What is the cost per minute using mobile phone while at sea?

[dafne]

Going on Quest next week- what is the cost of using my mobile phone while at sea- connecting to the ship's provider?

 

Thank you.

[Kamloops50]

Going on Quest next week- what is the cost of using my mobile phone while at sea- connecting to the ship's provider?

 

Thank you.

 

About $2.50 a minute. This is charged back to your mobile phone company . They might also add international roaming charges as well.

Unless you really need the phone . Turn it off completely and leave in the safe.

Edited April 21, 2014 by Kamloops50

[Roxburgh]

Dafne ......

 

There is a lot of port time on this cruise so when you are in port you will not be connecting to the ship's satellite service but to the local cell network. That is a good thing because the ship service is expensive.

 

But - and depending on your provider - you should go online to your providers website and switch on the international calling and the international data services. That will cost you some money but nothing like as much if you don't do it and get caught out. International data, in particular, can be horribly expensive and it is something that can be hard to control as data is often 'pushed' to you.

 

And, as already stated, switch the phone off at sea and soon after leaving port.

[Pop-I]

Download VIBER, a free app for your phone. Then just use the internet minutes on whatever package you get through the ship.

[Emperor Norton]

Isn't VIBER similar to Skype where they ask you not to use it or state up front they may just block port access or restrict its bandwidth depending upon the mood they're in?

[CraftyEC]

On our last SB cruise I saw plenty of folks using Skype to talk to family (especially grandchildren) in Seabourn Square - presumably the band width was a bit better there than in their suites. I'm sure that this contributed to fairly lousy internet access early evening, but we just used it at other times, and left it to those who were calling home before dinner. I haven't tried Viber on board, but I find it works extremely well for texts (my family do not live in the UK, so free texts is good) but not at all well for voice calls.

[absolutboy20]

I'm assuming your using a smartphone and when you state using your phone you mean text, phone, and data.

 

You'll have a couple of choices, but I highly recommend if you are planning on using your phone on board and not connecting through the ship's wifi, to purchase a international data/phone package. Paying as you go is going to be particularly expensive. For example, pay as you go for data on board using cellular-at-sea on AT&T is $19.97 per mb. To put that into perspective, if you happened to download one three minute song that costs $1.29, the data charge for that download would be about $120.00.

 

You'll want to check with your wireless phone provider as they would be the one that ultimately bills for the charges of on-board phone/data use if you're connecting through the cellular service directly and not through the ship's wifi.

 

I purchase international global roaming data/text package with AT&T when I travel abroad for a one month period. Unfortunately, AT&T only contracts with RCL, Azamara, and Celebrity for on board data/cell coverage as part of the data package you can purchase in advance. However, Verizon's coverage on board lists Seabourn as an included line as part of their data package if purchased as part of the "global data" package in advance. I would definitely double check if this is your provider.

 

I would highly recommend purchasing an international data roaming package. It's so much easier than trying to find wifi locations in port. Also, if you are sailing near land, most of the time you can still get the cell service from the local carrier that your provider contracts with overseas.

[Pop-I]

Isn't VIBER similar to Skype where they ask you not to use it or state up front they may just block port access or restrict its bandwidth depending upon the mood they're in?

 

That was not my experience. You may be correct, but it worked fine when I used it. Maybe I was lucky and they were in a good mood.

[blarko]

I received a call while at sea, because I forgot to put my phone on airplane mode. Since it was my son calling, I answered it. I cut the call extremely short and it was less than one minute. The charge was on my cell phone bill (which is Sprint) and the cost was $2.99. There were no "ship charges" just the $2.99 from Sprint. Sprint did send a text once were at sea, stating that calls made while on cruise ships are $2.99 per minute.

 

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[Host Dan]

My TA recently disembarked a segment of the world cruise. He called me several times using Viber, the connection was excellent.

[Emperor Norton]

I was just pointing out that the standard SB login screen mentions not only port blocking certain apps but also limiting their bandwidth. So while today might be fine with app X, tomorrow could be an entirely different story.