Dinosaur with cell phone question

We seriously need to adopt a teenager to help us figure all this out.
Being a dino is not easy.

Maggie, I can't answer your questions, just a note of sympathy from one dino to another! We're stubbornly hanging on to our flip phones as well as they're just too ridiculously cheap to give up, way cheaper than yours were! We do any of our communication on our trips via free wifi on our ipad/itouch: so far, so good. Anyway, what we save in monthly fees is more $$ to travel with! :O)

Our days are probably numbered, though, and we could use teenager too. :O(

I'd say having a mobile phone of any kind -- "smart," flip, whatever, means not truly being a dinosaur. I have a love/hate relationship with my iPhone 6, but it does occasionally serve a useful purpose. And I'll bet you're right about a teenager (or maybe even an 8-year-old) being tech-savvy enough to answer your questions, but I'll also bet that few of those kids are directly paying their monthly phone bills for all their use.

Verizon Customer Service may be the best place to get your questions answered, if you give them "What If" scenarios. We've used a different Verizon plan the past couple of trips, initially $40 or $80 per month, but data usage will cost you a lot more, but are now considering having a dual SIM card set-up for travel, with a SIM for overseas. Good luck and happy travels!

Hey, Dino - another dino here (though I went from a flip phone to a "smart" phone two years ago. Still miss the cute, cheap flip phone!). I just went on the Verizon website yesterday to set up a travel plan for upcoming travel in 3 European countries. I opted for the $40-for-a-month-of-travel plan, which covered all 3 countries. However, I had some real questions about which plan to get, how it all worked (some similar to your questions), how to set it up in my phone settings once I got to Europe, etc. I used the Verizon "live message/chat" box in the right side of the screen and one of their techs worked with me for almost half an hour, helping me figure out what I need, then walking me through my own phone settings. At the end of the session, the tech then emailed me a list of everything that she had "told" me on the message/chat, so that I could print it out and refer to it again if needed. I was frankly very impressed with Verizon's response and helpfulness. You might try "chatting" with one of their "live" techs on-line and see if they might be able to help you. It's cheaper than a teenager!
Also: Have you looked into "WhatsApp?" It's an app that let's you text from your phone number using wifi. You can only do it, though, with other people who have downloaded the WhatsApp app. The app is free and widely used in Europe. I have had hotels and guides tell me that that's how they will contact me, and prefer to be contacted. If you have family, friends, back home with whom you will be wanting to regularly communicate, and will have "free" wifi on-board, at a restaurant, or in a hotel, but would be counting data minutes with Verizon, WhatsApp might be part of the solution.

You can do a few things to prevent the travel pass from kicking in when you don't want it to.

One thing you can do is to set your phone so it won't automatically download app updates, or will only do so via wifi. I leave my phone on that setting all the time, as a matter of fact. If you leave your phone in airplane mode, you can connect to wifi anywhere it's available you can access the web and check your email. As for texts, if you were an iphone user, you could receive and send text from other iphone users only via wifi. To text via wifi, you would probably need to download an app called Whatsapp, but then the people who would text you would need to have that app as well.

On a recent trip, I didn't want to pay for roaming. I left my phone on airplane mode and told everyone at home that if they needed to reach me, they should send an email. Worked fine. You will also be able to use Google Maps, or a third-party mapping app like CityMaps2Go, via the GPS signal, so you don't need a live connection of any kind. You will need to set these up ahead of time by downloading the relevant maps, however.

If you use Facebook and Facebook Messenger, you can use them anytime you have a wifi connection, as well. (I don't use either of them on mobile). That could make a great alternate way of sending and receiving texts without incurring the $10/day fee.

I would recommend putting your phone in Airplane mode and using What's App or FB messenger in place of texts, Skype of FB messenger for calling. Being in airplane mode will prevent any true "data" usage and would force connection to WiFi for any functions that you may want to utilize. BUT, generally speaking this would disable "traditional" text messages or calls. (You would need to use a Wifi-based app such as those mentioned above for text/call functions.)

Also would recommend checking with Verizon to see if inbound messaging (missed incoming calls/inbound texts) will trigger the daily Travel Pass usage fee (I actually suspect that it might...)

Please be cautious when using open wifi locations. These are locations that do not require a password to get on. They may not be secure. For instance I would never perform any financial transactions while on open wifi. I don't even check my email on open wifi as I want to keep my email account secure.

For travel, we are learning about the Verizon Travel Pass, $10 per
24-hour period, and one gets hit with the daily charge only if they
use his/her phone (and auto downloads of software upgrades count, we
understand...well, okay). I understand we can read a text message
without causing the $10 fee to apply, and ditto for seeing that we
have received a call. Only charged if we initiate an outbound action.

If you are able to read a new text message and you're not on wifi, you have started the clock on the $10/24 hour period. If you access your texts while on wifi but save them until later to read when you're off wifi, you won't be charged because you've already accessed them on your mobile phone earlier.

Go into a Verizon store and speak with a rep who will answer all of your questions about the Travel Pass.

When we travel, if we are under a ship's wifi system, can we access
the phones (including sending texts) without using the Verizon Travel
Pass...I'm thinking the answer is no.

When you're on wifi, you have full access to texts and emails both sending and receiving. If you enter a phone number directly on your phone, you will have started the $10/24 hour clock of usage. Making and/or receiving a phone call even in wifi will start the Verizon Travel Pass.

