Verizon makes it difficult to check email onboard cruise ships

Don’t plan on sending or receiving emails with your Verizon iPhone, Android, or Blackberry on a cruise ship.

If you are a Verizon customer and are planning on traveling on a cruise ship or to a foreign venue with your smartphone, you will generally always be able to make and receive phone calls and send and receive messages via SMS, but data, including emails, may be unavailable because of the way Verizon programs its phones. I have been on five different Holland America cruise ships, and in every instance since 2009 my Verizon smartphone blocks access to emails and prohibits me from selecting the Sea Mobile carrier that is provided by MTN. This system offers micro-cell sites on most of the ships around the world and is connected, via satellite, with the U.S. to replicate voice and data services as well as WiFi internet access.