I hope it's just a rumor...

[islandchicklet]

Cingular/At&t website shows that calls from the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are covered within the national plan, so there would be no extra charge to make calls back to the US. This sounds right as these are US territories. But can anyone verify this info?? Have you actually used your phone there and not had any additional charges? It would be great to be able to call home while in these ports and talk to the kids without rushing off the phone.

 

Yes, there is no extra charge while in USVI or PR if you have a national plan. I recently moved back to the states from USVI and the service was very good - had less problems with dropped calls than I do in Texas:rolleyes: .

[DavidandPaula]

We took ours in July but only because we have elderly parents in high care wards so anything could have happened.

 

I did not notice large numbers of cruisers walking around with cell phones to their ears however there is nothing about being on a ship that might force people to change their normal bad habits if they have them. I think it more likely that because they were on holidays they did not see the need more than the extra expense. We made a few calls from our cabin, a few onshore and a few on the upper decks and the bill was quite reasonable so I don't think expense was a factor in controlling peoples use.

 

David

[WinnipegCruiser]

I take my cell phone, but will only turn it on in an emergency. However to call home I use SKYPE. I use the internet on my laptop anyway, so a five minute a day call from my room is still pretty cheap.

[CAPTN JACK SPARROW]

I was just on the Miricle for her 8/31 voyage. I also had cell phone signal when I set it to digital roam. I didnt use it becuase it was expensive. I also remeber seeing an ad for the service in my cabins carnival channel.

[KC_fn]

Sad but true - we had a guy in the dining room on the phone all through dinner at the table next to us on the last cruise.:mad: :eek:

 

GGRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!! :mad: :mad:

[flyingb]

machman,

Where did you get the picture of the twi towers and 9-11? Would love to have one.

Luv's Crusin'

[Bassic]

I was wondering if anyone could tell me the rate per minute to make a quick call to check on things at home. We are leaving a not so mature 19 year old at home alone to watch the house and all the pets while we are gone for a week on the Legend. Sure would make my vacation a lot more relaxing if I could just check a couple of times during the week. Don't want to get home and have a $500 phone bill though! I have checked the A T & T website and all I can find is the term "international rates apply". Well, that doesn't help a whole lot if you can't find what the international rates are! Thanks for any help.

If you have to ask, you can't afford it! :D

 

 

We take our cell phones with us, but only because they are our alarm clocks as well. We keep them off, and set them to come on at whatever time we want to get up. Gotta be careful though- I have heard tales of people getting huge roaming bills as their phone searched for signal. Never made a call, but the very act of the phone wanting to be on a network was enough that it "reached out and touched someone"- touched them right in the wallet!

[ali6879]

I was wondering if anyone could tell me the rate per minute to make a quick call to check on things at home. We are leaving a not so mature 19 year old at home alone to watch the house and all the pets while we are gone for a week on the Legend. Sure would make my vacation a lot more relaxing if I could just check a couple of times during the week. Don't want to get home and have a $500 phone bill though! I have checked the A T & T website and all I can find is the term "international rates apply". Well, that doesn't help a whole lot if you can't find what the international rates are! Thanks for any help.

 

We were on a 5 day cruise, and I called out the first night when we were still in Tampa so no charges there. I want to take a guess and say my charges for the 5 minute call I made each night after that were about $40. Not horrible for me to be able to check on my daughter.

[Ms Belvedere]

We have Cingular and on our last cruise it cost $2.49 a minute to call to Florida. We had a relative in the hospital and called another relative to check on her condition a couple of times. We talked fast, got the info we needed and hung up - it cost approx $12.00-$13.00 total.

