I've bought the ship Wi-Fi package and plan for us all to put our phones on airplane mode when we're not in port.
But in case we forgot, are we better off signing up for the Verizon $20/day cruise backup plan just in case--or not? It seems like if you do pay as you go, you can only use your phone for calls/texts, which we wouldn't necessarily do. The cruise plan would automatically kick in b/c it covers data. Again, this is just as a backstop. What does anyone recommend?
We took a 15 day Viking cruise and used only the wifi for the trip.
On other occasions when we've been traveling, when our phone was inadvertently taken out of airplane (like when we got an apple update during the night) or when we've needed data, we ended up paying $15/24 hour period. I like that plan because most of the time we don't need data.
Thanks. I do have Verizon's TravelPass, which kicks in for $12/day - but just on shore. What I'm trying to ensure against is if we accidentally leave a phone off airplane mode at sea. Just not sure if the $20/day for that with the cruise plan is a better idea or just hope nobody accidentally texts or calls before we figure it out and we incur roaming charges...
If you don’t want roaming charges on board then I’ve found I have to not only toggle on airplane mode but also change cellular/roaming to OFF.
Are you on an ocean or river cruise? If it's river you may not need the plan as you may not lose your signal anyway. I haven't used wifi on an ocean cruise before but I can tell you on our recent river cruise it was slow and useless in the evenings when everybody was back on board. I had to turn my wifi connection off and used my phone's regular connection with it's international plan.
