AT&T Cellular at Sea on Apex question

[20165]

We tried ATT Cellular at sea on Silhouette last month and it was not great to say the least.  We got maybe 1 of every 3 calls and had to try multiple times to dial out.  And this was strictly on sea days, we just used local cellular at the islands.  Has anyone used this service on Apex and was you experience better than ours?  We are on that ship at the end of the month.  We also signed up for WIFI on the ship, but that was also unreliable and slow.

Thanks

 

[cruisegal40]

In general I know ATT offers this package, however, I don't feel it's worth it. The service is very spotty "at sea".   I think if you are on international land it might be fine. 

[Tierun]

Premium Wi-Fi and FaceTime generally works well. Otherwise iMessage or whatsapp. Also AT&T international day pass is $10 per day for full service in port.

[blackshirt]

The ATT package only controls how much you pay for service. The actual service is provided by Celebrity, not ATT. Whether or not cellular service would be any better on Apex vs any other ship, I don’t know. You are better off getting the ship’s internet service and using WiFi calling. I’ve got ATT and iPhones, WiFi calling has always worked for me onboard.

[t18c97]

I’ve always just used the WiFi package (the surf/stream one) and had no problems with WiFi calling, or FaceTime voice or video calls.

[Charles4515]

5 hours ago, 20165 said:

We tried ATT Cellular at sea on Silhouette last month and it was not great to say the least.  We got maybe 1 of every 3 calls and had to try multiple times to dial out.  And this was strictly on sea days, we just used local cellular at the islands.  Has anyone used this service on Apex and was you experience better than ours?  We are on that ship at the end of the month.  We also signed up for WIFI on the ship, but that was also unreliable and slow.

Thanks

 

Cellular at Sea is not likely to be any better than the WiFi on the ship. The WiFi on the ship is through a satellite link. There are no cell towers at sea except microcells on the ship which have to be  linked to a satellite  link. I doubt they have a separate satellite link although I guess it is possible.

[jwlane]

I'm trying to imagine a reason to use CaS vs. WiFi calling.

 

[20165]

9 hours ago, jwlane said:

I'm trying to imagine a reason to use CaS vs. WiFi calling.

 

I can make some calls using WIFI, but none of my inbound calls come through for some reason.  The people calling say it goes straight to VM.  With Cell at sea, at least some of the calls come through and the outbound calling is better.  Neither are great, but combined they are ok.  I was just hoping the newer ships had better service.  Does sound that way though.

thx for the responses.

[Jim_Iain]

I haven't tried ATT at sea but am using Calling over WiFi an had no trouble placing and receiving calls over the Internet.   Solstice just installed StarLink (not real impressive) and calls have been good.   I do have a premium account.

 

I was talking with our daughter and got cut off a couple times but was walking laps so probably being dropped  switching between routers and not the service itself.