Incoming calls and texts are free. You should be closing cellular data though so you don’t get charged.

Satellite and cruise ship rates:

Voice rate: $7/minute

Outgoing text messages: $0.75/SMS

Data is not available on cruise ships - customers should discuss Wi-Fi access with their cruise ship provider

https://www.koodomobile.com/help/easy-roam

So - let me make sure that I have this correctly thought out. Please confirm my points below:

1. I turn off my Mobile Data.
2. I don’t turn on Airplane Mode.
3. Any INCOMING text is free. All OUTGOING texts are $0.75 each.
4. Any INCOMING phone call is free.

Yes.

Except for #4.  Any voice talk (incoming or outgoing) is $7/min

And voice call including access to voice mail too.  So, if you check your voice mail, it will cost you $7/ min.

Thank you for your help! 

So “Robert T”’s answer above that Incoming Calls are free was incorrect I assume.

Here is my updated list. Please confirm that it is correct:

1. I turn off my Mobile Data.
2. I don’t turn on Airplane Mode.
3. Any INCOMING text is free. All OUTGOING texts are $0.75 each.
4. Any phone call (Incoming or Outgoing) that I answer or make will be charged at $7/min.  Don’t check VM. If I see that someone is calling me - don’t answer the call and I won’t be charged.

That is correct.  

It was likely a typo on Robert’s part.  When I read it I didnt even see that he wrote incoming calls.

Dennis: Thank you for your enormous help!!

So here comes a question that will be on the Koodo Community final exam (lol!!):

Every cruise line has wifi packages that a passenger can purchase. I always buy a wifi package.

How does “Wifi Calling” come into the above equation? I have Wifi Calling enabled on my Pixel 6. So couldn’t I then make and receive calls as I would do as if I were still at home by utilizing Wifi instead of the ship’s cellular tower? 

Good question - eh?

This is a great question.

Unfortunately Wifi Calling only works while in canada.  When you are not in canada, wifi calling will not work.

https://www.koodomobile.com/en/help/wifi-calling

Ohhhhh. 

Ok Dennis - how about this one: set my VPN to toronto while I am on the ship. Now ill it work?

Pretty good questions for a senior, don’t you think??

At this point you are trying a work around so there is not an official answer.

It may work, but it really depends on how koodo determines location.  Is it just the IP address (which is addressed by your VPN), or do they do more. 

Like do they need to ping a local tower every 24 hours or something or maybe the IP address needs to be within 100KM of the last tower it was connected to, etc (FYI i’m making up these scenarios, as I don’t know Koodo’s internal workings here).

You can give it a try.  Maybe test it in canada first.  Try a VPN for your local city.  Try a VPN at a point in Canada furthest from you.  Try an international VPN to see if wifi calling fails.  If you are by the US boarder you can also try using a VPN while connect to a US network.

Whatever you try, let us know how it works out for you

Thank you Dennis. You are a wonderful resource for Koodo.

I am sure you will agree that this can get very complicated!

Like Dennis said, it is a workaround so no official answers will likely be given here but i did some digging and apparently this user with Telus was able to get it working with a VPN a few years ago so it may work for you as well.
https://forum.telus.com/t5/Mobility-Services/Wi-Fi-Calling-Can-you-use-it-outside-Canada/m-p/80086

There was someone on this reddit post who had some success with Koodo.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Koodo/comments/ch0npl/wifi_calling_from_outside_canada/

From the replies I’m seeing it seems like you can get it to work with a VPN sometimes but it’s probably not something you solely want to rely on.

Thanks Allan.

Like I stated earlier: it is a complicated issue. I realize that using a VPN is a work around and I I am not going to attempt it. It’s not worth it and no that important. I will stick to using the cruise ship’s wifi service and not take a chance getting caught with unnecessary charges.  I did read somewhere that Fido allows for Wifi Calling to work outside of Canada. Maybe Telus/Koodo should follow their lead. 

Totally off topic: I have used my home voip service app on my phone and that works out of the country. The service on the ship is spotty but it is another source if I need it.             

I cant wait until the day all telephony services are treated as a singular data charge and that is it.  And all calling functions are voip based.