Contacting passengers at sea

[clojacks]

We are sailing on the Coral this Saturday, April 5th, and have run into a couple of situations dealing with elderly family members that might require us to be contacted at sea, but not cancel our cruise or cut it short. Has anyone had to be contacted at sea and if so, do you have any suggestions to make sure that we receive any land based info that needs to get to us? Has anyone used Skype on their laptop to place a call over the internet while on board and was it successful or is the ships internet unreliable for that purpose?

[clojacks]

Hoping that maybe someone will see this and help with a response if I bump it back up to the top.

[Putterdude]

In the travel docs you received from Princess are some emergency contacts. I would speak with Princess about receivng other information.

[Pam in CA]

You can use the Internet Cafe to access your email. Generally, it's pretty reliable. I have my cell phone set up to check personal email so I can check whether there's something in my inbox whenever the ship is in port before even going to the Internet Cafe. The data charges to check email on my cell are a LOT less than phone/roaming.

[CleoChase]

I have not tried to use SKYPE through the ships internet nor would I attempt it. It is a really slow connection. Honestly, I don't think it would work it has taken me several minutes to send a 2 line all txt email. And it will not always even bring up my webmail page. I really doubt you would be able to hold a phone conversation on a connection that is that slow. It is more the speed of a dial up modem then the high speed internet that I am so spoiled by now.

 

I have been contacted my email which I check while I am on board and via a shore to ship call once. If it is a an emergency I would think that the call would be the most effective as there are times that the internet connection is down.

[FLACRUISER99]

How to Telephone a Cruise Ship

 

In order to contact someone on a cruise ship by telephone, you need two pieces of information:

 

 

(1) the ocean or maritime area where the ship is cruising and

(2) the phone number of the ship.

 

Currently there are four maritime codes, each one corresponding to a satellite which handles the calls to that area of the globe. To contact a ship, dial your international access code, then the maritime code and finally the telephone or fax number of the ship.

 

Please Note: before you make the call, remember that the cost of the call averages $12-$15 per minute!

 

The maritime codes are:

 

 

871 - for Europe, Mediterranean, Africa, Eastern Atlantic Ocean

874 - for Atlantic Ocean, Western Caribbean, South America, Gulf of Mexico

872 - for Pacific Ocean, Alaska, Hawaii

873 - for the Indian Ocean

In some instances, the telephone number and fax number are the same. When you place the call, you may hear a voice answer, but when the fax tone is heard, the call will be switched to the fax

 

 

Look here for number

http://www.inmarsat.com/Services/Maritime/Ships_Directory/default.aspx?language=EN&textonly=False

Type in Coral Princess

[Grego]

The other way of contacting you at sea is for them to send an email to you that will arrive at your cabin. Have them send an email to (name of ship) at princesscruises.com and put your name and cabin number in the subject line.

 

For example, if you are cruising on the Caribbean Princess and your cabin is L301 and your name is Grego, then have them send the email to:

 

caribbeanprincess@princesscruises.com with greg L301 in the subject line.

[HurricaneSally]

Do youself a favor, and tell them not to contact you. It will only make the rest of your cruise miserable and there is nothing you can do about the problem at home. Enjoy your week and tell them to wait until you get home before making any necessary arrangements. JMO, please don't flame me, but we dealt with this scenario when my mother in law was ill for three years.

 

You can't put your life on hold waiting for someone to die, but if they do, it can wait a week until you get home.