Sailing to Alaska: talk, text, and time. Oh my!

[Octavias]

We will be headed to Alaska in just about 50 days. (Yay!). And I am trying to understand how our phones will work while we cruise.  One place I read said we needed to put our phones in airplane mode while on the water, or we will be charged really high roaming fees.  But if that is true, what is the point of the Wi-Fi package?  We have ATT as a service provider and Canada is covered for us.  We also have the premium Wi-Fi package as a part of our booking.  Or whatever comes with a sky suite.   We just need to be able to call and text each other. 
 

also, does ship time differ from Alaska time?  I’m really confused about how we will keep track of ship time if our phones automatically switch over to whatever time it is in port. 

[Tierun]

Airplane mode and WiFi on while at sea where cell service is roaming. Once in port you can resume normal cell service. Depending on your device, WiFi calling will work. Also FaceTime and texting are good with premium WiFi 

[cruisestitch]

41 minutes ago, Octavias said:

We will be headed to Alaska in just about 50 days. (Yay!). And I am trying to understand how our phones will work while we cruise.  One place I read said we needed to put our phones in airplane mode while on the water, or we will be charged really high roaming fees.  
 

that is true. 
 

But if that is true, what is the point of the Wi-Fi package?  Airplane mode does not turn off Wi-Fi, just phone calls

 

41 minutes ago, Octavias said:

We have ATT as a service provider and Canada is covered for us.  We also have the premium Wi-Fi package as a part of our booking.  Or whatever comes with a sky suite.   We just need to be able to call and text each other. 

You will need to turn on “calling over Wi-Fi” in order to call each other while in airplane mode.  Contact AT&T to activate this prior to the cruise

 

41 minutes ago, Octavias said:

also, does ship time differ from Alaska time?  I’m really confused about how we will keep track of ship time if our phones automatically switch over to whatever time it is in port. 
 

in Alaska ship time will always match port time

 

[WestLakeGirl]

Try the cruise technology board

[jwlane]

1 hour ago, Octavias said:

  But if that is true, what is the point of the Wi-Fi package? 
 

also, does ship time differ from Alaska time? 

Your assignment today is to research "WiFi calling."

 

Ship will be on local time.

[GlitterFemme]

As others have said, you should be able to enable WiFi calling (this should be done in advance) and then, when you turn on airplane mode, turn WiFi back on. It's not true that airplane mode doesn't turn off WiFi, but it is true that you can turn it back on while leaving Cellular data off.

 

You should also be able to just turn off roaming on your phone, so it doesn't connect to the ship's Cellular tower and rack up roaming charges. That's the concern here. If you do that you will still be using WiFi to call and text though, so you should still set that up in advance.

 

The ship will be on local time, so you don't need to worry while in port, but the best thing to do is to disable "set automatically" under "time zone" in your phone's settings. (This might be phrased different on an iPhone but the setting should still exist.) Ship's time changes overnight to avoid confusion. There will be a note left in your stateroom letting you know to set your watch back one hour overnight. Once you disable the automatic time zone setting you can do the same with your phone, by selecting Anchorage/Alaska/GMT -08:00 as your time zone. Otherwise your phone will switch at whatever point the ship actually crosses the line, so it won't be accurate for shipboard activities.

[phoenix_dream]

One thing to be aware - I have found in my many Alaska cruises that it is often the case that the Wi-Fi reception is very poor, and at times non-existent.  You will be in some very remote locations without good satellite feed.   You would think docked in towns it would be better, and yet I have found it is sometimes worse.  Just want you to realize this in case you are counting on needing the Wi-Fi for work or other important calls or other uses.  It improved once they went to Starlink, but it can still be an issue.

[jwlane]

3 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

 You would think docked in towns it would be better, and yet I have found it is sometimes worse. 

The good thing then is one can use the local cellular service.

[Octavias]

Thanks everyone!  (And sorry I didn’t post in the correct forum)

 

I will do my homework and look up “Wi-Fi calling”.  
 

so if I’m understanding correctly, we need to turn on Wi-Fi calling ahead of time with ATT and the time change will be the same with the ship and the shore so we don’t have to do anything there.  Also, we will want to turn on airplane mode.  

[cruisestitch]

23 minutes ago, Octavias said:

Thanks everyone!  (And sorry I didn’t post in the correct forum)

 

I will do my homework and look up “Wi-Fi calling”.  
 

so if I’m understanding correctly, we need to turn on Wi-Fi calling ahead of time with ATT and the time change will be the same with the ship and the shore so we don’t have to do anything there.  Also, we will want to turn on airplane mode.  

Yes to all

[jwlane]

1 hour ago, Octavias said:

we need to turn on Wi-Fi calling ahead of time with ATT

It may already be on.

[phoenix_dream]

4 hours ago, jwlane said:

The good thing then is one can use the local cellular service.

Yes, when in port that's true, although that service is also not very good in some of their ports.

[the penguins]

20 hours ago, Octavias said:

Thanks everyone!  (And sorry I didn’t post in the correct forum)

 

I will do my homework and look up “Wi-Fi calling”.  
 

so if I’m understanding correctly, we need to turn on Wi-Fi calling ahead of time with ATT and the time change will be the same with the ship and the shore so we don’t have to do anything there.  Also, we will want to turn on airplane mode.  

Are you sure you are not “over thinking” this. Put Phone on airplane mode, times will be confirmed every day and on boards as you leave the ship.

Most times we cruise we are 4, 5, 6 or more hours time difference from our home and the world has never come to an end.

You are on vacation relax and enjoy you can catch up with the digital world when you get home. 

[markeb]

33 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Are you sure you are not “over thinking” this. Put Phone on airplane mode, times will be confirmed every day and on boards as you leave the ship.

Most times we cruise we are 4, 5, 6 or more hours time difference from our home and the world has never come to an end.

You are on vacation relax and enjoy you can catch up with the digital world when you get home. 

Their question was how to stay connected not how to disconnect. Many of us don’t. 

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, markeb said:

Their question was how to stay connected not how to disconnect. Many of us don’t. 

look at the original post and you will see they had other questions and later about ship time v land time.  I should have added the smiley face to my original post  🤣

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

I've often found that ship WiFi struggles until I put the phone on airplane mode.

 

If you're struggling with it, there will be people around on the first day to help people switch to the ship's WiFi (even those who don't have a package use it for accessing the app). Stop stressing so much. 🙂