Going on a 7 day cruise starting today via Carnival Magic to Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel and concerned about phone bill via AT&T.

Taking 2 iPhones and 1 iPad and concerned about getting taken to the wood shed over roaming charges, etc. Please advise what we need to do, not to do, while on the cruise to not be taken to the wood shed via any and all charges we could possibly be hit with during the cruise, TIA!

turn to airplane mode about an hour after you leave galveston, leave it off all week and you will be fine.

use the ship's wifi to access emails and such.

At least with my phone (Android), I can turn on airplane mode, then turn on just WiFi. That way, I can't connect to a cell network, but can still access internet, email, VOIP, etc.

iOS can do this as well

Not sure how it is for carnival but wifi was really expensive on Norwegian cruise lines. Make sure to find out what the charges are before going gung ho.

Thanks so much for all the replies. I just contacted AT&T and received further information as well. Again thanks! I really appreciated them.

Bon Vovage!!!

have a good trip

you are going to get fleeced on the ship wifi costs

I took a cruise back in 2008 on Princess. Internet was expensive and slow. I didn't try, but my cousin did and after 10 minutes still couldn't load his homepage.

I've taken two Carnival cruises in the past two years and have gotten the AT&T/iPhone roaming all figured out now. Here are your options:

1.) Add an international data plan to your phone for the month. It's $30 for 120MB. Speeds are actually really good in all three of your stops (Jamaica being the slowest). The international data does NOT cover the Cellular At Sea (cell tower on boat) data charges. The data speed for Cellular at Sea are the old GPRS data and basically doesn't work. Just turn your Cellular Data off in the Settings while you are at sea and turn it back on while you are in port. This way, you can still receive incoming text messages for free (more on that below).

2.) International texting (SMS & MMS) is $10 for 50 outgoing messages. All of your incoming messages are free, including while on the ship and on the Cellular at Sea network. Outgoing messages are NOT part of your international texting plan while on Cellular at Sea (getting the trend?)

3.) Wifi on ship. The wifi actually works decently for email, Facebook, etc. Not fast enough for Skype because of the latency. It's $50 for 120 minutes or $80 for 240 minutes. You logon to download your email, Facebook updates, and upload your pictures and then logoff (by typing logout.com in the browser). That's how your minutes are calculated.

4.) Making/receiving phone calls is extremely expensive. The biggest caution is to disable all incoming calls to your phone while you are on the entire trip. Even when someone calls and you ignore the call, you will still get hit for 1 minute of calling plus another 1 minute if they leave a voicemail (this can be close to $3/minute). Set your iPhone to forward all calls to your landline or a Google Voice number. That way your phone will never ring and you won't get hit with any international calling.

Hope this helps! I did LOTS of research and have been through the complete billing of the above practices and am confident in them. Ask if you have any other questions.

[This message has been edited by AgProgrammer (edited 3/3/2013 11:19a).]

Turn the phone off, it's a vacation

I took the exact same cruise and just left mine off. Didn't cost me a dime.

You can add roaming data which is cheaper than the onboard wifi, and make sure you setup an international cellular plan for phone. It's much cheaper than the alternative and you can turn it off when you get back. Also, do yourself a favor and lifeproof all of those. Trust me. And take $300 cash for tipping your stateroom attendant, waiter and headwaiter. And get your passport.

[This message has been edited by Agsportsfan07 (edited 3/3/2013 12:13p).]

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You can add roaming data which is cheaper than the onboard wifi, and make sure you setup an international cellular plan for phone.

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Actually, the international roaming data plan does not cover usage on the Cellular at Sea (ship cell tower). If you decide to use your cell's data on the Cellular at Sea, you'll pay the normal Pay Per Use International data rate of about $19/MB (yikes!). Plus, the ship's wifi actually wasn't very bad. Again, it's your typical satellite connection but how do you think the Cellular at Sea tower is getting its data?

[This message has been edited by AgProgrammer (edited 3/3/2013 10:28p).]

I always just used the free pc's in the library to check my email through its web mail site. Once a day. I was on vacation.

For a 7 day cruise, it's not necessary to get an international plan. Way too expensive! The ship wifi is expensive too. Even if you do get wifi, it will only be fast enough to check your facebook status, twitter, and email. Just turn off your devices and relax. I've sailed 60 days around the Pacific with only email. I could only send 256kb per email.
If you really need internet, find an internet cafe at your ports. It will cost ya, but not as much as the ship. I've figured out that free internet is hard to come by internationally. America is spoiled with the awesomeness of the internet.

If you've got some time, check out Texas A&M's Galveston Campus. We have a vessel named after General Earl Rudder.