Are we able to use the phone to let our families at home know that surgery went great? Any charge?

I didn't use it, but I think they have a magic jack available. So that would be free. Shoot henry or someone an email.

Oh - and I have Verizon and was able to use my cell phone no problem. My daughter was with me and could not get a signal with Sprint.

I'm here in Mexico right now and what I did was download the Skype app if you have a smart phone, load $10 on it and it will last you forever. I've talked over 4 hours on my phone since getting here and I have $7.22 left of my $10. It costs 1.9¢ to make calls from Mexico to US and 4.8¢ connection fee. It's super cheap and you can set it up to use your regular phone # when making out going calls. People have been calling me and I just don't answer it and call them back on the Skype app so it's cheaper than my carrier's rates of $1.00/min.

Like lindmar says while your at Santa Fe they will setup a magic jack for you , that way you can call your family and they will be able to call you. My hubby and I installed skype on our cells and laptops. We used it while I was at the hotel and hospital. It work great. You can also make video calls. If you use skype while your on wifi your vocie and video calls will be free.

When I was there we were allowed to use the phone, but I just used skype on my computer, I didn't have to pay anything to make calls on it.

Henry offerd his cell phone to me many times. I took my own and in hree days i spent 40 bucks. I only made three minute long calls and it was 40 bucks. I think i was charged 10 bucks for an incoming text also. I wish i would have just used Henrys cell but oh well lesson learned..

I took mine and used the hospitals wi-fi. Got a text plan and used face time to talk. I did not know the roaming rate still is charged on wi-fi. My bill was $524.00! I could cry. Between that and my internet and my normal charges my bill was over $900.00!

I have ATT and my carrier told me to turn the phone on 'airplane mode' to not receive any incoming texts or calls so I wouldn't be charged. She told me to turn off roaming, turn off imessages, and ensure airplane mode is on. She said if you don't have airplane mode on, even if you don't make a call but someone calls you, even if you don't answer but they leave a voicemail, you will be charged for them leaving a voicemail if you do not have airplane mode on. So, I am going to make sure my cell has NO SERVICE while in Mexico.

So, I am going to put my phone on airplane mode and just use it to lookup phone #'s, hook my Kindle Fire up to their WIFI, I have the text+ app and I am going to text people from my Kindle Fire. I won't get a bill, and that's what I want!

Kalima - Call your cell phone company & see if they will reduce the charges. Explain what happened. It's worth a try!

I was also in airplane mode the entire time and used wi-fi for everything else.

I did the same thing as cpaliz1. from the minute I got on the plane in Miami i went on plane mode. The entire time I was in Tijuana I used my skype on wifi and didn't get any charges.

Alma has a magik jack that works as a voice over ip from the hospitals internet

All of Our Patients are Welcome to use it to either make or receive calls from their family directly at the Hospital

My mom blew up their phones!!!

Thank you for all the answers! I will try to remember the airplane mode, my carrier did say turn off roaming but never said anything about the airplane mode.

Thank you Henry for chiming in as well. I look forward to meeting you and the rest of the group May 17th!

I did have the roaming turned off but my carrier said that sometimes wi-fi can be disrupted and while I think Im on wi-fi im really on my own. Im not sure how that would work as again I did turn off cell roaming. The only time I allowed cell roaming was when I chatted to Rogers about putting a plan on. Cant believe that cost me $500.00. I did call rogers and they said they could show me a $50.00 good faith credit till i spoke with the manager. She agreed to put me in a plan that suited my usuage. It still cost $250.00 and they didnt care that that was for a 4 minute chat. (can that even be right?) But at least I got $300 back.

wish I had known about the Skype app