Cingular Roaming Charges

[PR1NCESSD1ANE]

We cruised on the Mariner of the Seas 3/24/06 sailing and used our Cingular cell phone service while at sea. We have not yet received the charges on our second phone bill since the cruise. Their website states that it may take 60 days to post, but we're past that. Has anyone received roaming charges on their bill's yet for cruises around that time? I'm hoping that my charges are lost at sea!

[5soonerfans]

You might want to sit down when you open your bill. Our roaming charges for Cingular were $1.99 a minute plus an international tax around 20 cents. Luckily we didn't make very many calls.

We sailed on 3/11/06 and they were on the next bill.

[parrotthead]

Double post...Sorry Im a dork!

[parrotthead]

Our plan with cingular is 'no roaming' so if yours is also, you may only be responsible for any 'out of the country ' costs...we used our phones only while in Cozumel and then 'at sea' when we were close enough to get a 'cingular cel' no roaming while in Cozumel just an increased per mimute rate and slightly higher texts charges, for us to text our childrens phones 'back home' and no extra charge for children to text to us 'from home' while we were away. So you may be inluck!

[PR1NCESSD1ANE]

Our phones never showed "roam" while we used them, but our plan does not include international roaming, only domestic.

[5soonerfans]

We sailed on 3/11 and the charges showed up on the next bill. Our phone never said roaming either. Maybe you lucked out and won't have any roaming charges

[suet]

Hi,

 

We have Sprint with no roaming in the US. Well we were on the Voyager the week of March 4. My son ran up $222.00 worth of roaming fees while we were on that cruise. The only places it was not considered roaming was in San Juan and in St.Thomas.

 

I hope you are luckier than what we were. I about had a heart attack. He said I got bored and had to call my friends. He is leaving his phone at home the next time. Or better yet, maybe I will leave him at home. His is 16.

 

Sue

[glen tev]

We used cingular last year on Voyager and called cingular prior to our cruise.They then set our account up for international calling at $1.49 per minute with no roaming.

[I LOVE TO GO CRUISING]

We were on a RCCL ship in the Caribbean around June last year and we used our cell phones to call one another on the ship. There was no indication that we were in a roam status on any of our phones. Between my daughter, my grand son and me we had a combined bill of almost $500.00.

 

I am booked on the Mariner of the Seas for June 18 and the 25th. I am going to check with Cingulkar about what the charges will be if we call each other on the ship and we call the USA.

 

As the old saying goes

 

FORE WARNED IS FORE ARMED.

[turbosol16]

Does the Explorer of the Seas have a cell phone tower or is it only on the Freedom?

[iluvcruzin]

I have Cingular Nation Plan. In St. Thomas or nearby, there is no charge for roaming. If it was the last day at sea and you were on your way back to Miami, the odds are you may have picked up the Bahama's. The rate is whatever the international charge is plus the $1.99. I did this once at sea thinking were were close enough to Miami. Nope. It was a costly 2 min. call. I didn't recieve the bill until a couple months later. It will show up sooner or later.

[Iamthesea]

We have Sprint with no roaming in the US. Well we were on the Voyager the week of March 4. My son ran up $222.00 worth of roaming fees while we were on that cruise. The only places it was not considered roaming was in San Juan and in St.Thomas.

 

I hope you are luckier than what we were. I about had a heart attack. He said I got bored and had to call my friends. He is leaving his phone at home the next time. Or better yet, maybe I will leave him at home. His is 16.

 

Our Sprint phone goes into a lock mode when we are in roam territory and will not let us dial out until we press a button to allow it.

 

Trust me, it will be much cheaper on you to take your son with you on the next cruise. We left one daughter at home when she was over 18 and the damage to our home was much more than $222.:rolleyes:

[mrgabriel]

We were on a RCCL ship in the Caribbean around June last year and we used our cell phones to call one another on the ship. There was no indication that we were in a roam status on any of our phones. Between my daughter, my grand son and me we had a combined bill of almost $500.00.

 

I am booked on the Mariner of the Seas for June 18 and the 25th. I am going to check with Cingulkar about what the charges will be if we call each other on the ship and we call the USA.

 

As the old saying goes

 

FORE WARNED IS FORE ARMED.

 

 

I used my Cingular phone in Canada (about 2 blocks from a tower) to call my husband's (who was maybe a mile away at the mall) was charged $1.99 per minute even though my phone did not say "roam" or "Cingular Extend". When I called them to complain, they said that as far as they were concerned, the call was ROUTED to the home location (then Kentucky), and then back to the final destination. Although the signal was really only traveling about 2 miles, they charge for 5000 miles.

 

You might want to get walkie talkies for the next cruise!

