mobile phone usage

[Eeyorefanuk]

Hi,

If we are at sea I assume we get no coverage.

When we are moored up alongside the port, and we are on the magic, do we get charged our normal rate for texts and phone calls or do you get charged more because you are on the magic and using disney "masts"

[andyhayley]

Our phones 'roamed' to the local network when in port, so calls were 36p per minute outgoing and 11p per minute incoming. I think thats the limit now under the EU law, and all the networks seemed to charge the same. Every time we got to a new country the phones would all bleep as they got text messages to say how much we would be charged if we used them, so the text message noise got turned off pretty quickly as it was quite annoying at 5am to have mine, Hayleys and Jennys phone all go off and wake us up!

Once we went to sea and were out of range of the countries networks Disney turned on the 'WMS' system and the phones switched to that. That didn't work very well at all, and was expensive. I remember the t-mobile phone said 'welcome to the USA' and said the charges would be £ 1.20 a minute and the Vodafone one said something like £ 1.80 a minute, while Jennys Orange one just didn't roam to the ships network.

On the 'day at sea', around lunchtime we passed Sardinia and for a few hours picked up the networks there so Hayley called her mum then, that worked well.

We also used mobile data on the Vodafone and T-Mobile phones as they have quite good data roaming options now, so we could check email on the iPad, and use Facebook on the iPhone in port. T-Mobile in Europe just comes up with a screen if you try to use the internet to ask you to buy a euro booster, if you don't buy one you cannot use data so its super safe, you always know how much you have spent and its £ 10 for 50mb of data which lasted us a week on the iPhone. Vodafone charged £ 2 per day for up to 25mb of data, as soon as we started to use it we would get a text saying we had been charged and then another text when we got close to the 25mb used. After that it went to £ 5 a meg so data got turned off as soon as we got there. The only thing to be careful of is to turn data off when at sea so you don't use data on the ships connection as that would be expensive.

We just picked up a couple of pay as you go sims before we left and put them in the phones so we knew we couldn't run up a bill of 1000's, the most we could spend would be the credit on the phone.

Hope this helps!

Andy

[jdybnsn]

Originally Posted by Eeyorefanuk

Hi,

If we are at sea I assume we get no coverage.

When we are moored up alongside the port, and we are on the magic, do we get charged our normal rate for texts and phone calls or do you get charged more because you are on the magic and using disney "masts"

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If you are not far enough away from the ship, even on a port day, you can sometimes still get your signal via the ship satellite, which is VERY expensive...so do be careful !

[andyhayley]

Originally Posted by jdybnsn

If you are not far enough away from the ship, even on a port day, you can sometimes still get your signal via the ship satellite, which is VERY expensive...so do be careful !

See more...

This really should not happen as the ships signal should turn off within 8 miles of shore.

The ships wi-fi (internet) from the ship was available in port, but the cell phone signal and cellular data always turned off so you got the local networks as soon as they were within range.

I understood in the past it may have been an issue, but they made it so the ships network only activates when out at sea to stop interference as locals phones could roam to the cruise ships! If you go to Southampton as an example and try to pick up the signal from the ships there, you won't be able to as they will have it turned off.

We found that in port you could pick up all the local networks, then we would sail out of port and watch the signal drop to nothing, then about 30 minutes later the WMM boat signal would be picked up. Likewise at the day at sea the WMM signal just went off, then about 30 minutes later we saw land and picked up the signal from Sardinia, so I think they have it all sorted so the boast signal does not interfere with the land based networks.

Andy

[jdybnsn]

Originally Posted by andyhayley

This really should not happen as the ships signal should turn off within 8 miles of shore.

The ships wi-fi (internet) from the ship was available in port, but the cell phone signal and cellular data always turned off so you got the local networks as soon as they were within range.

I understood in the past it may have been an issue, but they made it so the ships network only activates when out at sea to stop interference as locals phones could roam to the cruise ships! If you go to Southampton as an example and try to pick up the signal from the ships there, you won't be able to as they will have it turned off.

We found that in port you could pick up all the local networks, then we would sail out of port and watch the signal drop to nothing, then about 30 minutes later the WMM boat signal would be picked up. Likewise at the day at sea the WMM signal just went off, then about 30 minutes later we saw land and picked up the signal from Sardinia, so I think they have it all sorted so the boast signal does not interfere with the land based networks.

Andy

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Glad to hear this ... we had a friend who came home to a very 'nasty' mobile phone bill a few years back, from making a call on her verandah, when in one port of call - its made me slightly paranoid since !

[andyhayley]

Yes, I think they sorted it all out now!

The safest way though whenever travelling to avoid big bills is to buy a pay as you go sim on the same network you have your contract with, and use that. That way you can never spend more than you have loaded!

[andyhayley]

Originally Posted by jdybnsn

Glad to hear this ... we had a friend who came home to a very 'nasty' mobile phone bill a few years back, from making a call on her verandah, when in one port of call - its made me slightly paranoid since !

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I was just thinking last night, I wonder if your friend was on castaway key, or another island that didn't have its own mobile network.

That might explain it, and why the Disney cell signal did not shut down as they would not have to on their own island.

[HiddenMickey35]

Originally Posted by jdybnsn

If you are not far enough away from the ship, even on a port day, you can sometimes still get your signal via the ship satellite, which is VERY expensive...so do be careful !

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Agreed...

very expensive.. I paid 56 pounds that was Dover to Barcelona as I only used it few times...

I wont use it next times as I left my mobile at home when I flew to Orlando oh I miss it terrible

[Eeyorefanuk]

thanks for the info, but what about texts, will they be more or the usual cost per provider?

[HiddenMickey35]

Originally Posted by Eeyorefanuk

thanks for the info, but what about texts, will they be more or the usual cost per provider?

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same very expensive cos I am deaf and using the text just leave the mobile and dont switch it on at Europe!