Texting on the ship

[pbsteve]

Of course, the Cellular At Sea charge at 50 cents - that only applies to you sending a text message from the ship. The recipient's charge (or lack thereof) will be accessed depending on their wireless plan.

 

But saying flat out that "anyone you text will not be charged" - that's a very inaccurate way to phrase it. You are assuming that the recipient of your text message has a plan that includes text messages. Most people do - but not all. For example, I have service through Sprint, and I deliberately chose a non-smart phone that has NO data plan whatsoever. So every time someone texts me, *I* pay 20 cents per text (regardless of what they pay or not pay).

 

Fair enough. Let me revise

 

The recipient will not be charged unless they are among the 4% of the US population using verizon that does not have texting included in their plan. Other carriers have different text plans and rates of people without.

 

 

Also, for the quoted person above, smart phones and or data plans have no effect on texting plans, you pay 20. Cents not because you don't have a smartphone or data, but because you don't have texting. Saying you pay 20 cents because you picked a non smart phone without a data plan is "a very inaccurate way to phrase it".

I understand you are either on the 39.99 for 450 min or 29.99 for 200 min, or failing that a retired plan of which there are hundreds. If it is 39 or 29 plan I can tell you are also overpaying, I'd be happy to tell you how to save around 120-200 per year and have free texting... and sprint service, let me rephrase that, if you were to have asked me I would have been happy to tell you, but I can see you aren't the kind of person who understands plans and phones enough to care

Edited June 30, 2014 by pbsteve

[cio541]

I have AT&T and called them this morning. There is no charge for incoming texts and 50 cents for normal outgoing texts. $1.30 for photo or video texts. They will also count against any text limits in your plan. Calls are charged at $2.50/minute. And you will be charged this rate even for checking voice mail.

 

You need to remember there is a difference in what ATT charges you and the bill you will get from "Cellular at Sea". It will be on your cell bill, and ATT has no say on them. They charge any time you connect to their satellite, which is any time you are at sea, or in a foreign country. My cell company will tell me what THEIR charges are, but they have ZERO control what the ships provider charges

[Confuzzled]

You need to remember there is a difference in what ATT charges you and the bill you will get from "Cellular at Sea". It will be on your cell bill, and ATT has no say on them. They charge any time you connect to their satellite, which is any time you are at sea, or in a foreign country. My cell company will tell me what THEIR charges are, but they have ZERO control what the ships provider charges

 

Have you actually gotten a separate charge from cellular at sea? If so, how much was it? The rep I taked to said I would only get charged 50 cents to send a text. Period. If you've been billed by a third party I need to call back and verify that the rep gave me accurate info.

[realjd]

You need to remember there is a difference in what ATT charges you and the bill you will get from "Cellular at Sea". It will be on your cell bill, and ATT has no say on them. They charge any time you connect to their satellite, which is any time you are at sea, or in a foreign country. My cell company will tell me what THEIR charges are, but they have ZERO control what the ships provider charges

 

That's incorrect. AT&T, Verizon, and the others negotiate with Cellular At Sea just like any other international roaming provider and it's treated as such. When I'm in the UK and use my AT&T phone on the Vodafone network, the only bill I get is from AT&T at the stated roaming rates for the UK. I don't get a separate bill from Vodafone. Similarly, if I'm connected to Cellular At Sea, I get the roaming charges added to my AT&T bill at their stated roaming rates but not a separate bill from Cellular At Sea. Presumably they are billing AT&T for my usage which is then passed along to me as part of AT&Ts roaming charges.

[Confuzzled]

This from cellular-at-sea:

 

"Rates are set and determined solely by your cell phone carrier—WMS has no involvement whatsoever in the retail rates your carrier charges for cruise ship roaming. For precise rates you will pay onboard, please contact your carrier’s international roaming department directly to confirm their Cruise Ship Roaming Rates for voice calls, texting, and data if applicable."

 

I contacted the international roaming department of AT&T directly and they told me 50 cents.

[Illyria]

I understand you are either on the 39.99 for 450 min or 29.99 for 200 min, or failing that a retired plan of which there are hundreds. If it is 39 or 29 plan I can tell you are also overpaying, I'd be happy to tell you how to save around 120-200 per year and have free texting... and sprint service, let me rephrase that, if you were to have asked me I would have been happy to tell you, but I can see you aren't the kind of person who understands plans and phones enough to care

Not to derail the thread but you don't know the first thing about me, so it's very amusing for you to make such a statement. I work in healthcare IT and have a second cell phone that my work pays for, but I didn't want them to "own" my cell phone number, so I kept my ancient grandfathered plan (that's also discounted through my work), with my 5-year-old handset. No one that knows me would text me on that phone but I still get "scam" texts claiming that my "credit union credit card has been compromised" or "call now to lower your mortgage rates". It's a bit ironic that those are the texts that end up costing me 20 cents a pop.

 

I do take my personal cell phone with me on cruises (and leave the work cell phone at home, it's not part of my job to be available 24/7, and I refuse to be one of those people that can't go 5 minutes without checking their email). I have activated the "international roaming" with Sprint, so that it will actually work with Cellular At Sea. The couple of times I used it on the ship, I know the charges were just added as international roaming to my regular Sprint bill. If there's an emergency, my family will text me first and then call, and I'll answer ($2.49/min is steep, but in an emergency, a 3-minute conversation won't break the bank). For just regular communications - like checking in every few days or so, I usually just take my tablet ashore and find wifi somewhere, so that I can send a quick email.

[pbsteve]

OP: make sure you call to enable the calling capability. Most plans and stores have it turned off and blocked by default. You'll need to enable it first.

 

For future people reading the thread, verizon may charge a deposit when activating international capabilities based on how long you've had your account and your payment history.

[mikem5]

OP: make sure you call to enable the calling capability. Most plans and stores have it turned off and blocked by default. You'll need to enable it first.

 

 

 

For future people reading the thread, verizon may charge a deposit when activating international capabilities based on how long you've had your account and your payment history.

 

 

So I should call AT&T because they are my provider and ask them to do what exactly? I'm not sure what you mean.

Thanks

[realjd]

So I should call AT&T because they are my provider and ask them to do what exactly? I'm not sure what you mean.

Thanks

 

Just call or go into a store and ask them to verify that you have international roaming enabled. IIRC you can do it online as well.

[south-carolinagirl]

IF you have Verizon, it is .50 for sending texts and .05 when you receive one. Using the phone for calling is $2.49 per minute aboard ship. Check out:

 

http://www.verizonwireless.com/tripplanner

 

and enter the info, you will see the rates.

Edited July 1, 2014 by south-carolinagirl