Ms B

[okbowler]

If you use your cellphone in USVI it is part of your national plan BUT check your bill. We had extra charges on our bill, when we checked with ATT it seems that a cell tower in the BVI picked up our phone signal, hence the extra charge, ATT did adjust the bill. :) Bill

[Longin2cruise]

I was wondering if anyone could tell me the rate per minute to make a quick call to check on things at home. We are leaving a not so mature 19 year old at home alone to watch the house and all the pets while we are gone for a week on the Legend. Sure would make my vacation a lot more relaxing if I could just check a couple of times during the week. Don't want to get home and have a $500 phone bill though! I have checked the A T & T website and all I can find is the term "international rates apply". Well, that doesn't help a whole lot if you can't find what the international rates are! Thanks for any help.

Call the phone number on your Cingular/AT& T billing. They can give you the costs of calls from different locations, including on board the ship. You can arrange for international calls for only the duration of your trip. It was well worth it when we were cruising the Med. on Carnival Freedom. My roommate for the trip has her own business & needed to check in every 4 or 5 days & I used it to make changes of plans with our private guide in Rome. A couple of times the cell phone would not work in our cabin, but when we went up on deck, it did work. By no means did we stay on the phone the entire time of our vacation, but it was nice to have the convenience of being able to make calls when we needed too. It was also a heck of a lot cheaper than the $9.75 per minute that the ship charges for using the cabin phone.

[justbreathe]

It's amazing that not a single person on this thread has Verizon (unless I missed it)! I do and the rate for Verizon is $0.69/minute in the USVI and $1.25 in the Bahamas. Was told I may have trouble getting service though. Only to check on my boys and their homework! And hopefully not driving my mother crazy!

 

Glory in 4 days!

[MikeM711]

http://www.cellularatsea.com/

[rmharvey8]

Here we go .... another bad idea profit center for the cruise lines.

 

Though I can appreciate the need to get a hold of the kids, grandma, or even your mother - in - law, this will ruin some of the overall experience of cruising. Just picture the teenager yapping on the phone in front of you while your holding a tray of food in the buffet line. Picture the business man who won't let go of work for even one week. And who won't shut up. Picture the person who is asking about the weather back home while sailing in the Caribbean. Picture your dinner companions and your atttempting to have a converstion with them - whoops he's got a bluetooth stuck in his ear. Picture this converstion.... "Mom (Dad), I can't find my phone, I think I may have left it on the chair by the pool."

 

For every one of you that will use common sense with cell phone use, there will be 10 more that will be rude and thoughtless about it's use. Count on it.

 

However, I clearly understand that the Genie in completely out of the bottle and there is no going back.

 

Two Cents Worth

 

Rob Harvey

 

Lots of Cruises, Lots of Fun

[bthorn1108]

I had Cingular, now AT & T. When I traveled to Puerto Rico for business, I was never charged extra fees. On our cruise, a few weeks ago to the Bahamas, I realized I had service while at sea. It stated Cingular at Sea and the literature in the cabin stated it was approximately $2.50 per minute. Keep in mind, this charge applies even if you're just checking your voice mails. We will be bringing our phone with us, only because my DS and DDIL are traveling with us and leaving our 3 grandchildren at home with child care. I will only turn the phone on twice a day, to see if I've missed any calls. If I have, and they are from DS's house, we will immediately call back, otherwise, anyone else can wait :)

[jrferg]

These rates are in effect once you have docked or are in port.

 

Cayman islands .................. $1.99/minute

Montego bay/ Ocho Rios .............$1.99/minute

Cozumel .................... $ .99/minute

[teanbean16]

I certainly would not carry my cell phone around the ship but it's a wonderful thing to have to call home on a nightly basis.:) :)

[crusinmama06]

It's not new. When on Elation last December, my MIL's phone display said "Cingular At Sea".

 

SO she thought she could yap, yap yap all week. And came back to a $450 phone bill. LOL!

