Platinum/Elite Internet Packages Trial Update

Thanks for the info Pam. Can you get them to run a land based speed test?

One like this - https://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

Just for reference I have Charter Cable and get 60Mbps Download and 4Mbps Upload.

Good questions and ones I’ve asked my friends currently on the Grand to double-check. I’m seeing them tomorrow in Long Beach when the Grand ports there and will hopefully get some answers.

 

Something to keep in mind is that this is still a trial and subject to change and modifications. It’s not set in stone.

 

Two photos sent to me by my friends from the IC on the Grand this morning. She said the speed was very good. The other photo is the flyer for non-Platinum/Elite passengers. No mention that I could see of just one device.

What is very interesting about this is that there is NO MENTION of the volume limits of each package.

CORRECTION. Each package is said to have unlimited volume of data on each day. (Just under the heading 'keep in mind'

Seems to imply that the discounted Elite/Platinum package is for a lower level of service.

Is it just me or is this confusing under the "Keep in Mind" from the previous post -

Keep in Mind

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Each package comes with an unlimited volume of data on each day of your voyage. Transmission speeds for each package are subject to change depending on network usage. For current listing of data within each plan, see the Online Internet Selection page.

So what does "unlimited volume of data" and "data within each plan" mean ?

Is it just me or is this confusing under the "Keep in Mind" from the previous post -

 

 

 

Keep in Mind

 

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Each package comes with an unlimited volume of data on each day of your voyage. Transmission speeds for each package are subject to change depending on network usage. For current listing of data within each plan, see the Online Internet Selection page.

 

 

 

 

 

So what does "unlimited volume of data" and "data within each plan" mean ?

My take is that they say unlimited volume of data because each plan has its limits on what can be accessed. If they say unlimited data to denote there are no data caps that opens them up because in a sense they are limiting the data you use by limiting the sites/services you can access.

Basically this means there is no limit on the amount of data you can use within your given package.

My take is that they say unlimited volume of data because each plan has its limits on what can be accessed. If they say unlimited data to denote there are no data caps that opens them up because in a sense they are limiting the data you use by limiting the sites/services you can access.

 

Basically this means there is no limit on the amount of data you can use within your given package.

Yes, but I say WTH (or I might even back up a couple of letters). The "plebes" get unlimited internet, but P&E's are capped at 500MB/day. What's with that?

Pricing:

P&E Plebes

Social $12 $15

Surf $20 $25

Premium $24 $30

ETA: Sorry the spacing doesn't work on CC.

Column 1 has a 500MB limit and Column 2 is no limit. The limit may mean nothing in first two categories, but in top one, might need to book the standard offering if you planned to stream a lot of content.

Also, P&E's had discounted prices for full cruise. The regular folks don't appear to have that option which is not good. Terribly expensive for non-status cruisers.

I do try and keep in mind this is still in trial, but strong voices will be needed before the cement dries on this. I think some marketing hack and a bean counter came up with this stuff and not real users of internet. I still think the dumbest thing is no email in a basic plan. Princess just expects passengers to tweet about their wonderful cruise I suppose and charge customers for doing their advertising.

I still think the dumbest thing is no email in a basic plan. Princess just expects passengers to tweet about their wonderful cruise I suppose and charge customers for doing their advertising.

Depends on your point of view.

From the view of a typical Princess cruiser (if such a person exists), E-mail is essential and is desired at the lowest possible price.

From the Princess bean counter viewpoint, something that desirable is worth charging more $$ for.

The low priced social package is mainly aimed at younger folk who live and die by Twitter and other similar social communication media, including many of the children on board.

I wonder if the social package includes Facebook messenger? I don't tweet, or snap chat but I do communicate with my son through FB messenger.

We are just off the Grand today and, as Pam has reported, the Platinum/Elite internet minutes are still intact. Simply open the Princess at Sea app, click on Internet and choose your option. We did not use all of our free minutes on this cruise so we did not look into the process for purchasing additional minutes but according to the letter from the Digital Communications Manager that was in our room when we embarked, this can be done. I have attached a copy of the letter.

As for internet speed, I really cannot say that I noticed that the speed was any faster than in the past. The login and logoff process has been revised though and is less cumbersome than the old method, a big improvement there. There continue to be "dead" spots on the ship. I could not connect from our balcony but had not problem from the stateroom. We talked with a person who was hanging out in the elevator lobby to use the internet as he said he had no service from his stateroom.

In regards to speed, one of Princess' FAQ handouts at the Internet Café states, "Your data transmissions (e.g. news, emails, Facebook posts, etc.) travel via a radiocommunications satellite that is over 20,000 miles away before landing at a relay station on earth then it has to trace the path back to complete the original request. The time taken for this transmission (also known as latency) slows the experience. Latency is not a factor when accessing internet on land; this creates the difference in experience."

