Filed under: Wireless, Odds and ends, Internet, iPhone, iPod touch
iPhones ahoy! Making calls on cruise ships, updated
TUAW reader Troy sent an email the other day stating that he'd found one of our posts from last August to be very helpful. In Using your iPhone on a cruise ship we talked about Cellular At Sea and getting your iPhone to send and receive pricey calls from many cruise ships. How expensive are they? Last year, they were running about US$0.79 per minute. This year, they cost about the same.Troy's email got me thinking about how to make cheaper phone calls on cruises, since I'll be on two cruise ships next year. Since last August, we've seen Skype for iPhone / iPod touch [App Store] appear, and for US$2.95 a month you can make unlimited calls to the USA and Canada over a Wi-Fi connection. That's great, but you're going to need to pay anywhere from $0.30 to $0.75 per minute for that Wi-Fi! And another big dead fly is floating in that soup -- the bandwidth on cruise ships is so incredibly low that your calls may not even go through using Skype or another VoIP app.
Unfortunately, things haven't improved much in this realm since last year. My recommendation? Buy the biggest onboard Wi-Fi account you can afford (more minutes = cheaper per minute) and use it with your iPhone or iPod touch for emails, Tweeting your friends, using IM, and checking TUAW. If you want to send voice messages to your pals, record them in the new iPhone OS 3.0 voice memos app or (if you have a 3GS) with video, and then email the messages over Wi-Fi. Your friends can respond the same way.
If you absolutely must have a two-way conversation, your cheapest alternative is going to be to wait until you're in a port, then use one of AT&T's international calling plans (or another carrier's plan if you're not in the US) or see if you can use Skype at a portside bar with free Wi-Fi. You probably don't want to use the ship's on-board satellite phone service at the US$6.99 to US$10.99 per minute rate!
Do you have any other hints for cheap communications afloat, other than sending postcards from ports? Let us know in the comments.
Thanks to Troy for reminding us about cruise ships and iPhones
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
icepod said 3:17PM on 7-04-2009
Or you can just forget the rest of the world for a while, turn off your phone and enjoy the cruise...
Remember Airplane mode? Pretty much the same idea!
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Mike said 4:12PM on 7-04-2009
win.
derekknighttx said 1:18AM on 7-05-2009
AGREED! Cut the cord, er virtual cord. You are not that important! A vacation is a reason to not be reached.
David Hildreth said 3:26PM on 7-04-2009
Not having any internet or cell coverage was one of the best parts of my most recent cruise.
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Man Of Wy said 3:30PM on 7-04-2009
Of course you could cruise to Alaska and have your normal nationwide plan cover you when you are in port. Of course, there is always one stop in Canada and Rogers can really get you then.
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Mike said 3:34PM on 7-04-2009
On our Panama Canal Cruise this past winter on Princess, their WiFi internet service blocked all SKYPE traffic.
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CVBruce said 3:38PM on 7-04-2009
Sat Phone rentals (iridium) are available for starting at $40/wk, and $1.60/minute
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Dan Peterson said 3:47PM on 7-04-2009
The stress from a vacation must be horrible. Once you have Internet and cell phone worked out, you can bring a handful of DVDs, DirecTV, Sirius satellite radio, Slingbox on your iPhone and assignments from work so you won't fall behind. If you bring enough stuff, you can feel like you never left.
- or -
Take the astronomically high communication costs as a hint. THEY DON'T WANT YOU COMMUNICATING WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD. A cruise is a form of forced relaxation. If this seems unpalatable, perhaps cruises aren't for you.
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Lawrence A. Husick said 4:07PM on 7-04-2009
Or...use the tried and true mariner method of communications: put a message in a bottle and drop it overboard!
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Chadder said 4:13PM on 7-04-2009
I was just on a cruise in early May that had CellularAtSea I used it to make a few quick calls just to check in with family, and it worked very well (no dropped calls, no outrageous overcharges, etc)
WiFi service on the cruise was very expensive, ($24 for 60 minutes!). The bandwidth speed was very slow overall. Don't plan on using it to download anything over a couple megabytes. Really, It's not worth using for much else than email. I bought 60 minutes, just to check email one a day and that was plenty over the 7 day cruise.
Also pay attention on the instructions for logging in/out or you'll get screwed. If you forget to logout properly, your minutes will continue to be deducted from your purchased time, and once you run out of purchased minutes you're charged per minute at around 75 cents per minute! Not cool.
Bottom line is don't use either of them unless you really need to. There is way too much to do on these boats to be sitting at the computer, or chatting on the phone.
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Susannah111 said 4:40PM on 7-04-2009
If you're going to use your iPhone out of the country, have AT&T turn on a — global data package — otherwise you'll be paying for emails, tweeting, using IM, and checking TUAW by the KB.
It's still ridiculously expensive, though.
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mitch said 5:35PM on 7-04-2009
I took a cruise last summer to Eastern Europe. I planned on just using wi-fi - I took the SIM card out of my iPhone to be sure there was no surprises.
On board the cruise data was $0.95/minute (wi-fi or using one of the ship's PCs) and was slow.
I was bummed out, but figured that I would find abundant wi-fi in our various ports. Not so much. It seems like there is wi-fi everywhere in CA but it was tough to find in Europe. YMMV.
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AZCurt said 7:16PM on 7-04-2009
Take an Airport Express along. When underway, find one or two other people who also want some online time and gather in one room, plug in the Airport and all share the wireless connection. Afterward, share the fee. This doesn't reduce the cost per hour, but it reduces the cost for YOU.
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Joshua said 10:20PM on 7-04-2009
I was thinking of bringing the airport express, to play music over the stereo, and control the macbook when hanging out on the balcony with the remote app. How did you share the internet connection? As far as I understood, there are no ethernet jacks in the room, and each device has to log in when using minutes of on ship wifi.
Joshua said 6:36PM on 7-04-2009
I'm going on oasis of the seas next summer, and was wondering if the iphone still tags location information for photos taken, to use in iphoto. I assume the gps is turned off when airplane mode is turned on, so I was just going to leave the phone on, and ensure data roaming is off. So with the phone on, and data roaming off, would the iphone still get the location data to tag the photo with? Also, as long as I don't talk to anyone, use roaming data, or have any text messages go in or out, I shouldn't have any charges, correct?
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The Iron Giant said 3:40PM on 7-11-2009
The iPhone absolutely saves your location data even while roaming - remember, the GPS chip is totally independent from the cell phone and wifi antennas. It can find your position even if you can't find anybody else.
When you take pictures aboard a cruise ship, your location will be "IN the middle of the bleeping ocean!"
Joshua said 4:02PM on 7-11-2009
Thanks for the answer, it will be cool to see a crude line of the trip on the map
williamlane said 7:22AM on 7-05-2009
"My recommendation? " Leave the technology at home! It is a CRUISE, a VACATION. Hang out at the pool. Snap some pictures, or, frightening concept, meet some actual real people, face to face!
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KevRev said 3:05PM on 7-14-2009
heretic!
leipzigebay said 7:19AM on 7-05-2009
I'm also looking for a way to make my mobile ring louder in libraries, museums, and at funerals. Also, any tips on how I can get the volume of my "push to talk" feature louder? I'm taking a cruise next month and want to holler at my boys with 15 minute updates "Where YOU at!?"
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