WMS provides connectivity for customers of nearly 400 mobile cell phone companies around the world. With rare exceptions, your carrier should be supported by WMS. For a complete list of the mobile phone operators with whom WMS has roaming agreements, please click here. It should be noted that your carrier must allow you to roam internationally in order for your phone to work onboard a WMS vessel.
Our service operates over a satellite, or “VSAT” connection. Once your ship is at least 12 nautical miles out to sea (or at least2 nautical miles in EU countries), the WMS network turns on and you will automatically connect to it. Please note that cruise ship roaming rates will apply. Our service will stay on for the duration of the time that the ship is sailing at sea. Once your ship approaches land again and is within 12 nautical miles from shore (or 2 nautical miles in the EU), our service is turned off and your phone will pick up local service. If you are able to pick up local service in the port areas you will be charged a different rate by your carrier then the Cruise Ship Roaming rate. Contact your carrier for pricing and details.
Compatible devices and carriers connect automatically. You do not need to do anything special to connect to the service.
Simply dial “1” plus the area code and number to call anywhere in North America. Dial “+” along with the country code and number to call non-US destinations. Verizon Wireless/Sprint/Alltel user’s dial “011” country code and number to non-US destinations.
Rates are set and determined solely by your cell phone carrier—WMS has no involvement whatsoever in the retail rates your carrier charges for cruise ship roaming. For precise rates you will pay onboard, please contact your carrier’s international roaming department directly to confirm their Cruise Ship Roaming Rates for voice calls, texting, and data if applicable.
All billing is handled by your cell phone carrier, not by WMS, and you will be billed for any charges incurred while onboard a ship on your next monthly cell phone bill directly from your carrier.
In some cases, a phone that is left on, but not used, may incur charges. If a voice call is received but not answered, and the caller leaves a voicemail it is possible you will receive a charge for a voice call. If a text comes through and the phone is left on, you may be charged for a received text. Please note that smartphones (Blackberries, iPhones, Androids and other PDA devices) are constantly looking for data connections in order to perform updates and other synchronization steps. Therefore, it is possible that if you leave your PDA device on, you will incur data charges. Please contact your carrier for more information on data charges.
Any questions or issues regarding billing must be handled through your carrier. WMS has no involvement at all with retail charges applied to your monthly bill by your cell phone provider.
WMS does not offer any prepaid packages for passengers.
Generally speaking, most cell phone carriers do not allow their unlimited rate plans to apply to calls, texts or data used while roaming on international waters. Please contact your own carrier to confirm this and your specific pricing details.
WMS currently does not support any US prepaid cell phones with our service.
At this time, most ships serviced by WMS carry cellular data traffic at 2 or 2.5G speeds. On a select few ships (the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas and the Allure of the Seas) we do support 3G speeds for a select few CDMA carriers (EVDO). However, only a limited number of carriers have roaming agreements in place with WMS allowing their subscribers to access EVDO onboard those vessels. WMS is continually evaluating new technologies and anticipates providing additional 3G services for GSM handsets in late 2012.
Provided that WMS has a roaming agreement with your cellular service provider for GPRS (data) service, you will be able to use our network to access cellular data services (e.g., internet access, email and web browsing) with your GPRS capable cell phone. GPRS roaming rates also apply when using an air card. Please check with your carrier to determine the rates you will be charged by them.
You may use your phone onboard any ship where we provide service. Please refer to our ‘Ships in Service’ section to see if our service is supported on the ship on which you will be sailing. Click HERE for that list.
CDMA users who have a world phone will not have access to data services if your phone is set to GSM. Your CDMA phone must be set to CDMA.