I believe it's usually a roaming charge on your regular cell bill.

Punki, it comes out on their cell phone monthly bill. This is a huge issue in Alaska as so many people live in coastal areas frequented by cruise ships.

Under Alaska law the cruise ships are supposed to turn off their cell phone equipment when they are in port. Some 'forget' to do so. That means that when this technology first hit the cruise ship industry, just about everyone in Ketchikan and Juneau was at risk of accidently having their calls go through a cruise ship amplifier/repeater system.

Passengers are supposed to be told that their ship uses such a system and what the rates are to use one's own cell phone.

All of this is more than your regular roaming charge. I did a quick GOOGLE. Charges seem to be at least $2.49 per minute with some people reporting they have paid a great deal more. It has nothing to do with how many free minutes you have on your plan.

Coming into New York harbor, as I understand from my Lady Boss who just did so last month, there was a warning given in writing about using cell phones and what the charges would be until that system is turned off approaching port.

The MidAtantic Mail Buoy, established more than a century ago, and well known to forner USN sailors who stood for long hours in the eyes of their ships on "Mail Buoy Watch" was topped by a short and gyrating cell phone tower a few years back, offering a modicum of coverage for "Ships which Pass in the Night" (and a few daylight passages too). Line of sight range allows Cingular/AT&T customers to converse at ranges of up to 40 nm (and even further if standing in the crow's nest to make the call. Arrangements for such calls are made with the ship's "Sail Maker", a billet which now has little to do other than sewing shrouds for pax or crew who die at sea (last stitch through the departed's nose, cannon ball or sash weight in lieu of between knees). Rate equivalents are usually expressed in fathoms of "lubber Line" or pints of "Relative Bearing Grease", both references obscure to non-nautical persons.

I know the Royal Caribbean voyager class ships offer cell service while onboard. The fee was around $1 (or $1.50 per minute). It's kind of funny when you are getting "Happy New Year" calls accidentally on your cell in the middle of the Caribbean :-D

I do not believe these ships have "repeaters on board" you end up roaming with cell phone providers who have used directional cells along the shore line to get the signal to the ship and those providers are the ones that show up on your bill as roaming. I sure of this in Alaska and in areas in Europe.

Why would several cruise lines brag about selling this service: Cunard, Carnival, Princess etc., if it were not true?

The QM2 arrived in Brooklyn at 7:30 this morning. Quick question....how long does it take for passengers to get off the ship. They aren't frequent Cunard travels, just regular passengers. Thanks.

several hours, at least.

The ship and passengers also have to clear immigration.

The only time I sailed from NY, IIRC, we were off the ship by 11 or 11:30am.

Some cruise lines process people in cabin category order.

Most cruise lines disembark pax depending on their travel plans that day.

Those catching the earliest flights are off earliest and so on.

Locals and those just traveling to NYC in this case are among the last to get off.

But all should be off the ship, through immigration and have collected their baggage by 10:30 AM or so.

generally 'walk offs' who are managing all of their own luggage (didn't put any out the night before) are usually the first ones off. Often as early as 9:30. As stated above those with the earliest plane and train connections to make are next off.

Passengers without connections to make go off next (unless they have all their own baggage in hand.) Usually they have the entire ship cleared by 11:30.

Sorry not to post sooner, but we've had wild and wicked weather in North Texas.....again.

From the "at sea" services. Some of the services are run by WMS (Wireless Maritime Services). Some are run by Cingular/ATT. And some of the US cell phone companies have piggybacked onto the other services to allow use of your cell phone, even though your cell provider is not directly tied to the "cell at sea" program. http://www.cellularatsea.com/press/p...GoCellular.htm

The bills can be ASTRONOMICAL. And often come 2-3 months after you have used the phone.

I have 6 employees in Alaska all summer. They have been carefully instructed NOT to use their phones if there is anything other than the time and digital signal reading on the phones. Two years ago, bouncing calls off the ship cell towers and some of the local Alaska providers resulted in $1400.00 worth of ROAMING bills arriving at least 60 days after all my employees had left Alaska.

I argued and argued. Got one of the bills totally eliminated (Verizon's piggyback service to WMS), but got stuck with a Cingular at sea and two local providers bills. Not a good experience.

Greatam, thank you for backing up what I posted.
 

I had to talk to Cingular the other day. While waiting I heard a recording "$3.99 per minute to use your cell phone on a cruise ship". When I finally got to a living person, she said that the $3.99 per minute is in addition to what the cruise ships may charge.

My friends in Alaska can see the water from where they live. They have learned not to use a cell phone when the cruise ships are in port even though this over-charging for non-passengers is against Alaskan law.

Most cruise ship passengers are not aware of this.

My thanks, Greatam, for providing your information.

This was a really useful thread for me as I just returned from a cruise on the (Carnival) Elation last week.

While at sea, the display on my Cingular quad-band read "cellular at SEA" as the provider and when we were in (or near) our Baja ports of call, I was on the Telcel GSM network, so I was carefull not to check my voicemails (thanks for the dunken phone call, missy) while on the expensive network.

You need to use a SAT phone on board and it’s VERY expensive. Try carrier pigeon instead! :)

Rentals can be pricey for the equipment-although if you REALLY need to keep in touch, cheaper than the ship's phone or cell at sea.

My company owns two sat phones. I always take one with me anytime I leave the US. Have been true lifesavers in a couple of situations. The airtime charges are not nearly as high as they used to be.

Rental and airtime info:
http://www.worldcell.com/web/page/10.../travelers.asp