My Cell Phone on a Caribbean Cruise

I wanted to do a post on cell phone use on a Caribbean cruise.

I have AT&T and use a Blackberry. Prior to leaving home, I contacted AT&T to find out about International Roaming and additional costs I should know about. I did not need to add this feature, since it's included in my monthly rate. I was more concerned about hidden charges that would show up on my bill a month or two from now. I was given rates for when the ship is at sea and rates for each of the islands we would be docking at.

I received my cell phone bill the other day and sure enough, I had about $5 in additional fees. The fee was for "data usage". When I went back to my daily journal/log that I kept throughout the cruise, I didn't recall using my phone to access the Internet or sending text messages while at sea or in port. I do recall turning off my Blackberry on the 2nd sea day and then turning it on every other evening, long enough to see if anyone left any messages.

Looking back at the dates and times, I believe the cell phone was doing an update and that's why I got a data usage charge. No problem. The data useage rate is a lot cheaper than a call. I have my phone set to automatically turn on and turn off each day. I ended up turning off that feature for the rest of the cruise.

I'm not complaining, just good things to know about cell phones and cruising. You never know what your cell phone is doing when you have it turned on.