WiFi on board

We've just got off Aurora, and there was a whole cruise package, but it wasn't advertised well. The middle package worked out at £10 a day. This allowed emails and websites. But it didn't allow any videos, not even BBC news ones, which was a pain at times. You didn't need to buy it in day 1, as the offer was £10 per day for however many days were remaining

It was important to us to have access, so we paid for it out of some of our OBC. It was generally fast enough, but occasionally it was very very slow.

I'd buy it again on a cruise with so many sea days, but not on a Europe port intensive one. By the time I bought it a few days in, we still had 16 sea days left on the cruise, plus the Caribbean ports, so it was worth it to us.

P.s. They seem to have a bug/feature in their computer system..., as we got charged for 21 days, it then stopped working after 14... I was told it's currently only able to cope for 14 days. I had to re-buy it, then they refunded me...

Boarded the Azura on the 4th at Barbados and logged onto the £12.50 package at 6am this morning, well I was still on uk time. After registering the option is also for the whole cruise, which in my case was £130, and I have 14 days until end of cruise. It's a bit of a faff if you want to use other devices as you have to type logout.com to log out out then login.com and activate the relevant WiFi on the device. The 12:50 mid package I can get on my phone twitter, WhatsApp etc, so everything I require. Yes, a bit pricey, but not counting the clock down anymore.

Personally, I find this a much better package.

Keith (Southend)

This bit I meant to add:

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What is the most common package - The £12.50 Browser Package - can be purchased for the length of the cruise at the equivalent price of £10.00 a day.

<snip>

I booked it onboard.

You have to log on and decide what package you require...

10% Caribbean discount or pay out of your onboard credit and the package becomes pretty reasonable.

In some cases cheaper than that cup of coffee or beer ashore for the 'FREE' wifi.

Boarded the Azura on the 4th at Barbados and logged onto the £12.50 package at 6am this morning, well I was still on uk time. After registering the option is also for the whole cruise, which in my case was £130, and I have 14 days until end of cruise. It's a bit of a faff if you want to use other devices as you have to type logout.com to log out out then login.com and activate the relevant WiFi on the device. The 12:50 mid package I can get on my phone twitter, WhatsApp etc, so everything I require. Yes, a bit pricey, but not counting the clock down anymore.

 

Personally, I find this a much better package.

 

Keith (Southend)

Hi Keith.

I think its great. I don't mind logging in and out between my laptop?iphone/ipad and don't have to spend any shore time in a dreary terminal sat with most of the crew.

Indeed, I even tested the wifi in the ship's laundrette and on deck and it worked equally well as in the cabin.

Here's a screenshot after logging out...

Note the times are UK times aka GMT so no, I wasn't surfing after midnight.

Just to pose an alternative cruise line option, we just pre purchased our totally unlimited package on RCI for our Oasis cruise which includes streaming for £4.09 per day. With the poor exchange rate this is a really good price. When we started cruising P&O had the best Internet pricing but now they seem to have the most expensive. I don't understand why. I can see internet prices becoming a decision making factor when booking cruises some day soon as when you need that access for business it's a real added cost.

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If it is needed for business then it is reclaimable against tax and therefor shouldn't be an issue on the decision making front.

Just to pose an alternative cruise line option, we just pre purchased our totally unlimited package on RCI for our Oasis cruise which includes streaming for £4.09 per day. With the poor exchange rate this is a really good price. When we started cruising P&O had the best Internet pricing but now they seem to have the most expensive. I don't understand why. I can see internet prices becoming a decision making factor when booking cruises some day soon as when you need that access for business it's a real added cost.

 

 

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That sounds a world beating price.

I'm impressed.

Just as an opinion from a first time cruiser; we are booked on Ventura in October and personally I am horrified at the nerve P&O have to charge this much for WiFi!!!

ll I will want to do is post the odd picture and have a look at facebook, so I guess I will just pay the £7.50 package for "sea days" and not bother for days in port.

Its expensive because its satellite internet, all cruise lines charge a lot for internet though RCI seem the best of the bunch that I have been on.

Hi,just got off Aurora,was going to buy the £12.50 daily package until I found out that some people bought the same and couldnt get any access whatsoever and were refused refund.Absolute ripoff.The girl there told me that Princess are on the same daily package now which was BS,cheers,Brian.

I have just returned from a 14 day cruise on Azuara and we paid for the middle range 'Browsing' package. We had good coverage in our cabin (R235) and moderate coverage on the balcony even. My ipad worked fine. Browsing was steady, not fast, sometimes taking 30 seconds or more for a page to load and videos were generally not possible to view, but the Facebook App worked perfectly and my email (I use the inbuilt email app) worked fine too, including attachments although they were slow loading.

Hi Bryn.

I'm not sure that videos are meant to be viewed intuit mid range 'browsing' package...

Just as an opinion from a first time cruiser; we are booked on Ventura in October and personally I am horrified at the nerve P&O have to charge this much for WiFi!!!

 

ll I will want to do is post the odd picture and have a look at facebook, so I guess I will just pay the £7.50 package for "sea days" and not bother for days in port.

Again, it depends on how much time one wants to spend searching for Free and often not so FREE wifi.

Two coffees & a sticky bun could well set you back a days internet charge on board.

Everyone wants the internet but not everyone wants to pay for it.

We were on Azura for 28 nights for Christmas and New Year so imagine what it would have cost on the £12.50 package for each day. Previously we bought minutes and this was far better than the current system. Everyone on the ship was going on about the cost so hardly anyone bought it from P&O but used wifi in the ports instead. I have written to P&O about this but not got a reply so far. By way of contrast we have just been on MSC Fantasia for 7 night UAE cruise and their Internet price for the whole cruise is the same as P&O charges for just 2 days. So who is making a profit??

