my Panama canal cruise. Some cities and towns offer free wifi too. I found and used that in Miami, Costa Rica and Puerto Vallarta. Skype on my iPhone worked perfectly, and it's just as easy as making a cell phone call, and almost free!

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

 

While your Verizon service may include unlimited text messages that is probably just while you are in the USA coverage area and probably does not apply to service when you are outside of the country be it on land or on a cruise ship.

 

iMessage is an integral part of the more recent versions of the system that runs on iPhones, iPads, etc. If you've upgraded the software on your iPhone, iPad or iPod since October 2011, or bought one since then, it is automatically a part of the system. On the iPhone iMessage runs pretty much invisibly with regular text messages as port of the iPhones text message app. It uses iMessage if it can and if it can't it uses regular text messages. If you don't specifically look to see if a message is sent or received with iMessage you won't know the difference.

 

I didn't try texting while in Canada recently, but I suspect you are right that it's only unlimited while on their network in the US. I'll check with Verizon to see what the deal is.

 

I do have the latest versions of both the iPhone and iPad, so I guess I've been iMessaging all along. They do sell an ap in the ap store. That's the one that got the horrible reviews.

 

Thanks for your help!

[travelpeon]

T-Mobile USA's prepaid program also offers international roaming. Here are the rates http://wac.04c7.edgecastcdn.net/0004C7/tmo_prepaid/assets/pdf/IntlCallingRates.pdf

+ bottom of the page here http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-additional-services

 

There's two things to pay attention to here:

1. Buy an "unlocked quad band GSM phone" that supports 900, 1800, and 2100 bands. The 2100 band is for faster 3g service, but realistically, a lot of places have been building out this type of network for the last several years to support smart phones. You can get these unlocked phones online on eBay, Amazon, Newegg, etc.

2. Top up credit expires within 90 days of adding it to your t-mobile account unless you add more credit. That's fine if you just buy $10 or $20 online/at grocery store gift card area when you want to use it and are fine if unused credit expires.

 

T-mobile is one of the US carriers that does not charge roaming costs for St. Thomas and Puerto Rico.

 

Buying your own unlocked phone does give you the advantage of being able to put other sims in it, not just mobal's.

 

Android users can use the google voice app to send free texts to USA mobile numbers and I've read textFish on iOS & Android is a good option for cheap international texts.

 

For the more tech inclined looking for an international roaming sim, I use piranha-mobile http://www.piranha-mobile.com/ which is prepaid, offers good rates, supplies international mobile numbers (US, CA, AU, UK, or PL), and includes a smartphone VOIP client which is free to receive calls on.

[LuAnn]

thank you all for such great input....and so many otpions!!! And I hope other CCers learned from this thread as well!!! LuAnn