Cruise ship cell phone rates?
 

Does any international prepaid SIM card have rates better than ekit's $4-$5??
Any other international SIMs work on cruise ships?

Any US prepaid SIMs work on cruise ships?

Probably only Mobal & maybe TravelSIM clones like OneSimCard would work, let alone at anything cheap. No US prepaid SIMs work on cruise ships IIRC. Stick to SMS w/ whatever you have that does work till you get near a country with cheaper rates.

Update: I just logged into my Mobal account & see under their 'Cruise Ships / Ferries' entry, it costs 1.95 USD/min to receive calls & 3.95/min to call the US or UK. Calling elsewhere would be 5.95/min. Received SMS is free & sending is 80 US cents/message.

It is cheaper to go straight up to a satellite with your own satphone than use the ship's microcellsite to relay the call through a satellite. Phones are pricey, but many dealers will do short term rentals with airtime being paid on a prepaid or postpaid basis. Carriers include Iridium, Globablstar, Inmarsat, Thuraya, Terrestar, etc. Airtime rates usually in the US$.80-US$1.99/minute range depending on carrier (usually includes international long distance).

Passengers on most cruise ships can now just use their own cell phones while the ship is at sea. Verizon and ATT charge $2.49 a minute. T-Mobil charges $4.99!!!.

What I've done when on a cruise ship is to forward all incoming calls to voicemail and ask caller's to text me. People who needed to reach me knew to text, not call. I think I spent about a total of $2.00 roaming while on that cruise but important messages could still reach me instantly.

Well, I am back from my four day cruise to Mexico
 

Additional Princess Cruises cell phone information.
 

Burning up ship Internet credit, I did a VOIP call which worked pretty good as well.

What was the rate?
 

How much was the ship charging for minute?

going to be on a 7 night Caribbean cruise at the end of the year, including Mexico, so wondering about the Lime sim card - seems to be good for incoming calls and texting, but very expensive for outgoing, around $3/min, (unless to other Lime customers).

Tru sim seems to have generally better rates around the region. Better than my old Geosim, anyway!

as for Wifi calling, the ship claims to block Skype, but I wonder if the data rate is too slow anyway when at sea....or if I could get another VOIP service to work (Truphone, Nimbuzz, etc.)

the per minute rate for wifi is 75c/min, dropping to 50c if you buy a block of minutes. (don't know why they don't charge by the MB!)

As a reminder AT&T prepaid 'GoPhone' has 25cents a minute rates from Mexico [and 25cent SMS send/20cents receive]. That SIM would only work in Mexico so YMWV.

I am quite pleased with my Tru SIMs. If the rates are OK with you and it works where you are going that is great. Makes a good secondary US SIM also. About 10 months ago I was on a Mexico cruise and was able to receive SMS on the ship at sea with my Tru SIM. [free rreceive]. I was too cheap to test what its per minute call rates and SMS send rates were. You could test them!

On my single trip on a cruise ship I forwarded all my incoming calls to voicemail leaving a message telling callers to text me or leave a numeric page. I never found it necessary to place or receive calls at sea.

On my Regent Baltic cruise, I used straight SIP and it worked. Given what they charge (by the minute) for cruise ship internet, I'm shocked that they block VOIP. Oh well, anyway to gouge you

I found IAX2 is blocked less than Skype/SIP and fring. TMobile USA's UMA protocol is very hard to distinguish if IPSEC. It is a subspecies of IPSEC and looks similar to a commercial VPN. There are also very few subscribers so it lacks the critical mass needed for the blocking technology companies to invest much time in. If you have a iPhone, VOIPBuster has a VOIP app designed to work in the Middle East. VBuzzer has an Android App designed for the Middle East. SIP Droid on an Android running through a free VPN courtesy of PBXES.com works nicely with a free Google Voice account for free calls.