We were on Azura for 28 nights for Christmas and New Year so imagine what it would have cost on the £12.50 package for each day. Previously we bought minutes and this was far better than the current system. Everyone on the ship was going on about the cost so hardly anyone bought it from P&O but used wifi in the ports instead. I have written to P&O about this but not got a reply so far. By way of contrast we have just been on MSC Fantasia for 7 night UAE cruise and their Internet price for the whole cruise is the same as P&O charges for just 2 days. So who is making a profit??

If you look again at my photograph...

... you will see that if you purchase for the cruise the price drops to £10.00 a day.

If you have any discount for the Peninsular club this then comes off that as well.

At the end of the day it's all down to 'how badly you need it'.

I travel a lot ,Fly drive,Backpack....Cruise once a year. Never ever paid for internet anywhere. Free at Nairobi Backpackers and other remote places in Kenya . All South African backpackers. All hotels cheap and not so cheap through out Europe USA,Canada.Singapore etc etc. Cruising folk are a different type and seem to except these and other charges.I am off next month and choose not to use the internet at sea....Nor will I be taking the ships tours either.....but thats another story for another day.

If you look again at my photograph...

 

 

... you will see that if you purchase for the cruise the price drops to £10.00 a day.

 

If you have any discount for the Peninsular club this then comes off that as well.

 

At the end of the day it's all down to 'how badly you need it'.

I don't need it but quite like to have it if it is free. I certainly won't pay £12 a day for it

Strange that we have done 20 cruises with P&O and get no free internet and had only done one 7 day cruise with Princess which entitled us to 500 minutes free between us because we were Elite through our P&O loyalty points.

I don't need it but quite like to have it if it is free. I certainly won't pay £12 a day for it

 

Strange that we have done 20 cruises with P&O and get no free internet and had only done one 7 day cruise with Princess which entitled us to 500 minutes free between us because we were Elite through our P&O loyalty points.

Hi,good post.We are platinum on Princess and on a 29 day split into 3 b2b we got 1100 mins last year.On Aurora we got zilch.I think all benefits should work both ways,cheers,Brian.

I don't need it but quite like to have it if it is free. I certainly won't pay £12 a day for it

 

Strange that we have done 20 cruises with P&O and get no free internet and had only done one 7 day cruise with Princess which entitled us to 500 minutes free between us because we were Elite through our P&O loyalty points.

Hi,good post.We are platinum on Princess and on a 29 day split into 3 b2b we got 1100 mins last year.On Aurora we got zilch.I think all benefits should work both ways,cheers,Brian.

As Diamond members on Cunard we get 8 hours each, each cruise and each segment when there are them.

But that's not the point. Cunard don't give me 10% off my onboard spend.

As I keep plugging, if you want it, pay for it: if you don't, then surely it's not an issue.

As Diamond members on Cunard we get 8 hours each, each cruise and each segment when there are them.

 

But that's not the point. Cunard don't give me 10% off my onboard spend.

 

As I keep plugging, if you want it, pay for it: if you don't, then surely it's not an issue.

Princess also gave us a free mini bar and unlimited free laundry as well as the 250 mins each internet usage - bit better than 10% off on board spend, which incidentally you get no benefit from until you use up your OBC.

I don't need it but quite like to have it if it is free. I certainly won't pay £12 a day for it

 

Strange that we have done 20 cruises with P&O and get no free internet and had only done one 7 day cruise with Princess which entitled us to 500 minutes free between us because we were Elite through our P&O loyalty points.

Princess also gave us a free mini bar and unlimited free laundry as well as the 250 mins each internet usage - bit better than 10% off on board spend, which incidentally you get no benefit from until you use up your OBC.

And your point is?

The benefits of the 10% onboard spend is dependant on how much you spend. In my case that is a considerable amount.

With 20 P&O cruises under your belt you've obviously been enjoying yourself with them.

As for the 10% coming off after you've spent your OBC, I can entirely accept that and have no problem with it; after all, the OBC didn't cost me anything.

Meanwhile, the ship's excursions I booked prior to boarding all benefitted from the 10%.

While i recognise this thread is all about P&O wifi I'm loathe to digress but maybe you can tell me about Princess bar and wine prices. :eek:

And your point is?

 

The benefits of the 10% onboard spend is dependant on how much you spend. In my case that is a considerable amount.

 

With 20 P&O cruises under your belt you've obviously been enjoying yourself with them.

 

As for the 10% coming off after you've spent your OBC, I can entirely accept that and have no problem with it; after all, the OBC didn't cost me anything.

 

Meanwhile, the ship's excursions I booked prior to boarding all benefitted from the 10%.

 

While i recognise this thread is all about P&O wifi I'm loathe to digress but maybe you can tell me about Princess bar and wine prices. :eek:

My point is that IMHO the P&O internet is far too expensive and that there is no loyalty internet benefit at all whereas on other cruise lines there are benefits relating to internet. As long as their customers continue to pay the current internet prices they will not alter them. The only loyalty benefit worthwhile on P&O is the 10% and that is eroded by having to use your OBC first. There was a review of the P&O loyalty scheme promised in Summer 2016 but nothing has been forthcoming.

As this is a forum and we are all entitled to put forward our viewpoint then mine is that the P&O loyalty scheme is seriously lacking compared to others.

I will just use the 12.50 package on some sea days if I am a bit bored...like a lot of others I imagine.

I also would be interested in knowing drink prices on Princess..even though we do not drink a lot.:)