Our lives have become so dependent on the cel phone that being on a cruise ship means either suffering cel-phone withdrawal or having deep pockets. Talking on your cel from the ship can be extremely expensive. International roaming, it’s called.
Here’s a couple of options we discovered, although these are by no means the only way to avoid huge phone bills when cruising:
1. Wait until you’re in a port to make calls and find one of the ways to make international calls from a location near the ship. They’re in almost every port we’ve visited and the rates are usually cheap. We didn’t keep track of the cost but it was pennies a minute.
2. Buy a trac pre-paid phone. Two members of our family bought one in Panama — again very inexpensive — and loaded it with some minutes, at a cost of $10. They used it for many phone calls, gave it to us, and we made calls while traversing the Panama Canal. When last seen, the family’s “Panama Phone” still had time left on it.
Another possibility, one we haven’t experienced, is having an Internet phone that enables you to talk (by using Skype, for example) while paying for onboard connectivity — all the ships have plans, as you know.
All of it makes sense…to save dollars.