Using geocaching app on phone while on cruise

[+J&J Team Yukon]

Can not find an answer to this maybe someone on here can help. We are taking a Caribbean Cruise in a few weeks and want to do some caching in different ports. Question, can we use the app on iPhone locating caches without getting charged? Can we make a quary and use without being charged a roaming charge? Or just rely on our Garmin GPS?

[+Lineman101]

Can not find an answer to this maybe someone on here can help. We are taking a Caribbean Cruise in a few weeks and want to do some caching in different ports. Question, can we use the app on iPhone locating caches without getting charged? Can we make a quary and use without being charged a roaming charge? Or just rely on our Garmin GPS?

 

When we cruise we always use pocket queries installed on our etrex 20. The data charges can be brutal when caching with a cell phone.

[Mr.Yuck]

Can not find an answer to this maybe someone on here can help. We are taking a Caribbean Cruise in a few weeks and want to do some caching in different ports. Question, can we use the app on iPhone locating caches without getting charged? Can we make a quary and use without being charged a roaming charge? Or just rely on our Garmin GPS?

 

Yes you can. You need use only the gps on your phone. You could have "data" turned off the entire trip. I don't have an iphone, but I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice in future posts. Is it the official Geocaching.com app? Then after you find the caches, and this may come to a shock to some people, you'll have to go to a computer to log them.

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

I use one of the non-official GC apps, but I think they all work relatively the same way.

 

You can download a PQ into the app, go into Airplane mode (so you don't connect to the data), and then access the PQ results.

 

When I went to Europe, I did some "cherry picking" at each location I was going to be at, looking for caches ahead of time that I want to do, and built a bookmark list. That limited the number of caches in the PQ (vice running a query xx miles around a given location, and getting puzzles, multis etc). This also allowed me to look for interesting caches vice run-of-the-mill guardrail type caches.

 

Also, check with your wireless provide. Depending on your plan, T-Mobile now provides coverage in 100+ countries (voice/text/data) at no extra charge!

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

As Mr. Yuck said... leave the data and/or roaming turned off. The associated costs just may bankrupt you otherwise.

 

Here's what you need to do -- assuming you are using the Official Groundspeak app -- run Pocket Query and download to your phone, saving for off-line use.

-or-

Run Pocket Query and save it to your Garmin.

 

Six of one, half-dozen of another. It works the same either or both ways.

 

 

 

Not using a GS app? Things like that are good to say so when posing a Q.

[+cerberus1]

As Mr. Yuck said... leave the data and/or roaming turned off. The associated costs just may bankrupt you otherwise.

 

Here's what you need to do -- assuming you are using the Official Groundspeak app -- run Pocket Query and download to your phone, saving for off-line use.

-or-

Run Pocket Query and save it to your Garmin.

 

Six of one, half-dozen of another. It works the same either or both ways.

+1

Either way, you're not getting fresh info if offline, so I'd go with what I'm more comfortable with.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

As Mr. Yuck said... leave the data and/or roaming turned off. The associated costs just may bankrupt you otherwise.

 

Here's what you need to do -- assuming you are using the Official Groundspeak app -- run Pocket Query and download to your phone, saving for off-line use.

-or-

Run Pocket Query and save it to your Garmin

Six of one, half-dozen of another. It works the same either or both ways.

+1

Either way, you're not getting fresh info if offline, so I'd go with what I'm more comfortable with.

 

I've never been on a cruise ship, but from just a quick search it appears that many cruise ships are offering wi-fi service on board. It might be an additional fee, and it might not be fast, but with a laptop a GPS could be refreshed with updated PQ results minutes before going ashore.

 

Or, doing a PQ a couple of days before leaving on a cruise is probably going to provide results that are 99% identical to what you'll get using a smart phone, the official app, a an international data plan (or lots of money to pay those exorbitant data roaming charges) when getting off the boat.

[+NeverSummer]

As Mr. Yuck said... leave the data and/or roaming turned off. The associated costs just may bankrupt you otherwise.

 

Here's what you need to do -- assuming you are using the Official Groundspeak app -- run Pocket Query and download to your phone, saving for off-line use.

-or-

Run Pocket Query and save it to your Garmin

Six of one, half-dozen of another. It works the same either or both ways.

+1

Either way, you're not getting fresh info if offline, so I'd go with what I'm more comfortable with.

 

I've never been on a cruise ship, but from just a quick search it appears that many cruise ships are offering wi-fi service on board. It might be an additional fee, and it might not be fast, but with a laptop a GPS could be refreshed with updated PQ results minutes before going ashore.

