​​​​​​​Phone Help Needed

[Rossey]

I'll be purchasing a smart phone before our 11/30 sailing. Please take pity on a technology challenged individual.  No laughing...I still have a flip so I could use some advice.  I only want to use the phone to contact home once or twice during the 7 days or if there's an emergency.  I noticed Celebrity's site has their Surf Internet Package – Single Device for $116.  Is that the least expensive way to go?  I appreciate any help you can offer.  Thanks.

 

[lola2013]

I am equally challenged!!!

My carrier is Verizon.  I contact them pre-cruise and provide them with my itinerary.  If I need to use the phone (like you, emergency only), I pay $10 for a 24-hour period.  No reason to pay Celebrity.  And be sure to put the phone on airplane mode when you get on the ship or you will pay roaming charges...even if the phone is in the safe.

Hope that helps.

[sasset]

Check with your service provider. International calls on my phone are $2 per minute unless I add an international or an at sea plan. Many, like AT&T and T-Mobile offer at sea packages. Example: AT&T has a 50 minutes for $50, includes unlimited texts. They also have an unlimited minutes plan for $100. The catch is it only works when you are far enough from shore that you are not picking up a land based provider. Works great on a transatlantic. Your seven day cruise may not get you far enough from land. Your provider probably offers a reduced per minute rate plan, but it may be country or region specific. The cost may not offset the savings if you don't use a lot of minutes. 

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Are you Elite or higher with Celebrity's Captains Club, or Diamond with RC?  If so you will have at least 90 free minutes of internet with Celebrity.

[gordiej]

If you only have a flip phone, the internet package would be pointless (though I guess you could use one of the ship’s computers in the computer lounge if they even have that?).

 

Agree to check with your Wireless carrier. 

Verizon has cruise ship coverage for $2.99/minute for voice calls, $0.50 per text message sent, $0.05/msg received. That should suffice for emergency use.  But you need to make sure your phone is compatible (VZW said you need a 4G LTE World Device), and you may need to have the carrier activate it for international roaming. When in port, you can pay $5/day in Mexico or Canada ($10/day in most other countries) and use your domestic plan allowance for calls, texts, and data, if you sign up for TravelPass.

 

[Rossey]

Thank you all.  I'll contact Verizon and see what the options are once I purchase a real phone.  I appreciate the help.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Somewhat on topic.  How does your phone plan work at sea when the cost per minute to make calls using Celebrity without internet is so expensive?

[mahdnc]

3 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

Somewhat on topic.  How does your phone plan work at sea when the cost per minute to make calls using Celebrity without internet is so expensive?

 

Verizon's TravelPass plan ($10/day flat fee when using your cell phone in other countries) does not include cruise ships unfortunately. 

 

Instead Verizon offers Pay as You Go cruise ship pricing which is $2.99/min for voice and $0.50 for each SMS text sent and $0.05/text received.

[sasset]

18 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

Somewhat on topic.  How does your phone plan work at sea when the cost per minute to make calls using Celebrity without internet is so expensive?

If this is addressed to me, my AT&T cruise plan allows 50 minutes if I buy the $50 plan or unlimited minutes if I buy the $100 plan. As long as my device displays 'Cellular At Sea' it works. I don't know the technology but Celebrity apparently has a satellite connection whenever they are out of range of a land connection. If it displays something like 'BTC' like it did when we were passing the Bahamas it doesn't work. I would have been connected to BTE at whatever rate that would be since I only added a plan for European coverage on the transatlantic.

[Host Kat]

3 hours ago, Rossey said:

I'll be purchasing a smart phone before our 11/30 sailing. Please take pity on a technology challenged individual.  No laughing..have a flip so I could use some advice...

 

Howdy Rossey!

 

No laughing here! I too still use a flip phone.

 

Once you get that smart phone and use it on the Cruise Critic boards, you will find the Comic Sans font you have used is not compatible for some folks reading your posts on their phones, tablets, etc. It is okay for those on desktops, but more and more of our members are using some sort of mobile device. To them your post in that font may be almost impossible to read. 👀This is due to Cruise Critic's October 2018 change from vBulletin to Invision software.

 

In the future would you please use the default font on your posts as you did in your last post above? It will be greatly appreciated by many!  

 

I sincerely hope this information will be helpful and so glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic!

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

[phoenix_dream]

Just FYI, our Verizon plan covers Mexico and Canada, so we can use it in those countries without charge, but I can't speak for everyone.  It also covers Puerto Rico, but does not cover any of the USVI, which you would think it would.  

 

Back in the 'good ole days' before smart phones and internet at sea, we just gave relatives and bosses the ship's emergency number so they could reach us in the case of a true emergency.  We stayed disconnected besides that.  In port, if we really wanted to get in touch we could buy a phone card cheaply.   In many ways, that was a better experience - more relaxing.

