Cell voicemail on cruise ships

[The Gremlin]

Saw the Forbes article on how cell voicemail can be costly because (at least on ATT) the phone calls the voicemail. You don't pay the 
call to the ship, but ship to vm is billed. Does anyone know if this is normal (or specifically Sprint).  I like to keep my phone active on the ship because of elderly parents 
and health problems. However, I am 64 which means I am in the sweet spot for junk phone calls trying to get me to sign up for Medicare plans and they don't seem to understand the concept of the no-call list. Thanks for any help.

 

[Schoifmom]

It looks like you asked a similar question in 2015.  If you leave your phone active on board, you will be hit with a large cell phone bill.  There are no cell towers at sea.  All cellular activity goes through satellites on board, for which you will be billed.  If you have wifi calling enabled on your phone, put your phone into airplane mode, enable the wifi, connect to your ship's wifi (there may be a charge, depending on your cruise line).  You will be able to send/receive calls through the wifi-enabled calling feature on your phone and bypass the cellular service.

[The Gremlin]

3 hours ago, Schoifmom said:

It looks like you asked a similar question in 2015.  If you leave your phone active on board, you will be hit with a large cell phone bill.  There are no cell towers at sea.  All cellular activity goes through satellites on board, for which you will be billed.  If you have wifi calling enabled on your phone, put your phone into airplane mode, enable the wifi, connect to your ship's wifi (there may be a charge, depending on your cruise line).  You will be able to send/receive calls through the wifi-enabled calling feature on your phone and bypass the cellular service.

That was for the general concern. I worked that out with Sprint finally. Unless I accept a call, I haven't gotten billed over the last 3 cruises on both RCCL and Princess. I have left it on multiple times since then with no hit. This was specific to voicemail. But thanks for the reply. 

[Schoifmom]

7 minutes ago, The Gremlin said:

That was for the general concern. I worked that out with Sprint finally. Unless I accept a call, I haven't gotten billed over the last 3 cruises on both RCCL and Princess. I have left it on multiple times since then with no hit. This was specific to voicemail. But thanks for the reply. 

 

The answer is the same.  To check your voicemail is to make a phone call.  

[Underwatr]

It used to be that if your phone was roaming and it rang, you were charged for a minute of air time even if you didn't answer, and if your call forwarded back to voicemail it was another minute. I had this happen way back in 2004 when British Airways tried to call me when I was in the UK to tell me that my follow-on flight was delayed.

 

Since then I don't let my phone connect to the ship's cellular system (learn how to turn off automatic selection of the roaming carrier in your phone to prevent it, or just leave your phone in airplane mode) so I haven't tested whether I get charged when someone robocalls my phone when I'm at sea.