 

Or, doing a PQ a couple of days before leaving on a cruise is probably going to provide results that are 99% identical to what you'll get using a smart phone, the official app, a an international data plan (or lots of money to pay those exorbitant data roaming charges) when getting off the boat.

PQ and download is the best way to go. But many cruises will have WIFI these days as well. Then all you need to do is use that WIFI to create your PQ for the next port of call, download to the phone, and then turn back off your cellular data and roaming. (And wifi to save the battery!)

[+Gill & Tony]

WiFi on cruise ships is expensive and slow, but nowhere as expensive as overseas data on your home SIM. Frequent travellers may qualify for discounted rates. I've cached from a few cruises and my basic plan for each trip was...

 

I loaded all the caches within a reasonable distance of each port into my GPS the day before the start of my trip. I bought a 30-day international roaming pack from my telco for the phone ($50 or thereabouts). I never used the on board WiFi.

 

At each port the GPS tells me the nearest caches so I can go hunting. The phone is a back up for the latest status of a cache or newer logs. If the phone app lets you save caches offline you could probably do away with the GPS.

 

If you use GSAK or something similar, time spent at home thinning out the caches before you go is worth the effort. On a cruise I'm mostly interested in just getting one or two at each port - the main object of the exercise is the cruise. I don't want to spend an afternoon looking for a D5 micro. However a good multi which takes you on a tour of the town is worth finding.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

WiFi on cruise ships is expensive and slow, but nowhere as expensive as overseas data on your home SIM. Frequent travellers may qualify for discounted rates. I've cached from a few cruises and my basic plan for each trip was...

 

I loaded all the caches within a reasonable distance of each port into my GPS the day before the start of my trip. I bought a 30-day international roaming pack from my telco for the phone ($50 or thereabouts). I never used the on board WiFi.

 

I've looked a international roaming packs and either it's not available for the country I'm visiting or the amount of data one can use is pretty small for the price.

 

 

At each port the GPS tells me the nearest caches so I can go hunting. The phone is a back up for the latest status of a cache or newer logs. If the phone app lets you save caches offline you could probably do away with the GPS.

 

 

One of the advantages of having the GPS, and since the OP mentions having a Garmin, is that the free routeable open street maps for Garmin can be used. It doesn't take much time to select the map tiles for every island that you'd be visiting on the cruise and creating a single map that's good for the entire trip. If you don't get an international data plan you'll have to pre-load map tiles and PQs. That's very time consuming (at least the pre-loaded map tiles are) and it will use up a lot of memory on the smart phone. You can, of course, find caches with a smart phone without maps but having decent maps on a GPS might keep you from getting lost

 

 

If you use GSAK or something similar, time spent at home thinning out the caches before you go is worth the effort. On a cruise I'm mostly interested in just getting one or two at each port - the main object of the exercise is the cruise.

 

Probably the best advise so far.

 

 

[+J&J Team Yukon]

Thanks for all the info. Don't know if we can get those maps of islands on our old Garmin 60csx. I'll talk to hubbs and see if he can do it. May do what was suggested, do a couple of close ones at each port. Thanks again, appreciate all the tips and advice.

[+toycruiser]

We took a Caribbean cruise last year and only used our iPhones for caching. Before we left for our cruise, we searched for caches at each port and then saved them to the offline list. Once at a port we were able to use the offline list with data turned off. You can see the map and navigate to the caches. Works well enough that I tend to cache this way at home more than with my gps. And some business' in ports offer wifi. You can contact us if you would like any help or have questions.

[+Viajero Perdido]

Don't know if we can get those maps of islands on our old Garmin 60csx.

You can.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Thanks for all the info. Don't know if we can get those maps of islands on our old Garmin 60csx. I'll talk to hubbs and see if he can do it. May do what was suggested, do a couple of close ones at each port. Thanks again, appreciate all the tips and advice.

 

Yes, they will work on the Garmin 60csx. I used to have a 76cx which essentially has the same internal electronics but without the electronic compass and used the OSM maps on it a bunch of times on it and currently on my Oregon 450.

 

Go to http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

 

Click in the box labeled Enable "manual tile selection"

 

Then pan/zoom the map using the controls until it shows the Caribbean

 

Click on individual tiles for each area you'll be visiting and they'll change colors and you'll see the name of the tile appear on the left side of the page. The tiles don't have to be contiguous.

 

Once you've selected all the areas you want, enter your email address and select "build my map"

 

You'll get two email messages. The first will be a message which indicates that it's received the request and will start working on it. Depending on how busy the system is, the second message will come some time later and will have a link back to the site to a directory of files. The one labeled osm_generic_gmapsub.zip is a zip file which contains gmapsub.img file that can be copied directly to the removable micro-sd card on your GPS. Since I use windows I also download the osm_generic_windows.exe file. I'll create a folder for the mapset which identifies the region (in this case, Caribbean).

