I have an unlocked T-Mobile phone now and I may go on a cruise this winter to the Caribbean. Cany anybody who has done that suggest any prepaid service in that area? Also, does each island have a different carrier?
Each country has a different carrier, which is about the same thing as each island. There is one carrier (Digicel) that has operations on many Caribbean Islands but I don't know if their local companies have good roaming with each other, or not. There are also international roaming cards that are often somewhat better than T-Mobile's roaming. Check out www.prepaidgsm.net for the best information.
Since it's a cruise, you may be touching more than one island, and will not be spending more than a day or so for a prepaid sim to be worth it. I have an international sim that has Ok rates in most those islands. Besides that, I just do not use the phone, since I do not want to pay AT&T's roaming rates.
Last edited by mrcamp; 12-14-2011 at 09:41 AM.
Reason: spelling
What I did on the cruise I took was to forward all incoming calls to voicemail and leave a message telling folks to send me a text message or short e-mail at my SMS address.
Be careful. If you put in a postpaid SIM from T-Mobile or other domestic carrier, the phone will work while you are on board the ship, at great expense. You will roam to a shipboard service based on satellites.
Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands are part of normal T-Mobile coverage, even for prepaid. Check for yourself and compare to your itinerary.
My knowledge is all from the web. I've never gone on a cruise.
Yes, This is correct. All the ships have on-board GSM/CDMA towers now. So, if you use it while on the ship, you will be using the ship's tower. For GSM phones, the screen will show "cellular at Sea" or something similar as the network.
Originally Posted by JimWorthey
Be careful. If you put in a postpaid SIM from T-Mobile or other domestic carrier, the phone will work while you are on board the ship, at great expense. You will roam to a shipboard service based on satellites.
Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands are part of normal T-Mobile coverage, even for prepaid. Check for yourself and compare to your itinerary.
My knowledge is all from the web. I've never gone on a cruise.
Be careful. If you put in a postpaid SIM from T-Mobile or other domestic carrier, the phone will work while you are on board the ship, at great expense. You will roam to a shipboard service based on satellites.
This is correct and I should have been more explicit about this. You use your phone settings to forward all incoming calls to voicemail, so that no calls come to your phone. If your phone rings onboard ship, even if you don't answer it, you can get charged a huge roaming fees. Incoming SMS come out of your bucket at no extra charge. This is why you ask people to send you a text message. You can then respond in the way you think best.
But again, if you just want to phone home and say hello, your T-Mobile phone will work at normal rates when you are in port in Puerto Rico. In my memory, you will also have service in the US Virgin Islands, but now I can't find an iron-clad statement. See this link,
, or just search on the T-mobile web site with keyword Virgin Islands or similar.
This is an area where the prepaid user benefits. So long as you have prepaid service on your phone, you cannot incur roaming charges (with the exception of a couple countries now). As your ship sails into San Juan, PR, you can try your phone and if it shows a signal and connects, you must be connecting to a tower on land. (Somebody please correct me if I'm missing something.)
I believe that some cruises stop in Charlotte Amalie, which is on Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands:
There are Eastern and Western Caribbean destinations and the OP may never hit a T-Mobile serviced Island.
A lot of it also depends on your port of departure.
I've been on about 10 so far and have yet to hit a country with native service.
But it's actually a good thing, going on a Cruise or an all inclusive destination forces me to put the phone away and keep it turned off. It feels good to be disconnected from the real world once in a while.
Just let those that are important to you know the Cruise Line and Ship and in the event of an emergency they can call the line and they will get the message to you. If it's that important, the cost calling back is irrelevant.
The best place to get your answers is in the boards @ Cruise Critic. They got forums by cruise line, by port, anything you can think of. It's the howardforums of cruising.
Yes, I am 100% sure both Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are native to all the US carriers. You will NOT pay 1 cents in roaming charges as long as you use your phone on those islands, if your cruise stops there of course. I have taken several eastern Caribbean cruises, so I am sure of those. Usually once the ship gets close to port, the ship's towers will be turned off. BTW, while all the major US carriers charge $1.49 to use the ship's tower, Tmobile charges a whopping $4.99!
Like others said, for a quick call, you can just use your phone at any of the ports.
I thought I would post an update on this. We will leave from Texas and visit the Grand Cayman Islands, Cozumel Mexico, and Montego Bay Jamaica. I plan on bringing the old Nextels for off network Direct Talk. Should I pull the US T-Mobile SIM cards as some as we get ready to set sail? Is it fairly likely that all of the T-Mobile phones that I have unlocked will work with a local prepaid SIM card in those three islands, or might they have different GSM bands? Most of our phones are (or were) native T-Mobile, except for a Motorola Tundra, that was originally locked to A Fee and Fee. Thanks again and I will look at the other links that are posted here.
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Originally Posted by JimWorthey
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