Thread: Communications with home

Maria's dad and brother like us to contact them a couple of time while on vacation. What does it cost to contact them by Email on the RCI BOS? We do not take a computer with us. We take a cell phone. Is it cheaper to SMS them? Is it cheaper to send an email while in port (internet cafe)? Thanks in advance for your help. Lee

Hey Lee!

It's almost time for your first cruise!

The least expensive way to communicate would be from an internet café on shore. You can usually buy 30 to 60 minutes of time for about $5 or so.

Onboard the minutes are sold in packages or just charged as used. I don't know the current rates (somewhere between 55 cents a minute for pkg and 75 cents a minute without pkg is what is coming to mind) , but it would be much higher than the onshore café rate.

Cell phone is expensive. How expensive depends on your phone carrier. You will have the ship charge plus your roaming charge from your carrier. You would have to find out from your cell company about that.

In cabin phone is about $7.95 a minute---stay away from that one!

Originally Posted by Char

Hey Lee!

It's almost time for your first cruise!

The least expensive way to communicate would be from an internet café on shore. You can usually buy 30 to 60 minutes of time for about $5 or so.

Onboard the minutes are sold in packages or just charged as used. I don't know the current rates (somewhere between 55 cents a minute for pkg and 75 cents a minute without pkg is what is coming to mind) , but it would be much higher than the onshore café rate.

Cell phone is expensive. How expensive depends on your phone carrier. You will have the ship charge plus your roaming charge from your carrier. You would have to find out from your cell company about that.

In cabin phone is about $7.95 a minute---stay away from that one!

Thanks, I think I will check with the cell phone company for SMS rates and look for an intenet cafe. The onboard per minute charge is not bad if I just send a quick email, but if I want to check email and facebook I think the internet onboard is too slow. We're ready. Lee

Yes, an internet cafe is definitely the way to go. The prices on a cruise ship are very high and the connection is always slow. Almost painfully slow in my experience, even when in a port.

Cellular at sea is 2.49 a minute.
Internet on ship averages .55 minutes
SMS is tricky. If you have a plan, the incoming texts are free and you just pay .50 for every outgoing text.
If you DON'T have a plan you pay .50 for inbound and outbound.
We actually interviewed a rep for AT&T and I will try to put that interview up in the next couple days... hope this helps.. i had a 568 dollar phone bill over the summer.. i learned a LOT!

Originally Posted by unfdoug

Cellular at sea is 2.39 a minute.
Internet on ship averages .55 minutes
SMS is tricky. If you have a plan, the incoming texts are free and you just pay .50 for every outgoing text.
If you DON'T have a plan you pay .50 for inbound and outbound.
We actually interviewed a rep for AT&T and I will try to put that interview up in the next couple days... hope this helps.. i had a 568 dollar phone bill over the summer.. i learned a LOT!

Thanks for tlhe information. After reading the information from RCI and checking the internet for information from my mobile telephone carrier, I have decided to use SMS for all our communications. We live in Sweden and all of the ports on this cruise are in the European Union, except Egypt. I think it will be cheap and I will report back on the result when we return. Lee

The least expensive way would be the old note in the bottle. The downfall is that it will take about 35 years to reach home.

Originally Posted by GeneK

The least expensive way would be the old note in the bottle. The downfall is that it will take about 35 years to reach home.

I am someone who will do just about anything to save a few dollars. Thank goodness for CLF. I may just try this. Lee

Problem with the bottle approach is that you have to file the appropriate environmental impact statements with a variety of governments and you don't get back the $.50 deposit on your bottle.....

Originally Posted by nealberk

Problem with the bottle approach is that you have to file the appropriate environmental impact statements with a variety of governments and you don't get back the $.50 deposit on your bottle.....

And you would probably get detained for throwing something overboard and and end up in the ship's poky for the remainder of the cruise