 

Yep she didn't listen to me. :p ;)

[DqALEX]

Why would this worry you? There are a lot worst things on carnival to worry about. Im glad I had cell service on the legend. The ship was late getting back and people had to change there air twice because of bad info from carnival. Forget about the cabin phone. Only a few can call out at anytime. I would rather see people with a cell phone in there ear than a 2 way radio talking about nothing, saying where they are or looking for there kids

[keishashadow]

I certainly would not carry my cell phone around the ship but it's a wonderful thing to have to call home on a nightly basis.:) :)

 

yep, lot's of us have obligations at home (think elderly parent who needs a reassuring call from her "lifeline" everyday).:D

 

so glad it's available.

[happy cruzin]

It's not new. When on Elation last December, my MIL's phone display said "Cingular At Sea".

 

SO she thought she could yap, yap yap all week. And came back to a $450 phone bill. LOL!

 

Yep she didn't listen to me. :p ;)

 

The display reads "Cellular at Sea" ;) for any carrier when you are using the cellular tower on the ship.

[KRUISE KING]

I have t-mobile rates on the ship are $4.99 per min I learned the hard way that if you left you cell on for every voice mail message you were charged one min i never answered the phone and got a $600 dollar bill so now unless in port i leave it off.

[happy cruzin]

I was wondering if anyone could tell me the rate per minute to make a quick call to check on things at home. We are leaving a not so mature 19 year old at home alone to watch the house and all the pets while we are gone for a week on the Legend. Sure would make my vacation a lot more relaxing if I could just check a couple of times during the week. Don't want to get home and have a $500 phone bill though! I have checked the A T & T website and all I can find is the term "international rates apply". Well, that doesn't help a whole lot if you can't find what the international rates are! Thanks for any help.

 

You have to have a phone that has international capability and your international calling has to be enabled by your carrier. The rate is 2.49 per minute for all calls when using the tower on the ship.

 

You can also sign up with AT&T for an "international roaming plan" for 4.99 - that can get you a rate lower than the regular international rates - for calls made in port. Depending on the port I have seen rates as low as .49/minute. You can put the plan on and then take it off after all of your charges appear.

 

If you call AT&T customer service and ask for the international department I have always found them to be helpful. They ask where we are going and when and then give me the current rates. We then decide if it is worth adding the international roaming plan - to get the better rates.

 

I have used the service often. I do not usually see people "chatting" on their phones like you do at home. We use ours in our cabin in the evenings.

 

I know that some do not like cell phones on the ships - but it is a great service for those of us that need to check on things at home while we are away.

[crusinmama06]

The display reads "Cellular at Sea" ;) for any carrier when you are using the cellular tower on the ship.

 

 

Mine didn't, thank God. Mine is Verizon and it said NADA on the display. :D I was not available at the moment. ;)

[Jeepenfun]

Heres some ideas i've thought of when we do our cruise, maybe some can benifit from these and still be able to keep in touch with family at home.

 

No one has mentioned text messeging. I know it doesn't work at all when your at sea but when you reach a port and get off the ship and far enough from the ship your service switches over to the local towers and if your in an area the has digital service I think it would be a whole lot cheaper if not free or including in your plan to text a messege to someone at home then to call wouldn't it? providing your texting someone at home or where ever with a cell phone also. Nearly all my family and friends have cell phones that are on 24/7 and use text messaging. I'm also going to tell family if it's an absolute emergency then call over and over back to back and maybe by the 4 or 5 time my cell goes off i'll answer knowing it must be an emergency. Does caller ID work at sea? Calls I get at sea from numbers I don't recognize or repeated calls over and over I don't recognize i'll just ignor and when I return to main port again in my normal calling area I'll return calls.

I think when me and my fiancee go on our honeymoon cruise next year were going to tell who ever is watching our kids and imediate family and friends to just email us whenever they want and we'll check email once a night on the laptop. Where thinking about doing the 60 minutes of internet service for $24 and if we use that up before our 5 day cruise is over we'll buy another 30 minutes or so depending. It's far cheeper and can get a lot more said if you type out your email or reply offline in MS word then copy, paste, send, & logg back off again.

I'll probably jump on and start a thread on here during our cruise with pictures to make all those who wish they were on a cruise jealous :p lol