TUAW Tip: Using your iPhone on a cruise ship

Thanks for the article, however, I just got off the phone with AT&T, and spoke with two CS Reps regarding the International roaming. The information is vastly different than the OP's information. We too are headed off for a two week cruise, out of Barcelona, in a couple of weeks.

When we cruised the Eastern Caribbean in February, I called AT&T and added a special roaming package to my iPhone. I will do the same for this next cruise.

The European / International wireless package is $5.99. When you add this package, you receive a "discounted" per-minute rate on your iPhone (for calls, not data). For example, one of our ports is Lisbon Portugal. If I do not add the package, the per-minute rate is $1.99. If I add the package, the rate drops to $1.69...Spain would drop from $1.29 per minute to $.99 per minute, with the International package added.

Keep in mind that when you are on shore, the normal cell rates are lower than what they would be on most cruise lines. Our Celebrity cruise line's "Cellular at Sea" is $2.49 per minute, NOT $.79. I confirmed with AT&T that they do not offer $.79 on any cruiseline, it is a flat $2.49 / minute. The trick is to wait until you are off the ship, on land-and roam using the agreements AT&T has with the local cell company. This will be the third overseas trip I have taken my iPhone on, and know this information is accurate.

If you want to purchase a data plan, they offer 20 megs for $24.99 or 50 megs for $59.99. I recommend just turning OFF the data feature...as it adds up quickly.

The phone number to activate this for your iPhone is: 1.800.335.4685. I strongly recommend contacting them for accurate and up-do-date information for using your iPhone for data or calls. There are horror stories of folks using their iPhones overseas and coming back with bills, in the thousands!

Gary

Oddly I don't think I would be texting much on this cruise considering no one mentioned that price.

I just got back from a 7 day cruise to Alaska on the Celebrity Infinity by Celebrity Cruises. cellular at SEA is pretty expensive and left with me a bill of $32.50 just for checking my email every other day on my 3G.

Needless to say, at least it was cheaper than the RODGERS 3G network that I used when we stopped in Victoria, Canada.

Perhaps a silly question, but where did they get that Settings screen shot from? My 3G's Settings page doesn't have a Carrier option. How/where do I find the cellular at Sea function?

I have a 3G iPhone. I don't have that carrier option. Where is that located?

Hey everyone,

Okay, so maybe I was incorrect about the pricing when submitting this tip...still not sure as I did not make any phone calls.

First of all, I was on NCL, and none of the previous posters have discussed that cruise line. Second, when connecting to Cellular at SEA, it still considered me on "AT&T," but wouldn't download my e-mail as it considered me in roaming and I had data roaming off.

After re-checking online, it now appears that all cruise ships (well, I only checked NCL and Royal Caribbean) are $2.50 a minute while roaming in the sea - not an AWFUL rate for an emergency call...I guess.

For all rates, take a look at http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/international-roaming.jsp

i went on a Carnival cruise to Italy this summer. The on-ship WiFi was $100 for 300min and slow while at sea.

I signed up for AT&T's International calling plan and their International data plan. The dirty little secret is that AT&T tells you, after you've added the 2 services, that you need to keep them for up to 3 months! You shouldn't cancel the plans until ALL the charges show up on your bill - then cancel them. Otherwise you'll pay full price for the charges that show up on a bill without the services.

I used both sparingly and would have been better off NOT signing up for international data. $59 for 50MB and I needed to keep it for 2 months for a 12 day cruise until all my charges showed up.

I was on a cruise on Oceania cruise line and the internet connection was by the minute. I spent 40 minutes on my laptop and wasn't able to even download all my email! Grrrr. I also stole wi-fi while in ports.
Interesting thing was though that while cruise of the coast of Greece/Turkey and Croatia I often got connected showing AT&T and my email downloaded (I had data roaming turned off). This scared me so I turned off push and went to Fetch manually. Big mistake as now all my contacts and calendar information was now blank! Big problem. I still don't know what costs I've racked up either!

Is the 'carrier' setting only a feature on 3G iPhones? My 2G doesn't even have that setting

I used my iPod Touch on a cruise ship earlier this year. It was a Celebrity cruise and I had nothing but trouble. The problem is that their wifi login page required Internet Explorer, so sometimes it would let me log in with Mobile Safari, and sometimes it wouldn't. In the end I ended up stealing unprotected wifi from the pier at every port. I felt like a Wifi Pirate of the Caribbean. "Yaar, put out the antennas, boys, we be plundering some bandwidth".

You'd be amazed at how far those wifi signals travel over water, too. My email would start moving well before we docked.

And before people jump on me for not being able to disconnect while on vacation, I was actually working; it was a conference, I was part of the event staff, and I wasn't able to bring my wife, so I was keeping her up to date with all the adventures and funny behind the scenes stuff.