[Rossey]

Kat,

Thanks for the heads up on Comic Sans.  I will remember that for future postings.  Cruise Critic is the best.

[Host Kat]

Rossey,

 

You are most welcome and thank you for your kind words!

 

Glad to be of service,

 

Host Kat

 

Edited October 29, 2019 by Host Kat
Typo due to fat fingers & skinny keys!

[Iamthesea]

Verizon, and some others, have what is called Wi-Fi Calling (located in your cell phone settings).  You can call anyone from anywhere...FREE, (including out at sea) as long as you have a Wi-Fi connection.  Since Internet minutes can be eaten up so fast at sea, I usually try to wait until I am off the ship and can find a free Wi-Fi source for using Wi-Fi Calling.  Many cafe's offer the free Wi-Fi with a purchase.

 

This link further explains Wi-Fi Calling.  

 

 

Edited October 29, 2019 by Iamthesea

[gordiej]

I'd be careful about the WiFi calling feature of the phone. A friend of mine was out of the country, and did an hour long call on his iPhone from his hotel room while connected to the hotel Wifi. Well, Verizon still charged him at the $1.99/minute rate, and they wouldn't really reduce it after complaints. For a "true" WiFi call I'd definitely disable roaming, and then use something like Skype or Google Voice or even FaceTime (Audio). However, these VOIP services aren't supposed to work on the "Surf" packages.

[sasset]

I used WiFi calling from the ship a few weeks ago. No carrier charges but it does eat up your on board WiFi minutes. Not and issue if you had unlimited minutes (we didn't).

[Iamthesea]

We use Wi-Fi Calling with unlimited minutes on a River Cruise in Germany.  Made many calls with no charges.  Used our Captains Club minutes and Unlimited on Celebrity with no problems while in Europe and in the Caribbean. 

I think your friend must have forgotten to put his phone in Airplane mode.    Turning off roaming is also a good idea.  

[K.T.B.]

A few things:  Get whatever internet package works best for you.  Second, when you're on board, make sure you have it in airplane mode and that you have wi-fi calling enabled.  Airplane mode will prevent excessive charges appearing on your phone bill.

 

So once you're logged into Celebrity's wi-fi, you should be good to go.  Personally, I've never tried to make a wi-fi call using the ship's wi-fi, so I cannot tell you if it works or not.  Maybe someone else can?  Just make sure you log off once you're done so you don't use up all your minutes.

[PTC DAWG]

21 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

Just FYI, our Verizon plan covers Mexico and Canada, so we can use it in those countries without charge, but I can't speak for everyone.  It also covers Puerto Rico, but does not cover any of the USVI, which you would think it would.  

 

Back in the 'good ole days' before smart phones and internet at sea, we just gave relatives and bosses the ship's emergency number so they could reach us in the case of a true emergency.  We stayed disconnected besides that.  In port, if we really wanted to get in touch we could buy a phone card cheaply.   In many ways, that was a better experience - more relaxing.

Agree, how did folks make it back in the day...?  

[royalcruz]

Some phones have Wi-Fi calling but don't work in airplane mode. We've had this issue with Samsung Galaxy S5. So try it at home first so you don't so you don't get upset on your vacation.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We were able to use WIFI calling through Celebrity's internet when we had a dental emergency towards the end of our cruise and wanted to book an appointment with our dentist for the day after we returned.  Worked fine that one time.

[Mike981]

A suggestion on learning your new phone, Google videos and don't just look for your exact phone model. Usually some older same brand videos can slowly bring you up to speed. It can be hard to make the  leap. I hope this helps and you have a wonderful time.

[Iamthesea]

6 hours ago, K.T.B. said:

A few things:  Get whatever internet package works best for you.  Second, when you're on board, make sure you have it in airplane mode and that you have wi-fi calling enabled.  Airplane mode will prevent excessive charges appearing on your phone bill.

 

So once you're logged into Celebrity's wi-fi, you should be good to go.  Personally, I've never tried to make a wi-fi call using the ship's wi-fi, so I cannot tell you if it works or not.  Maybe someone else can?  Just make sure you log off once you're done so you don't use up all your minutes.

 

3 hours ago, royalcruz said:

Some phones have Wi-Fi calling but don't work in airplane mode. We've had this issue with Samsung Galaxy S5. So try it at home first so you don't so you don't get upset on your vacation.

 

Very important:  Make sure that you are not connecting with the ships cell tower!!!

If you read the instructions on the link that I posted earlier, you will be able to avoid these problems.  Setting up at home is a smart thing.

[royalcruz]

Iamthesea, yes, wifi calling works if the phone is enabled. But it is only as consistent as the wifi, so you know how that goes. TMobile claims that all of their phones are wifi-calling enabled.

[jagoffee]

1 hour ago, royalcruz said:

. TMobile claims that all of their phones are wifi-calling enabled.

They probably meant that WiFi calling can be enabled, since it can be easily turned off in setting. (At least on an IPhone)