Cruise passenger’s easy $1300 mistake

Just like with air travel, it’s important to turn off your international roaming when you’re travelling to different countries on a cruise.

Just like with air travel, it’s important to turn off your international roaming when you’re travelling to different countries on a cruise.

Unfortunately, a Royal Caribbean passenger learned this the hard way when they returned home to discover they had been slapped with a $US1300 ($AU2000) phone bill, according to YouTuber Jayson Judson.

It’s understood the passenger, who has not been named, purchased a Wi-Fi package when they boarded the boat thinking that it would cover their phone service.

A Royal Caribbean cruise passenger made a simple $2000 mistake. Picture: iStock

However, their mobile phone was silently racking up roaming charges and downloading updates in the background all because of a simple mistake.

Had the passenger set their phone to ‘Airplane Mode’ or switched off international roaming, there wouldn’t have been a hefty bill waiting for them.

“Data usage is especially troublesome because smart phones will use data even when you are not actively using your phone”, Royal Caribbean blog explains.

“Phones will continuously check for updates or notifications, as well as run app updates in the background. All of this uses data, and that can drive up your bill without you even using the device.”

They didn’t turn on Airplane Mode. Picture: iStock

The blog states that by keeping your phone in airplane mode, your phone cannot join any cellular networks and will not get you a giant bill later.

“Don’t worry, you can still use Wi-Fi while your phone is in airplane mode, which means you can connect to the ship’s Wi-Fi or use a Wi-Fi hotspot in one of the ports of call you visit.

It meant their phone was racking up roaming charges and downloading updates in the background. Picture: iStock

This includes iMessage. Some cruisers will tell you to turn data roaming off as a feature in your phone, but that requires a bit more digging into your phone settings and isn’t as simple to enable or re-enable as airplane mode.”

According to Jayson, the cruise passenger’s child had also unknowingly added to the charges, using the phone to constantly stream videos throughout the trip.

When they called the cruise line to complain they were told it was the passenger’s responsibility to set their phone to Airplane Mode.

Meanwhile, the Royal Caribbean blog explains if you need to make a call, make sure Wi-Fi calling is enabled on your phone.

“Wi-Fi calling is a feature nearly every cellular carrier provides that allows the phone to use Wi-Fi data instead of a cellular signal to place the call. This is useful in areas where there’s bad cell coverage on land too,” the blog reads.

“The important thing is to activate Wi-Fi calling before your cruise while you’re still at home. “There’s no cost to use Wi-Fi calling, but it’s a setting in your phone you need to activate.”

And for those who don’t want to buy a Wi-Fi package, Royal Caribbean has a chat feature in its app that is free to use, allowing you to community with others passengers on-board.