Oasis - using blackberry

[bbevanston]

I understand from my co-worker that she had blackberry reception when she was in port. I plan to use my blackberry to check on work emails while at port. Weird question but will the ship bill me for any air time or I just get billed on my blackberry account (which is actually paid by my company)? Thanks.

[Clarea]

I understand from my co-worker that she had blackberry reception when she was in port. I plan to use my blackberry to check on work emails while at port. Weird question but will the ship bill me for any air time or I just get billed on my blackberry account (which is actually paid by my company)? Thanks.

If your data is coming via cellular, then your cell carrier bills you, whether you are in port, or at sea. The ship has a cell tower, so you can get cell reception at sea, but it's expensive and not usually covered by any plan.

 

If your data is coming via WiFi, then the ship bills you if you are at sea. If you are in port, you may be lucky enough to find a free WiFi, but usually we pay a few dollars to get WiFi in port.

[bouhunter]

Someone still owns a Blackberry? Sorry I couldn't resist:D

 

If you're in port (and not on the ship) with reception the ship should have nothing to do with charges. Think about it, the phone doesn't know you're a cruise ship passenger :) There will be land vacation passengers and locals in whatever port using their Blackberry's or other cell phones and the cruise ships visiting there certainly aren't involved in their connections or billing.

[bbevanston]

OK...sounds like it is better to wait and use it when we dock and we're on land. Yes, our company still hands out blackberrys. It is free, company pays and I can get some work done. We have some type of international plan because I use it when I'm working in the UK and HK. I generally get about 100 emails a day so if I go w/o answering a few days it totally piles up. I won't use it while we're at sea since I'm technically on vacation but once we get to Labadee, Falmouth or CZM, I'll do some "work". Thanks for the info.

[Clarea]

OK...sounds like it is better to wait and use it when we dock and we're on land. Yes, our company still hands out blackberrys. It is free, company pays and I can get some work done. We have some type of international plan because I use it when I'm working in the UK and HK. I generally get about 100 emails a day so if I go w/o answering a few days it totally piles up. I won't use it while we're at sea since I'm technically on vacation but once we get to Labadee, Falmouth or CZM, I'll do some "work". Thanks for the info.

Be careful on Labadee. I don't know if there's land based cell coverage there. If it says "Cellular at Sea" on the phone, then you're on the ship's cell service.

[bouhunter]

Be careful on Labadee. I don't know if there's land based cell coverage there. If it says "Cellular at Sea" on the phone, then you're on the ship's cell service.

 

I agree.

[BourbonMan]

Last week while on our cruise, I just went into the phone settings and turned off roaming cellular for both voice and data. That will ensure you never connect to the ship or any other cell tower which will incur additional charges. We left out of Baltimore and as we went down the coast, we came in and out of cell coverage with my carrier so I would get updates here and there. While in ports that I had no coverage, I would just go grab a beer at a bar that had wifi for its customers and use that to get emails.

[bbevanston]

Thanks. I should just take a real vacation and not log on at all but....

[CRUISEFAN0001]

If your data is coming via WiFi, then the ship bills you if you are at sea. If you are in port, you may be lucky enough to find a free WiFi, but usually we pay a few dollars to get WiFi in port.

Agree this is the best solution (least costly).

 

Been there - done that.

[trev71]

Yeah I agree be careful I always tend to leave my phone when I cruise in airplane mode and have people send me messages on faceb00k instead of text message. saves a ton of money.. there is a few places in Mexico the shopping area that has free wifi. I just dont know how seucre it is