Cell Phone vs Voom

[Al Horner]

I've purchased the Key for my cruise on the Symphony OTS in May 2019. That includes "Voom Surf and Stream 1 device high speed internet." I am one of those guys who gets on the ship, puts his Verizon cell phone into airplane mode, turns off the cell phone, sticks it into the room safe and doesn't look at it again until I charge it up the night before we return home. Now, my wife and I are each going to have Voom and, sad to say, I'm not sure what that means. Is this just internet? Does it involve my Verizon phone calls? I've heard that there is some way to use our phones to (text, message, fill-in-the-blank) communicate with each other? I've heard horror stories where people get home from a cruise and have hundreds of dollars in bills for international roaming charges. Can anyone help clarify this for me? Thanks.

[Atlantix2000]

VOOM is "only" internet.  But if you setup your phone to use Wi-Fi Calling, your Verizon calls and texts will be sent using the internet so you avoid international roaming.  I don't remember if you have to call/visit Verizon to setup your account first, but you definitely need to do it before you leave.  You can't activate Wi-Fi Calling for the first time when you are already roaming.  (The phone needs to do some sort of one time setup using the actual Verizon network).

Remember this will only work while you are on the ship.  In port, you may be able to find free Wi-Fi or you can get it by making a purchase at some restaurants/stores.  If that doesn't work, Verizon also has Travel Pass which allows you to use your plan internationally for a daily charge of $5,  10, or ? depending on the country.  Again, I think you have to add the feature to your account before you leave.  Then, the first time you attempt to make a call/text from a foreign country, you'll get a text asking you to authorize the daily charge.  It's actually good for 24 hours from the moment you say yes which means if you do it in the afternoon in one port, you would still have access in the morning in a different port.  However, Travel Pass does not get you access at sea on the ship so you have to remember to turn Wi-Fi Calling off and on at the appropriate times.  Cellular At Sea roaming charges are expensive.

Hope that helps.

[Matt]

Voom is an internet plan, so it provides WiFi access via your phone (or any other device).

With Verizon, you can use something called Wifi Calling to still make or receive calls while your phone is in airplane mode and connected to the internet.  Here's more info on Verizon WiFi calling: https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/wifi-calling-faqs/

I'd suggest setting up WiFi calling before your cruise while at home.

20 hours ago, kontraxed said:

I've heard horror stories where people get home from a cruise and have hundreds of dollars in bills for international roaming charges.

You are correct. These people did not put their phone into airplane mode and let data roaming go wild. 

I wrote this blog post to explain further How to use your cell phone on a Royal Caribbean cruise (and not come home to a big bill)

[Keeves]

My phone uses AT&T. It also has a WiFi Calling option.

I've never used it, but just wanted people to know that if they don't have Verizon, this is still something worth looking into.

[Matt]

Just now, Keeves said:

My phone uses AT&T. It also has a WiFi Calling option.

I've never used it, but just wanted people to know that if they don't have Verizon, this is still something worth looking into.

I've used AT&T Wifi calling as well as Cricket WiFi calling and they all work quite well.  No cost to using them. The key is to set it up before the cruise and ensure you follow the steps to put phone into airplane mode once onboard and then turn on WiFi.