What sim cards for data can be purchased for Sea?

[blondelinda]

Hi All

My daughter , from Australia is flying to Miami next month, to work on the MSC cruiseline on the Seaside ship I believe for 7 months

We are trying to find out the best options for getting a sim that will work at sea? Mainly for data so she can email and call via wifi

Does anyone have any options? I have searched online and found various sims for the Caribbean but they say they dont work at sea

 

Will she be at the mercy of the cruise line and chargers. or is there another option?

[Italian_Cruiser]

4 hours ago, blondelinda said:

Hi All

My daughter , from Australia is flying to Miami next month, to work on the MSC cruiseline on the Seaside ship I believe for 7 months

We are trying to find out the best options for getting a sim that will work at sea? Mainly for data so she can email and call via wifi

Does anyone have any options? I have searched online and found various sims for the Caribbean but they say they dont work at sea

 

Will she be at the mercy of the cruise line and chargers. or is there another option?

 

Due to the technological implementation on how mobiles works at sea there is no way to have a working "sea sim" without being at the mercy of the cruise line

[broberts]

Has she asked her new employer?

[blondelinda]

They are a cruise line, and shes dealing with just a production person who isnt even on the ship. She is in the head office in Switzerland. Plus there is a slight communication barrier with the English so its a little difficult

[SirWolf]

1 hour ago, blondelinda said:

Plus there is a slight communication barrier with the English so its a little difficult

Do you say that MSC employees working in HR of MSC Switzerland are not speaking English ? They recruite workers from all over the world and English is one of the main languages on land and on sea. The MSC employees I have met on sea were almost fluently in 3 to 4 languages, English & Italian are two of them. 

[blondelinda]

I have spoken to two people in there office in Switzerland, and the English wasnt that great. This is the office. Im sure the staff at sea are more fluent in English as you suggest. but my daughter isnt at sea yet, and I was trying to work something out for her prior to her going halfway accross the world

 

If you cannot help me with my question, I dont see any reason why you would need to comment on that?

[SirWolf]

24 minutes ago, blondelinda said:

If you cannot help me with my question, I dont see any reason why you would need to comment on that?

Your question has been answered. Due to technology reasons the cell phone of your daughter will have no internet access without using the on-board internet service.

You might get different answers if you post your question in a forum for cruise line workers.

 

[ziggyuk]

blondelinda, the ship's own cell is satellite based and is hellish expensive, I think any sim will work if you turn roaming on and can afford it. There are plans you can use on cruises (I'm from the UK so can only pass on what I read), these plans would work out expensive over 7 month, AT&T do a cruise plan which it says Seaside is the only compatible MSC ship.

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

 

$100 - 30 day plan would only give her 200MB but it does say unlimited talk (you would have to investigate where she can call it might be just the US)

 

On my first cruise in europe I turned on roaming as my plan can be used all over europe and I thought I would wake up and find my phone connected to a French or German cell, I had no idea the ship had its own cell tower, while I slept my phone racked up a huge bill just with background data.

 

Have read here, it gives a good insight.

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/articles.cfm?ID=1752

 

WiFi will be her best bet which, she can then use WIFI calling, I would have thought employees would get a wifi plan but if not even at the cost cruisers pay WiFi will be more cost effective than a sim plan.

I don't know if Skype and WhatsApp work or are blocked on Seaside maybe others can advise.

 

Edit, according to this Whatsapp can be used on Seaside:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2561887-seaside-onboard-communication/?tab=comments#comment-55228934

 

Edited December 5, 2018 by ziggyuk

[blondelinda]

Ziggy. Thanks for that. Most helpful. 

So far she hasnt had any information as such from MSC re phone and wifi etc. She has sent messages out to some of the other girls working at sea, and hasnt heard as yet. Its been a few days, and she assumes they have no service at the moment

 

Thanks anyway

[ziggyuk]

1 minute ago, blondelinda said:

Ziggy. Thanks for that. Most helpful. 

So far she hasnt had any information as such from MSC re phone and wifi etc. She has sent messages out to some of the other girls working at sea, and hasnt heard as yet. Its been a few days, and she assumes they have no service at the moment

 

Thanks anyway

 

I just edited the reply WhatsApp does work of seaside (according the the reply I linked), I would think a WiFi plan and WhatsApp would be her most cost effective way to stay in contact, you will be able to text and make voice calls to anyone who also has WhatsApp on a mobile all for free (except any WiFi cost), unfortunately she won't be able to call landlines.

[blondelinda]

Yes thats what we are after, a data pack so she can make calls via wifi on whatsapp and messenger etc. However, without data plan or wifi ( i dont think there is free wifi) that wont happen

 

Thank you

[Essiesmom]

Unfortunately, there is no free lunch on a cruise ship.  Not related to MSC, but lines in general, I have heard that crew pay lower rate for wifi than guests.  But it probably isn't a viable option, as every time you go ashore you will see crew with laptops and phones sitting on the ground around buildings where there is free wifi (or free with minor purchase, such as coffee).  I was on a Princess ship in Ocho Rios and walking on deck when I saw a crew member with laptop sitting on a bench.  I asked him if the signal was good, thinking of the ship tower, and he answered 'Yes, from that building with the yellow roof'.  It's just one of those things she might have to ration.  EM

[ziggyuk]

20 minutes ago, blondelinda said:

Yes thats what we are after, a data pack so she can make calls via wifi on whatsapp and messenger etc. However, without data plan or wifi ( i dont think there is free wifi) that wont happen

 

Thank you

 

I think data will be out due to the cost, her only real option will be the WiFi & WhatsApp

 

The latest US info says $49.90 for 1.5GB per cruise, which does not help her much as an employee onboard for 7 months, it does say it includes Whatsapp, with luck she will get it for less as an employee..

