Wifi

This is a rant. Wifi is free or nearly free on Seabourn's competitors such as Crystal, Regent and Silversea. Yet on Seabourn it remains outrageously expensive and even in Platinum you only get 5 hours free per cruise. I can wander all over London and pick it up free, and all the many hotels throughout the world that we stay at and the restaurants we eat in offer free wifi. When will Seabourn recognise that we are well into the 21 st century. It's not a deal breaker but it is a major irritant.

It's never bothered me

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It's akin to Seabourn's smoking policy ... how long did it take for them to move with the times? It'll be no different in how they move to low cost, or complementary, internet access, methinks.

What bothers me are those guests who use Skype or some other app and have loud conversations on their speaker for all of us to have to hear.

This is a rant. Wifi is free or nearly free on Seabourn's competitors such as Crystal, Regent and Silversea. Yet on Seabourn it remains outrageously expensive and even in Platinum you only get 5 hours free per cruise. I can wander all over London and pick it up free, and all the many hotels throughout the world that we stay at and the restaurants we eat in offer free wifi. When will Seabourn recognise that we are well into the 21 st century. It's not a deal breaker but it is a major irritant.

Keep in mind Crystal was the last luxury line to become almost all inclusive. Crystal charges I think $30.00 after your free two visits to speciality restaurants within a 14 day sailing. The internet is one hour free per day or you can use all the allotted hours at one time. The penthouse suites receive more hours and the CP receives unlimited as well as two hours free phone calls per segment.

Suite Travels,

Thank you for adding some perspective on how other lines do their charging for internet and specialty restaurants. That's what CC is all about!

I believe that Seabourn gives exceptional value for money overall. That value, to me, would not change if I wanted to or had to buy the unlimited - or another - internet package. And as we all know, Seabourn does not surcharge for any of its restaurants.

Happy and healthy sailing!

I agree that having to pay for internet is an irritant. But on the other hand, I have found that Seabourn's $400 unlimited plan is a very good buy, as long as one is on a long cruise. Maybe one should just have one of Seabourn's free drinks and just forget about the internet expense?

Not sure about $399 for the unlimited internet package or one of the other packages?

How 'bout buying 100 shares or more of CCL stock which entitles you to $250 on board spend for a 2 week plus cruise? With the regular dividend as well you would have a nice little earner. That should help.

Happy and healthy sailing!

Not sure about $399 for the unlimited internet package or one of the other packages?

 

How 'bout buying 100 shares or more of CCL stock which entitles you to $250 on board spend for a 2 week plus cruise? With the regular dividend as well you would have a nice little earner. That should help.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

We've already done this, Markham, and have already cashed in for lots of OBC, especially since we take so many crossings on Cunard. Haven't checked the stock quotes lately, but I believe Carnival took a hit last week with the news of the pollution fine for the Princess ship.

on the two, three and four hour plans, are the times continuous or in total?

thx

Cumulative. Log in for 3 minutes to download email, log out. Read email. Compose emails. Log back in for 3 minutes to send composed emails, log out. Charged for 6 minutes. It used to be the first minute was free but I think they figured out I would log in for 59 seconds and log out...

Now as a Diamond member for the last couple of cruises not an issue.

Just don't forget to log out like I did once. SB square were good about it and reset the time as they realized it was the first day of the cruise and the hours were used up.

Just don't forget to log out like I did once. SB square were good about it and reset the time as they realized it was the first day of the cruise and the hours were used up.

Great advice!!!

Thx for the info. And the pricing? Do we sign up in SB Square once aboard?

Just log into the Seabourn wifi network and it will bring up all the available packages, select what you want, enter suite number and folio number on your room card and that's it, easy peazy. If you have the free press reader app you can use the wifi for free to download a multitude of newspapers to read on your tablet/ iPad, you can do this every day

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I totally agree that internet prices are way to expensive on Seabourn and should be complementary. Although we love sailing Seabourn $400 for slow wifi is still a lot of money...

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I totally agree that internet prices are way to expensive on Seabourn and should be complementary. Although we love sailing Seabourn $400 for slow wifi is still a lot of money...

 

 

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If it was free you would be complaining about the speed as it would painfully slow (as it is on Regent apparently) (bandwidth)

Just buy 2 hours for $20.

I work offline and just log on to send. 2 hours generally lasts me 1 to 2 weeks.

Last cruise (32 days) I managed to still have time left out of 4 hours. (AND I send a lot of photos home.)

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If it was free you would be complaining about the speed as it would painfully slow (as it is on Regent apparently) (bandwidth)

 

Just buy 2 hours for $20.

 

I work offline and just log on to send. 2 hours generally lasts me 1 to 2 weeks.

 

Last cruise (32 days) I managed to still have time left out of 4 hours. (AND I send a lot of photos home.)

 

 

 

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How interesting to read that you seem to know that I would complain about speed? Are you a psychic or just mean spirited?

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Encore internet service was painfully slow for two weeks. Upsetting if you are paying an hourly rate.

Regarding the initial post - yes, free wi-fi in hotels, bars, restaurants, etc. is becoming more universally free. But remember, those places just have to buy the ISP service from a local, land-line type supplier. So what does that cost, maybe $50-60 a month? A simple wireless router and maybe 1-2 repeaters will cover the property.

Ships are stuck with satellite service, and you just KNOW the ships are not getting that kind of service for some piddly price from the satellite companies. Then add in wiring the whole ship since wi-fi doesn't exactly travel through metal wall and decks too well.

Sheesh! I can remember many, many years ago on one of our first cruises, to make a phone call home you had to book it the day before with the radio room, and then go down there to actually make the call. And all at some wallet-busting price / minute.

We should count our blessings.

George

It's not that simple on ships. You need many repeaters because the ships are loaded with fire walls and coverage may be spotty in some areas. We live in a three story home and have four repeaters for our internet to work in all rooms. Now think of a ship, a whole different ball game.

The reason wifi is so bad aboard is that the ship has to use satellite links. The bandwidth is too narrow. That's why the speed is impaired and why busy times are even slower. There isn't much that can be done about it without more and better satellites. In all fairness, the service is much better than it was a few years ago.

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Other ships have conquered these problems. Here is Seaborne with a newly launched ship - surely they have wired it to the best current standards! Limit free or inexpensive access to a small amount/day and anything over that, charge exorbitantly. That should reduce overload and protect the speed for all. Our last cruise provided 1 hour/day free. We rarely used anywhere near that but were able to check emails daily and put out a couple of 'fires' that arose back home. Easy on mind and easy on the pocket results in happy passengers.

While part of me wishes WiFi was free, or faster, part of me thinks it may not be a bad thing to "disconnect" and enjoy being on board a luxury ship and at exotic ports of call. Wasn't long ago that I would only call home once per day, at a pre-scheduled time, and limit that one conversation to 5 minutes or less. I think I can live with not checking my Facebook page and e-mail multiple times per day. YMMV.

I understand the desire to disconnect from our wired existence on land. And to some extent I do that on ships and wait until I arrive in port to check into many of my fave sites, including Cruise Critic. But on the other hand we have a traveling life style and are away from home for months, so we need to stay connected to take care of problems back home, take care of business and banking, stay in touch with certain friends and family, and plan the next phases of our travel. Today the internet is essential for all of that, so it is not a luxury or a play thing for us.