Elisa

I've posted this three times and no one will respond. Is this an odd question?<BR><BR>How does everyone contact their kids when they are away?

Faina

Elisa, I always made sure my children have a one-number calling card I get from the local phone company (mine is Pacific Bell) so they can call home from any phone in USA and it will be billed to my home phone bill. There is not problem if they lose it - it will work for calls only to our home phone number. <BR><BR>Now when they grew up and travel farther of course there is internet, and Hotmail account is accessible from any computer which has internet connection. In Options you can turn on the filter which will deliver only mail from the address in the address book.<BR><BR>All of the above was about chidren contacting you. Now if you want to talk to them it gets harder here Most of kids, especially teenagers feel it's "bother" to talk to parents. I try to force them to leave me several phone numbers "in case of emergency". Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. <BR><BR>My long-distance carrier is Startek, and their international rates are really cheap. <BR><BR>Anything else got left out?

ladybug

There are internet cafes on most of the newer ships...It depends on the ship. That may be the reason for the few responses. The cost is about 50 cents a minute...starting the minute you log in. It adds up quick if you are floundering around. Most ports have internet cafes at a lesser rate. Also, most ports have phones right off the pier that some will take international calling cards. (Mexico, was the exception when I was last there).... Calling from (or to) the ship is pretty cost prohibitive unless you have money to burn or it's an emergency. Hope these are the answers that you were requesting. Have a great cruise!!

Theresa

Which ship? Depends on the ship.<BR><BR>I bring my Sprint PCS cell phone with me. I have used it in several Caribbean islands on "roam mode".<BR><BR>

Elisa

Thanks to everyone who responded.<BR><BR>I will be traveling on RC Splendour of the Seas. Thanks for the info about the phones at the port.

Candace

You should buy an international prepaid phone card before you leave home. We used a payphone in St. Martian that said calls to the US was $1.00 a minute and followed the directions. We used it for 5 minutes and they charged us $50.00<BR>we disputed it on our credit card and mastercard took $45 off but it was a hassle. I think most ships have internet service on the Majesty they had a free 5 minute trial for an hour on an at sea day but the internet service was sluggish they are working off satelites.

lou

You can do a search for internet cafes at<BR><BR>http://www.cybercaptive.com<BR><BR>This is a great site. You can look up whatever city you'll be in to find available internet cafes. We found internet cafes for the ports on our Alaska cruise as well as our vacation in Cabo San Lucas. Prices are very reasonable at these cafes and a fun way to meet some locals.<BR><BR>The site also has a page listing what cruiselines and ships have internet access. Hope this helps.