sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information going on a cruise

I'm going on a cruise this week for ten days from NYC to the Caribbeans.
this is the first time in about ten years that i am probably going to be almost out of touch with my customers.
does anyone know if there is any sort of cell / satellite phone that i could rent while I'm on the cruise?

They have ship to shore telephones on the boat. But, you will not want to use them. They are around $9.50/per minute.

You may be able to use your cell phone in certain port of calls, but that may also be pricey. If the boat is cruise close enough to the shore of the states, you may also get a signal.

I know how you feel, but you need to let it go. Just go on the cruise and enjoy it. Don't worry about business. Have fun!

the one time that I went on a cruise you could rent a phone in your cabin that went through the ships satellite its not cheap but very convenient

anyone hear of these guys?
https://www.mobalrental.com/satellite.asp
they claim $9.00 per day plus 1.99 per minute. no roaming or hidden charges.
for the past couple of years i have gone up to the local mountains so in case i have an emergency i could be in my car and back in the city in under 2 hours.
not once did i ever have to cut my vacation short. i have a great crew, plus great local backup guys just in case. always been able to handle any situation over the phone.
I'm just worried about being out of touch in case something does come up.
hate to admit it but i treat my business like it's one of my kids.
god i need a new line of work.

Geeze, if you feel that way why don't you just buy the damn thing.

If you go up to the mountains every so often you could probably justify it. Not that expensive.

-Hal

The bigger islands have cell service. Went to Virgin Islands, St. Barts, St. Thomas, few others. Had coverage pretty much the entire time. I have Verizon wireless. Sure you can go to whatever cell provider you have to find out if they work down there. Verizon has that anyways.

I went to Cancun and my Verizon phone didn't work there. After returning and calling they said I needed to tell them before I left so they could enable it. I received calls periodically but whenever I would try to call out I would get an error message in Spanish.

As few times as I post here, I must jump in.

As you were told, "...you need to let it go."

You could do like I do, Hire one of your friends or sub contractors to fill in for the duration.

But with the other options mentioned above, you could be contacted in a pinch.

The FIRST THING I DO is send an email to all my clients telling them I AM OUT OF HERE for X number of days, and if I have hired that friend or sub, I set it up to where my 800 Number goes there.

Of course, like the two weeks around Xmas, there are always those few that don't bother to read their email.....

My wife took our son on a class trip to Paris last spring and she looked into the options. We also use Verizon Wireless. The did offer a plan that averaged about $20.00 per day but it required us to get a rental phone from them. She couldn't just simply take her existing phone and pay extra since it's an entirely different network there. Still, for a five day stay, we thought it might be worth it.

Their trip provider gave them calling cards that could be uploaded if necessary. That's the way we went. Of the handfull of calls we needed to make to each other, mostly just saying hello, we hardly used the $10.00 value of the original free card they got. Calls to/from Europe are cheap now.

Same thing applied for our trip to Cancun, but we found that some of the bandit payphones were cheaper. Being on a ship, you are pretty much going to have to escape. Isn't that what people who go on cruises are paying for anyway?

good idea, I'll call nextel and find out what they offer.
as for "letting go" i definitely will try.
i as most of you are am a workaholic. as much as i hate the late night/weekend calls i do love this business. nothing beats getting a call from someone saying they had three techs in and no one can find the trouble. then you come in and fix it in 5 minutes.

I have been on 10+ cruisesnand they almost always have different rates and charges for ship to shore calls. Most ports of call you can use your cell phone, but then, it is almost ALWAYS cheaper to just use a pay phone at the dock, they are always available and relativly cheap if you get a calling card at Walmart or somewhere like that. I have Cingular and they have worked in Mexico, The Bahamas, and Jamaica.

On the ship they have phones, there is a phone provided in your cabin, but to be honest your best bet is to use their internet Cafe'. The phone service on the ship (as has been said) is pricy, starting around $9.00 per/min and usually a connection charge. Internet is much cheaper and you buy it in blocks of minutes (usually they offer cheaper rates if you buy the block on the first day). Some of the ships now offer WIFI (still a charge) in the cenral Atrium area.

On some ships they now offer cell service from the boat. I am nost sure of the exact rates, but it is about the same as a regular phone call from the ship ($9 + ). They call it something like "Sea Cell," or something like that anyway.

As a side note, which line are you going on? It is always interesting to see what phone system they use on the ship. I have seen Nortel's and Siemens so far - the Siemens (Carnival) ship had digital phones in all the rooms.

Steve

Being in the travel agency business, with telco & data networking as my primary job function. We deal with this question from customers quite often.

While this doesn't really apply to you since you use Nextel, it might for some others.

Beginning in 2006, if you are a Cingular customer and are going on a Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship you have your normal Cingular service while onboard. The rate is definitely not as expensive as the ship-2-shore lines which average at about $9/minute, but it costs just under $2/minute to use your Cingular cellular device on a RCCL ship.

Other cruise lines are looking into doing this, though none have announced plans like RCCL.

Just thought you might like to know.

Also on a side note, more travel agent tips: Internet access on the cruise ships range from $0.75 - $2/minute (depending on package price or pay-per-minute). But if you can wait until in port, there is almost always a local internet cafe in the vacinity of the port and you can get 30 minutes for about $5. Just realize it might not be "as" secure as the ships.

Maybe this info will be helpful to some.

-David

Great to know about the cell pricing! I had not looked yet, so that will be handy on my next trip!

Just so you know, Carnival also does the cell service (still not sure about pricing with them though), at least on some boats. I took a cruise last December and they had it on the Inspiration.

Steve

Thanks Steve. After reading your message I went and talked with our head travel agent. Pricing is up to the cruise line, so it will differ from cruise line to cruise line. But there are actually quite a few ships on the seas today with cellular service available.

Here's a site with the list of current ships: https://www.cellularatsea.com/shipsinservice.htm

Cingular is the primary pusher of the Wireless Maritime Services, it is a joing venture between them & Maritime Telecommunications Network.

-David

There are quite a few threads on this subject at www.cruise-critics.com and a bunch of other info you might find helpful.