Phone Over Internet

In my posting about the internet, I forgot to mention phone over internet.

We installed Skype (one of the phone over internet systems) prior to the trip so that we could phone home this way. It worked when we were in the Panama Canal. However, Princess since blocked Skype’s use. They claim that it uses too much band width, and thus slows down all the internet traffic.

This is a shame. The regular ship’s phone system costs $4.95/minute! That does not make much sense. We were able to use Skype from an internet café in Tasmania, but it depends upon the port and the excursion that you plan where this makes sense.

Further, we are now 10 time zones ahead of US Eastern time. That means that we’d also have to phone in the middle of our night in order to reach someone at a reasonable time. Net, our communications are essentially only e-mail for now.

(If I want to follow the stock market, it is open between 11:30pm and 6:00 am my time!)