We are taking a 7 day Caribbean Cruise, including stops in Puerto Rico and St Thomas, which are included in my US calling plan. How can I be sure that I am connecting to a cell tower at the port and not to the cruise ship, so I can avoid the Pay-As-You-Go rates of $2.99/minute on the ship? Do I need to be off the ship and well away from the ship to connect to land based cell towers and how will I know I'm connected to the land based cell tower and not the ship?
FAM531, have a great time on that Caribbean cruise! I've watched a few YouTube vids on cursing and not sure if it's something I'd do, but it's interesting to watch people talk about the quirks of it. For your trip, generally the Pay as You Go rates are caused by using international towers, owned by a international carrier. The cruise ship itself does not have an internal cellular network (though many do offer Wi-Fi packages). When you're in port, you would be connecting with the local towers. If you want to be extra sure you can avoid this by setting your phone to Airplane Mode (which just uses Wi-Fi) or disable roaming.
Apple has details on Roaming settings here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201643
Samsung covers Android here: https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-do-i-turn-international-data-roaming-on-or-off...
You can also review our International Travel FAQ to review other details: https://www.verizon.com/support/international-travel-faqs/
Have a great trip! 🛳️
-John
On 12/9/24, I was charged $576.82 for “288,411 KB International Data – cruise ship.” I received text alerts while the ship was still in port in Barcelona, Spain. The ship’s IT staff told me that being in port was the same as being on land. The Customer Service Rep confirms this, stating above: “When you're in port, you would be connecting with the local towers.” So the data usage should have been covered by the unlimited data provision of my International Plan.
Hello mww89. Staying connected while you're traveling is imporant. We'd be happy to look into these charges with you. We're sending you a private note to find out more.
-James
Hey mww89, we just wanted to check in with you to see if you still needed help with this issue. We're standing by to assist, so please let us know.
-Sarge
Yes, I still need help. I signed in to the Community with my Verizon credentials. But your URL to authenicate doesn't work. I get this error mesage:
HTTP header value exceeds the configured limit of 8192 characters
Please advise.
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