Cellular At Sea

[klfrodo]

Do Carnival ships even have this anymore?

 

Last week while on the Freedom, I turned off Airplane mode many times while on the ship to see if my phone could connect to a tower.

It could not find any kind of cellular service, until, of course, we got close enough to an island with cell towers.

 

 

Why would I chance this? I was desperate for internet service faster than the ships wifi running at 30 Kbps

[Elaine5715]

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1129/~/cellular-phone-service

 

[klfrodo]

1 hour ago, Elaine5715 said:

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1129/~/cellular-phone-service

 

That answers nothing.

[Eli_6]

I don't think they have this anymore, but someone on here a couple of days ago posted that AT&T has a plan while cruising with cell service where you could get wifi, but it didn't give you much data.. 

[pe4all]

https://www.att.com/international/cruise-packages/

[Sprigs616]

Maybe these instructions for connecting to the Wireless Maritime Service (WMS) through the ship will help.   There might be a feature on your phone where you have to enable international roaming. 

 

https://www.wmsatsea.com/faqs.html

 

I recommend you call your service provider.  I checked with my cell service provider (Google Fi) and learned that they don't partner with Wireless Maritime Service, which means that I can't roam at sea using WMS. I hope you have better luck!

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Sprigs616

[babygrljaz]

5 hours ago, klfrodo said:

Do Carnival ships even have this anymore?

 

Last week while on the Freedom, I turned off Airplane mode many times while on the ship to see if my phone could connect to a tower.

It could not find any kind of cellular service, until, of course, we got close enough to an island with cell towers.

 

 

Why would I chance this? I was desperate for internet service faster than the ships wifi running at 30 Kbps

In Jan & Mar mine took a while but it did connect to cellular at sea.  In October, even though it did eventually connect, it happened sometime overnight.  It took forever I eventually fell asleep.

[ATL_Miami_Cruiser]

5 hours ago, klfrodo said:

Do Carnival ships even have this anymore?

 

Last week while on the Freedom, I turned off Airplane mode many times while on the ship to see if my phone could connect to a tower.

It could not find any kind of cellular service, until, of course, we got close enough to an island with cell towers.

 

 

Why would I chance this? I was desperate for internet service faster than the ships wifi running at 30 Kbps

 

I used Cellular at Sea a few weeks ago on Carnival Horizon. The call quality wasn't good and it took up to 10 seconds to connect a call. I've used it on previous sailings years ago and had a better experience. Using Facetime voice calling over WIFI was better. The ship only turns on the service when it's far enough from land, not certain how many nautical miles out.

[klfrodo]

25 minutes ago, babygrljaz said:

In Jan & Mar mine took a while but it did connect to cellular at sea.  In October, even though it did eventually connect, it happened sometime overnight.  It took forever I eventually fell asleep.

Thank you. Your response was helpful

[klfrodo]

1 minute ago, ATL_Miami_Cruiser said:

 

I used Cellular at Sea a few weeks ago on Carnival Horizon. The call quality wasn't good and it took up to 10 seconds to connect a call. I've used it on previous sailings years ago and had a better experience. Using Facetime voice calling over WIFI was better. The ship only turns on the service when it's far enough from land, not certain how many nautical miles out.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, FaceTime and wifi calling are not an option when the Premium Plan was only working at 30 kilobytes per second.

[Elaine5715]

7 hours ago, klfrodo said:

That answers nothing.

It explains that yes, Cellular at Sea is used and when it turns on.  

[Tikilyn]

I was on a four day cruise out of Galveston at the beginning of December and got cell service on my first sea day. I have T-mobile and it actually picked up Telcel and I got a welcome to Mexico text. I shot off a couple of texts to my husband and jumped on facebook for a quick second then put my phone back into airplane mode. I was afraid it was going to cost me a fortune! I wasn't charged for the texts or data. Thank god!

[babygrljaz]

22 minutes ago, Tikilyn said:

I was on a four day cruise out of Galveston at the beginning of December and got cell service on my first sea day. I have T-mobile and it actually picked up Telcel and I got a welcome to Mexico text. I shot off a couple of texts to my husband and jumped on facebook for a quick second then put my phone back into airplane mode. I was afraid it was going to cost me a fortune! I wasn't charged for the texts or data. Thank god!

Telcel is what they use in many parts of Mexico, movistar is their other carrier. Most t-mobile plans offer the same coverage in Mexico & Canada as you get at home. So it al depends on the plan you have. Cellular at Sea is different, not land based service, only works at sea

[mondello]

@klfrodo We were on Vista 3/26 and did not purchase any internet plan. Found out teen son was on Cellular At Sea to use internet for gaming. Glad we found out early in the cruise, don't know how much it was as we've not been billed yet. Wife just informed me that her data plan covers it?