Verizon charges when on boat

ppalmer7

Today I signed up for Verizon Travel Pass. The employee said I would have high charges if I called from the ship. When I explained it's not a ship - but a riverboat, she didn't know the answer.

For those who have used Verizon on Tauck riverboats in Europe, were there high charges for calling from the boat?

Thanks!
Pam

CalKat

We also signed up for Verizon Travel Pass and were charged $10/day for each day we used talk/data/text. It doesn't matter if you use it from the boat or land; however, there is wifi on board the boat so better to use that (Skype, FaceTime or WhatsApp for voice calls) when you can and save the $10.

British

Though I have yet to take a Tauck River Cruise, I Imagine it is the same as anywhere else that is not out at sea, use you iPad to make FaceTime calls for free. There is no need to sign up for out of the US plans doing it that way. It's often difficult to make calls to the US purely because of the 5 or 6 hour time difference, or if you live on the West coast, 9 hours and in addition not being able to use your cell phone while on any of the Tauck excursions. Whatsapp is also free for calls, just download the app, I often connect with a couple of friends who live out of the country for free using this app, either call them or text.

ppalmer7

Thank you, CalKat and British!

Rudys

Thanks for the good info. To use whatsapp, does the person you are calling need to be a member? Or can I just call anyone with whatsapp? I tried to find out from their website, but it wasn't clear so I'm afraid they may have been hiding a limitation.

AlanS

Rudys wrote:

Thanks for the good info. To use whatsapp, does the person you are calling need to be a member? Or can I just call anyone with whatsapp? I tried to find out from their website, but it wasn't clear so I'm afraid they may have been hiding a limitation.

Both

British

As Alan says, you both have to have Whatsapp.
Now my question is this. Not many years ago, it was perfectly normal that when people were on vacation in foreign parts, they were not able to keep in communication with those at home or for business. So we still look at it this way and do not expect to make phone calls while traveling. Friends and relatives do not expect to hear from us by phone and when my husband was working, his company did not expect to hear from him, after all, he was on vacation and that means work too. We do send email 'Travel diary' news when time and internet connection allows, but it can be difficult because Tauck vacations are very full and tiring and the ones we take often in very remote locations. We accept this when we chose to travel with Tauck. On a couple of times, we travelled knowing a parent could die in England and a grandchild might be born earlier than expected. Both those times we expected any news via email not phone calls because of the time differences between our location and the US and in addition the very Good rule that Tauck does not allow phone use while the tour group is together, including on the bus. It leaves limited time for calls. Just a valid thought for you to consider. I understand I do not know your circumstances though. If it is a matter that relatives are concerned about your safety in these troubling times, you can register your travel plans with the US embassy ( whoops, sorry, can't remember the agency you do this with, too early in the morning, but anyway, that helps you to be located in an emergency), but it is also why traveling with Tauck is better than traveling independently these days.
Hope my thoughts might have been of use to you. We have five more upcoming tours with Tauck booked.

Rudys

For reference, I will be on the Iceland Fire & Ice tour. After checking with Verizon, I find that there is no per minute charge for talk. So my plan will be to use wifi or 4G or text where possible, but use the phone if needed. I hope this is right. I printed out the chat conversation as well as the plan description. This is $10 / day when I use the plan; if I can stay with wifi, no cost at all!
Verizon: Thank you for contacting the Verizon Wireless Chat Team regarding traveling abroad. How can we help you today?
You: If I have international travel pass , is there a per minute charge for calls back to the US, or are such calls free like on my regular plan?
Don: Hi, with Travel pass there are no per minute charges for calls. You have unlimited talk and text and access to your domestic data plan as well
You: Sounds wonderful. Thank you!

British

Ah, Rudys, the original post was about cell phones from a river cruise. I never attempted to use a cell phone on a sea vessel, someone help me here, don't you need a cell phone tower for cell phones to work or at least be near a port? In looking at Iceland tour information, it says internet service on board ship is not exactly wonderful. I will be taking the Iceland tour in 2018 and will not be expecting cell phone service there, just intermittent internet for sending brief messages home, not even downloading photos which can hog internet access. Whenever I know internet service is spotty or can suddenly be lost, I get in the habit of writing my emails and diary in 'Notes' and then copying and pasting them in an email when I know there is service, because in the past I would be in the middle of sending a long email and then it might get lost, unsaved before I could send it when the Internet cut out.

Rudys

Yes, British, this is sort of a hybrid situation. There are shore excursions every day which ought to get me near a cell tower. But I too am not really planning to do much communicating. I like your idea of storing notes. Even flaky wifi ought to do something. I may just have to revert to the old days without all that connectivity.

John22022

ppalmer7 wrote:

Today I signed up for Verizon Travel Pass. The employee said I would have high charges if I called from the ship. When I explained it's not a ship - but a riverboat, she didn't know the answer.

For those who have used Verizon on Tauck riverboats in Europe, were there high charges for calling from the boat?

Thanks!
Pam

That same thing happened to me. I was also charged during my boat trips and I explain to them that it is not actually a cruise trip. I asked for a rebate and they made an adjustment.

jordan23

No my case it wasn't. It's fine that you just don't let them know. And it really doesn't matter