Advice welcomed re: eSIM for upcoming South America cruise

[PapaGoose]

I have posted a similar question on the Technology boards on CC.
 

DW and I will be boarding Sapphire Princess in February for a 14 night South American cruise. We will have the wifi package while onboard but would like data while in the various ports of call. We thought a Latin America regional eSIM would work for us but… Ports of call include Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and the Falkland Islands. Because the Falkland Islands are connected to the UK would we be better served getting a Global eSIM? The price doesn’t seem to be much different. We would like to hear from anybody who has had experience with eSIMs while travelling on a South America cruise. 

[Mercruiser]

Unfortunately, South American esims are exorbitantly priced compared to Europe, North America regional sims, etc. The best price per GB seems to be on the single country sims.

 

For example, an Airalo Chile esim, is  7 GB, 5 days, $11. That is really cheap.

 

But if you get their LATAM regional esim, it's 5 GB, 30 days, $60.

 

Buying a separate esim.when you change counties can be way cheaper.

 

I have not seen an email that works in the Falklands.

 

BYW, we are flying to Chile today for a pre-cruise land trip to Patagonia.

[Mercruiser]

Unfortunately, South American esims are exorbitantly priced compared to Europe.&  North America regional sims. The best price per GB seems to be on the single country sims.

 

For example, an Airalo Chile esim is  7 GB, 5 days, $11. That is really cheap.

 

But if you get their LATAM regional esim, it's 5 GB, 30 days, $60.

 

Buying a separate esim when you change counties can be way cheaper. Chile and Argentina would cover most of a typical Buenos Aries - Santiago cruise.

 

I have not seen an esim that works in the Falklands.

 

I've used Airalo in Europe and Ubigi in the USA.. Both work great. I haven't used an esim in S.A. yet.

 

BYW, we are flying to Chile today for a pre-cruise land trip to Patagonia.

Edited January 6 by Mercruiser

[Mercruiser]

Not sure why the duplicate post, but the last one is the most complete 

[SophieM]

If you are an AT&T customer, depending on your cell plan, you will have free calls, texts, and data in South America on your phone and should be able to hotspot other devices to it. Just need to make sure you have the right plan and turn data roaming on on your phone. Be sure to switch back to airplane mode on sea days. 

[PapaGoose]

Thanks for the tips folks!

 

No AT&T for us. We hail from Canada. The land of possibly the most expensive cell plans in the world. Last year, when we did a Panama Canal cruise, our carrier, Rogers, charged a one day fee of $15 CAD (roughly $11.25 USD) for roaming in Panama City. We didn’t use this feature again at any ports of call. Too expensive for us.
 

We will be better off purchasing a 30 day Global eSIM with 3 GB of data from Airola for $24 USD. It works for 127 countries internationally including Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and the UK so I’m hopeful that it will do what we need in each port. Just looking for someone who has already experienced this type of thing for feedback. 

[Mercruiser]

Papa goose, 

 

Unrelated to your original question, but when visiting USA, you might try Ubigi. I used them for three months and was quite happy with them. They use the T-Mobile network.

 

[Torquer]

Does anyone know of a good cheap sim card (physical card, since my phone doesn't use esim) for Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay?  I have looked around on Amazon and other places and can't find one.  I really want to be able to get it before I leave home, since I don't want to waste time finding a shop when I am on the cruise.  Right now, it looks like I am going to have to use my Verizon plan at $10 per day to use it.  We will need it for about 10 days out of the 20 day cruise, so it will cost about $100 for the entire trip.

[Mercruiser]

It might be a good time to upgrade your phone. Esims are so economical and easy to use for international travel. Now that I've used an esim, I would not want to travel without it.

 

BTW, we are in Chile right now using the Airalo esim. It works great.

 

For anyone new to esims, I strongly recommend testing the esim in your home country before going on a trip - buy the cheapest esim that works at home and give it a try.  Like most things, it's easy once you know how how it works. But I wouldn't want to have to figure this out for the first time when on a trip.