Best carrier / rates for cell phone calls on cruise ships

I don't have a concise answer as I never travel on cruises so have never researched that question. I do know from researching various cell travel plans that service from cruise ships is usually VERY expensive. If the cruise ship has good Wi-Fi, you might look at something like Viber. That would provide a good way to make outgoing calls, but I'm not sure about incoming calls. In order to avoid expensive calls or voice mails, you'd need to leave the phone in "Airplane mode" but with Wi-Fi switched on.

The Satellite service you linked above appears to only work when the ship is 12 miles from shore or 2 miles in the E.U. When closer to shore, your phones would connect to terrestrial towers with normal "land" roaming rates as determined by your home network.

You could also check some of the "travel phone" firms. I had a look at one of them, and they advertise rates for a Ferry/Cruise ship at $1.49/M for incoming calls, $1.79/M for outgoing calls and 59¢ for each outgoing text message. You'd have to check with them to find out if the rates are the same with the satellite firm used by Holland America.

It would help to have some idea on what type of phones you're using now and which network you're with. Are your phones unlocked, quad-band models? It could be complicated to work out the most cost effective method, and I'd need to spend some time with it.

Good luck!

I suggest you go to www.cruisecritic.com to post your question.

Try posting your question on Prepaid GSM dot net. The people who hang out there know all kinds of things, but the discussions can get very technical, so don't be afraid to ask for clarification: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=22

Any cruise ship I have been on has had very slow and intermittent wifi. Also very costly ... for slow & intermittent.

I've heard cruise ships are getting better, but I won't believe it until I see it. In my experience cruise ships charge a bunch for very poor service. When you are more than a few miles from shore, you're not going to get a cell signal.

So what to do?

You will be visiting multiple countries but will be close to shore much of the time.

I'd buy a prepaid phone from a major company (Orange, Vodaphone, etc.) when you arrive in Europe. A basic phone option, charger, SIM and some minutes for 25 euro is easy to find.

Since you are forwarding calls to yourself, you will want one phone number. Keep only the one SIM (rather than buying new ones as you go), pay the roaming costs in Europe (way cheaper than what American companies charge for European roaming) and just recharge your account at stores in port. Use your phone either in port or anytime you're close enough to shore to get a signal (should be a pretty large part of your voyage).

I'd really avoid AT&T. I used to have them. They always mentioned "from $1.99" per minute for European roaming. Like a clothes rack in a store that says "from $9.99", it doesn't mean that's the price - it could be much higher. We went on a Baltic Cruise in 2010. The per minute price in the Baltic ranged from a low of $4 per minute in Denmark, to a high of $9 per minute in Russia and Finland. I don't even pay attention anymore, a prepaid local SIM (depending on the option you choose) is going to be under 10 cents a minute and roaming costs around Europe aren't drastic.

the advice on this thread is good.

1. Yes, that is correct.

Put a little common sense on this. Once your are over the horizon - about 15 miles off shore you are out of cell tower range since it is mostly line of sight. From there you are dependent on a satellite. The ship is a satellite system with many users so it tends to be slow and sometimes spotty depending on where the ship and the weather. If phone service is critical, then you need a satellite phone. Perhaps you can rent one for a month.