 

And Sue ... does your son have that summer job yet to pay for the cell phone bill? :)

[crzn4fun]

We were on the Explorer of the Seas in March. Cingular does work on the ship but it is at a rate of around $1.99 per minute I think. You can purchase some kind of package plan before you go to make it cheaper. Our phones never indicated roaming. Our additional cost was $79 for all four of us calling each other on the ship to check in periodically. We are on the family nation-wide calling plan.

[herecomesthesun]

My family has Cingular, and we have free calls to each other. Will this stay the same on our cruise? We are bringing walkie talkies to use on the ship, but it would be nice to be able to call each other when we are a bit far away for walkies in port, and not have to be charged roaming and/or international fees.

[wrp96]

herecomesthesun, it depends on your plan, but most likely every single call you make outside of the country will be charged - so if you call your dad on the cruise, you will both be charged the fee for making the call outside the country.

 

I received the bill for my February and March cruises at the end of April. Total for several calls out of the country over 20 plus days was about $20 extra on my Cingular bill. But, I called and added International calling ($1.99 per minute but no monthly flat fee) before I left on the 1st cruise and was aware that once I was out of the country I wasn't on my regular Cingular service - even though it said Cingular on almost every single island.

[Ocean Boy]

Cingular phones service no longer shows roaming when, in fact, you are. I have been told that they changed to this type of programming because when you are in the States and on a national plan you sometimes connect through a competitors tower. When this would happen your phone would show roaming even though there would be no roaming charges. To keep folks from stressing out THINKING that they were roaming the system was programmed to no longer show it.

 

If you are on an RCI ship which has been equiped with cellular access, and I don't know which ones they are, you will connect to cingular service out at sea but all of the calls will be roaming just like if you were on one of the islands and making calls with the exception of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands which are included in the national plans.

[isujim]

I recieved my bill from Sprint

 

We were on the Mariner over Easter. No roaming, long distance

 

Charge was $2.99 per minute............flat rate on my bill

 

Jim

[David4]

I went with my Daughter and three of her friends in march for spring break on the MOS, one of the girls had a charge of over a $1000.00 and called cingular and got the charges dropped off because it didnt say roaming.I had a $300.00 charge but paid it. It was worth it. My wife had to stay home, she enjoys it when the wait staff preforms at dinner and on Italin night I called her when they were preforming.She loved it, I didnt care what it cost.I will be useing my cell phone on the Freedom of the Seas on the second sailing June 11th, I will not over do it though.

[crzn4fun]

herecomesthesun, I can guarantee you that you will be charged when you call each other on your Cingular phones. We also have free mobile-to-mobile but were charged the out of the country charges which totaled around $79 on top of our regular monthly charges for calling each other on the ship. It was worth it to me, but someone else might not want to pay the extra charges. With teens, I liked the fact that they could check in periodically with me by phone.

[RM]

OK So what about San Juan and St. Thomas? According to Cingular they are in network. Will I be charged more for those calls????

[uksimonusa]

OK So what about San Juan and St. Thomas? According to Cingular they are in network. Will I be charged more for those calls????

 

You shouldn't be charged more for these calls when the ship is in these ports, as long as the ship system is turned off, you should also not be charged when you make calls from the ship

[Guest TRACKER1]

Hello Everyone,

Me and my wife have Cingular as well and only had Statewide calling and on our trip last year we were charged roaming outside our calling area! This Year we are going to the Caymans and Jamaica and Cozumel and we switched to International calling! In Cozumel you have to Dial 001 then the area code and number for the states and should not be charged depending on your service provider?also I was told by upper management of Cingular that you just dial the Regular number as Long distance for Jamaica and Cayman's! We will see! A good site is http://www.countrycallingcodes.com and you select what country you are calling from and to where you are calling and it will give you the right code to use!

 

This is what I have been told!Good advice from all and I will give my cellphone bill a extreme lookover when I return to see if what I was told is the truth!If not my contract expires soon!

 

Happy Cruising To All!

[Guest TRACKER1]

Hello Again,

After my first post I called Cingular and was told that It's $2.49 a minute on the ship and $1.99 a minute off the ship in all ports ,Cozumel,Virgin Islands!

This is for Cingular Wireless International plans. Other plans you will have to check with your carrier!And the cruise line you Cruise with if the ship has cell phone capabilitie's.

 

Happy Cruising to All!

[wrp96]

Hello Again,

After my first post I called Cingular and was told that It's $2.49 a minute on the ship and $1.99 a minute off the ship in all ports ,Cozumel,Virgin Islands!

This is for Cingular Wireless International plans. Other plans you will have to check with your carrier!

 

Happy Cruising to All!

 

The actual costs depend on which International Plan you are on - there is more than one.