Verizon on Viking

[notjaded]

Just got off the phone with a Verizon rep, who I suspect gave me very inaccurate information about the coverage provided on our International calling plan. At first, he said that my month-long plan included unlimited cruise ship voice and text while on Viking. Since I've never had this before on other ships, I pressed him on it, and then he said that while the included minutes plan did not work on the ship we are sailing (Venus), he noted several ships that the plan worked on.

 

So, Viking experts, are Verizon minutes on board included in your international roaming plan?

 

Many thanks.

[1985rz1]

10 minutes ago, notjaded said:

Just got off the phone with a Verizon rep, who I suspect gave me very inaccurate information about the coverage provided on our International calling plan. At first, he said that my month-long plan included unlimited cruise ship voice and text while on Viking. Since I've never had this before on other ships, I pressed him on it, and then he said that while the included minutes plan did not work on the ship we are sailing (Venus), he noted several ships that the plan worked on.

 

So, Viking experts, are Verizon minutes on board included in your international roaming plan?

 

Many thanks.

We dumped Verizon because of its international plans were of a poor value, so I can't say definitely one way or another now.  Cellular at Sea, the ship's cell service was definitely not included then.

 

Perhaps, the agent was referring to WiFi calling, using the ships WiFi network to make calls and send texts, which uses your unlimited home plan. Most newish phones allow WiFi calling, and our old Verizon phones did.

Edited January 6 by 1985rz1

[OneSixtyToOne]

We have Verizon but their international plan is too expensive.

We bought an e-sim card from Airalo and have used that when in Europe and South America.

[GeorgeL]

We switched from Verizon to T-Mobile. It has free messaging, data (for fast need to pay extra), and cheap call rates (25c / min) from many countries. Ship calls, of course, not covered unless they are over wi-fi.

 

Edited January 6 by GeorgeL

[SWFLAOK]

We put our Verizon phones in airplane mode for most days on our recent cruise. But on 4 days when we wanted to use the phone, and took it out of airplane mode, we were charged 10 dollars per day.  This was on Viking Ocean last month, and the days that we used our phone were in Panama and Costa Rica. We had access to both internet and cell service for 10 dollars. I think there are some countries where it is 15 dollars a day instead of 10. Since we don't need to use it everyday, it's not excessive for access to our Verizon home plan when out of the US.

[Capt_BJ]

everytime we've cruised Viking (1 river, 2 ocean) I've activated the 'international' and have had ZERO issues. Mrs traveled to Norway on her own and did not activate 'full international' but used the 'call once and get 24 hours> to get her lost bags back ... no issues there either.

 

I've investigated other providers but when I bring up 'international' everyone has said ''' no" .....

 

that said" T-Mobile IS the big dog in most of EU but my son dropped T after a year in the US due to poor coverage . . . where he lives (Alabama)

Edited January 7 by Capt_BJ

[longterm]

We had AT&T, but switched to T-Mobile after we found out that they provide free international data & text (not voice though). After about 6 months or more with T-Mobile, I can report that here in the North Texas area our coverage is identical to what we got from AT&T--which makes sense since they use the same towers.

 

At sea, where there are no cell towers, cell phones aren't going to be able to make cell calls, so the info you got from your Verizon rep seems odd. We rarely make phone calls when we're on cruises, but if we do have to we just wait until we're in port. Wifi-only calling *should* work, but I've never had much luck with it.

If you want to stick with Verizon, and you have a fairly new smartphone, look into the Airolo app for iPhone and Android; you can get an eSim for about $30 for a month, and this will allow you to make phone calls anywhere in the are that you select. For example, they have a plan that works all over Europe, and I think it was about $30 for a month. If you start to use up the allotted data, you can top it off anytime. Works great, fairly easy to set up if you follow the excellent guided instructions.
 

 

[dd57]

In summary, no the Verizon international plan does not cover minutes onboard using the ship's satellite connection.  However, using wifi calling onboard works very well, does not cost extra and provides whatever your home plan has. 
 

We too use the daily international plan rather than the monthly plan and only turn on cell coverage on our phones on travel days for flight notifications, calling hotels, etc.  We use hotel wifi for wifi calling during pre and post cruise stays.  But we don't need phone access while on tours or exploring overseas;  I know some people do.

[1985rz1]

48 minutes ago, longterm said:

At sea, where there are no cell towers, cell phones aren't going to be able to make cell calls,

You can make cell calls with your cell phone, if you don't put your phone in airplane mode. You will connect to Cellular at Sea cell service on the ship...but calls, texts and data are charged at extremely high rates.

 

Like you, we switched to T-Mobile because international texting and 5GB/mo of high speed data are included for 215 countries, and calls (which we would rarely use) are only $0.25/minute.  We've been very happy with T-Mobile's domestic coverage which include Canada and Mexico.  It's been as good as the Verizon's service we had,  which didn't include Mexico and Canada in the plan, and the T-Mobile plan was much cheaper...even more so when you added in the extra cost of Verizon's international plans.

Edited January 8 by 1985rz1

[notjaded]

5 hours ago, dd57 said:

In summary, no the Verizon international plan does not cover minutes onboard using the ship's satellite connection.  However, using wifi calling onboard works very well, does not cost extra and provides whatever your home plan has. 
 

We too use the daily international plan rather than the monthly plan and only turn on cell coverage on our phones on travel days for flight notifications, calling hotels, etc.  We use hotel wifi for wifi calling during pre and post cruise stays.  But we don't need phone access while on tours or exploring overseas;  I know some people do.

Thanks.  I have a question, when you make a wifi call, how does the phone indicate that it is a wifi connection vs cellular?

[dd57]

I have an Android phone and I don't know if an iPhone works the same, but while on the ship you want to have the phone in airplane mode.  This turns off the cellular connection and avoids big charges.  Then turn on wifi.  You can test this out at home.  Be sure to do it in that sequence: turn on airplane mode then turn on wifi.  You might have to turn on a setting to enable wifi calling.

 

Most phones have little symbols at the top of the screen that shows which connections are active and have different symbols for cell, wifi, and Bluetooth. The symbols vary from phone to phone but if you try this at home you can figure it out.

[Patriot1791]

Lots of good tips here. Here is what I do for business (outside US), and we do for travel.

1. Always use a high quality VPN on your phone (lap top, iPADs, tablets).

2. Use WiFi Calling whenever possible. We use Whats APP for texting/calling and we try to never use cell service when traveling outside the US. We turn off the cell connection. WiFi for Whats App calling texting on ship works just fine.

3. Caution: When traveling/cruising to China, never use your personal or company/business phone. Leave it at home. Get a "burner". If you take your personal (or company) phone, even if it is turned off - it will be cloned - that is, they will take all your information, personal and otherwise -  immediately by the CCP. Taking your company phone to China is a fire-able offense at my company. 😁