price of calls from ports and ship

[Dylansmommy]

Hello! DH and I are leaving our 2 year old dd for a whole week with my parents. I am sure they can take good care of her... but i am not away from her very much and i would like to call and check on her occasionally. Would it be better to use our cell phones the days we are in ports or should we use the ship's phone even though it is more expensive. Or should i use email because we will be bringing our laptop. We are on the Glory and our ports are Nassau st. thomas and St. Martin.

 

Any help would be appreciated

[salty dingo]

Email will be least expensive. Calls from ship will be most expensive, at about $7.99 a minute.

 

Your cell phone may work in some ports - check with your service provider on that and what the rate would be. I know my plan has nationwide coverage and that included St. Thomas and San Juan, so it was free to call on the cell phone from those places.

 

You can also buy a calling card in a store in just about any port. Ask a crew member for advice there, as many of them call home that way.

[DqALEX]

I called from my cabin phone once, on the carnival celebration. Never again. My bill was over $200.00 for that call.

[caribbean dreams]

We learned not to ever use the ships phone the hard way, after my DD decided to call her boyfriend and have a 42 minute conversation. The bill was over $300. needless to say, we went straight to the pursers desk and had the deactivate her S&S card.

[Vmalcolm]

I've read two posts recently...one regarding roaming charges in foreign ports (like $250) and one regarding using your phone from the ship while in port (sounded like home port) and having to go through Carnivals network even though you haven't left yet (again for outrageously high prices). YIKES! In the past we were able to use our cell phone for even a day while we sailed down the coast past the Keys. Both of these cases I read about were on recent Glory cruises.

 

I'd like to get more details! I've always called family from the ship as we are in port and leaving port.

 

Valerie

[Dylansmommy]

Thanks for all the replys. I guess i will have to use email. I know it sounds stupid but i always feel reassured when i can talk to her.

[tankersbabe]

I use email...plus I give out the emergency phone number if someone HAS to get in touch with us, and they'll be footing the $9.50 per minute bill if they are that desperate.

 

The internet on the ship is about 75 cents per minute...some days have buy five minutes get five free and stuff like that.

 

Happy sailing!

[zqvol]

Hello! DH and I are leaving our 2 year old dd for a whole week with my parents. I am sure they can take good care of her... but i am not away from her very much and i would like to call and check on her occasionally. Would it be better to use our cell phones the days we are in ports or should we use the ship's phone even though it is more expensive. Or should i use email because we will be bringing our laptop. We are on the Glory and our ports are Nassau st. thomas and St. Martin.

 

Any help would be appreciated

Your best bet is to check with your cell phone service provider. Depending on your plan, a call from St. Thomas is likely no more expensive than any other long distance call that you make.

 

Nassau may be the same.

 

St. Martin will not be inexpensive. The cell phones there are on a different system and thus yours will likely not work.

[zqvol]

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