Andrew

Sorry, just saw your post now. We weren't automatically subscribed to old threads after the forum software switch a few months back...

I used my Dutch Vodafone SIM in Slovenia, Italy, and France last May without issue. I am planning to use it again on an upcoming trip to Europe. I've also recommended it to a few people and haven't heard back about their experiences yet. I can respond here again if I come back before your cruise and let you know if it still works.

Still, you don't have much to lose by trying. If you buy the SIM in Amsterdam from a Vodafone store, it may actually be free with no credit on it. (Or $8 USD shipped to you in the US via eBay.) Monthly bundle prices are still 10 euros for 1GB, 15 euros for 2GB, 20 euros for 3GB - but I see now they are advertising a 2X data bonus at the moment, so yes you could get 2GB for 10 euros. (But it's still the "1GB Maandbundel" .)

If you are cruising near land, you could pick up cell towers from land. When I took the ferry from Helsinki to St. Petersburg in 2016, I picked up random cell towers in Russia and Finland with my T-Mobile phone and had usable internet occasionally (even though we were usually too far away from the land to see it.) (The ship had some super-expensive internet package that I didn't bother with, heard it was slow and unreliable anyway.) Obviously you'd have it when in a European port. So, yes, I think it would still be very worth doing, assuming it still works like last year. I didn't use my Dutch Vodafone SIM in St. Petersburg and wouldn't have been able to roam there with it anyway - the free EU roaming doesn't include Russia.

misterbill

Thanks for the reply! I only posted a day or so ago, so not much of a delay . I noticed after posting that you had reported success with your Vodafone setup. It's really too bad that no one located in the US sells these, especially on Amazon!

I also saw the double data promotion when I was on their website earlier. They sell a 10 euro SIM on their website that has the 1gb package. However, as I'm sure you know, they do not ship to the US (or most other countries). I assume I could buy the same SIM at the Vodafone store, and I have determined there are a couple a few blocks from my Amsterdam hotel. However, I wonder if that would give me the 5 euro bonus for the first top-off that you supposedly get when using the free SIM. Assuming I get the extra 5 euro, then adding 10 would give me enough to buy the 2gb (4gb w/bonus) package. TBH, even 2gb is probably more than enough for my needs.

I asked on a cruise board and apparently I will be able to get cell service while cruising in the fjords but not when we're traveling between ports.

hetismij2

The SIM will work with maritime networks and there is plenty of maritime signal all up the coast of Norway, even in port. I know from experience. So do check which network you are connected to before using the phone.

misterbill

What will happen with a pre-paid SIM like this if I try to use it on a network that isn't included? They can't bill me for off-network usage after the fact, can they? I would think it would just not connect.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the signal along the coast in the fjords should be the same provider as the land signal. Obviously it won't work on whatever signal there is on the ship (if any).

Andrew

With the Dutch Vodafone SIM, as with many/most prepaid SIMs, you first add credit to the SIM. Then you can either use the phone on a per-minute per-MB per-text basis or buy a "bundle" with your credit. The bundle (a certain amount of data and minutes, good for a set period like 30 days) is much cheaper than the per-minute per-MB approach. But it's restricted (in the case of the Dutch Vodafone SIM) to EU roaming data and a few calls to Dutch phone numbers. (Incoming calls and texts are still free, as with most European prepaid SIMs.)

But you can use the SIM outside the EU - but it will be more expensive, and it won't count against your bundle if you bought one. (You could even use it in the US.) Instead, you'd be using up any remaining credit you added to the SIM, at a pretty expensive rate. But you wouldn't get "billed" for overages - the phone would just stop working once your credit hits 0, until you add more. I'm guessing once you get back into "bundle" areas in the EU that the phone would resume working for the rest of the bundle.

So...say you add 20 euros to the SIM and get 5 euros credit (as I did), then you use your credit to buy a 3GB bundle (but 2X gives you 6GB) for a month. You have 5 euros left. You roam to a non-EU network while on the ship. So you quickly use up that 5 euros credit and it stops working on the roaming network. Unless you've set an auto-reload on your SIM (I didn't - you don't have to), your credit card wouldn't be charged for anything else; it would just stop working in the roaming area til you add more credit.

So how do you know you are roaming? I'm pretty sure Voadfone will text you to let you know. I found that they texted me once the first time I visited each new country, along with the rates. But, other than roaming in the US when I first got the SIM (no credit on it yet anyway), I haven't used my SIM in a roaming area.

misterbill

I decided to go for it. One of the $5 sellers on ebay had "make an offer". I offered $4 and it was immediately accepted,.so $7 shipped (same as you paid, I think). I should have it in 2 weeks which will give me 2 weeks to get it set up before we leave. It seemed like the best option for my needs. Hopefully it works .

