Cruising with Public Mobile

[Munday]

Hi Everyone,

We just got back from a 13 night Royal Caribbean, Canada - New England repositioning cruise on Sunday night. We left from Quebec City and debarked in Fort Lauderdale. I purchased the US Roaming with data add-on at our last port in Canada, which was Saint John, New Brunswick. 

I was very impressed with the coverage. I could use my phone even at sea in Canadian waters because we were relatively close to land. Of course, your mileage may vary. It got a little less reliable in US waters, but because I had purchased the US Roaming add-on, texting was still possible after searching for the ship’s network, which was displayed on my phone sometimes as Cellular At Sea and sometimes as 901 18. I tried phoning, but the call wouldn’t connect and using data wasn’t possible.

Don’t worry about extra charges or being billed by the cruise line. It isn’t an issue. My Wife, Brother and Sister-in-Law all had to scramble to turn off data while roaming after leaving port because they are with Rogers, I just kept my phone on all cruise. In fact, because the ship’s internet is so expensive, my phone became everyone’s source of communication on sea days. I did have the known issue with received texts stopping once I got back to Ontario though. I sent the Moderators a PM yesterday morning, but texts started being received this morning before the Moderators responded. All in all, a very positive Public Mobile experience!

[AE_Collector]

All interesting stuff! Cellular at Sea is a different company from the cruise lines. They put the equipment on the ships, use the ships satellite systems to get the calls or texts to their equipment on shore somewhere and provide call detail info to all of the cell carriers so they can bill their customers. I think the rates to end users can vary widely depending on your carrier and plan. Apparently PM being a Prepaid Service doesn’t or can’t bill for use and somehow it can’t be blocked. I will check out Golden Princess on a 14 day round trip to Alaska from Vancouver June 1-15, 2019. Terry

[Munday]

Deleted

[Munday]

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@mimmo wrote:

My experience last yeAr  on a cruise to Mexico without any Addons was that o Could connect and use calling  when on the cellular at sea network.

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Definately no calling while on board Adventure of the Seas. I tried a bunch of times but can’t remember if it said Cellular At Sea or 901 18 when the calls failed. I’m not even sure if Cellular At Sea and 901 18 are the same network.

[mimmo]

My experience last yeAr  on a cruise to Mexico without any Addons was that o Could connect and use calling  when on the cellular at sea network.

[Munday]

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@MoreYummy wrote:

@Munday Texting is possible when using cruise's network?   Or you mean just receiving is ok, sending text should not work right?

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If you are out of range of any land based cellular towers and you have purchased a PM US Roaming add-on that includes texting, you can send and receive texts when you connect to the ship’s cellular network. The Royal Caribbean ship we were on uses Cellular At Sea which is a pretty common cellular carrier used on cruise ships in our cruising experience. YMMV.

[MoreYummy]

@Munday Texting is possible when using cruise's network?   Or you mean just receiving is ok, sending text should not work right?

[Munday]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

@Munday, thanks for sharing your experience.  It must have been the end of the 10 Roaming addon as that is when the issue happens with the texting.  I have gone on weekend trips and come back and the texting is fine until after that 10th day.  Not sure why they can't get that fixed but there are a lot things about PM I wonder why they aren't fixed yet.  They are saving me a lot of money so I can put up with it lol

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Yes, my 10 day US add-on expired on the 22nd, we arrived home on the 21st. When you know what to expect, no complaints here.

[Munday]

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@MoreYummy wrote:

So you are able to use the cruise's network while at sea or just the nearby us tower when you close to the shoreline?

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If closer to shore, either Canada or US, and you have purchased a US Roaming add-on with talk/text/data, you use your phone as normal. If you lose PM’s signal, search for the ship’s network and then texting is possible.

[ShawnC13 · Accepted solution]

@Munday, thanks for sharing your experience.  It must have been the end of the 10 Roaming addon as that is when the issue happens with the texting.  I have gone on weekend trips and come back and the texting is fine until after that 10th day.  Not sure why they can't get that fixed but there are a lot things about PM I wonder why they aren't fixed yet.  They are saving me a lot of money so I can put up with it lol

[MoreYummy]

So you are able to use the cruise's network while at sea or just the nearby us tower when you close to the shoreline?