Going on an Alaska Cruise in September...Roaming?

[Pianoman178]

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I both have the Droid Razr Maxx phone.  We will be going on our honeymoon in about 6 weeks.  We are going on an Alaska Cruise, with a stop in Canada.

The last thing I want is to come back and find some huge $1,000 charge for roaming while in Alaska or on the boat.  Our cruise line is Carnival.

Is there anything I should know?  Will there be outrageous roaming fees while in Alaska?  Can I ask Verizon to disable roaming on our devices during that time or do we need to travel in airplane mode for 7 days?

Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks.

[goinrcn44h]

Well... This may not answer the question at hand but may give you a bit of insight.

I work at the border of washington and canda, So.. with that in mind I need to watch the roaming and all that."PRIOR" to ICS my world was simple, I simply went in under CDMA and chose the home only option and poof, no roaming ever and all is right in the world, Fast forward to the "improved ICS" ....     and poof , no option for home only. this was a daily thing for me and was just part of my daily ritual while driving to work, when it all went down I made a friendly call to tech and informed them of the situation, the guy I spoke to happen to be in Seattle and had already fielded a call prior to mine and had the same issue, however I was going on vacation I left it as an issue that would be resolved faily quickly and was gone 12 days. So yesterday I am back and low and behold issue isn't resolved yet, I call and speak to a lady in tech that in a nutshell told me I need to get the international plan that includes Canada..??? I then ended the conversation because at that point I was very angry and no headway was going to be made. She said the issue was with motorola and I had to contact them ( displeased with that answer as well) but I relented and called motorola, that guy said it was a service provider issue and blew me off... I calmed down and called back 7 hours later and spoke to a lady in tennessee who was atleast sympathetic to the situation and calling me back today to hopefully atleast get something sorted out. Will follow up on this front if there is a resolution...

This CAN NOT be an isolated issue in any way shape or form, and could cause countless people much stress and displeasure ( I.E. ME...) Would love to see an issue of this magnitude addressed more rapidly but we will see..

I've been with verizon almost 12 years and I think that lends itself some credibility in that fact alone.

<Link removed per the Verizon Wireless Community ToS.>

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

[B33]

Best Thing i would Suggest is Call to Verizon Customer Service and get a hold of the Dept. that Handles International Calling and have them Go over the Rates They may need to Look at your Plans to Determine the Plan of Action that best suites what your wanting to To Do..

Welcome to the Forum.!  And Congrats on the Marriage.. Have a Safe an Wonderful Fun trip b33  

[goinrcn44h]

The o.p. has somewhat different yet similar issues as to what I have. Before ICS you atleast had the ability to set your phone to "home only". That is not the case anymore. I have extensively and exhaustingly been on the phone with VZW tech tier 2 and supervisors and with motorola tech and none have a fix to this issue. The gal I spoke to yesterday ( elizabeth ) was very understanding of the issue and after about an hour of research, etc.. agreed there is no fix, I will say she did the very best she could and I applaud her for the effort. I will also say verizon is going to make it right with me when it comes to roaming charges that are going to happen. I am in a tough spot and HAVE to use my phone all day. for both DATA and voice. so on that front its going to be a pain to a certain extent I understand there isn't anything they can do at the moment. I read through all the fixes that are 'likely' on the next update and I am not going to hold my breath on there being a home only fix in there, but I will remain positive and hope there is.

Pianoman.. I will say you can disable the data when roaming, but you will get a very annoying pop up frequently that will ask you to accept or deny roaming for this trip, you must keep denying it. as for the roaming part of voice, you are kinda out of luck. just don't make or receive any calls and you should be fine. keep searching for wifi areas and use it to your advantage while in canada. other than that , that's about all I have to offer. Unless of course someone else knows something, please feel free to enlighten the situation.

Michael Harris

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello Pianoman178,  Congratulations on your marriage! It sounds like you will be having an awesome honeymoon!  I can certainly clarify your options on your trip.  While on the cruise ship(when not in port) and in Canada you will be roaming  Here is a link for all the details while on the ship and also has a link to the left to check the rates and coverage in Canada. http://businessportals.verizonwireless.com/international/Cruise_Ships/index.html
While in Alaska you will be picking up our Extended Network and not be charged extra for making calls, using text or data.  I hope you have a wonderful trip and please feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions. ^YK