Questions about Phone and Texting

[dafne]

For an upcoming cruise I am buying an AT and T plane for use while on shore that includes Texting.

 

1.Will I be able to text at sea or will I need internet access to text?

 

2. What is the best "face time" application for an Android phone I will need to call to?

Skype, Durango or Viber?

 

3. Will I need internet access on ship when doing "face time" from Iphone to Iphone?

 

4. Will I be able to receive text's on the ship or only can receive them when I have internet access?

 

Thanks.

[CraftyEC]

I don't know anything about AT&T contracts, but I'm most impressed that you're buying one of their planes for your personal use shoreside!

 

Only teasing, we all fall prey to autocorrect from time to time, producing some delightful (or otherwise) typos, but I really liked this one [emoji12]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Emperor Norton]

IIRC -

 

1. Text data will go through cellular @Sea or whomever is providing cell service to the ship. I believe iMessages also the ships internet connection.

 

2. Google Hangouts ;) otherwise I'd probably go with Skype as it seems more common.

 

3. You either need to have inet access or use cell data

 

(everything of course is at the whim of the strength of your satellite connection and whether or not there's any form of port blocking in effect)

 

4. The ship should have both internet access as well as cellular/cellular data access so receiving texts should be fine.

 

This link may be helpful (Im not sure how up to date the #s are but it should give you ballpark figures):

 

http://www.att.com/travelguide/coverage/coverage_details.jsp?CIDL=1585&MNC=CING

Edited January 22, 2015 by Emperor Norton

[dafne]

Thank you very much!

[Emperor Norton]

A generic announcement: Be careful with cell data. It seems on vacation is the time your applications need to update themselves the most. Several times over.:mad: (eg: on my Oceania cruises which were ~1 month I had 6+ updates to a single app each one totally updating the app)

[nolatravelgirl]

I doubt you will have much luck using FaceTime on the ship whether you connect via "Cellular @ Sea" or via the wifi network as both are pretty slow connections. Texting in port will be much cheaper but if you absolutely need to do it you can connect.

 

If you do decide to use your personal mobile device on the ship's wifi be sure to sign up for a package and remember to logout. They will give you a little card in Seabourn Square with instructions on how to log in and out. If you forget to logout your plan will just burn all the minutes allocated and then proceed to the minute by minute charges.

 

Learn how to turn the wifi and cellular services (two different things) on your phone. While at sea I would only turn on which ever service I was actively using at that moment which helped me by ensuring that I didn't burn through my time or get walloped with huge data bills from CAS.

[Host Dan]

I've always had great luck using Viber, as long as there is wifi access.

[Mr Luxury]

I have never had a problem using face time on a Seabourn ship.

In fact the Internet speed on the Christmas Sojourn trip was excellent.

[jenidallas]

Cellular at Sea is very pricey compared with AT&T international. Your AT&T plan will NOT work when away from land roaming. Cellular at Sea is excluded. I learned this the hard way. Twice.

[Emperor Norton]

Also remember that your connectivity/speed is not guaranteed from cruise to cruise. Just because someone else was given the golden pipe doesn't mean you will. Plan accordingly*

 

*EG: if your job requires you to have open access to a fat pipe all the time, cruising isn't a good choice.