Can i take my iphone 4 out of canada without having a huge bill?

My family is going on a cruise ship and I would like to bring my phone along to take pics with. Is there a way I can disconnect my phone/turn off reception, and be able to turn it back on for when the ship stops at B. C. And then turn it back off again when we get back on te ship easily? All I want to be able to do is take pics and vids. Any help would be appreciated.

Yes, you can.

On the iPhone 4 (and the iPhone 5), in the Settings option, you can switch the phone into "Airplane Mode". While the phone is in that mode, it will not try to use Wi-Fi and will not hook up to any 3G signals that it may find. That's the same mode you put your phone in when boarding a flight or if you are in a hospital so that it will not be broadcasting or receiving signals. If still worried, you can also set the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings to "Off".

What this does is that it lets you still take pictures and perhaps play some games that are installed on the phone, and you can use maps on your phone as long as they were downloaded to the phone and are LOCAL to the phone.

If you happen to need the phone active so you can receive emails, phone calls, and texts, then you should really limit your use to when you are in a Free Wi-Fi zone. In that case, you would need to leave Airplane Mode OFF but make sure Wi-Fi is set to ON and "Ask to Join Networks". Places like McDonald's offers Wi-Fi hotspots at no cost, and that is where you would want to have the Wi-Fi on for sending/receiving emails.

I have an iPhone 5, but I would assume this is the same on your iPhone 4… Go into Settings -> General, and look for an option called "Cellular". There's an option to turn OFF Cellular Data which will try to restrict your phone to ONLY using Wi-Fi services for any communications other than a phone call. That will also help limit the amount of times you get roaming charges related to texting, downloading of updates, emails, and push notifications. There's also a feature called "Data Roaming" that you set to OFF and it helps avoid charges when web browsing, sending/receiving emails, etc.

All of these little features can be turned on or off and control how much usage on the foreign networks that you would have to deal with.

So in short:

Airplane Mode = No 3G, no Wi-Fi, but you can't email, can't phone, can't text

Data Roaming OFF means no using the foreign cellular network, only Wi-Fi. This may stop emails from sending out or coming in and texting, and you won't be able to browse without a Wi-Fi hotspot

Cellular Data OFF means All Data must go through the Wi-Fi network. I believe it still lets you place and receive phone calls and texts on the foreign network. It uses roaming only where necessary.

Yes do not answer calls or text.
or buy a digital camera