Cell phone coverage on an ocean liner
 

Friends of ours from Dusseldorf are sailing to New York on the QMII and will arrive on Thursday. I wanted to call them about plans for Friday but the calls would not go through, not even to voice mail. Is there no coverage aboard ship? Anyone know?

I think you have to call using the ships satellite phone hookups.

Call Cunard and they should be able to give you the number for the ship.

Expect to pay dearly for the pleasure of confirming your plans :)

Cell phone towers are generally spaced a few miles apart. I think the distance TATL is slightly more than a few miles! So, no cell phone service at all.

Many ships have coverage, but it's very specific, very expensive, and most passengers don't use it. Dollars a minute.

They contract with one carrier or the other to provide exclusive coverage, put an antenna on the ship, and relay it via sattelite.

I don't believe the QM II is one of those though.

This page

http://home.earthlink.net/~ecps92/ce...20at%20sea.htm

Has a fairly good listing of what ships have what coverage, with links to the carrier sites to check on your ship. Cunard isn't listed, I would assume they are not offering coverage.

They would have gotten a number of the ship you could call or a land based operator to get them a message with their sailing documents, you can probably get it from Cunard at 1-800-7CUNARD

If they use the call ship service (whatever the name of the service is), expect to pay $7 a minute to call them and leave a message.

There is internet access on board - perhaps they are checking email?

I was on a Royal Caribbean cruise in 2001 that had internet...

Found the numbers for the QM2

QUEEN MARY 2 GREAT BRITAIN OTHERS INMARSAT B SYSTEM
Numbers: 323576220 [Voice Service]
323576221 [9.6Kbit/s Fax]
323576222 [9.6Kbit/s Data]
391030830 [64Kbit/s High Speed Data]
323576210 [Voice Service]
323576211 [9.6Kbit/s Fax]
323576212 [9.6Kbit/s Data]
391030829 [64Kbit/s High Speed Data]


Than follow the directions on this page to make the call based on where the ship is

http://support.inmarsat.com/calling/calling_to.aspx

It's like $15 a minute.

The internet charges are VERY high too and shore to ship (or ship to shore) calls are extremely expensive. I've even found when you can see the coast line you often can't get cell service.

msv

Cingular provides wireless phone and data coverage in the Caribbean and other locations on Carnival, NCL and Royal Caribbean. I was not able to find any info on any carriers that provide TATL Cunard service.

It was .50 a minute for internet. If you're quick, not too bad to hop on and off to check your email.

Let me move this to our Travel->Cruises forum for added help. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz

We cruised from LAX to YVR last weekend and, while we couldn't see the shore, we did have patchy cell phone coverage.

Thank you everybody. Wow, I won't pay those high rates to confirm plans. I did send an email yesterday but I have no idea if my friend would even think to do something as mundane as checking email on her first-ever transatlantic voyage. Well, her boat docks in Brooklyn at 7:30am tomorrow. I'll call her tomorrow morning. As an aside, I assume she won't be a sufferer of jet lag. Isn't that a benefit of taking a ship? :)

The QM2 will regain cell service outside of the overpriced ship's plan when it gets close to the US mainland. You can start calling about 2 hours prior to the arrival in NY. That will work if your friend has the phone turned on. Cunard turns off its very expensive cell service at a fixed point when arriving at every port.

All ships have had very serious complaints about having their relay service turned on when people wanted to use the much, much less expensive regular service.

I have friends in Alaska who have to be very careful when using their cell phones that they don't pick up a relay on a cruise ship (which are supposed to be turned off) when they try to make a call. Even if you are not a passenger on such ship, you can get a surprise bill. Of course you can fight it, but that is a big bother.

Can you please clarify, oldpenny16 . From whom do they get the bill?