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Discover-MSC/On-Board/Internet.aspx

 

 

Edited December 5, 2018 by ziggyuk

[SirWolf]

18 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

 

I think data will be out due to the cost, her only real option will be the WiFi & WhatsApp

Yes, the cost of internet service offered to passengers are too high for a 7 month stay on the ship. A combination of free Wi-Fi in ports and discounted internet service for employees makes sense. No SIM card for international calls needed. We had the International Plan from Verizon (per month $130 + tax, 2GB data , 250 minutes) as backup while travelling to Europe. I wouldn’t sign up again due to the cost. Instead we used the internet service on the ship ($86.50 for 7 nights).

[ziggyuk]

blondelinda 

This is the info you need:

http://crew-center.com/cruise-ship-crew-internet-prices-and-onboard-wi-fi-packages

 

Note there is no voice with the Social packages, she would need the 900 megabyte plan which is well priced for crew, good news I think 🙂

 

This is the MSC bit:

"According to this data collected in March 2018, MSC Cruises offers the lowest internet rate per 1MB which is only 1 Eurocent"

• MSC Cruises Crew Internet Prices and Packages
• Daily Internet Package for crew
• Social media package for crew is 1, 5 Euros per day. You can use Facebook, Instagram WhatsApp, and other social media but you can’t make calls, only messages.
• Monthly Internet Social Media Package for crew
• 30 Euros package allows you 24 hours monthly access to all social media except no calls or video calls and no YouTube videos.
• 900 Megabyte Plan for crew is 10 Euros - Price per MB= 1 Euro Cent
• With this package, you have access to all internet features and you can make audio or video calls via social networks.

Edited December 5, 2018 by ziggyuk

[broberts]

I do wonder at the need for service at sea. The ship spends a significant amount of time in port where local cell service and free/low cost WiFI is available. Being in constant contact strikes me as an odd requirement for someone working aboard a cruise ship.

 

The ship home ports in the US and several itineraries include USVI and PR. You might check into options from the major US carriers. Some have very reasonable at sea rates, although I don't know if they only apply on certain plans.

[TnTom]

You might check out skyroam.com. They have daily and monthly plans. I am actually typing this message right now using a Skyroam modem on the Divina... about a mile off of Guadeloupe. It seems to work in every port.

[ziggyuk]

6 hours ago, broberts said:

I do wonder at the need for service at sea.

 

I go cold turkey after 1 day so I can understand how a crewmember would want WiFi in the downtime in a tiny cabin with nothing else to do onboard, it's not like they can do all the things we do on a ship.

 

53 minutes ago, TnTom said:

You might check out skyroam.com. They have daily and monthly plans. I am actually typing this message right now using a Skyroam modem on the Divina... about a mile off of Guadeloupe. It seems to work in every port.

 

The OP needs WiFi at sea this does not help out of port.

[Essiesmom]

3 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

 

 

 

The OP needs WiFi at sea this does not help out of port.

 

The real question is:  Does she need it, or want it.  EM

[blondelinda]

@Essiesmom

 

It makes no difference , and honestly is none of your business!

 

My question was for advise on what I could do, not if I needed it. Full Stop

[TnTom]

23 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

I go cold turkey after 1 day so I can understand how a crewmember

The OP needs WiFi at sea this does not help out of port.

I stand corrected and apologize for attempting to be helpful.

[ziggyuk]

10 minutes ago, TnTom said:

I stand corrected and apologize for attempting to be helpful.

I hope I did not come across as dismissive, I didn't mean it that way and apologise if I offended.

[blondelinda]

@ Tom @ Ziggy

I could see you where both trying to be helpful

Essiesmom though was out of line, and  doesnt need to post NEED or WANT! Thats not the point, the point is I WANT her to have it, as a mum so i can be in contact with her

[broberts]

@blondelinda, FYI when you want to use @<username> to notify someone of a post you need to highlight the username on the list that pops up (may have to wait a few seconds) and press enter or tap/click on the name. When that is done the name will appear in white text on a blue background, as shown in this post. If you don't do this, no notification is sent.

[ziggyuk]

7 hours ago, blondelinda said:

@ Tom @ Ziggy

I could see you where both trying to be helpful

Essiesmom though was out of line, and  doesnt need to post NEED or WANT! Thats not the point, the point is I WANT her to have it, as a mum so i can be in contact with her

 

I completely agree, and parents are always going to be worried and want to keep in contact, if that's limited to to short period ashore when the time difference means it's night in Australia, it just won't work.

 

The other thing is her time will be valuable, crew work hard, long hours and when they do relax, they can't sit by the pool or go and see a show like passengers do, I am certain she will value a chat with family and friends during her breaks. Some crew have very limited shore time due to work, I'm suspect she would value that time rather than having to find a coffee shop with WiFi (in Australia's night time).

 

One piece of advice I can offer, buys a few USB drives and loads them with all her favorite films, boxsets, music and pictures, those things can rip through the data so a little preparation will make the data last much longer. If she does not know how to do it, most people have a family member or friend who can help 🙂

 

I hope she has a fantastic time.

Edited December 7, 2018 by ziggyuk