![]() ![]() Updated from an earlier version.If you’re an American smartphone user getting ready to take a trip to Europe, you’ve likely been warned about using your phone abroad. See anything wrong in the article above? Sound off in the comments below. How do you use your smartphone?ĭo you have any tips on how to best use your smartphone at sea? Leave us a comment to share your experiences of how you stay connected while on a cruise ship. When sailing on Quantum of the Seas, the most technologically advanced ship, we could not get over the number of people that were always on their phone, resulting in a loss of some of the spontaneity and camaraderie we've come to love about cruising. Endless scrolling on your smartphone is not the way to spend your vacation. But you're still on vacation to see interesting new places, meet new people and have some fun and relaxation. The modern convenience of using a smartphone on a cruise ship is truly a great improvement and welcomed luxury. While speeds are getting faster, you shouldn't count on streaming music or video, and both upload and download speeds will likely not be as fast as you would like, even on the most technologically advanced ships. ![]() That being said, the Internet speeds are still slower (often considerably slower) than the broadband and 4G speeds you are probably used to back home. Using your smartphone almost anywhere on a ship is a convenience that didn’t exist a few years ago. The Internet on cruise ships has come a long way in recent years. (And see JD's warning, Are maritime carriers hijacking your smartphone when you're on a cruise ship?) You should receive text messages from them when you're nearing your limit. Verizon and AT&T, for instance, have fairly inexpensive international plans - for instance, AT&T starts at $40 for 200 megabytes of data - but beware: If you exceed your allotted bandwidth usage, the expenses can add up quickly to hundreds of dollars. You may need to call your provider for them to enable international roaming and service plans on certain smartphone models if you plan to use your wireless service during your vacation. ![]() Make sure you have an international planĪT&T Passport is among the international plans offering unlimited messaging and calling.ĭuring our travels to the Southern Caribbean recently, it was unclear from our provider’s website if San Juan, our departure port, was covered in our wireless plan, so we called to confirm that indeed our Internet and phone calls would be covered during our pre-cruise stay there, saving us some money. With that in mind, we've put together some tips when using your smartphone at sea - and a few things you should avoid doing at all costs. No matter how much you like to unwind when on vacation, odds are that you'll be bringing your smartphone with you on your next cruise. How quickly times change! Now, almost everyone walks around with a smartphone, allowing us to not only talk to anyone but giving us access to texting, email, social media and the Internet.īest ways to use your smartphone on a cruiseįor most people, the days of going on an entirely “unconnected cruise” are pretty much over. And for most of us, that's a welcome development. Now we can go on vacation without being completely detached from our families, friends and the world. For more routine check-ins, cruisers would wait until their next port of call and whip out an international calling card (what?!) to use a pay phone on shore. During an emergency, cruise ships offered onboard phones that you could use to make a call for several dollars a minute (by the way, they still exist). ![]()
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