# Help please -- Using cellphones in Central America



## Cathyb (Oct 30, 2008)

Tuggers, your advice please:    On Panama Canal two week cruise visiting Guatamala, Cartagena-Columbia, and a few others.  Have AT&T cellphone.  For emergencies and checking home, what is the least expensive way to make telephone calls back to California?

Can family members call and leave messages on our cellphone while we are sailing and we listen to them once we are ashore?

Have been long time timeshare traveler and have no clue what to do with being on a Princess cruise      TIA


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## Fern Modena (Oct 30, 2008)

Why not have them leave you emails instead?  And if you should have an unfortunate emergency, they can email the ship and it will be delivered to your cabin.  

Fern


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## Cathyb (Oct 30, 2008)

Fern: Yes, that is an option -- but the reviews on Princess ships is that getting on a computer is somewhat difficult so I wanted to have another method.  Thank you for the suggestion.  Sis


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## TravlGrl (Nov 16, 2008)

Just stepped off a Princess cruise yesterday, and can offer some help.  First, it's going to be cheaper to call while in port at any of those countries than it will be to call using cell phone service from the ship.

You should call AT&T and get their rates for each country you'll be visiting, and can plan your phone calls accordingly.  Odds are that text messaging will be the cheapest way to communicate.  We have T-Mobile and that's what we do when we cruise.

Not sure which ship you'll be on -- probably Island Princess??? -- but the Internet Cafe on the ship is very expensive.  We brought our laptop but only used it to upload photos from our digital camera.

The other thing I want to mention is that you can leave the ship's emergency phone number with your family/friends back home.  That way, if there is an emergency, they can contact the ship directly ($9.95 per minute) to contact you.  We do this each time we cruise.

I hope that helps!  Enjoy your cruise!
tj


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