Roaming on Norwegian Jewel

Tell her not to use the phone on a cruise ship. Roaming rates are outrageous. Just do a Google search for roaming rates for the cruise line.

The problem here is the "15 year-old" part. The cruise line is not supposed to activate their cellular system within 12 nm of land but it's such a tempting profit center for the ship's management, sometimes they "forget". If I were on the cruise, it would not be difficult to avoid getting charged for calls and texts but I have over 20 years of overseas travel experience with my phone. Your daughter doesn't have that sort of experience.

One thing to check into is if the travelers all need a COVID pass on a smart phone?  I know someone who went on a recent (fall) cruise and was given WiFi access for the duration so she could do the COVID smart phone pass thing. 

You can teach her how to put the phone in Airplane mode then turn the WiFi back on when she's on the ship. Then set it in regular mode when she's ashore.

Another thing you can do is to block charged International Roaming. This setting is buried down in your account's international roaming settings.

The problem is that this for data roaming and most ships only have voice and text roaming.

One thing you can do is to block all international roaming. This isn't as drastic as it sounds because Canada and Mexico are not blocked. Only expensive roaming on the cruise ship will be blocked. She can still use WiFi or cellular systems in communities as they pass by.

I've been thinking out loud. Hope some of it is helpful.

If she has a WiFi package purchased for the cruise, she might be able to use WiFi Calling depending on if she has a WiFi package and what WiFi package she has purchased but she will definitely want to have cellular and data turned off anywhere within 2 miles of a cruise ship. 

Norwegian Cruise Discounts: Norwegian Jewel (norwegianvoyages.com)

In Canada, roaming for calling is fine but usable data is limited to 5GB's.  Yeah, they say you get unlimited at 2G speeds, but those speeds are basically useless for any usage by today's apps and services.  

drnewcomb wrote:

The problem here is the "15 year-old" part. The cruise line is not supposed to activate their cellular system within 12 nm of land but it's such a tempting profit center for the ship's management, sometimes they "forget". If I were on the cruise, it would not be difficult to avoid getting charged for calls and texts but I have over 20 years of overseas travel experience with my phone. Your daughter doesn't have that sort of experience.

One thing to check into is if the travelers all need a COVID pass on a smart phone?  I know someone who went on a recent (fall) cruise and was given WiFi access for the duration so she could do the COVID smart phone pass thing. 

You can teach her how to put the phone in Airplane mode then turn the WiFi back on when she's on the ship. Then set it in regular mode when she's ashore.

Another thing you can do is to block charged International Roaming. This setting is buried down in your account's international roaming settings.

The problem is that this for data roaming and most ships only have voice and text roaming.

One thing you can do is to block all international roaming. This isn't as drastic as it sounds because Canada and Mexico are not blocked. Only expensive roaming on the cruise ship will be blocked. She can still use WiFi or cellular systems in communities as they pass by.

I've been thinking out loud. Hope some of it is helpful.

Thank you. I was in the process of doing exactly this yesterday to block charged International Roaming but the T-mobile representative told me that it would block all text, voice, and data. Making it sound as though her phone would not work at all. I even pasted the info that you have and they said the same thing. Meaning they made it sound as if her phone would just not work at all. I am going to do this as you are correct, I am not going to be traveling with her and she has never been out of the country before. I was worried she would not be able to call emergency services if needed as she is going to be hiking in Alaska and I really want her to have that ability. Also, being able to access service in port towns and contact dad and I. There are adults on the trip but I don't really trust them to set her phone to all the proper settings every time they head back to the ship. And trusting a 15yo to do so is just, silly, lol. She is a good kid but she is still a teen and this seems the best option.

Oh, and yes, she does have to do the smartpass thingy online within 72 hours.

When a phone makes an emergency call (e.g. 911 or 112) it's supposed to do anything necessary to find a connection, without regard to settings. People say, "I couldn't call 911 because my phone didn't have a signal." but never tried. If they had tried they might have been surprised.

drnewcomb wrote:

When a phone makes an emergency call (e.g. 911 or 112) it's supposed to do anything necessary to find a connection, without regard to settings. People say, "I couldn't call 911 because my phone didn't have a signal." but never tried. If they had tried they might have been surprised.

Even a phone without an active SIM card in it can still successfully call 911.  

syaoran wrote:

drnewcomb wrote:

When a phone makes an emergency call (e.g. 911 or 112) it's supposed to do anything necessary to find a connection, without regard to settings. People say, "I couldn't call 911 because my phone didn't have a signal." but never tried. If they had tried they might have been surprised.

Even a phone without an active SIM card in it can still successfully call 911.  

This is very good information to have. I will certainly be telling my loved ones to always actually try it regardless of the status on their phone.