knightglo Posted August 31, 2013 Report Posted August 31, 2013 I don't want extra charges on my cell phone from calls or texts while traveling to the Eastern Caribbean 7 day cruise in Nov 2013. My brother indicated that I could put the setting on Airplane Mode therefore I would not have extra charges from usage and I could still use the cell to take pictures with the camera. Is there any truth in that suggestion? knightglo 1 Quote
Matt Posted August 31, 2013 Report Posted August 31, 2013 Yes, placing the phone in airplane mode will prevent it from trying to use any cellular data or coverage. That is exactly what I do on all my cruises to avoid charges. DAVE(Darkcabbie) 1 Quote
DAVE(Darkcabbie) Posted August 31, 2013 Report Posted August 31, 2013 Yes, placing the phone in airplane mode will prevent it from trying to use any cellular data or coverage. That is exactly what I do on all my cruises to avoid charges. Matt is spot on and that is definitely the best way to avoid big bills. There are 2 other things you can do , one is if you want to check your mail turn on your wifi ONLY and use the local free wifi while you are ashore. The other thing you can do is take out your sim card and buy a local pay as you go sim for the country or island you visit and put that in your phone this will allow you to make cheap calls and you may even get some data to use also. The only thing that may stop you doing that is if your network provider has locked your phone for their network only. Quote
knightglo Posted September 1, 2013 Author Report Posted September 1, 2013 Thanks folks for the info. I have a Nikon that takes much better photos but a quick shot with a cell phone or a point and shoot camera always comes in handy. CrimsonCruiser 1 Quote
Matt Posted September 1, 2013 Report Posted September 1, 2013 Thanks folks for the info. I have a Nikon that takes much better photos but a quick shot with a cell phone or a point and shoot camera always comes in handy. Plus on my phone, I have all my music loaded so I use it for iPod mode as well. And like Dave mentioned, you can bring it to port and use on WiFi mode if there's WiFi available. Quote
DAVE(Darkcabbie) Posted September 2, 2013 Report Posted September 2, 2013 Hope you have a great cruise :) . I love cruising the Caribbean , Matt is doing a Southern on the Jewel on Sept 21 which is going to some great places. Where do you visit. Quote
knightglo Posted September 3, 2013 Author Report Posted September 3, 2013 My cruise (Eastern Caribbean, 7 days) will visit the Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Maartin on November 2. Never been to either and have not ever been on a cruise before. Oasis of the Seas is the ship. Bryce G. and DAVE(Darkcabbie) 2 Quote
Matt Posted September 4, 2013 Report Posted September 4, 2013 Keep in mind for AT&T & Sprint customers, you can use your phone normally in St Thomas with no additional fees because it is part of the United States. teddy 1 Quote
DAVE(Darkcabbie) Posted September 5, 2013 Report Posted September 5, 2013 My cruise (Eastern Caribbean, 7 days) will visit the Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Maartin on November 2. Never been to either and have not ever been on a cruise before. Oasis of the Seas is the ship.You have picked a great first cruise , I love all three of those places. The sail out of St Thomas in the evening is fab. Just as the sun is setting and the town lights up its gorgeous. I guarantee this won't be your last cruise once you've done one you'll be hooked :) My wife and I are going on the independence round the Canaries in October and this will be our first Royal Caribbean Cruise and thanks to all the info from the great bunch of people on this blog I think that RC will be our cruise line for quite some time. Matt and Moby Dick 2 Quote
Matt Posted September 5, 2013 Report Posted September 5, 2013 The sail out of St Thomas in the evening is fab. Just as the sun is setting and the town lights up its gorgeous. Yes! By far, this is the best part of St Thomas. Be sure to go on the pool deck when you leave in the evening to see how beautiful the island is lit up with the lights. teddy 1 Quote
Mom2three Posted September 16, 2013 Report Posted September 16, 2013 My DH always tells me to put my phone into airplane mode when we get on the ship stevendom57 1 Quote
Moby Dick Posted March 21, 2022 Report Posted March 21, 2022 On 9/1/2013 at 9:55 AM, Matt said: Plus on my phone, I have all my music loaded so I use it for iPod mode as well. And like Dave mentioned, you can bring it to port and use on WiFi mode if there's WiFi available. I suggest you consider a VPN if you use "free WIFI". Speaking of VPN, does Royal's WIFI restrict the use of VPNs on their network? Does anybody know? My next cruise will be the first time I cruise with a VPN on my phone. stevendom57 1 Quote
