Long Distance Tlephone Cards

[SUKENT]

Our Summit cruise stops in Aruba, Costa Rica and various ports in Mexico. I've been searching for a long distance calling card that I can use from those places to call back to California. Can anyone help? I would be grateful for any response and feel free to send me the information at my Email address: SUEK312@AOL.COM. Thanks, in advance.

[wrp96]

It's usually best to just buy one when you are actually in port.

[kay0522]

After doing a lot of research, we settled on the AT&T phone card sold at the United States Post Offices. 450 minutes is $30. The card cannot be used for (800) type numbers. There is a customer service # to call for information. You need to call this number prior to leaving the US to get your "access" codes for the various countries you are visiting. Our son-in-law recently visited Trinidad and this card worked great! There is a surcharge of 8 minutes per phone call on pay phones and rates can be higher for mobile to mobile phone calls. Otherwise, calls are $0.067/minute. . . and also can vary depending on what country you are calling from. Good luck!, and have a wonderful cruise.:)

[SUKENT]

Thanks very much for this info. I hope it will be good for all 3 places (Aruba, Mexico and Costa Rica.). I will get right over to the post office.

[cmh]

While I was on our cruise to Mexico last year, I purchased a phone card but could not use it in Mexico. All the pay phones required that you deposit pesos to dial the 800 number and I could not get pesos on the ship. I stopped at a bar near the ship and gave them a dollar bill and asked for pesos. The peso they gave me was too large to fit into the phone. Most of the phones allow you to use a credit card, but I did not feel safe swiping my credit card on a pay phone in a foreign country. Hope you have better luck and let me know since I will be cruising there again in April.

[kay0522]

We opted for the AT & T card that you purchase through the United States Post Office. Works about everywhere. It's $30 for 450 minutes. There is an 8 minute connect time for each call. There is an (800) # to call for access codes for all countries - check this out before you cruise. It worked great in Trinidad last year, and we have other friends that have had good luck with this card. The rate for US calls is $0.067/minute. It is a little higher for mobile to mobile calls and from some other countries - the (800) # help line can give you rates, etc. The card isn't good to call most (800, 888 etc. #'s). Good luck - and have a great cruise:)