Andrew

Sounds good! Let me know how it goes.

misterbill

So, I got the card in the mail last week and finally tried using it tonight. My original plan was to use it in my S7 Edge but I can't find the SIM tray opener or a paper clip at the moment and it requires a nano SIM (which means I'd have to cut it down), so I decided to try it in an old LG G2 which uses the micro SIM size and was much easier to pop out. Good news, it took several minutes but I did get the initial text message and was able to create the account (including getting the text with the activation number). So I'm good to go.

Now for the bad news. While they previously had a 5 euro bonus on the first load, it now seems to be 25% extra, and it's not clear whether that's in money or data (I suspect money). OK, I figured I could load 12 euro (2 more than I'd planned) and get 15 , which is enough for the 2gb plan. But unless I'm missing something, I don't see a way to load in anything other than 10e chunks. So my choices would appear to be the 1gb bundle for 10e or the 3gb bundle for 20e, and the 25% bonus pretty much goes to waste (other than for overage, which I'm somewhat unlikely to need). Is there is a way to load an exact amount, please let me know!

One thing that is slightly useful which I did not expect is that the bundles come with a limited number of calling minutes, which could be useful for giving to a taxi company I'm pre-booking rides with in Amsterdam. Also unlimited SMS, which I guess would also be useful for the taxi.

BTW I am considering just keeping the SIM in the older LG phone. That way I wouldn't have to worry about carrying my S7 around with me while on vacation and just leave it in my cabin on the cruise ship (or my hotel). I'd have to set up some apps, but I have a few days. Otherwise I'll have to cut the SIM down, or see if someone at Best Buy or maybe a Verizon store has a SIM cutter that they will use for me. On the other hand, I'd probably be using the S7 for the camera anyway and the photos would not be getting update.

Or.. maybe start off with it in the LG and then go to a Vodafone store when I get to Amsterdam and ask them to cut it for me and put it in the S7. That may be the best option.

Andrew

The Vodafone SIM I got was a 3-in-1 meaning you can break it down to any size you need without "cutting" it - just peel off the edge for the next smaller size. If you are careful, you won't break the outer piece, so you can put it back and use a nano SIM as say a micro SIM again. I have done this. At the moment, I'm using my Vodafone SIM as a nano SIM, and I did not have to cut it.

No, you're right - you can only load (as far as I know) in 10 euro chunks. Not sure about the bonus - but I loaded 20 euros last year the first time and got a 5 euro bonus.. And the 5 euro bonus is just "credit" on your SIM - useful toward anything (minutes, SMS, data).

I still have the 5 euro bonus in my account, and I have found a use for it: keeping the SIM active so I can use it next year. The SIM expires six months after last activity (last top-up or, it seems, last activity). I used my SIM last week in Portugal. Now it expires in November, and I probably won't go back to Europe til next year. I'm hoping I can just send a text message every few months to keep it alive, draining down that 5 euro bonus. The 5 euros would also be useful for quick per-minute calls occasionally when outside of the Netherlands.

FYI, at the moment, they are advertising a 2X bonus on data - so if you buy a 1GB bundle you get 2GB; buy a 3GB bundle and you get 6GB. Not sure if this is permanent, but it was nice to get 2GB of data in Portugal last week for only 10 euros. (I wound up using only 800MB in 8-9 days, but it was nice not to have to worry about running out!)

Useful for making calls to Dutch numbers. Those bundle minutes aren't good for calling non-Dutch numbers - you'll have to pay 20 cents per minute otherwise. Texts to non-Dutch numbers also aren't free. Incoming calls and texts are free, however. So if you aren't traveling outside of the Netherlands, no worries. I still have Skype credit, so last time I needed to make a call to an EU number, I just used Skype.

misterbill

Thanks for the reply. Where do you see the 2x data bonus? I am not seeing that on my account. It's really too bad about not being able to load exact dollar amounts since the 15 euro plan meets my need, especially if I get extra bonus data. In theory, if I do get the 2x data, the 10 euro plan would likely suffice.

As for the phone number, only being able to make calls to Dutch numbers should not be a problem. We're on a cruise in Norway and have plans in each port so I don't really see myself needing to make any phone calls there. I was actually going to be fine with no calls/texts, which is what I thought the plan had.

BTW what happens if someone calls me on the Dutch number while I am in the US?

I will look into removing the outer layer to make the card a nano. First I need to find a paper clip or the box my S7 came in to open the SIM holder.

