Cell phone service from Long beach to Catalina, wifi in ensenda?

[Brianinidaho]

Going on Inspiration. It leaves long beach and goes "out to sea" for a day then to catalina. About 26 miles if the song is right (you got to be old to know that song). Anyway, will it be regular cell phone service or does the ship turn on the expensive international stuff? Also, in Ensendada, is their free wifi close to the dock? I can get emails and such. Hate to work but 1 call, the right call, can pay for several cruises for the type of work I do. Thanks

[welldone60]

When the ship is at anchor in Catalina, cell will be the same as you are everywhere else in the US. In Esenada, I don't know if there is wifi at the port, but a $3 shuttle ride to downtown where there are several places that have free wifi.

[SadieN]

No cell service while sailing in the channel but will have it in Avalon.

 

Have never seen free wifi in Ensenada but there are several cafes that offer it. They are on Blvd Costero and Ave Lopez (Ave Primera).

Ask a crew member.

It's a very easy walk into town. If you take a shuttle you might miss them. The seats in the shuttle are very close together, they will make you appreciate coach seats on the airlines.

[Brianinidaho]

so in the 26 mile channel no local cell phone service, just the international stuff? You can see land! But thanks for the info

[ronrythm]

so in the 26 mile channel no local cell phone service, just the international stuff? You can see land! But thanks for the info

Normal cell tower reaches 5 miles. Also the ship goes out past the 25 mile California zone on the way down to Ensenada so it doesn't have to use low emissions fuel, so you aren't that close to land the whole time.

Enjoy,

Ron

p.s. the song is wrong; it's about 22-23 miles.

[Starlight Durban Cruising]

so in the 26 mile channel no local cell phone service, just the international stuff? You can see land! But thanks for the info

I was on the Splendor a week ago using Verizon service, and a year ago using AT&T service, and both had signal back to shore for approx. 1 hour of sailing after having left the pier in Long Beach. Of course that meant I was top-side on the ship, open-air location, with probably direct line of sight access back to land-side cellular towers for AT&T or Verizon as I was able to get a fairly strong connection. Weather was pretty clear too. On Splendor I was sending e-mails with pictures attached for quite some time, but after an hour moving out through the channel the signal did drop down to 1 bar on the i-Phone. I turned it off before the connection hopped to Ship-at-Sea connection. You should be ok, but just keep on looking at your signal to see who the provider is.