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Using mobile on a Cruise Ship?

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My son will be working on board a cruise ship for six weeks this winter. The itinerary will be in the Mediterranean and the Canary Isles. According to the ship's website you can use your mobile via "marine roaming", but it is very expensive.
Does anyone here have experience of using a mobile on board ship? Will a dual-band mobile work? Is there a cheaper way of using the phone on board?

Comments

  • moonrakerz
    moonrakerz Posts: 8,650 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    If "marine roaming" means using INMARSAT (or similar) it is VERY expensive. His best bet is to use a conventional mobile when within range of a shore based network - or go ashore and use a call box.
  • ManAtHome
    ManAtHome Posts: 8,512 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Should be ok with a normal mobile round the Med providing the "welcome to <currently nearest country/network> texts don't drive him round the bend... May be out of touch the odd day or two if it's a Canaries via Madeira cruise.
  • Problem you will have is the Cruise liner will have its own Mobile Cell - This is what the ship uses to pick up the signals from the phones on board and then retransmit them using its own service (At a greatly exagerated cost). This can swamp out the signals from the Land based networks even when the ship is close to land or docked (The cruise line want to maximise profits and this is one way). So you may find that even when in range of a local network it is difficult to get away from the cruise line network
    Over 100k miles of Electric Motoring and rising,
  • I used mine while on a carribean cruise , theonly thing i couldnt get to use was picture messages ,which was a pain because with t mobile pic are cheap even from abroad. The calls were charged at normal ''abroad'' rates , if thats any help
  • Tigert
    Tigert Posts: 467 Forumite
    Debt-free and Proud!
    A quick "Google" came up with the following.

    http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/onboard/connected.cfm

    Looks very expensive. Far better to use local services when near land. The phone will normally pick up the strongest signal, so to ensure that you pick up a local network rather than the one on the ship, you will need to go into the phones network setting and do a manual search, then you can select whichever networks are within range.
    LBM : March 2008 :cry:
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  • Thanks for your help. The following is quoted from the ship's web pages....
    Enjoy the flexibility of using your mobile phone to chat to family and friends back home, even when you are miles out at sea. You can even send pictures, media clips and texts. The network will be activated when the ship is at sea. When the service becomes available for use your mobile will show either MCP or 901 12 in the display. This will mean that you are using ‘International Maritime Roaming’. You can call home for as little as £1.40 per minute for calls and text for 50p. You will be supplied with pre-printed contact cards in your travel documents.
    Perhaps it would be better for him to keep in touch by e-mail using the ship's internet cafe.
  • redux
    redux Posts: 22,976 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Yes, the ship's local GSM cell is connected via satellite, hence the high cost.

    Standing outside on the top deck, it's possible to get coverage 8 to 20 or more miles from the coast, depending how high the coast is. I've been a UK network only just outside Calais.

    It might be worth him getting a global roaming SIM with free incoming calls in many countries. There is an article by Martin about roaming, and a discussion thread.
  • cepheus
    cepheus Posts: 20,053 Forumite
    redux wrote: »
    Standing outside on the top deck, it's possible to get coverage 8 to 20 or more miles from the coast, depending how high the coast is. I've been a UK network only just outside Calais.

    The Vodafone Passport scheme allowed me to get cheaper international calls when in port and from the top deck when passing near land. I also managed to get Vodafone Spain from Tangier, presumably from over the Gibraltar Straits. However when out at sea the maritime roaming takes over and quickly ate into my £10 credit, even when texting. My Orange bill suggests 50p a text as above, so I assume the Vodafone SIM charged the same, can't access details for the latter though.
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