Put Phone in Airplane Mode BEFORE Leaving Home???

[Jaynay]

All I can say is...wow!

 

I think most everyone is aware of the purpose of turning off roaming/putting phone in airline mode. That is not what I originally asked.  I read - more than once on these forums - about putting the phone in airplane mode BEFORE leaving home, and IT MADE NO SENSE to me.  Silly me, it made me kinda question my own understanding of technology so I sought clarification from nice helpful folks here, who I know exist.. 

 

I use my phone as a hotspot and I've used wifi calling from home so I'm not too WOW! I hope 😄 But we usually lock our phones up to get away from things on cruises but this time we will try the app.   I don't know if we'll find it helpful or not.  I just don't want to incur a lot of costs by selecting the wrong setting on our phones.

 

I'm fine now, no more questions.  I hope someone received some helpful info from responses to my post. And I'm leaving for my cruise in a bit.  Best thing, right? 😀  Looking forward to it as we haven't been on one in 4-5 years!

[LGW59]

On 7/29/2022 at 12:16 PM, Jaynay said:

Planning for my July 31 cruise out of Port Canaveral.  I am driving to the port.  I do not have any internet/wifi packages - our plan is for DH and I to just use our free day each Diamond wifi benefit.  I have Android and he has Iphone.

 

I read on some threads here that we should put our phones on Airplane mode before leaving home and then connect to ships wifi once we get to terminal or onboard - and people really put emphasis on doing this before leaving.  And I'm assuming that after turning Airplane mode on that I would then turn on wifi to connect to my home wifi and not cellular, right? FWIW, I usually have Wifi Calling turned on anyways (my phone has both wifi and wifi calling options)...

 

By putting the phone in Airplane mode when I leave home, I'll lose use of cellular capability during the drive.  What is the reasoning of putting one's phone in airplane mode before leaving home instead of when one gets to the port?  And I suppose the same goes for leaving from a hotel to travel to the cruise port...

 

 

Don't make a federal case of it, just turn it on wifi at the port

[ccotting]

On 7/29/2022 at 9:18 AM, Cigar King said:

That's terrible advice.  Put the phone in airplane mode once the ship sails and you'll be fine.

Nope.  Beg to differ.  I got dinged for extra charges sailing out of Southampton because the phone connected to marine masts.   

[Cigar King]

13 minutes ago, ccotting said:

Nope.  Beg to differ.  I got dinged for extra charges sailing out of Southampton because the phone connected to marine masts.  

Sounds to me like your problem is your phone is set to allow roaming.  Turn that off.  It could happen anywhere.  You should only roam when you absolutely need to as it often incurs additional charges.

 

 

[ccotting]

2 hours ago, Cigar King said:

Sounds to me like your problem is your phone is set to allow roaming.  Turn that off.  It could happen anywhere.  You should only roam when you absolutely need to as it often incurs additional charges.

 

 

Agreed but I was using my international roaming package.  So... with the other responses, put the phone in airplane mode before sailing.

[smokeybandit]

If airplane mode doesn't work then there's something wrong with your phone.  Airplane mode is like turning off the main breaker in your house.  You shouldn't have to unplug all your appliances after that

Edited July 31, 2022 by smokeybandit

[Ret MP]

On 7/29/2022 at 11:50 AM, smokeybandit said:

Mine only goes into airplane mode about an hour after pushing off from the docks

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, I put mine in Airplane mode as soon as I get to our cabin/suite where I, actually the Genie, get the password or what ever.  The Genie has always taken care of that on our phones for us and sets-up WhatsApp, as well, WhatsApp was only on our last cruise on the Ovation, to be honest.  So, I don't know for sure what he/she does.  It just works and I have not gotten a $10,000.00 phone bill from Verizon.  

 

One thing I do is when I get off the ship and I know all bills are settled and everything looks as everything should, I uninstall the app from my phone until my next cruise, then I reinstall it.  I've got enough entities tracking me.  I also use a VPN, full time on all our devices.

[DRNewcomb]

On 7/29/2022 at 11:16 AM, Jaynay said:

What is the reasoning of putting one's phone in airplane mode before leaving home instead of when one gets to the port? 

 

It's extreme paranoia. For my part, I'd love to have a cruise line charge me for cellular usage before the ship left a US port. I'd have the FCC on them like white on rice. But for people who are not sure about how cellular phones work, it's best to play it safe and put your phone in airplane mode or off well before boarding. The problem is that various carriers (presumably including cruise ship operators) have implemented various shady "revenue enhancement" techniques which include delaying transmission of the required disconnect report to your home carrier when you turn your phone off. This can result in your getting billed for incoming calls after you've switched your phone off. The other issue is that smartphones do a lot of stuff in the background that you normally don't know about. If the ship has cellular data, this can result in huge bills for Internet activity when you "didn't do anything." 

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

Main reason to go to airplane mode after sailing is to avoid accidental cel service charges in foreign ports.  Unless your US plan has an international feature or you want to pay for crazy expensive foreign cel service, leave it on airplane mode after you sail and the night before you come back.  While on the ship connect to ships WiFi.  This advice doesn't apply if you're cruising the Mississippi.  

[smokeybandit]

21 minutes ago, ATSEAMYLIFE said:

Main reason to go to airplane mode after sailing is to avoid accidental cel service charges in foreign ports

Actually the main reason is to avoid cell service charges on the ship.

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

3 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Actually the main reason is to avoid cell service charges on the ship.

I have always gotten a warning before asking if I want to connect to the ships cell service.  Sometimes I get them in foreign ports but not always.  But I do keep a close eye on that little icon.  

Edited August 7, 2022 by ATSEAMYLIFE

[AspiringCindy]

Once you dock in Cape Canaveral(1st stop on Oasis), can you turn the airplane mode off to check e mails?

[brillohead]

50 minutes ago, AspiringCindy said:

Once you dock in Cape Canaveral(1st stop on Oasis), can you turn the airplane mode off to check e mails?

Of course.  

[Biker19]

11 hours ago, DRNewcomb said:

For my part, I'd love to have a cruise line charge me for cellular usage before the ship left a US port. I'd have the FCC on them like white on rice.

Welcome to CC and good luck with that.