Price of wifi

Not being a tekkie, (or is it tekky?) Anyway, can you explain what you would have to do aboard ship, in a port where there is free wi-fi, to configure a laptop to a TPLink AC1200 or AC 1300? Thanks so much.

Is there a reason why you want to use the access point instead of the connecting directly to the free WiFi?

Alternatively, you could connect to your AP using a cable and connect the AP to the public wifi using the radio. (Basically a reverse access point.) Again, you'll want to get the instructions from the equipment manufacturer, because it's not something that would have a generic instruction set.

POA1, since you seem to be our resident helpful techie, could you walk me through something?

With the unlimited Internet package, so long as we are in Cellular at Sea range, i.e. not in or adjacent to a port, my laptop and phone will connect automatically, correct? So no need to have my phone in airplane mode unless we're near or on shore?

And by the way, I love the Institute of Cheer site's brand of humor.

It's techie. You'd have to but the access point into bridge mode. There are instructions on the TPLINK site, assuming your equipment supports bridging.

 

Is there a reason why you want to use the access point instead of the connecting directly to the free WiFi?

 

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The reason is simple: I don't know what I am doing! I have no idea what an access point is. I thought it sounded like a good way to connect from the ship to a port's wi-fi. \

When you suggested connecting directly to the free wi-fi, you meant going ashore and connecting there? Or is there a way from the cabin that would make a direct connection possible? And, if so, I assume it depends on the strength of the transmission?

The reason is simple: I don't know what I am doing! I have no idea what an access point is. I thought it sounded like a good way to connect from the ship to a port's wi-fi. \ When you suggested connecting directly to the free wi-fi, you meant going ashore and connecting there? Or is there a way from the cabin that would make a direct connection possible? And, if so, I assume it depends on the strength of the transmission?

Getting the free port wifi in our cabin has been rare. We occasionally can get it from an outside location on the ship - balcony, lido, back pool area, or promenade. Try the location closest to the port building or a restaurant or hotel nearby. We use our phone and try to connect to wifi. If we find something, we get out our PCs - they usually connect best. Look for the crew. They know all the best wifi spots. If not, you'll have to go ashore.

Good suggestions. Thanks, beach bunnie.

Anyone have information about WiFi packages on the Eurodam?

 

 

 

 

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Just off the Eurodam, they're on the unlimited plan. It was $99.99 for the middle tier for 7 days. So see the above table for other lengths

Also note, you can upgrade your plan in the middle of the cruise. Only the top tier has video streaming.

I should have done the lowest tier.

I also should have asked if there was still going to be a per minute option for flight check in. If anyone has to call them, please ask those two questions.

We were on the Maasdam at the end of June and there was no per minute option. Opinions seem to be split on the best type of internet packages; we would prefer to purchase a "bank" of minutes and manage our time rather than shell out a considerable amount (IMHO) for the privilege of checking our email once or twice a day.

We Debarked Zuiderdam on May 10th after 18 Nights on the TA. They had the three Plans that Crew News mentioned. The lowest Plan: allows access to most Social Media sites. The Middle Package (Surfing): Allows email access as well as surfing sites. The Premium Plan: In addition to everything in the lower Plans includes audio/video calling and Streaming.

 

We took the Middle Plan and it was $189 for the 18 Nights before our 5 Star Discount. We thought this was a great deal as well as not having to worry about running out of minutes or Logging Out. They do recommend Logging Out though so not to slow down the system.

 

As the day went by when you would Log In it would ask if you wanted to add onto the Plan, it showed the price which then went lower and lower closer to the end of the Cruise.

Blue Ribbon accurately describes the 3 options. We were on Zuiderdam last month and took the middle price package. I waited several days to book it as the price dropped every day to reflect the shorter length of the usable period. I found this plan adequate for email and to make phone calls using the wifi on my iPhone. There was no time limit or minutes restrictions.

