Black Sea Blackberry v. Treo

[cruzangirl]

:rolleyes: Ok, I know, leave it at home. Unfortunately, with older parents and possible court obligations, I need to be reachable occasionally, but email would be fine for most. Aside from the laptop/onboard internet options, has anyone used either of these phones in the black sea areas and do they work (even if just for email and sms). I promise I will not carry it with me everywhere or initiate contact!! Thanks for the input.

[nparmelee]

Don't know yet, both are supposed to. I would think you need to check a couple of things, first that you activate the international service for either and second that they are a gsm or quad band device. I'm taking a Blackberry with me to the Med in June, DH is taking a pocket PC phone, we have Cingular service and I'll be activating the international service for both just before we leave. We have to be available for those odd-things-that-happen-only-when-you're-not-here issues, doesn't help that I'm a one person department and he's in charge of IS for a medical clinic.

[timbo89]

My friend had a Blackberry on our Oceania Black Sea cruise last July.

 

He got e-mails almost every port day. I believe he might not have received any in Sochi, Russia.

 

He was quite pleasantly surprised.

[Daw6id]

I have no experience in the in the Black Sea, but my Treo worked well in Volgograd [formerly Stalingrad, not far from the Black Sea]. I also got 4 bars in the Yangtze River Valley, the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland and on the cruise in Tahiti. Now if I could only get dependable service in New Jersey!

[elin]

We did the Baltic Dover to Stockholm last year and both the DH and I used our Blackberrys (Blackberries?) throughout the trip. (Sadly, a function of work, and his only concession to being allowed to take a 2 1/2 week trip).

You have to make sure that for your phone you have a GSM model, and to receive your email it shows "GPRS". You can manually switch networks if one doesn't seem to be working.

I had better cellphone reception in St. Petersburg and Tallinn then I have had in parts of Toronto.

Elin

[cruzangirl]

My friend had a Blackberry on our Oceania Black Sea cruise last July.

 

He got e-mails almost every port day. I believe he might not have received any in Sochi, Russia.

 

He was quite pleasantly surprised.

 

Thanks Timbo and everyone else-Do you know which service he used/what service do you use? (I'm on Cingular)...

[nparmelee]

We have Cingular, just look up Cingular workd or something like that on their web page....

[timbo89]

Whyme:

 

I was on the Black Sea cruise too - I just didn't have the Blackberry!!! My friend was the one who had it with him.

 

As for the ports of call, we had personal aquaintances in Odessa and Istanbul, and they took us around in those ports. In the other ports, we mostly took ship's tours, as it was very difficult to find private ones. I believe Shiela ("Shoshana" on here) had some private guides in ports we visited (we met Sheila and her DH on that trip). You might find her to be a better source of information than me.