 

The other thing I do is that I bought a second micro-SD card (a 2gb card is big enough to hold most map sets) and copy maps that I've created to that card for whenever I travel. Then I swap cards whenever I want to geocache locally and when I'm traveling. Once the map is on the SD card you'll need to "select" the map from the settings menu on your GPS.

 

The osm_generic_windows.exe file can be used to load map data into the Garmin Basecamp app (it works, or at least use to, with Garmin Mapsource as wel) so that you can view the maps on your computer before you go.

Edited February 26, 2015 by NYPaddleCacher

[+J&J Team Yukon]

Thanks for the step by step instructions for loading the map tiles. Hubbs has always done the GPS so will leave that up to him. We use our phones more and more now. The PQ on phones my be the easiest way to go. I feel like I have to find a few caches at each stop to help with caching addiction!?

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

Thanks for the step by step instructions for loading the map tiles. Hubbs has always done the GPS so will leave that up to him. We use our phones more and more now. The PQ on phones my be the easiest way to go. I feel like I have to find a few caches at each stop to help with caching addiction!?

 

Yep...nothing like coloring in new countries while you are abroad!

[+disneyfan1313]

I *love* caching while on a cruise! I'm very excited that I have one coming up in about a month with a new country credit, Belize! I used to do it "blind" and print out pages ahead of time and try and find it based on clues, old logs, etc. Now a days I save in offline mode on the Geocaching app and I buy a small international data plan from AT&T so I can use a tiny bit of international data on my phone if needed.

[+J&J Team Yukon]

If you save caches to off line app why do you need to buy data plan? Just wondering

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

If you save caches to off line app why do you need to buy data plan? Just wondering

You probably don't... if all you use that 'spensive phone for is geocaching.

For most everything else, you need a data plan.

 

Like you were thinking in your Original Post... you wondered "use the app on iPhone locating caches without getting charged?".

Many folks using phones don't think of (or know) about Pocket Queries and saving the list to the phone.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

If you save caches to off line app why do you need to buy data plan? Just wondering

 

If you want to navigate to the cache using a map you'll need a data plan to download the map tiles. With some apps you can pre-load some of the map tiles but it takes a long time.

 

 

[+Viajero Perdido]

With some apps you can pre-load some of the map tiles but it takes a long time.

For this reason, some apps also let you download vector maps, which takes very little time, even for broad coverage.

 

While I prefer the tile maps, I keep vector maps in my app as backup, in case I wander off the edge of my tiles, or I'm stuck somewhere with no cell signal. (I buy SIMs for data when I travel.) Having the vector maps saved my butt recently in Taiwan when the sun went down with a thud while I was busy DNFing something, and I needed to find public transportation.

Edited March 15, 2015 by Viajero Perdido

[+disneyfan1313]

If you save caches to off line app why do you need to buy data plan? Just wondering

 

If I need to load photos, do research or if the maps don't DL properly (which sometimes they don't). It's a one time $30 charge on AT&T for an international data "pack" which isn't a bad investment at all.

[+Viajero Perdido]

With some apps you can pre-load some of the map tiles but it takes a long time.

For this reason, some apps also let you download vector maps, which takes very little time, even for broad coverage.

 

While I prefer the tile maps, I keep vector maps in my app as backup, in case I wander off the edge of my tiles, or I'm stuck somewhere with no cell signal. (I buy SIMs for data when I travel.) Having the vector maps saved my butt recently in Taiwan when the sun went down with a thud while I was busy DNFing something, and I needed to find public transportation.

Edited March 15, 2015 by Viajero Perdido

[+NYPaddleCacher]

If you save caches to off line app why do you need to buy data plan? Just wondering

 

If I need to load photos, do research or if the maps don't DL properly (which sometimes they don't). It's a one time $30 charge on AT&T for an international data "pack" which isn't a bad investment at all.

 

I mentioned this earlier but I've looked at he international data plan (and just did again).

 

"For a minimum of $30 a month" the data plan has $1.00/min for voice, unlimited text and wi-fi (they don't provide the wifi), and *up to* 120MB of data with a .25/mb charge for overages. The next package is twice as much and has a .50/min voice rate and up to 300MB of data.

 

How much data will you use?

 

For me, I've found that the coverage in some of the countries I've visited either doesn't exist or is limited. I've been to Ethiopia 3 times and it's not inlcuded in one of the 150 countries.