Some information about using your cell phone. The Thursday, March 30, 2013 NEW YORK TIMES "Personal Tech" page in the business section explained how to use your cell phone overseas without "breaking the bank." Eric Taub wrote the article.

USING YOUR CELL PHONE OVERSEAS:

A.  Depends on your carrier and a willingness to change calling habits away from home
   
B. Keep your existing phone number and buy a data package, a voice roaming package or both from your carrier

IF YOUR PHONE IS UNLOCKED

 (meaning it will work on any other network) and AT & T or T-Mobile is your carrier, you can buy a local SIM card. With a SIM card, you will get your own phone number based on the country visited.

        It's a good idea to learn more about SIM card costs. A SIM card may be less expensive than paying your carrier roaming rates. Also, make sure any friends or family in the states have an international calling plan. They will pay less if they sign up for an international plan.

IF YOUR PHONE IS LOCKED

(meaning it won't work with any other network) ask your carrier to unlock it.
AT & T will unlock your phone when your contract is up
T-Mobile will unlock your phone after 40 days of service or after 18 months if you have a two-year contract
Verizon, which uses a different standard sells 20 models of 'world phones' have SIM cards for use overseas. These phones are unlocked 'out of the box.'

UNLOCK YOUR LOCKED PHONE YOURSELF

You choose an unlocking company and pay a fee. If you want to unlock your phone before this cruise, make sure to choose a reputable unlocking company (Chronicunlocks.com or jmunlocks.com or easyunlock.ca) Read customer comments before you decide.

WHATS BEST?

AT&T and Verizon offer the most economical voice and data international roaming packages. You pay by the month. AT&T offers three levels of data priced by the month:
120 megabytes - $30.00, 300 megabytes - $60 and 800 megabytes - $120.
Verizon sells one pages - 100 megabytes for $25 a month.

For calls, AT&T charges $30 for 30 minutes of calls. If you text, AT&T charges $10 for 50 texts.

With Verizon, a call costs 99 cents per minute from Britain to the US (no information about costs from Germany and France) It costs 50 cents to send a text from overseas and 5 cents to receive a text using Verizon.

Sprint's overseas data packages begin at $40 for 40 megabytes of data.

T-Mobile has no data package charging $15 per meagbyte, 60 times AT&T's lowest-cost rate.

HOW TO CALCULATE WHICH PACKAGE IS BEST

Calculators from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon help you figure out what you will need. For example, Verizon claims that 110 megabytes of data allows you to send and receive 50 e-mails, read five websites and use your map app 15 minutes each day of the month.

USE WI-FI to check your e-mail so you don't use data plan minutes

WHEN YOU GET HOME, call customer service to cancel your plan. Otherwise is will be renewed.