Wi-fi Package & Calling Plan

[OT-Miami]

We will be sailing Equinox 10-day Southern Caribbean in October. I need to be available for work, so I have taken advantage of the pre-cruise pricing and Captains Club discount on the 1-device unlimited internet package. I will therefore have access to internet and wi-fi calls at sea, but still need a solution on land. My carrier, AT&T, has an International Day Pass that allows me to use my phone the same way I do at home for $10 a day. It’s available in every port we will visit and if I don’t use it I don’t pay for it. I think this is a reasonable solution in the unlikely event that I must use my phone before I can access the ships wi-fi. I am fully aware of the unreliability of wi-fi at sea but I don’t see how cellular-at-sea access would be any better to justify the added cost.

 

I think I’ve reached a reasonable conclusion, but I wonder if I am overlooking anything…

[twincheryl]

We often find that our cell phone provider international plan (similar to yours) gives us much better and more consistent service while in port. Often times the wifi on the ship is sketchy and inconsistent even while docked. You just need to be careful to turn off your cell data service when the ship leaves port so that you don't incur excessive charges. This international plan in no way replaces the wifi that you will have when at sea.

 

There are many posts about people being confused and ending up with huge cell phone bills upon returning home... and likely others can explain it much better than I am doing... lol

[mahdnc]

I think your plan is sound and that is essentially what we do when we cruise--a reliance on the ship's unlimited internet plan via WiFi when on board + Verizon's TravelPass (the $10 surcharge for each day you use in a foreign country).

 

One warning though is to manage your phone carefully when ashore because you easily trigger the $10 daily surcharge with the phone fetching mail and receiving texts. You essentially need to have it turned off or in airplane mode (maybe with WiFi on). You probably know this already, but I thought I would mention it.

[T^2]

Depending on how "real time" you need to be able to be reached on your cell, you could also use the phone wifi calling feature while off the ship assuming you visit locations with land based wifi.

[Queen of Oakville]

As a Canadian, I did something similar. If I knew I had morning and afternoon access to wifi on the ship, I just stayed in airplane mode and used wifi on the ship while it was docked. If I knew I was going to be in port for an extended period of time, then I went off airplane mode, paid my daily roam-like-home fee (I think mine is $10/day) and then even while on ship, stayed off ship wifi for the day because the cell connection was better.

 

Note that you have to "forget this network' or turn off automatically join this network, otherwise you are using ships slower wifi rather than your faster cellular connection. I had picked up an excellent wifi connection in the Boston terminal, and then once I boarded the ship, I was auto joined to the celebrity network. After that, I remembered to make sure that auto-join was turned off.

[tkere]

We will be sailing Equinox 10-day Southern Caribbean in October. I need to be available for work, so I have taken advantage of the pre-cruise pricing and Captains Club discount on the 1-device unlimited internet package. I will therefore have access to internet and wi-fi calls at sea, but still need a solution on land. My carrier, AT&T, has an International Day Pass that allows me to use my phone the same way I do at home for $10 a day. It’s available in every port we will visit and if I don’t use it I don’t pay for it. I think this is a reasonable solution in the unlikely event that I must use my phone before I can access the ships wi-fi. I am fully aware of the unreliability of wi-fi at sea but I don’t see how cellular-at-sea access would be any better to justify the added cost.

 

I think I’ve reached a reasonable conclusion, but I wonder if I am overlooking anything…

 

ATT also has cellular service on some Celebrity ships for $100 for 30 days (talk and text), so would include your 10 day sailing. It also covers some ports so you would you have to check online to see if the ports are on your Itinerary.

[TFree]

Also, check with ATT. A year or so ago, we discovered that some new ATT plan for the same price (as I recall) included cell roaming in Canada and Mexico. We have since used it in both countries with no additional charges.

 

So on our recent Equinox Caribbean cruise, we had regular ATT (or included roaming) service in US and Mexican ports, and just kept the phone in airplane mode in Freeport. Or in your case you could use the $10 per day plan in non-included ports.

 

Tom & Judy

[Purplsmurf]

My husband has AT&T and they have some kind of agreement with cruise ships. He is able to use his data while on board and doesn’t need the ships WiFi . I have Verizon and don’t get the WiFi package so it’s nice that we can still get online if we need to.