Woman's warning after $2,000 mistake on cruise holiday: 'I had no idea'
The point of jumping on a cruise can often be to set and forget about the usual things you may have to worry about in life.
But when it comes to being properly prepared, one traveller has shared a warning after a mistake on a cruise holiday saw her cop a bill of over $2,000.
During her trip, she happily shared updates with her family and friends back home about her care-free adventure. But once she returned to her phone bill, she was left shocked.
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The traveller shared updates with family and friends while on a cruise. iStock
"Before the holiday, I made sure to pay for a data and text bundle to make keeping in touch with people on the cruise cheaper," she told Fonehouse
"I had a feeling that I'd exceeded these but didn't worry too much as I expected my phone provider to place a cap on spending, or at least notify me if I was running the risk of using too much."
And yet, she had actually incurred international roaming charges.
"You can imagine my shock when I saw that my usual monthly phone bill of between £30-£35 ($65-$70) ended up being £1186.59." That's over $2,100!
She admitted she had "no idea" the phone could automatically connect to maritime roaming, and "neither did my friends or family".
After some negotiations, her phone company agreed to half the cost. But the tech experts at Fonehouse also shared a warning.
"Whilst on board a cruise, if you have drifted away from the nearest land-based cell tower, your phone will have connected to an at-sea or maritime provider which will be considered as roaming by your provider.
"This can be very expensive, especially because it tends to add up quickly."
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Phone bills can add up on a cruise if you end up in international roaming. Getty
Christine Kesteloo is a popular cruise expert who has lived and worked on cruise ships, often remaining on board for six months at a time.
She's shared a similar warning on her TikTok, saying: "I would never get on a cruise and not put my phone on airplane mode before we start sailing.
"I don't care what phone plan you're with, you can rack up some huge charges if you leave your phone not on airplane mode on the ship."
Another common phone mistake is letting the time zone adjust automatically.
It's something another cruise ship worker said had been the reason he'd seen a lot of people actually 'miss the ship'.
The Aussie dancer, who works as part of the entertainment team on board cruise ships, warned travellers to make sure they understand a thing called "ship time".
"We have a thing called ship time... Lets just say you leave from Miami and it's 3pm in Miami, you're going to be on Miami time.
"Always manually set it to what the ship time is."
