Cell phones

I suggest that you call your carrier for specific charges. Do not leave your phone on while on the ship. You could end up with bills costing hundreds of dollars as a friend of mine did. We use an international phone when we travel overseas. Gloria

You also have access to the Ship Mate Mobile App while offline. You can use features like Deck Maps, Contacts, Port & Ship Info, and more while not connected. There's a bunch of helpful info in there - check it out by searching for "Ship Mate" in your app store.

We turned off mobile data, roaming, and put our phones in "airplane mode" during our 7 day cruise aboard the Epic. We did turn on WiFi and installed the NCL iConcierge app which for a one time fee of $7.95 you can make calls and text others who also have the app installed. Cheaper and more efficient than walkie talkies, plus the app lists all the activities going on plus a map of the ship.

On iPhones you can text over wifi. Maybe some cruise ships have wifi? I don't think NCL does, just an internet cafe.

Using cell phone data while on a cruise ship can get very expensive very quickly. Verizon charges $25 per 100 MB. Consider there are 1000 MB in a GB, and you can see that the charges will ramp up quickly. It's ok to unplug and leave the cell phone in behind, you'll survive without it.

I don't know but I have a feeling some parents were not happy when bill came in. I did find this link on the Carnival Funville page that might help.

http://www.carnival.com/Funville/forums/p/119452/613961.aspx

How can you text with no service????

Thanks for the update - so I'm not losing it after all!

I have seen lots of teens texting on the ship and wondered how much that cost. So you can text on the ship.

Thanks for bringing this up - for some reason my wife and I thought we remembered texting each other on our last cruise - must be getting old - or maybe it was too many pina coladas! (;