Using a Phone on a Cruise Ship Will Cost Thousands: Urban Myth or Reality?

Anyone who has been paying attention to the cruise world long enough has heard a horror story – or three or four or more! – of unlucky guests who forgot to put their phone in airplane mode only to end up with thousand-dollar-plus bills.

Many travel advisors have even made that an important part of how they prepare their clients to cruise, reminding them of the importance of airplane mode.

But the days of the thousand-dollar cell phone bill are mostly behind us (at least for U.S. residents and with one major outlier). At this month’s Seatrade Cruise Global conference in Miami, TMR sat down with Brent Horwitz, senior vice president and chief customer engagement officer at WMS to talk about cell phone connectivity at sea.

“There are a lot of veteran cruisers who come onboard and they’re afraid to use their phone because they’re afraid that they’re going to get this massive bill shock in the end,” Horwitz said, explaining that situations like that are no longer the norm.

With new plans from both AT&T and Verizon – powered by WMS – cruise passengers no longer need to worry about high cellular costs at sea – or in port.

With both plans, “the ship becomes an extension of your mobile carrier,” Horwitz said. “The most you’ll pay is $20 a day.” (Which can be less than what cruise lines charge for the highest-bandwidth Wi-Fi packages.)

Here’s what your clients will get with their cruise pass:

• With Verizon, customers who opt in will get unlimited data (0.5GB of high-speed data, then unlimited data at 3G speeds), unlimited calls to the U.S., and unlimited texts, for $20/line per day. The pass also includes Verizon’s international plan, which provides service in more than 210 destinations around the world.

• With AT&T, the enhanced International Day Pass plan is automatically triggered when a passenger’s phone connects to the service at sea in international waters. For $20/line per day, customers get 500MB of high-speed data per day with no overage charges (reduced to 512Kbps after the 500MBs are used), along with unlimited talk and text once the cruise ship crosses into international waters. The Day Pass also includes coverage while in port.

Some Caveats Your Clients Need to Know

First and foremost, these cruise plans are only available with AT&T and Verizon, not T-Mobile. While T-Mobile automatically provides data for free in destinations around the world, a cruise plan is not yet available at any price, and customers can be charged exorbitant fees for cellular at sea and leave them with the cruise lines’ plans as their only option for data.

With Verizon, customers must opt in ahead of their cruise. If they forget to opt in and don’t turn on airplane mode, they should get a text reminding them they’re at sea and giving them the option to opt in. However “should” doesn’t always happen and the safest recommendation is to tell your clients to opt in beforehand if they want the plan.

Second, the AT&T and Verizon plans are not available on every cruise line, though Horwitz joked it’s faster to say who WMS doesn’t work with than who does. Currently, the plans are available on more than 200 cruise ships across 25 cruise lines, including every major cruise brand.

When to Advise Clients to Choose the Ship Wi-Fi Plan Instead

While AT&T and Verizon’s plans make the most sense for “average data” use (in Horwitz’s words), cruisers who want to be able to stream or download movies and music will be better served by a ship’s Wi-Fi plan.

“Our data services are limited,” Horwitz explained. “Once you deplete a certain number of megabytes it’s going to throttle down your speeds.”

“For an average person who just wants to stay connected with their family, the cellular solution is a high-quality option,” he added. “And now that we’re backstopping it at a $20 maximum [per day], that really is going to eliminate the fear factor.”