Making Calls from Ship or Islands

[surgie]

What is the best way to make calls to the U.S. from the ship (Navigator) and from the Western Car. islands (Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel)? How expensive is it?

[yarlenna]

If you have a cell phone ask your provider. Watch out for pay phones in any of the Caribbean. If they ask for your home number as a condition of the call, you may find yourself with an additional bill upon your return. The ship's phone charges can be outrageous!

I used my cell phone in Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Cozumel without major problems - and the charges were not bad either.

[kitty1]

If your friends and family have email, that's probably cheaper. It's 50 cents a minute for email, and about $8 a min for a phone call. We used our prepaid calling card from Walmart and that wasn't the way to go either. We had 800 mins. Made a 5 min call home from a pay phone in port and it used almost 500 of our mins. They sell calling cards in port for $10- $20 that work from the country you're in. Those are probably the cheapest option.

 

Check with your cell phone provider. They might have coverage in the Caribbean.

 

If you have to call while at sea, email is the cheapest route.

[gambler]

Cell phones do not work from the Islands you mentioned. In Cozmuel, RCCL usuallly docks at the International Pier. Cross the street from there and walk just a bit to the right. There is a phone and internet place. I think it was around 85 cents a minute to call the US. In Cayman, you must buy their card, around $12.50 for 8 minutes. In Jamacia, I believe you can get a card right at the pier to use in their phones, the rate was reasonable.

[aearly]

go to http://www.net2phone.com and look at their pre-paied calling card. Hands-down, this is the best international calling card. I bought a $25 cars a while back and have gotten hours upon hours of talk time both too and from europe on it. Alongside the low-low international rates, there are also local access numbers for the caribbean ports to use with the payphones.

[vossjemi]

Look in your cruise compass as it will usually mention where the International Call Stations are located on each island. We called home from Jamaica and Cozumel. The Cozumel call station is right on the pier at the end almost as you get to the street. We paid around 45cents/minute for a calling card. On Jamaica, the call station was at the Island Village Shopping Center, same price. Wonderful, and no probs at all mon!