Thanks.. I can get an Ekit SIM from Amazon with free Prime shipping if necessary. I guess I could spend $10 and get the Lite to have as a backup.

I just tested SMS, and it works in and out on the US number, but cannot send to the Piranha UK number - perhaps because it is not primary. But can call to both numbers no problem.
takes about a week for sim to arrive.
Enjoy!

So you said "I should have switched the "active" number to the UK one instead of US, but still, outgoing SMS didn't work at all." Were you trying to text to/from the UK number? I guess I have to read the documentation to figure out how this works and you select one number over the other.

But it sounds like you would definitely recommend it over the ekit Passport.

PS how was your cruise :-).

for the European cities, with the new EU roaming rates, a national sim (I used O2) is not too expensive and more reliable. O2 and Vodafone have good EU data roaming packages as well.
for Piranha you have to call them to switch primary number. Not sure why outgoing didn't work earlier and does now.
Piranha is call back, not everyone likes that. But overall it works well at low cost.
Messing around with sims and mifi was most exciting part of cruise... we were 'reluctant cruisers', part of larger family group celebration... Ports are interesting, and get your own guides, not the ship tours.

Different brand for backup.
 

You want to get a different brand SIM for a backup-- you don't want both SIMs to fail for the same reason. This thread will give some reasons.
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/inte...html#post41610

I meant I would get the Pirahna and then get the ekit Passport Lite as backup.

What happened to their Android VoIP dialer? On their site, it says

Piranha Android VoIP Download:
Notice: we are currently working on a new VoIP dialler please check back later.

I use the Acrobits dialler they recommend, works very well for me and now has a push data feature which also works well:D. They did inform me when questioned that they were working on a new free version, but they have not released it yet.

Is there a free version of that? When I went to their recommended dialer (I think that was it), it was like $6. I'm unlikely to make $6 worth of calls in the time I can get free wifi while on my cruise.

I use the Acrobits dialer as well, good quality even on 3G, better than skype. And 2 free inbound numbers, US and UK.
VOIP via Acrobits/Piranha using data via Vodafone on my mifi is best way to go!
(Have not got the 'push' working properly yet, not sure of problem yet)