Phone calling/texting on Silhouette?

[AThousandWords]

Hello, fellow cruiseaholics! :D I apologize if this topic has already been discussed many times before. I've cruised several times in the past, but my last one was a few years back and internet and phone usage on ships has come a long way since then!

 

I'm sailing on the Silhouette soon and am wondering about cell phone usage while on the ship. I have an iPhone 6 with service through AT&T . . . will I be able to make calls as usual on my phone without being charged extra? I also have unlimited texting on my phone; will I be able to text family back home without additional charges as well?

 

Thanks in advance for helping me figure everything out! :)

[Silhouette2017]

You will be charged extra. Look here:

 

https://www.att.com/offers/international-plans/cruise-packages.html

[Bo1953]

There are a few threads here on CC site (some very recent too) as well as on X's website addressing this...

 

bon voyage

[eastsider57]

Hello, fellow cruiseaholics! :D I apologize if this topic has already been discussed many times before. I've cruised several times in the past, but my last one was a few years back and internet and phone usage on ships has come a long way since then!

 

I'm sailing on the Silhouette soon and am wondering about cell phone usage while on the ship. I have an iPhone 6 with service through AT&T . . . will I be able to make calls as usual on my phone without being charged extra? I also have unlimited texting on my phone; will I be able to text family back home without additional charges as well?

 

Thanks in advance for helping me figure everything out! :)

 

We as well have AT&T and last year we were on the Holiday Cruise. Talk to your provider and let them know where you are going and there is a small fee. We paid like 20 dollars for our 9 day cruise and we had unlimited texting. That worked out real well for us and we are going on the Equinox in a couple of weeks and we are going to do the same thing. Have a Great Cruise and hope that this may help.

[oneputt18]

We just returned from the Equinox and used the talk and text plan.

https://www.att.com/offers/international-plans/cruise-packages.html

[reecesavage]

We have AT&T wifi enabled on our phones, and plan to use the ships wifi to communicate for texts. I understand the internet can go out from time to time, but it seems to be much better than older offerings, and we get it with the cruise price. It should work well enough to text most of the time I would think since that is very low data usage. Voice calls are also very low bandwidth generally. We will just put the phones in airplane mode with wifi on and hope for the best. :)

[FLJudi]

We used FaceTime from our IPads with no problem and with no cost. We had ship's internet Package. Kept up with family.

[jan-n-john]

AFAIK, if you have WiFi internet access on the ship, and both you and the party on land have iPhones, you can text as normal as Apple sends it through their MMS system using internet not the cell phone system [maybe the other party also needs to be on WiFi -- not sure, but I'm pretty sure not]. If one party doesn't have an iPhone, you can do the same thing if you both have WhatsApp on your phones, but then I think you do both need to be on WiFi -- you can also make a voice call via WhatsApp in place of texting. You apparently can also text/call via Facebook (Facebook owns WhatsApp), but I don't use Facebook so am not sure of the details. All of the above are "free".

Edited December 19, 2016 by jan-n-john

[zonkerstl]

We just returned from the Equinox and used the talk and text plan.

https://www.att.com/offers/international-plans/cruise-packages.html

 

What about checking your email? Did you have a plan for it?

[riclop]

Hello, fellow cruiseaholics! :D I apologize if this topic has already been discussed many times before. I've cruised several times in the past, but my last one was a few years back and internet and phone usage on ships has come a long way since then!

 

I'm sailing on the Silhouette soon and am wondering about cell phone usage while on the ship. I have an iPhone 6 with service through AT&T . . . will I be able to make calls as usual on my phone without being charged extra? I also have unlimited texting on my phone; will I be able to text family back home without additional charges as well?

 

Thanks in advance for helping me figure everything out! :)

 

You are on vacation , DISCONNECT!!!!!!!

[reecesavage]

You are on vacation , DISCONNECT!!!!!!!

 

 

It's not that easy for some of us. For me, I am never truly able to be disconnected from my work. Yes i can ignore it for a few days if there are no issues, but there are somethings only I can fix. I take ownership of my responsibilities seriously even if that means i have to give up a few hours of my vacation.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[oneputt18]

What about checking your email? Did you have a plan for it?

We had "best" so unlimited WiFi was included.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[easyboy]

Hello, fellow cruiseaholics! :D I apologize if this topic has already been discussed many times before. I've cruised several times in the past, but my last one was a few years back and internet and phone usage on ships has come a long way since then!

 

I'm sailing on the Silhouette soon and am wondering about cell phone usage while on the ship. I have an iPhone 6 with service through AT&T . . . will I be able to make calls as usual on my phone without being charged extra? I also have unlimited texting on my phone; will I be able to text family back home without additional charges as well?

 

Thanks in advance for helping me figure everything out! :)

You will also use the ship's cell tower to connect when at sea. There is a charge.

[AThousandWords]

Thanks so much, everyone, for your kind and generous help! :D

 

I do also plan on purchasing an unlimited internet package for the duration of the cruise. Therefore, if I understand correctly, I will be able to use an app such as Facebook to send messages at no cost, correct?

 

You are on vacation , DISCONNECT!!!!!!!

 

For the most part, I plan on it. Work will be the last thing on my mind (I am a college instructor who will be between semesters). The only two people I intend to connect with are my husband and 10-year-old son, who has already informed me that he will miss me terribly. Everyone else will be forgotten while I'm sailing. :)