However, there was great difficulty in downloading attachments or connecting to web sites. I don't know if the premium package would have been much better.

POA1, since you seem to be our resident helpful techie, could you walk me through something?

 

With the unlimited Internet package, so long as we are in Cellular at Sea range, i.e. not in or adjacent to a port, my laptop and phone will connect automatically, correct? So no need to have my phone in airplane mode unless we're near or on shore?

 

And by the way, I love the Institute of Cheer site's brand of humor.

Not POA1, but if you'll permit me...

With some caveats below, you turn on Airplane Mode and your calls and texts go via the ship's

internet satellite links at no extra charge.

Turn Airplane Mode off, and your calls and texts go via the ship's cellphone tower, usually at

Cellular At Sea's piratical rates.

With Airplane mode on, you can use what's called "WiFi Calling"

• You need a cellphone plan that allows WiFi Calling (a few, mostly legacy, do not)

• You need a smartphone that supports WiFi Calling (if younger than 5 years, most do)

• You need to enable WiFi Calling on your smartphone

º Android: Settings -> Connections -> Advanced Calling -> WiFi Calling

º Apple: I'm not an Apple guy, but I'm told iPhone and iPad each do it differently

• On Android, turning Airplane mode on, turns WiFi off too, you have to turn just it back on

• If your ship's internet service is flaky, your WiFi calling will be flaky, too.

To emphasize: If you think you're using WiFi Calling but, somehow, Airplane Mode isn't on at

that moment, you're in for a phone bill shock.

Does anyone know for the streaming plan what location will appear to the streaming service? I want to be able to stream some football games while we are on our South America cruise on the Zaandam this fall. A lot of the networks that provide streaming coverage of games do not allow streaming to locations outside of the US. I think I read on the forum that the location appears as Miami which would be great. Can anyone confirm this? If not, would I be able to use a VPN to get around this limitation?

Are you looking for specific games? When we did the SA cruise in 2015, the playoffs and superbowl were available on the sports centric networks on our Room TVs. I would also see them on the various monitors in some the bars that had TV. For the Superbowl they used the showroom as a theater to display the game. They had some free light snacks out and of course had waiters running around for bar service. They even sold some packages for special seats they set up on the stage. I took a look during the show and they had some nice lazy boy type seats on the stage. You could purchase one of those and it came with all you could eat/drink for the duration of the game.

Not POA1, but if you'll permit me...

 

With some caveats below, you turn on Airplane Mode and your calls and texts go via the ship's

internet satellite links at no extra charge.

 

Turn Airplane Mode off, and your calls and texts go via the ship's cellphone tower, usually at

Cellular At Sea's piratical rates.

 

 

With Airplane mode on, you can use what's called "WiFi Calling"

• You need a cellphone plan that allows WiFi Calling (a few, mostly legacy, do not)

• You need a smartphone that supports WiFi Calling (if younger than 5 years, most do)

• You need to enable WiFi Calling on your smartphone

º Android: Settings -> Connections -> Advanced Calling -> WiFi Calling

º Apple: I'm not an Apple guy, but I'm told iPhone and iPad each do it differently

• On Android, turning Airplane mode on, turns WiFi off too, you have to turn just it back on

• If your ship's internet service is flaky, your WiFi calling will be flaky, too.

 

To emphasize: If you think you're using WiFi Calling but, somehow, Airplane Mode isn't on at

that moment, you're in for a phone bill shock.

Airplane mode ON turns OFF both your cellular and wifi radios. You can then turn only the wifi radio on with the wifi control.

Most carriers and phones have the option to turn off data roaming. This keeps you from accidentally connecting to the cellular at sea data or foreign data in the port.

If you have T-Mobile, you will need to turn data roaming on if you want to use their included data in most ports. You'll get a text in each port telling you which T-Mobile partner network you are connected to.

If you are on another carrier, check their website. Some have good overseas roaming options.

Bottom line: Unless you don't care about costs, you do not want to connect to the ship's cellular network.