TXcruzer Posted March 21, 2022 Report Posted March 21, 2022 12 minutes ago, jay1021 said: I suggest you consider a VPN if you use "free WIFI". Speaking of VPN, does Royal's WIFI restrict the use of VPNs on their network? Does anybody know? My next cruise will be the first time I cruise with a VPN on my phone. The available ports on the ship for various VPNs is hit and miss. I have had the same VPN work on some and then not work on others. Moby Dick 1 Quote
twangster Posted March 21, 2022 Report Posted March 21, 2022 1 hour ago, jay1021 said: I suggest you consider a VPN if you use "free WIFI". Speaking of VPN, does Royal's WIFI restrict the use of VPNs on their network? Does anybody know? My next cruise will be the first time I cruise with a VPN on my phone. IPSEC VPN works better than SSL VPN. Anything that uses OpenSSL for VPN doesn't seem to tolerate the satellite latency very well. Quote
Moby Dick Posted March 21, 2022 Report Posted March 21, 2022 15 minutes ago, twangster said: IPSEC VPN works better than SSL VPN. Anything that uses OpenSSL for VPN doesn't seem to tolerate the satellite latency very well. Sorry, but I have no idea what is or how to find out the difference between SSL and OpenSSL. I'd like to think I'm a very savvy 70 year old tech guy. But, this evades me. Quote
twangster Posted March 21, 2022 Report Posted March 21, 2022 7 minutes ago, jay1021 said: Sorry, but I have no idea what is or how to find out the difference between SSL and OpenSSL. I'd like to think I'm a very savvy 70 year old tech guy. But, this evades me. Ask your VPN provider if they offer both. Moby Dick 1 Quote
Moby Dick Posted March 21, 2022 Report Posted March 21, 2022 33 minutes ago, twangster said: Ask your VPN provider if they offer both. This is their answer to me, which is Greek to me: As per your concern, our VPN works anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection. Simply connect to any of our VPN servers and you should be able to access the internet with privacy and security and access geo-restricted content. As per the encryption concern, ExpressVPN uses AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with 256-bit keys—also known as AES-256. It’s the same encryption standard adopted by the U.S. government and used by security experts worldwide to protect classified information. Quote
whitsmom Posted March 21, 2022 Report Posted March 21, 2022 We have a VPN with AT&T on our iPhones and iPads. We had issues with Oasis Wifi not working with our VPN. Even if we toggles the VPN off it would automatically turn itself back on. We had to delete the VPN off of Hubby's phone so he could use it to talk with his employees and etc. Now that was a 3 almost 4 years ago so maybe that has changed. It was so frustrating. Once we got off the cruise, we reinstalled the VPN. Quote
EmptyNestTravels Posted March 21, 2022 Report Posted March 21, 2022 On 9/4/2013 at 9:59 AM, Matt said: Keep in mind for AT&T & Sprint customers, you can use your phone normally in St Thomas with no additional fees because it is part of the United States. Same for Verizon Wireless per VZW CSR post online: "St. Thomas and St. John are both considered as domestic for talk, text and data at no additional charge. This means that calls and text and data used while you’re at those specific locations would count towards your allowance as if you where still here in the United States." - JenniferH_VZW Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport Moby Dick 1 Quote
EmptyNestTravels Posted March 21, 2022 Report Posted March 21, 2022 8 minutes ago, whitsmom said: We have a VPN with AT&T on our iPhones and iPads. We had issues with Oasis Wifi not working with our VPN. Even if we toggles the VPN off it would automatically turn itself back on. We had to delete the VPN off of Hubby's phone so he could use it to talk with his employees and etc. Now that was a 3 almost 4 years ago so maybe that has changed. It was so frustrating. Once we got off the cruise, we reinstalled the VPN. I've had no problems using ExpressVPN onboard Royal this year - except once when I forgot to turn it off manually, and couldn't figure out why my Royal App wasn't updating with my onboard dining and entertainment reservations. User error! Oops. LoL Quote
whitsmom Posted March 21, 2022 Report Posted March 21, 2022 5 minutes ago, EmptyNestTravels said: I've had no problems using ExpressVPN onboard Royal this year - except once when I forgot to turn it off manually, and couldn't figure out why my Royal App wasn't updating with my onboard dining and entertainment reservations. User error! Oops. LoL I sure hope that they have changed it so that we can use it on Harmony (July) and Jewel (August). As I said before, I would turn ours off but then it would automatically turn back on. I'm crossing my fingers but not going to hold my breath! Quote
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