Now you are NOT out of luck in communicating by voice and video back home on wifi. If you have an iPhone and want to "call" anyone in the world who also has an iPhone, you can use the FaceTime application on your iPhone. If you have strong wifi, you can make it a video call. If your wifi is weaker, you can make an audio call. You can also download an application called WhatsApp that will allow you to speak to any of your friends and family who have downloaded WhatsApp. It doesn't matter if they have iPhones or Android phones (or even Windows phones).

To protect yourselves from accidentally activating the Verizon Travel Pass, you can put your phone on what is called Airplane Mode meaning that you have blocked data coverage. I have the Verizon Travel Pass on our phones just in case one of us needs to make an emergency call locally. I put my phone on airplane mode as soon as the door closes on my transatlantic flight. If you want to make a call, you have to turn off airplane mode which puts you in control.

HUGE thanks to all who have posted. Every little bit of info is helpful, even if we've heard it before or stated a different way.
We usually access email, etc. using a VPN (FBI professional friend says it's the ONLY safe way to go remote on-line things), but I also hear that doing that will make the connection very, very slow (but better slow than not safe).

Will definitely be back in touch with Verizon International experts before we take any trips. We've talked w/ them initially, but it helps to listen, then go back and review, and then reaffirm understanding.........we dinosaurs need to hear, hear it again, then practice it to absorb (and hopefully not make expensive mistakes). We typically travel with an old clunker Netbook which is small and works well for email. It's just that now we have these fancy new phones, we might as well evaluate if they are feasible alternatives.

I'll have my travel partner read thru all these posts, too.

I like the idea of doing the Live Chat with Verizon and then having the notes from the call....THAT is a really great suggestion. Avoids taking notes like crazy while listening, then second guessing what one wrote down.

It has been many years since I did a cruise -- is their Wi-Fi free now ? Make sure you know the cost before you go that route, so you don't get unwelcome surprises.
(Only communication in 1982 was expensive ship-to-shore telephone service -- on the plus side, I was able to be "available" to my office if they wanted to pay for the call, which they didn't.)

Maggie,

I read all the prior replies and didn't see anything about the following. Hope I'm not repeating stuff you already know or that has already been answered.

Make sure the roaming capability is updated before you go. Double check that the phones are capable of being used internationally.

Since we rarely use them while abroad, we just pay the going rate for the very few calls we make so we can't really speak to various plans for accessing the internet. Texts however are really cheap.

We have all of the people and places we might call in our contact list. If we need to talk to a particular party we just highlight the particular number on the contact list and hit "Send". Has always worked. If someone in the U.S. needs us they just call our regular cell number and the system finds us no matter where we are.

If you go to a Verizon location or call the regular number you may or may not get correct information. Many of their people aren't that knowledgeable when it comes to international calling.

They do have an global department you can reach by calling 1-800-711-8300. They always seem to know what they are doing. If you need to, you can ask them for dialing instructions for the countries you'll be in and they will email it to you. Handy info to have if just punching a contact doesn't work.

Thank you all. All of your posts are helping me/us to better formulate questions for when we talk (maybe by Live Chat) with Verizon's International Department. My sister told me, too, to talk with the Global/International reps who specialize in all this.

Your posts have been very helpful.

Tempted when we take a trip to just use our old-fashioned netbook for communication, but if we can get all this worked out with the phone, at that time we would likely put at least one of them on the Travel Pass and give it a try.

It's a constant learning process, and I thank each of you for helping us along.

I had the same question. My experience with ship's WiFi is that it's much more expensive and much slower than virtually any other option. I'm sure they've received many complaints and may have upgraded their service since my last cruise several years ago.

My last trip to France I could never get my SIM card working correctly, even after multiple trips to their offices, so ended up using WiFi the entire trip. It's possible but sometimes a complete pain in the rear. I'll never use SFR again.

I find Facebook messenger accomplishes much of what you would want. Using WiFi you can send messages, make calls or video calls without using your "phone". You don't even need a SIM card. The person you're calling has to be a contact on messenger. I rarely text anyone anymore, since most people I would text are also contacts on messenger.

I have to use Verizon's $40/month plan since one of the countries we're touring isn't part of the $10/day plan. Check Verizon's website for country coverage and which plan covers where you're going.

I have to use Verizon's $40/month plan since one of the countries we're touring isn't part of the $10/day plan. Check Verizon's website for country coverage and which plan covers where you're going.

Thank you for your answers/comments. I've been out of the country and just seeing the replies.

While I was not asking the questions for the particular trip I just took (National Geographic journey to Iceland/Greenland), we did get to practice a bit with our phones, since this was a combo land/ship-based journey. Phone would not have worked on the ship, except when it was in port. We signed up for the Verizon Travel Pass, but did not need to use it. For when my spouse had to take care of something for a client, we used the ship wifi through the VPN that my husband uses (recommended by an FBI cyber-security expert). Yes, there was a cost for the on-line wifi, and it was a bit slow (due to the remote location in Greenland), but it got the job done (via our netbook).

Thank also to the poster who mentioned that the Travel Pass is not able to be used for all countries (a couple to which we will travel during the coming year), so we will plan around that.

I thank each of you for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience. Your answers were helpful, and we are slowly getting used to our new phones, their features, etc. My spouse even downloaded a PDF of our boarding passes on our phones, just for fun (and the learning experience). Next up: loading the luggage tracking programs for our favorite airlines.

Good to be home :)