Using My Mobile Phone on Ship

[dafne]

Going on Silversea next week. I purchased an international phone plan from AT & T to call back to the United States on my mobile phone.

 

I know I can use the phone in the port. However, if I want to make calls

from my cabin will I only be charged from my AT & T plan? or will I be charged from Silversea too? If so what is the charge?

 

How is the reception when on the ship at sea? And also when on ship but at port?

 

Thanks.

[Portolan]

Going on Silversea next week. I purchased an international phone plan from AT & T to call back to the United States on my mobile phone.

 

I know I can use the phone in the port. However, if I want to make calls

from my cabin will I only be charged from my AT & T plan? or will I be charged from Silversea too? If so what is the charge?

 

How is the reception when on the ship at sea? And also when on ship but at port?

 

Thanks.

 

Silversea, like many other cruise lines, uses Cellular at Sea, a satellite-based service when at sea. They will keep this service off while in port so your phone will be picked up by the local carrier (you can check this by looking at the carrier displayed on your phone). So, in port, you'll be pciked up by the AT&T affiliate for the country you are in and your costs will be those described in the AT&T plan. Cellular at Sea has its own rates and your AT&T plan will not discount them. About $2.50/min, as I recall. Voice is a relatively low data rate so reception should be fine.

 

Also, unless you really know what you are doing (seriously huge bills can result from lack of understanding), ensure you have data roaming turned off while overseas. AT&T will send you a text message in each new country reminding you that the default data rate is $20/MB. That picture your friend just sent you?...is $80. You can use the Silversea wi-fi for data on using your purchased plan on the ship, but failure to explicitly log off will use up your plan and then start running up an a la carte bill.

 

See also: http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB66571&cv=820#fbid=tjRsNigdqid

[duct tape]

My experience is about the same. Cellular at Sea is very expensive. We use our phones in port.

[RachelG]

Agree with both posters above. Regent also uses cellular at sea. Since we have free phone service on regent, there would be no reason for us to ever use a cell phone while at sea, but George forgot to turn his off once after we had been in port. Very expensive lesson to learn! While at sea, keep the cell phone off. (Or at least the phone and text part of the phone.). I do use mine as an alarm clock.

[FAP16]

Check with AT&T. They have a plan for the cruise line that applies when you are at sea and using the ships system. The per minute rate may be more expensive than calling in port via the local wireless affiliate but it will be less than if you don't have a plan. If you are in port everyday probably doesn't matter. But if you have sea days and may need to make calls it will pay off. Also, if you are going to use your phone for data, e.g., email, you may want to get a data plan as well. This should be the same for port and ship. It is somewhat expensive but no where near as much if you don't have a plan. Even with the plan, turn off data roaming and then turn roaming back on when you want to use it if you have a plan. Not sure about ATT, but with Verizon I find text messages more reliable than incoming calls. So you may want to advise anyone at home that needs to reach you quickly to text instead of calling. Besides it less expensive.

[Older Party]

The easiest thing is to put your phone on airplane mode as soon as you leave port. You can still use all your functions, but it will turn off the data and "Cellular at Sea" will not pick up. If you see "Cellular at Sea" on your phone at any time next to the bars, turn your data off immediately. I once forgot to turn mine off for 3 days (crossing the Atlantic), and the constant roaming cost me over $600 by the time I noticed it. Expensive lesson to learn.

[dafne]

First thanks to everyone for your responses.

 

So, if our first port is Monte Carlo- and the ship doesn't leave until 11:00 P.M.-

will I be able to make calls from my cabin at any time while in the port- and only be charged on my International AT & T rates?

 

Thanks.

[FAP16]

Yes, you should be able to use the ATT service while in port. Just check the carrier name on the screen to make sure it is not Cellular at Sea. I was told by Cellular at Sea that they can't turn on the service until 12 nautical miles at sea so it should never be on while in port. There will probably be a dead area once you leave port and are too far to pick up cellular service from land until the ship is far enough out for Cellular at Sea to kicks in.

[dafne]

Thanks- appreciate the response!

[bahrain_not_dubai!]

I think the best way to deal with it is to pretend like there is no cell phone service at sea, because if you use it you could quickly spend hundreds of dollars on something that is unnecessary. I am not aware of Silversea rates, but should the need arise to urgently contact someone while at sea try using the ship's telephone. Whenever your in port, a local phone company (the AT&T affiliate) should appear on your phone next to the reception bar. When it is the ship's network that you can see, it would be wise to turn your phone off.

[Keith1010]

I just want to note that while ATT has a bulk plan for people at sea it is only with RCI at this time. Actually it is a terrific plan so hopefully at some point other cruise lines will adopt it. While we do not make many calls from sea it is always good to know that it is available should we have to make a call.

 

Reception on any cruise ship can be spotty and you may encounter dropped calls.

 

 

I am not sure which service you signed up for but ATT has a range of services. On top of voice if you want to do your e mail for $30.00 per month you can use a service on land which we have used to quickly go through our e mail. I don't type much on the phone but I used the service to quickly browse my mail while in port and it allowed me to quickly read the e mails and to delete those I didn't need and to know which ones I needed to respond to when back on the ship. If you are away for a few weeks that is very cost effective.

 

Keith

[Wellseasoned]

I don't have an ATT phone, but I always have my normal USA Verizon phone aboard the SS ships. I turn off data roaming, as others have noted, but I simply keep the phone turned on while at sea. There is no connection procedure or log in. The connection is automatic. My charges are NOT through Cellular at Sea. I am charged only by Verizon for any calls I receive or make , billed at their voice roaming rates.

For use in ports, when the ship's connection is off, I use a phone bought online from Mobal for $49, which charges only for calls and has no other fees. This system has worked for many SS cruises on various ships for years, most recently a couple of months ago.