POA1, since you seem to be our resident helpful techie, could you walk me through something?

 

With the unlimited Internet package, so long as we are in Cellular at Sea range, i.e. not in or adjacent to a port, my laptop and phone will connect automatically, correct? So no need to have my phone in airplane mode unless we're near or on shore?

 

And by the way, I love the Institute of Cheer site's brand of humor.

One of the features on almost all phones (and PC's) is that when you connect to a WiFi Network for the first time, you will see a "Connect Automatically" or "Connect Always" checkbox. I always leave this unchecked while on the ship. That way I have to explicitly connect to the ships network, when I need to use it. Once done, I manually disconnect from the network.

One of the features on almost all phones (and PC's) is that when you connect to a WiFi Network for the first time, you will see a "Connect Automatically" or "Connect Always" checkbox. I always leave this unchecked while on the ship. That way I have to explicitly connect to the ships network, when I need to use it. Once done, I manually disconnect from the network.

Oh HAL (and Princess) connecting to your ship's WiFi is free -- in fact it's needed to access the

digital version of Where and When, etc -- it's only when you go further and click on "connect to

paid internet" that you spend any money.

Oh HAL (and Princess) connecting to your ship's WiFi is free -- in fact it's needed to access the

digital version of Where and When, etc -- it's only when you go further and click on "connect to

paid internet" that you spend any money.

When I'm on the ship, my phone generally stays in the room unless we are getting off the ship. Except for getting external internet there is very little of interest, at least to me, on the ships internal networks. I really enjoy the ability to go off the grid while on a cruise vacation.

I'll probably take a look at the digital W&W, I really prefer the paper version as its easier to read, again for me.

Thanks Haboob and POA1 for the Android-specific instructions. I guess I've never had both wi-fi and airplane mode on at the same time.

Do you mind more questions? Assuming you're willing:

So about the data roaming off thing. Bearing in mind that I will have an unlimited Internet package, and will want to download stuff like Google Maps for a port, and Google translate for specific countries, what would be the best way to go about that? On board? On shore? before leaving?

Right now I have Verizon, which is $10 a day on any day you use the phone (actually, I don't know if wi-fi calling counts for this) but am thinking of switching to T-Mobile for its better rates abroad.

You can download all your Google maps before you leave home. I'm running the beta tester version of maps, but I think yours will be the same.

Open maps on your phone. Click on the hamburger menu in the top left. Choose Offline Maps. On the offline maps screen, you can choose Select your own map. That will open up a window with a map box. Move the box to whatever area you want to capture. You can zoom in or out to get the area you want. Tip: Zoom out if you are trying to find a faraway place. Once the desired area is in the window, zoom in to the smallest area that meets your needs. It will cut down on the storage space needed.

You can also download Google translate languages ahead of time as well. Open Translate. Click on the hamburger menu. Select Offline translation. Choose your languages. You can even grab Dutch & Indonesian. Tagalog isn't currently available.

Thanks Haboob and POA1 for the Android-specific instructions. I guess I've never had both wi-fi and airplane mode on at the same time.

 

Do you mind more questions? Assuming you're willing:

 

So about the data roaming off thing. Bearing in mind that I will have an unlimited Internet package, and will want to download stuff like Google Maps for a port, and Google translate for specific countries, what would be the best way to go about that? On board? On shore? before leaving?

 

Right now I have Verizon, which is $10 a day on any day you use the phone (actually, I don't know if wi-fi calling counts for this) but am thinking of switching to T-Mobile for its better rates abroad.

This time POA1 leads off and I bat cleanup. ;)

First choice (If you know that you'll need something) is download at home from your main ISP

to preserve your Verizon monthly data cap, and you'll have the data even if the ship's internet

turns out to be flaky (you're not going to tell me THAT never happens, are you?)

Second choice is "WiFi Calling" and data via uncapped, unlimited minutes shipboard internet.