Andrew

I forgot that we can attach pictures here now! Here's a screenshot from my account - on my laptop, using Google Chrome which translated the Dutch into English. See the "1GB+1GB extra!"? Do you not see that in your account, when you click on "Bundles?" I suppose it's possible it's an offer for existing customers only, but somehow I doubt it.



Yeah, but it's so cheap, it's really not worth worrying about. I just used 800MB out of my 2GB last week in Portugal - 10 euros for the entire trip. Super cheap! Even for 20 euros, wouldn't have been bad vs. the cost of say $10/day for some of the international roaming plans.

Pretty sure you get free incoming calls and texts anywhere in the world, but I'm not sure. You could set up voicemail I believe, but I'm guessing all the instructions are in Dutch! I never really used the calling of my SIM anyway so I didn't care about the number, but it's nice to have a Dutch number to give to people in Europe if need be - easier for them to contact me by voice or text than having to call a US number.

misterbill

Found the bonus, thanks! So what happens if I buy the 10 euro package and run out of data? Can I just buy another monthly bundle and get another 2gb? If so, it seems like I should just do the 1gb bundle and if I run out of data, buy another one and I'll have 4gb for 20 euros. Yeah, I'd have 6gb if I did the 20 euro bundle up front, but that is probably really excessive for my needs.

Andrew

I can't guarantee it, but I think you can simply buy another bundle if you run out of data before the end of the month. There's also a 500mb bundle now (5 euros - no 2X bonus) that might be an option. I don't think they'll let you buy it unless you have more than 5 euros of credit though.

Not sure how long your trip is again or what your real needs are. Personally, I can get by on about 120mb per day, without trying to conserve data (but I don't stream video via the SIM, that eats a lot of data). I would do with less if I were being conservative.

Nelson

Based on numerous threads like this, including one of my own, we've decided to simply turn on the Verizon international plan for an upcoming trip to the UK.
I used it in small towns of three countries in the Alps last year and it worked flawlessly.

Not recommending this or suggesting it is the right idea for most people, but it nicely fits our needs.

Andrew

Using your home carrier's international roaming plan is certainly the easiest even if the most expensive. Buying a SIM is only about saving money, and that's not a priority for everyone. But getting a SIM is so easy and cheap, I still don't get why more people don't do it. Because I've explained ad infinitum how to use the Dutch Vodafone SIM, I'm not sure why people would be so put off by it. Maybe I'm just not explaining it well enough or am making it sound a whole lot more complicated that it really is. My biggest worry about it was the uncertainty the first time that it would even work, but I didn't have someone else who had just used it reassure me that it worked easily and well.

rs899

Though it may be a bit of work the first time( but not much), any of these SIMs that roam in multiple countries can be reused. Many of us seem to make one or more trips per year and data costs add up.
I kept my 3UK SIM alive from last year. When we go to France and Italy later in the year, all I need to do is put a few pounds on it and use it there.

misterbill

If paying $10 a day works for you, by all means do it. I'd be OK with it for 2 or even 3 days. But for 16 days, getting the SIM is much more cost effective. Also, the cruise ship I'm going on has expensive and slow WiFi (great combination), so I won't be using it.

Nelson

Hah! Our hotels all claim to have free wi-fi, but speed is never something they mention. Film at 11.

For a number of reasons changing SIM cards was something we decided not to deal with. After spending x-thousand dollars for a trip then shelling out another $150 or so for pure simplicity seemed like an OK trade off.

Andrew, you do a good job explaining this stuff, much appreciated.

misterbill

Yes you have a valid point there on spending so much for the vacation so a little more for easy cell phone service isn't a big deal. I just figure I pay too much to Verizon as it is, and if I can have Internet service for a reasonable price instead, I'm up for the challenge.

As for the Internet access on the ship, some lines like Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have really good service that can even stream. Holland America (which I'm sailing) is just painful, and they don't even have a flat rate package so you're paying 75c per minute for it to be painfully slow.

And yes, thank you Andrew for the detailed instructions.

misterbill

Good news, I took the SIM out and was able to pop out the nano SIM. Then I put it back in the micro "frame" and got it back in the LG it was in (took a bit of work, it wasn't sitting quite flat). I haven't tried the nano in the Samsung yet, probably later tonight.

I think I'm just going to go with the 20 euro bundle. I got Google Hangouts working to receive phone calls and have figured out how to forward my Verizon number to Google Voice. I don't want to have to worry about running out of data and I decided that I'm spending so much on my vacation, worrying about another 10 euro is overthinking it (similar to Nelson's idea but not at the $150 level).

Anyway, thanks for your help.