cell phone use

[mermaidchica]

(I'm a first time cruiser)

 

Just wondering about using cell phones on board (Carnival) to call the US and receive calls from the US, and maybe make & receive texts.

 

Has anyone had recent experience with this? Costs/charges?

 

I have Sprint (Everything plan).

 

Thank you! :)

[wrp96]

The ships have cell towers operated by Cellular at Sea. These cell towers are turned on when the ship is not in port and all calls go through these towers. The costs vary by provider. AT&T typically is the least expensive but charges $2.49 per minute for calls and $.50 per text. You need to check with Sprint to find out their rates.

[delco]

(I'm a first time cruiser)

 

Just wondering about using cell phones on board (Carnival) to call the US and receive calls from the US, and maybe make & receive texts.

 

Has anyone had recent experience with this? Costs/charges?

 

I have Sprint (Everything plan).

 

Thank you! :)

Sprint charges $2.49/minute. Here's a link to their site

http://www.nextel.com/en/services/worldwide/cruise_ship_roaming_sprint.shtml

[cruisead]

If you have kids who love to text, you might want to take their cell phones away. At 50 cents a text, you could come home to a huge phone bill. A friend from church didn't realize this and when they came home they found their teenager had made over 500 texts on their 7 day cruise. Can you imagine that bill?

[darladelight]

It will also depend on where you call from. I made a frew calls from The Bahamas, Jamaica ans Grand Cayman, they where $1.69 a minute (on T-Mobile). I plan to do it again in Cozumel.

 

Note: I hadnt' looked at the sprint website before I resopnded. T-mobile charged based on contry not the cruise ship itself.

[trish1c]

We got Verizon service in some ports but not others; we couldn't make calls from sea. You have to check the Sprint website; they will tell you what their deal is with your ship.

[serene56]

would be a lot cheaper to wait til you are in port--away from the ship.

 

Make sure before you go that you are on an international plan.

 

I agree with the poster who said-- take the teens cell off them

Read too many horror stories here with parents who came home to huge bills because the plan says texting is free--- not on a cruise ship-

50 cents for sending and receiving.

 

and please tell your teen the phone in the cabin is for ship to shore calls and could cost over 7.00 a minute. (got that from a parent whose teen was love sick while on a cruise----

[LSU Tiger Z71]

Can you imagine that bill?

 

Not that hard. $250. :rolleyes:

 

 

:D

[KAYEF]

There must be a LOT of threads about cell 'phones because I've written about our pre-paid 'phone many times. When they came on the "horn" and said the cell towers had been activated we (in the cabin) thought it would be fun to see if our "T" prepaid 'phone would work and if we could wake up our friends at home (we were in the Atlantic, far, far away). It worked and we did!

It worked everywhere.

It worked in Canada. It even worked in Mexico; we were unable to call OUT there but we could receive calls. I went into a call center and paid fifty cents.............called my 98 yr. old Mother and asked her to call me back. She always wants to make sure I'm "still alive."

My kids all called me as well.

Boy! We were really surprised but now I take it every time.;)