Being away for so long is tough on you, your family and your friends. Keeping in touch with them is important and there are several ways you can do that without spending a fortune. I spent a lot of money on that until I learned how to do it the smart way so here are a few advices. Communicating the smart way: - Activate roaming on the phone sim card you’re using home
Before leaving home, don’t forget to activate the roaming service. It is very important since some of your friends or family will call you or text you and you need to know. You can use the number to text back. - As soon as possible go out in each port and find a local internet café
Every port has so called “calling centers” where you can use internet to check your emails and write back to your friends. As soon as possible, once onboard, go and find them, you will pay less that you pay onboard. - Buy a local phone sim card
Check out the itinerary of your ship and buy a local prepaid sim card. For example, if you’re in Europe and have 3 Italian ports, buy an Italian sim card, if you’re in USA and going to Puerto Rico and any other USA territory, buy and American sim card. You can call at cheaper rates from the sim card directly or using a calling card. - Buy calling cards from a calling center
You can find them in every port in calling centers or at the news stands. They have really cheap rates and you can talk to your family for over an hour for 5-10 dollars. Ask the seller which one is good for your country. - Send postcards
This is a great way to send souvenir postcards and keep in touch with your friends. Everybody loves to receive post cards, it shows you care since you took the time to buy one, write on it and send it. You can send mail from any calling center in the world or just go to the local post. - In some ports you can get free WiFi
This only happened in Europe so far. There were a few ports such as Livorno where you could bring your laptop outside the deck and connect at no charge. Don’t know why or how it was possible, but it was. Sometimes, in some bars or near a calling center, you can connect wireless as well. Usually, I bring my PSP (portable play station) with me and if I sit in some bar/park etc, I try to connect. Sometimes it works, so try it. - Get the ships phone number (the unofficial one)
Each ship has a phone number your family can use to call you directly to your cabin. The official one is very expensive, but there’s another one you can use and it’s got affordable rates. Usually, you can find the official one in the crew office. Talk to the other crewmembers, ask around and eventually you’ll find it out. - Bring your family and friends onboard to cruise with you
This is another way to keep in touch with them and if you can not go to them, then bring them to you. As an employee you have discounts when you bring your family or friends onboard. My company charges us only $45 per day per person so it’s very convenient to have them there with you for a week or two. Once onboard check with the crew office, they will let you know how long in advance you need to fill in the form and how long you have to work with the company before you can do it. Avoid to: - use the ship’s calling cards
They are very expensive. With 20 dollars you get only 20-25 minutes while with a calling card outside, for that money you can talk for hours. Unless you need to contact your family urgently, I recommend you not to try it. - use the ship’s internet café
Try and use the ship’s internet as little as possible and only when you really need to contact your family. Otherwise, wait until the ship is the port and go to a internet café. - call from your home sim card
Usually, roaming service costs a fortune so you should use it only to text your friends and family. Call from a calling cards or from the local prepaid sim card. Labels: ship life |
INteresting job you have there