Contacting someone on a cruise?

Question

I know it costs money for them to use internet and phones. And, it will cost me about $8 per minute to call via a credit card! But, can I purchase a calling card to use for contacting some on the caribbean princess?

Answer 1

most of this ships now have cell towers that let you connect calls while in the middle of the ocean.  the calls will always be roaming though so check what those charges are for your carrier.  For example, with verizon it was .99/min where as AT&T was 2.49.  I would check that as your first option.

Otherwise email isnt bad on the ship.  You can use the internet cafe and it will be something like 10$ for 10-20 min or something close.  You dont want to connect via your own computer though because it will cost about 25$ to connect plus the same charge for minutes so i wouldnt do that either.  

The last thing you want to do is use your room phone or a ship phone because the charges are something like $9.98/min (no lies).  Even a calling card is useless on the phone because the price is so high it would be used up in no time.  The calling cards are really good when you get to the islands because you can use any pay phone and it is often cheaper than even the roaming on a cell phone so that could work well.

Answer 2

Cell phones don't work when one is at sea.  There are no cell towers in the middle of the ocean.

Ship to shore or email is the best way to go.

Actually, email is NOT really that expensive on board.  One can generally by a package of minutes for a very reasonable price.

Answer 3

Almost all the newer ships have set up cellular systems that can interconnect with larger national service providers.  Essentially, the upgraded or newer ships have installed distributed cell sites that your cell phone can recognize to initiate calls.  The larger providers included ATT/T Mobile (GSM) and Verizon/Sprint (CDMA).  The ship then uses satellite communications to link you on-board cell phone system to the world.

When you're on shore or anchored in a bay, you should be able to lock onto the landbased cellular phone system....expensive but not as much as the ship based cell system.

Good Luck.