Telephone Calls

[flyingdoxie]

Hello from a newbie sailing next week on RCI's Jewel of the Seas. I am trying to figure out what is the best way to stay in touch with family back home. (Unfortunately a search of the boards didn't yield much info).

 

I read on RCI site that ship/shore calls are $7.50 per MINUTE :eek: !

 

Are calling cards/plans available? Not that I will spend the whole cruise on the phone - rather far from it. But I do have to touch base with family or they may need to reach me in an emergency.

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[chris2597]

I am not sure where your cruise is going so I will give the info that we used last yr in the Western Caribbean. We have Cingular, a couple of weeks prior to leaving my husband added international calling. I think we paid $5 for the month. The service provided no roaming charges and reduced rate per minute in the different ports. Some ports are more expensive than others..The cell phone company also gave us an international number to use when calling out and I believe for the family to use if they called us. ..Also, some carriers include Puerto Rico as a part of their service, at no charge. I think Cingular also has text messaging on the phones for a reasonable charge. We ended up using the internet cafe on board to communicate with the family back home. I would check in daily and they would email back to me how they were doing. The email worked out very well. All ships have emergency #'s if family back home needs to get in touch with you in case of emergency.

Don't buy an international/Mexico/Carib phone card in the US. The phone cards are only for calling from the US to another country. They won't work if you use them in the foreign country. You can buy phone cards in ports. We didnt do that so I am not sure how that works.

[kitty9]

Cruise lines don't have calling plans and they don't have calling cards. Your cheapest bet is to use the ship's internet email. If that doesn't work for you, see if your cell phone has international calling features. If your phone does, you have to activate the international calling before you leave home. If you have a Blackberry, you can use that phone for both calling home and sending email. I've found the Blackberry is the least expensive option as far as cell phones go.

[Spikesgirl]

We take our cell phone (Cinuglar plan) and call from the ports. We check ahead of time to see if any modifications need to be made to the phone, as we operate on one system and the rest of the world on another. just call your provider and ask. Then we call from our ports. Can't tell you how thrilled some of our friends have been being called from places like Hong Kong or Tahiti. Usually you can't get a signal at sea, but you can never tell.

 

For daily check-ins, use e-mail. you can either bring your own lap top and buy an Internet card for it or use the ship's computers.

 

Charlie