The only time I bring a cell phone with me when I am cruising is when we go ashore. I make sure I have programmed the telephone numbers of the ship and the port agents in case for some reason I should need them while ashore.
NOw, THAT'S a smart use of a cell...
While it isn't something yu would normally need, when you need it, you need it, and at athat point, it's important enough that those extra charges are of fairly low importance compared to the emergency you might have found yourself in.
What's really funny is that hubby saw that his name was the oncall supervisor for the time of the second week of our cruise. So as soon as he saw that, he notified his boss as well as the guy who puts together the oncall schedule (his boss doesn't bother to keep a vacation schedule or does anything that a manager should do, but that's another story). When we came back from our cruise, he saw that his name was still listed as the oncall supervisor, while we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. So if there was a major meltdown in the 911 system for our city (and we're talking about LaLa Land), his pager was back home and turned off. Scary.
That horrible bill is just one of the many reasons why I don't and won't have a cell phone. I do just fine with my land line and an answering maching. (that's right, not even voice mail or caller ID). Gives me more money for cruises!
Sounds like a massive AT&T screw up to me with the ship partially at fault. A cell goes to the closest, i.e. strongest service tower which in this case must have been the ship. The ships should have a switchable system to not use their towers while in port but apparently this time someone forgot to turn it off. (Can you imagine dropping someone off at the port, accidentally picking up the ship tower and getting billed international rates? GAAACCKKK!!)
Wow, that makes the extra $100 on my cell phone bill for our cruise last week look great! haha!! I called Sprint ahead of time and had international calling put on our phone. That helped tremendously. We left the kids at home, so we HAD to call and check in several times. Otherwise, I could have cared less to even have it with me.
The only time I bring a cell phone with me when I am cruising is when we go ashore. I make sure I have programmed the telephone numbers of the ship and the port agents in case for some reason I should need them while ashore.
That is an excellent idea! I never thought to do that. My phone usually goes in the safe and stays there all week!
Well, I'm guilty of bringing my cell phone with me AND leaving it on while onboard the ship, especially if I'm cruising with my friend(s) Just make sure you are on a land line cell tower network! Very easy to do with a Motorola Razr which is my phone, so I don't know about others out there. I just bring up "Available Networks" under the "Settings"; "Network" menus and register on the land network.
I have the international calling plan set up with my carrier, which is TMobile, so there is no monthly fee (AT&T is DH's carrier and they charge a monthly fee but less per minute on the ship and land towers). TMobile has a roaming agreement with AT&T/Cingular which is the carrier of the ship's towers. If you look at the "network" your phone is on and it is a network consisting of numbers vs a name (ie Italiafone or some other port name based on where you are currently sailing) you are on the ship's tower at $4.99/minute vs. $0.99/minute on the land tower (they are my TMobile rates). I just switch networks to the land one. By default it will normally go onto the ship's network since their signal will be stronger when you're onboard if you have roaming on so make sure to check your network when making a call or receiving one.
Lars has a great idea of programming the ship and port agent's name and phone number, I'll have to remember that for next time, I just grabbed the paper with the info on it, but I did program the cell phone company's outside the US customer service number and my inside the US and outside the US phone numbers for my credit card companies I was bringing with me when on my Med cruise and figured I'd just give them my SS# to cancel my card(s) if they were lost/stolen. I usually bring 2 or 3 (leaving the one I used for the onboard account in the cabin safe the entire cruise) because if I had to cancel the onboard account credit card it would be interesting settling the onboard account
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Just make sure you are on a land line cell tower network! Very easy to do with a Motorola Razr which is my phone, so I don't know about others out there. I just bring up "Available Networks" under the "Settings"; "Network" menus and register on the land network.
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