Frankly, I'd not sign up for Travel Pass unless I were going to spend overnight off the ship, or

my shipboard internet was as bad as was my uncapped, unlimited-minutes internet while in

Alaska last May. If it's a real emergency ashore, Pay As You Go rates are a tolerable evil.

When last I cruised internationally, I simply paid Verizon $40 for a month of "calls from ship or

shore are just like at home" (they don't offer that this year), so I can't comment on how WiFi

Calling and TravelPass interact.

POA1 and Haboob, you guys are my heroes! Google Translate does have "Indonesian" which I assume is Bahasa Indonesia, and they also have "Filipino" which I assume is Tagalog. "Chinese" is evidently Mandarin, according to a Google search, and there's no Cantonese. So I grabbed those, as well as Japanese and Javanese, just in case.

I think what I really meant by needing Google maps is needing it with spoken GPS. I'm horrible at following maps (although I can learn foreign languages easily), so that will necessitate date roaming, no?

POA1 and Haboob, you guys are my heroes! Google Translate does have "Indonesian" which I assume is Bahasa Indonesia, and they also have "Filipino" which I assume is Tagalog. "Chinese" is evidently Mandarin, according to a Google search, and there's no Cantonese. So I grabbed those, as well as Japanese and Javanese, just in case.

 

I think what I really meant by needing Google maps is needing it with spoken GPS. I'm horrible at following maps (although I can learn foreign languages easily), so that will necessitate date roaming, no?

Thanks! I didn't think to look for Filipino. I looked for Tagalog and didn't see it. I thought it was an odd omission, but I guess I just didn't look hard enough.

POA1 and Haboob, you guys are my heroes! Google Translate does have "Indonesian" which I assume is Bahasa Indonesia, and they also have "Filipino" which I assume is Tagalog. "Chinese" is evidently Mandarin, according to a Google search, and there's no Cantonese. So I grabbed those, as well as Japanese and Javanese, just in case.

 

I think what I really meant by needing Google maps is needing it with spoken GPS. I'm horrible at following maps (although I can learn foreign languages easily), so that will necessitate date roaming, no?

Alas, never had that need, but from

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en

Download areas and navigate offline

 

If you're going where the Internet is slow, mobile data is expensive, or you can't get online,

you can save an area from Google Maps to your phone or tablet and use it when you're offline.

 

Note: Downloading offline maps isn't available in some regions because of contractual limitations,

language support, address formats, or other reasons.

Thank you both! Can I take you on my cruise for perpetual tech support???

On 8/7/2018 at 12:14 PM, richwmn said:

I don't know where these prices came from, but they seem to correspond with the numbers that have been posted. They were provided to the Roll Call for the Current Voyage of the Vikings. I was told that they would not sell more than 31 days.

Voyage Length Social Surf Premium

1 14.99 24.99 29.99

2 19.99 29.99 39.99

3 29.99 44.99 39.99

4 39.99 59.99 79.99

5 49.99 74.99 99.99

6 59.99 89.99 119.99

7 69.99 99.99 139.99

8 74.99 109.99 159.99

9 79.99 119.99 169.99

10 84.99 129.99 179.99

11 89.99 139.99 189.99

12 99.99 149.99 199.99

13 99.99 159.99 209.99

14 119.99 169.99 219.99

15 119.99 169.99 234.99

16 124.99 179.99 249.99

17 129.99 179.99 264.99

18 134.99 189.99 279.99

19 139.99 189.99 289.99

20 149.99 199.99 299.99

25 149.99 199.99 299.99

31 179.99 259.99 329.99

 

Sorry I couldn't make a better looking table.

These are the exact prices Ship Services just quoted for Oosterdam 7 days, $69, $99 & $139

Easier to read chart:

18 minutes ago, richwmn said:

Easier to read chart:

This is great and actually should be posted on their website. Maybe cuz ya can’t book ahead. But thanks for doing this.