Princess Internet Letter.pdf

Resurrecting this thread from a couple months ago, I wonder how this is working on Grand Princess now (in December). I have the following situation and would appreciate any insight/advice/suggestions of the best path forward.

DW & I are both Platinum and we're on a 15 day to Hawaii over Christmas next week. So I expect that we'll both receive our "free" 250 minute allowance. We'll also have our adult daughter who is Ruby (so no minutes for her). I have one (at sea) day where I need to participate in a voice call that could last ~30 minutes. I can use Skype. So a volume (vs. duration) based plan for that one day might be best. (30 minutes of Skype voice to landline uses about 5MB of data, so negligible against the allowance in my case). Latency and jitter could be issues but hopefully I can tolerate those. Most of the time will probably be on hold anyway.

An issue might be blocking the IP addresses (or ports) used by Skype. That could be addressed by use of a VPN for the lower-cost offerings, if they allow VPNs. Any idea whether VPNs are blocked on any of the "new" volume-based plans? Or, generally, how they block services for the less-than-everything daily plans?

Resurrecting this thread from a couple months ago, I wonder how this is working on Grand Princess now (in December). I have the following situation and would appreciate any insight/advice/suggestions of the best path forward.

 

 

An issue might be blocking the IP addresses (or ports) used by Skype. That could be addressed by use of a VPN for the lower-cost offerings, if they allow VPNs. Any idea whether VPNs are blocked on any of the "new" volume-based plans? Or, generally, how they block services for the less-than-everything daily plans?

Interesting question. I now use a VPN on my devices and hadn't thought about whether or not it would be an issue onboard. I guess I could always just disable it when cruising but would appreciate any input from someone who may have used a VPN (or been blocked from using one) while sailing with Princess.

I was using a VPN with my laptop in my room on the Diamond (would never use wi-fi without a VPN) and it took 'forever' for the VPN to connect once I got the computer connected to the ship's wi-fi network. It worked (was not blocked) but everything was SLOW... then, I thought I was logged off when I wasn't... and all my minutes were 'used up'. A visit to the internet manager got my minutes restored.

From then on I just used the ship's desktops as they were much faster and 'no hassle'.

I don't know if the problem(s) with the laptop in my room had anything to do with the VPN, or just a crappy wi-fi system.

I was using a VPN with my laptop in my room on the Diamond (would never use wi-fi without a VPN) and it took 'forever' for the VPN to connect once I got the computer connected to the ship's wi-fi network. It worked (was not blocked) but everything was SLOW... then, I thought I was logged off when I wasn't... and all my minutes were 'used up'. A visit to the internet manager got my minutes restored.

On two cruises on Regal last year, I had to use my VPN to get to my email (for some reason, Princess had my mail ISP, a small boutique ISP, blocked - on this year's cruise on Regal, the block was gone. I had talked to the Internet Manager on the second cruise last year and she was working to get it removed but the cruise ended before it was resolved; in addition, a post-cruise complaint actually got me a follow-up call so between the two, it was fixed).

I had no slowness issues with the VPN connecting (but different VPN protocols take different amounts of time). I did need to tear down the VPN connection to get back to the Princess Internet logout screen (of course when VPN connected, the ship's intranet was not reachable since all my traffic went via the VPN).

now, i'm not sure at all what this VPN and stuff is, but can I connect to my Hotmail account to get my emails with my free internet minutes?

now, i'm not sure at all what this VPN and stuff is, but can I connect to my Hotmail account to get my emails with my free internet minutes?

VPN = Virtual Private Network, an encrypted path between your computer and the VPN server through which all your traffic goes before going out onto the Internet in general. I run a VPN server at home (very easy to do on a Macintosh) so when I connect my phone, tablet, or laptop via the VPN, all my traffic goes to the computer at home before it goes to whereever (so yes, that means when I was on a Baltic cruise last year, it meant if I was trying to access a website located in Europe, it meant the traffic went from my device via Princess's satellite link to wherever that goes, then to my house in the U.S., and then finally back to Europe).

As for Hotmail, I've never heard of any issues accessing Hotmail from a Princess ship so the answer should be yes.

Thank you. This is good news.

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My IPSec VPN would not connect on this entire cruise on the Ruby we are on. I didn’t try any of the other protocols since we were in Mexico 3 days and I could use my cell phone while there.

On the Regal TA when high speed internet was free for elite and I think platinum until we lost the satellite connection in the North the majority by far were elite and platinum and the constant and prolonged use did not seem to slow speed until we lost connection to proper satellite . Mike

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