USA to Europe Cruise
 

Hello,
I am new here and have been pouring over all of the options and information on this site. Basically I am going to be on a 2 week cruise to Europe and I am looking for a way to family/friends in the US to call us. So far there are two options I have came up with.

1. Get a United Mobile SIM and sign up for Skype-in. I can get a U.S. number from Skype and forward calls to my UK UM number. Around $60 setup cost and about $.30 a minute for the skype forwarding. (inbound calls should be free)

2. Sign up for Yackie and get a U.S. Number. Just $.29 a minute inbound. Pretty much no setup cost because Yackie just makes me buy a $50 credit. But I am concerned about the reliability and support from them.

Any suggestions/opinions of anybody who has used these on which is a better route to go. Or even if you have another idea, I am all ears. Thanks in advance.

Two questions:

Does the cruiseliner offer on board GSM roaming?

Do either United Mobile or Yackie offer coverage on cruise ship networks?

I am on Carnival. I think it maybe on the cruise ship, because ATT wireless says they have service on the ship at like $2.49 a minute! How do I tell of UM or yackie support GSM on the ship?

Which is the carrier that offers gsm coverage on this ship? In most cases incoming costs are not free with international sims. Caution is required. I would check with customer service of UM and yackie. Yackie would be fine with the US number.

I figured I won't get free incoming on the ship. In-port is what I really care about. So long as people seem to have good luck with Yackie, that might be my best bet then. I am not sure if there are any other providers with looking into.

You could get your own VoIP number and forward it to your mobile number.

voip.ms has excellent rates to most mobiles (you should look up the specific rate to this mobile number) and les.net isn't too bad to some but is high to others.

Expect to pay about $1 for setup and $1 a month plus 1.5 cents a minute for inbound calls, plus the cost of forwarding to your mobile. If you use the inbound number a lot you can generally pay about $8-10 a month and receive unlimited calls.

If you have access to broadband Internet during your holiday and can get a softphone installed on your computer, or a hardware SIP phone, you can receive calls from the US at the 1.5 cent rate (or free if you bought unlimited) and place outgoing really cheaply, too.

This is a better solution if you want to take advantage of this on a frequent basis.

VoIP isn't all that hard to figure out. I've abandoned the providers that package everything in favour of the a la carte method. For all but the most extreme usage it's cheaper, and it's rather fun, like mobile phones are.

Three other ideas:

1) You may be able to use a wifi device on skype in Europe dependent on getting a free or cheap wifi connection. Thinking of cellphone that has wifi, a PDA that has wifi or can take a wifi card, or a dedicated device like a Sony Mylo.

2) You may want to consider renting a satphone (Iridium, Globalstar, InMarSat) if you want to call from ship to shore while at sea. Cheaper means would be email from the ship if people you want to reach are comfortable with email and PC's; some cruise ships have internet cafes.

3) Very low tech but you can buy a local calling card when in port and walk over to a payphone.

Enjoy your trip!

I'm not aware of too many ports between the US and Europe mainlands. I wouldn't be surprised if the ship will be at sea for at least 7-8 full days while crossing the Atlantic.

Crap, I really made a bad title. It should be "Calling from USA to European Cruise". I am flying to Europe and then taking a cruise there. My title was a more than a little misleading. I only have 3 days at sea and 9 in-port. Italy/Spain/France for the most part. My bad on the title, but thank you so far for all the input. Things I am starting to look into.

In that case, coverage on the cruise ship itself itself should not matter much. However, all carnival cruise ships have cellular coverage. It's provided my Wireless Maritime Services (WMS).