Blackberry on Board

[brandba]

My husband's Blackberry has an international plan on it. If he turns it off and only turns it on when we are on land, will we still be getting charges from the ship? We want to be able to use it, but don't want to receive an outrageous bill at the end!

[ccletzgo]

My husband's Blackberry has an international plan on it. If he turns it off and only turns it on when we are on land, will we still be getting charges from the ship? We want to be able to use it, but don't want to receive an outrageous bill at the end!

the ship turns there signal off while you are in port.

[WineDown17]

I was told by Verizon that while on board, the Phone will work, but there is no data connection. In ports both will work as long there are cells. The roaming fees, etc. will be based on the plan your husband has.

 

All charges are from the cell carrier, not the ship.

 

I had asked the same thing.

[silvercity]

My husband's Blackberry has an international plan on it. If he turns it off and only turns it on when we are on land, will we still be getting charges from the ship? We want to be able to use it, but don't want to receive an outrageous bill at the end!

 

 

I travel around 200,000 miles a year. I can tell you that if you have a NA phone and use it interntionaly (even with a plan) its a huge cost. When you arrrive in any city. Go buy a "Sim" card and pre pay it. Example...In Italy go buy an Italian Sim card and put in in your phone. You now have a local phone number and can make local and International calls. It is way wya cheaper. If anybody wants to call you provide them with your phone number via email. When I'm in Hong Kong or Mainland China. It les expensive for me to call New York city then dialing from New York to Boston as example. I have a Sim card for many cities and they cost $25-$50 and then you load on your pre pay option. Its very easy and it can auto reload when you run out.;)

[Fblack]

Global plan or not, if you use the Blackberry on a ship while it is at sea, the costs are large. Verizon and ATT charge $2.49 a minute. T-Mobile is $4.99 a minute. To avoid those charges, you need to disable the feature that automatically checks e-mail constantly. A few people keep their phone on airplane mode while on the ship. Then it will not look for e-mail until you put it back in regular mode.

[kitty9]

Your husband must turn off the email function on the Blackberry when traveling internationally. When I first took my Blackberry on a foreign trip, I didn't know about this, and I came home to a bill of nearly $900, just for email downloading.

[luv2cruisemore]

I've used my Crackberry on several cruises and have always gotten unlimited emails for $19.95/month, prorated for the time I'm traveling internationally. For a one week cruise, it cost me 1/4 of $19.95 ($5). There are NO ship charges. I never use the Blackberry for intl phone calls as the prices are exhorbatant. By the way, if someone calls you and leaves a voicemail, you are charged $1.49 for the voicemail service even if you don't take the call or listen to the voicemail.

 

For our upcoming Alaska Cruise/Tour, the only problem will be our departure from Vancouver, BC. I've already requested intl email service for three days around our departure. Of course, Alaska is included in my plan, while we're in port.

 

While at sea, there is usually no email service if we're far from a major city. I also had the same problem in all of Costa Rica last year.

 

When I'm in a foreign city, if I want to call the States, I buy a local phone card, which costs pennies per minute.

[kitty9]

I always receive email on my Blackberry when at sea on Celebrity ships. Never, ever had a problem, not even in Europe on the Constellation. Didn't need to be near a port to get email. Those charges while on the ship add up fast. It's the same problem for those who use the iPhone. Roaming charges are insanely expensive when retrieving email.

[westcoast1330]

I'm on vacation. I leave my cell phone/crackberry etc at home. If I "need" to check emails I cough up a bit and check on the ship, or wait till I get to a port and use an internet cafe.

[awsmpa]

Your husband must turn off the email function on the Blackberry when traveling internationally. When I first took my Blackberry on a foreign trip, I didn't know about this, and I came home to a bill of nearly $900, just for email downloading.

Thanks for this info, you saved us (potentially) a lot of money on our November Panama Canal cruise. We will have our new i-phones by then and we would have been tempted to use them as much as we do at home. Wouldn't have liked that huge bill at the end. We will check into the international rate plan for the length of our cruise as another poster recommended. Great Advice.

[kitty9]

You need to turn off Data Roaming on the iPhone. I also used an iPhone, the first generation of that phone, and it didn't have the ability to turn off Data Roaming. People were coming home with phone bills of $2000. After a lot of complaints, Apple developed the software "patch" to allow Data Roaming to be turned off.

 

Also, be aware that ATT has significantly increased the cost to text message. And, if you have teens who text, your plan might say you can text for $.50, but then you have to add in the cost for using the ship's satellites. At over $2 a minute, if you have kids who text, they could rack up some pretty big bills.

[denali2000]

I have a T-mobile blackberry with a wi-fi. While in China I had international e-mail and all my e-mails were free. While in the hotel I switched off the connection to the cell tower and used the UMA to make voice calls for free, just as I do at home and work or any local McDonalds/Panera's etc through the wireless internet.

 

I am told that Celebrity turns of the VOIP (voice calls through internet like Skype etc) so I may not be able to use the blackberry. But I will be buying internet hours and download my e-mail etc.

 

Can anyone who used Blackberry e-maiil on Celebrity tell me if they were charged data rates or did T-mobile allow unlimited international plan e-mail ($19.99 pro-rated) on-board the ship?

 

thanks!

[kitty9]

On my Panama Canal cruise in April on Infinity, my Blackberry did receive the emails, but I was charged access fees for using the ship's satellites. Nothing is free anymore, it seems.

[GRBlizz]

iPhone 3G has data-roaming automatically set to blocked, so you actually have to unblock it to use it.

 

I followed advice on here and kept the data-roaming block on and the phone on "airplane mode" while at sea, and just used it in port.

 

At sea, I uploaded pictures from the PC to the iPhone so my folks could look at them at dinner each night. No service involved there, so that is free. We also used the IPod features of the IPhone and used it as a travel alarm.

 

As to those who say that iphones and Blackberries should be left at home while cruising, I say, to each his own. I had the best time uploading pictures from our adventures to my family and friends, and getting their comments questions and advice.

 

Also, we were gone for Father's Day, so it was nice for our grown sons to be able to call their Dad (on the fishing boat in Ketchikan, how cool is that?), and for my sister to be able to call our Dad who was with us.

[2sunny]

Thanks for this info, you saved us (potentially) a lot of money on our November Panama Canal cruise. We will have our new i-phones by then and we would have been tempted to use them as much as we do at home. Wouldn't have liked that huge bill at the end. We will check into the international rate plan for the length of our cruise as another poster recommended. Great Advice.

 

Will you be on the Equinox?

 

I gather from everything I have read that my DH and I cannot use our World Blackberry's to call each other on the ship without incuring a large bill. Right?

[Mysticks1]

Will you be on the Equinox?

 

I gather from everything I have read that my DH and I cannot use our World Blackberry's to call each other on the ship without incuring a large bill. Right?

 

That is correct.