WindstarTurn Off Your Phone While Cruising
I recently suggested that international travelers should consider getting T-Mobile since they now offer free (basic) data in 120+ countries. However, a few weeks ago on a Windstar cruise from Barcelona to Rome,

I learned the hard way that on a cruise you should turn your mobile device off or put it in airplane mode no matter who your carrier is. That’s because I woke up one morning to text messages reading, “Welcome to Iceland” then “Welcome to France” (which is where we were) and then when I returned home I had accrued over $380 in roaming fees without even using my phone. Ouch!

Luckily, I called T-Mobile and they credited my account but it could’ve been because I had an awesome agent. Turn your phone off or put it in airplane mode as soon as you leave port to prevent this from happening.

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3 Comments On "Travel Tip of the Day: Turn Off Your Phone While Cruising"
  1. Nancy Chase|

    I think you can also just turn your roaming off and that will prevent the extra charges. That is what I have always done.

  2. John Redford (@johnredford)|

    I found this out the hard way! Maritime Data is NOT included in international packages. AT&T was pretty cool about it and reversed all of my charges, otherwise, it was going to be a very large and unexpected bill.

  3. Pat|

    I am surprised, with all your traveling, you are not swapping out a domestic SIM card with an international one when out of country. Also, it is the data use that silently and automatically runs in the background. Go into cellular settings and turn off data use so it will be restricted to wifi only.

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