I'm trying to contact my parents on a Holland America trip at sea between the mainland and Hawaii. how can I contact them? Thank you!

Phone HAL and ask them about the ship tel. nr. Phoning to a ship at sea goes through satelite and is very expensive.

These are the instructions we received from HA to call a ship.

Have the ship name, your party's name and stateroom ready.

Phone:
1-866-HAL-SHIP [1- 866-425-7447 ]

Instructions for an emergency call:

1. Have your credit card ready
The cost is $16.00 per minute.

Billing begins at the time specified in the announcement.

2. Listen to the announcement.

3 listen to the menu and select the number that corresponds to the ship you are calling.

4. If you receive a busy signal, hang up QUICKLY and try your call again.

Do they have mobiles by chance? May be they turned it on. Just about all the ships have on-board towers so that folks can connect with their mobiles. It's not cheap at $2.49/min with most US carriers, but it's a lot cheaper than the other options.

Not all mobile phones work on all cruises. I have T-mobile, worked on Royal Caribbean, so I though it will be the same on Princess. NOT.

Since that cruise, I read somewhere, different mobile phone companies have agreements with different cruise lines.

They all should work offshore though.

Or if you know the parry on board will check their email in the ships web cafe, then send them an email. All ships no a days have internet cafe's.