Getting a Cell Phone

I'm having trouble finding a cell phone plan that my parents will accept as OK. The AU Abroad website seems to have their sites set on the PicCell plans, which I am happy to use, but the moms and pops can't seem to break away from Verizon. That will mean one of a couple different things. 1) I'll be getting a sweet globally capable phone 2) I'll get the worst phone ever with the PicCell plan that is cheapest 3) GoogleVoice will become my next best friend.