This Simple Mistake Could Cost You Hundreds of Dollars on Your Next Cruise-Here's How to Avoid It

"Yet so many cruise travelers get caught up in that first-day-of-vacation excitement-the first piña colada, the mad dash to make restaurant reservations, the exhilaration of seeing your luggage safely on board, the second piña colada-that by the time the ship is pulling out of port, cellphone best practices are not top of mind. Most vacationers are too busy snapping photos and Facetiming mom from the pool deck to check their phone's connection."

""Once the cruise ship is far enough from land, a phone can no longer reach traditional land-based cell towers, prompting the customer to opt-in to the vessel's maritime cellular network," explains Sarah Day, vice president of wireless growth and offer strategy for AT&T. If you are connected to a maritime network, your phone might list "Cellular at Sea" or "901" as the network it's connected to."

Many cruise passengers forget to enable airplane mode amid embarkation excitement, then connect their phones at sea. Once a ship is far enough from land, phones can no longer reach land-based towers and instead opt into a vessels maritime cellular network, which may display as "Cellular at Sea" or "901." Onboard phones communicate via a Distributed Antenna System to a satellite, then to a ground station and carrier network. Land-based or port international plans do not apply; calls, texts, and data at sea are billed as costly international maritime roaming at pay-as-you-go rates.

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