Phones/sims to use 24/7 at sea (want to be contactable all the time)

[Velvetwater]

My hubby and I are on the Baltics 12 day cruise and have lots of days at sea. We want to be contactable at all times due to my hubbys very ill grandfather and my family's love of ringing me quite a bit due to an extreme anxiety disorder. We realise they can ring us anytime via expensive satellite phone but wondered if we could take a certain type of mobile phone/sim to be contactable 24/7 even if it just by text. Obviously it would be just phone for calls and texts only so dont want any data charges etc. We would like to use the Carnival website forum but many of our loved ones live in the stone age and do not use the internet.

 

Has anyone ever done this and do pay as you go phones work while at sea? Calling and recieving in ports is easy as both our contract phones work around Europe already.Basically want to know if theres a certain phone/sim/contract i can get to be able to do this.

 

I know some people will say to tell my family not to call or to use the website but with the part of my family concerned this really is not an option. We are from the UK.

[uksimonusa]

My hubby and I are on the Baltics 12 day cruise and have lots of days at sea. We want to be contactable at all times due to my hubbys very ill grandfather and my family's love of ringing me quite a bit due to an extreme anxiety disorder. We realise they can ring us anytime via expensive satellite phone but wondered if we could take a certain type of mobile phone/sim to be contactable 24/7 even if it just by text. Obviously it would be just phone for calls and texts only so dont want any data charges etc. We would like to use the Carnival website forum but many of our loved ones live in the stone age and do not use the internet.

 

Has anyone ever done this and do pay as you go phones work while at sea? Calling and recieving in ports is easy as both our contract phones work around Europe already.Basically want to know if theres a certain phone/sim/contract i can get to be able to do this.

 

I know some people will say to tell my family not to call or to use the website but with the part of my family concerned this really is not an option. We are from the UK.

 

If your contract phones work around Europe, they should also work on the ship, who is your carrier, call them to verify, I know 02 works onboard

[Velvetwater]

If your contract phones work around Europe, they should also work on the ship, who is your carrier, call them to verify, I know 02 works onboard

 

Thanks for the info, i will have to check :)

 

I have just switched to o2 contract from o2 pay as you go and hubby has virgin contract which definitely works around europe but apparently virgin doesnt have satellite links according the terrestial website

 

My phone is an old lg thing, would I need to update?

 

Did you use your phone while at sea and far away from land?

[happy cruzin]

Here is a link to the guest services page for Cellular at Sea - the provider of cell service on Carnival ships.

 

http://www.wmsatsea.com/guest-services.html

 

Service Requirements

 

The WMSatSea mobile network is accessible by most mobile phones, supporting both GSM and CDMA technologies. You must have service with one of the nearly 400 carriers worldwide that have a roaming agreement with WMS. Some prepaid phone plans by some carriers are not currently supported. Please check with your mobile telephone service provider for details.

[chengkp75]

Here is a link to the guest services page for Cellular at Sea - the provider of cell service on Carnival ships.

 

http://www.wmsatsea.com/guest-services.html

 

Service Requirements

 

The WMSatSea mobile network is accessible by most mobile phones, supporting both GSM and CDMA technologies. You must have service with one of the nearly 400 carriers worldwide that have a roaming agreement with WMS. Some prepaid phone plans by some carriers are not currently supported. Please check with your mobile telephone service provider for details.

 

I believe that there are several threads on various forums about this, and nearly all of them will tell you that if you have your phone on all the time, you will find an enormous bill when you get home. No matter what plan or carrier you have, you will still have to pay Wireless at Sea. Check their rates, not sure of their website, or maybe through Carnival.

[Velvetwater]

I believe that there are several threads on various forums about this, and nearly all of them will tell you that if you have your phone on all the time, you will find an enormous bill when you get home. No matter what plan or carrier you have, you will still have to pay Wireless at Sea. Check their rates, not sure of their website, or maybe through Carnival.

 

My phone doesnt have the internet at all so maybe no data charges? surely I would only have to pay for calls and texts (dont mind paying for those).

[happy cruzin]

I believe that there are several threads on various forums about this, and nearly all of them will tell you that if you have your phone on all the time, you will find an enormous bill when you get home. No matter what plan or carrier you have, you will still have to pay Wireless at Sea. Check their rates, not sure of their website, or maybe through Carnival.

 

Not true - big bills are avoidable. It all depends on your settings. :rolleyes:

We take our "smart phones" - and they stay on because of the need to stay connected to our business. But we turn off the roaming data and push notifications.

Your "home plan" does not apply to the ship service for calls or voice mails. There is a cellular at sea fee of $2.49/minute for voice service and for our carrier (AT&T) incoming text are deducted from those in our plan and outgoing a .50 each.

Edited June 6, 2013 by happy cruzin

[happy cruzin]

My phone doesnt have the internet at all so maybe no data charges? surely I would only have to pay for calls and texts (dont mind paying for those).

 

Correct - then you would pay for calls or texts only. The charges vary by carrier - so I'd check what they charge.

[Velvetwater]

Thanks for all the advice, just checked my handset is GSM and quad also which it is...yay :)

[photos4U]

On our last visit to Great Britain we bought a data SIM card from a coin operated vending machine at the Heathrow airport for my iPad. Can someone please tell me if the vending machines are still selling the data SIM at Heathrow

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mysticks1]

I purchased a phone from Mobal which is an international phone. We used it on our Med cruise and on our Baltics cruise last year. You get an international number and you are charged for the incoming/outgoing texts and calls, there is no monthly fee for it. I only wanted a couple of people to be able to contact us so having that different phone and number really worked well for us. http://www.mobal.com/ They have a rental program as well but we just purchased the cheaper phone as we only needed calls/text with no data.

Edited April 15, 2014 by Mysticks1

[dd2355]

On our last visit to Great Britain we bought a data SIM card from a coin operated vending machine at the Heathrow airport for my iPad. Can someone please tell me if the vending machines are still selling the data SIM at Heathrow

 

You resurrected a year old thread just to asl a completely unrelated question? :confused:

 

Anyway, seems the answer is yes. Of sorts. See here for more info: http://*******/1hGhz2c

Edited April 15, 2014 by dd2355

[MsMot]

My hubby and I are on the Baltics 12 day cruise and have lots of days at sea. We want to be contactable at all times due to my hubbys very ill grandfather and my family's love of ringing me quite a bit due to an extreme anxiety disorder. We realise they can ring us anytime via expensive satellite phone but wondered if we could take a certain type of mobile phone/sim to be contactable 24/7 even if it just by text. Obviously it would be just phone for calls and texts only so dont want any data charges etc. We would like to use the Carnival website forum but many of our loved ones live in the stone age and do not use the internet.

 

Has anyone ever done this and do pay as you go phones work while at sea? Calling and recieving in ports is easy as both our contract phones work around Europe already.Basically want to know if theres a certain phone/sim/contract i can get to be able to do this.

 

I know some people will say to tell my family not to call or to use the website but with the part of my family concerned this really is not an option. We are from the UK.

 

As I understand it, AT&T's go phones only work in the US. If your phone is factory unlocked, you may be able to find a SIM card that will work.

 

http://www.roamsimple.com/products/Roam-Simple-EU-SIM-Card.aspx?gclid=CKHzpfbjt7sCFQISMwodCmkA_Q&gclid=CKPKlMqc470CFaN9OgodHAwAJQ