Love the new Internet Plans!

[sail7seas]

The new plans sound good.

 

I used my new Surface Pro on my recent Dawn cruise. In the past I had a small Asus netbook I used for travel and I don't know if it was the new device or the WiFi on Dawn but I found the speed very much better. It might have been a combination of both. :)

 

[KruzPrincess]

I'm excited to read about this. I'm planning a cruise on the Koningsdam next summer and this would be great to keep in touch with home while I'm away. I can only hope they'd put it on the their new ship!

[boze9999]

Consistency would be so appreciated! In the last 6 months, we have been on the Neiuw Amsterdam, Eurodam and the Oosterdam (caribbean, mediterranean, transatlantic & alaska) - NONE had anything other than the slow and expensive dinosaur plans of yester-year. Sooooo looking forward to all ships entering the current century of technology!

[Fb_cruiser]

The new internet plan has been great so far. I'll try to answer as many questions as I remember.

 

• The 24 hour plan is 24 consecutive hours. You'd have to renew each day. The full voyage plans make a lot more sense.
  
• Being in the IT business, and remembering the internet on past cruises, I'm very impressed with the performance. Nice and peppy; not like back home, but more than adequate. I've logged in to my PC at the office via RDP with minimal lag. It probably helps that we have a wireless access point in our stateroom.
  
• We've been able to connect from everywhere on the ship we've tried. As I mentioned, we purchased two plans (my wife the Social only) so that we can both use WhatsApp to communicate via text or voice on the ship. Works great so far.
  
• The multiple plans make sense to me. I'm sure that there are many people on the ship that wouldn't feel the need to purchase a higher priced plan, but are more than willing to pay $25 for the Social only plan. HAL probably makes a lot more money this way. They can limit the internet for that plan to only certain sites, so someone on that plan typically wouldn't use the bandwidth as someone on the other plans (unless they're Facebookaholics...)
  

[LVSue]

I'm so clueless on technology. Up till now (our cruises are usually 10-14 days), I have purchased ATT's $30 for 90 days (iPad2 G3). That way I can use the iPad in American ports. But if we are out of the country, I have to do ATT Internstional for 30 days at $60. (Neither none of us has a smart phone of any kind.)

 

My question: would it make sense to buy a HAL plan? On one of our upcoming cruises we have $100 internet credit, so I thought I might check into it. Both of our upcoming cruises are 14 days: Eurodam on Oct. 4 (Canada/NE) and Maasdam in May (AK).

 

I would really appreciate advice from you tech savvy people.

[barb-ottawa]

Confused too. Does that mean an enhanced plan at $60 for a 7 day cruise would mean unlimited internet (no max minutes) for the entire cruise, i.e. no requirement to sign in and out? If so, that's great. On the Westerdam in October.

[FloridaTourist]

Hmmmm I like the new plans. I'm on a 12 day Adriatic Sea cruise on the Oosterdam in April. Wonder if they get the new internet when they are in dry dock right before we sail on her and what it would cost for that length of time.

[Scrapnana]

Confused too. Does that mean an enhanced plan at $60 for a 7 day cruise would mean unlimited internet (no max minutes) for the entire cruise, i.e. no requirement to sign in and out? If so, that's great. On the Westerdam in October.

 

Every day you had to sign in because the system logged you out after a certain time (about 12 hours). No counting minutes! As mentioned, it worked quite well (not as fast as home but still good) and I was able to use my iPad anywhere on the ship.

Edited August 31, 2015 by Scrapnana

[Scrapnana]

Here are copies of the information we received. The first was the 16 days from Fort Lauderdale to San Diego and the second was the four days from San Diego to Vancouver.

 

 

[YOWzers]

Is that an exhaustive list of what is covered under the "social" plan or are those examples? Could I expect similar apps like blackberry messenger to be included?

[POA1]

Is that an exhaustive list of what is covered under the "social" plan or are those examples? Could I expect similar apps like blackberry messenger to be included?

I think that you need the middle plan - Value - for email.

[colbe]

Which plan would I need to buy to be able to upload to my blog page on blogspot? Thanks.

[kazu]

Which plan would I need to buy to be able to upload to my blog page on blogspot? Thanks.

 

I think you would need the premium plan. The reason I say that is that I had the Value plan (the middle one) and had difficulty uploading photos to my live thread. Had to do a good many of them in port. Sometimes they would upload on board and sometimes not.

 

When I made an inquiry I was told the premium plan would take care of the issue. It was a tad late at that stage so I stuck with what I had and adapted in ports.

 

By all means, check on board if in doubt. I hadn't thought about the pics when I signed up.

Edited August 31, 2015 by kazu

[tooalto]

Is this pricing per person or per cabin? It certainly seems like a good deal and I wouldn't have to come home and go through 600+ emails!

[dakrewser]

Is this pricing per person or per cabin? It certainly seems like a good deal and I wouldn't have to come home and go through 600+ emails!

 

per device - only one device logged in at a time.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Is the Westerdam the only HAL ship that has these new plans?

[sapper1]

You can connect anytime you are near a wireless transponder, which I found to be pretty much anywhere on the Westerdam.

Our group used FB Messenger to talk to each other in real time so we could always arrange to meet up. That was one of the big pluses with the unlimited wireless. We just stayed connected.

The speed was better than in past years.

[castle12]

We disembarked from Nieuw Amsterdam Aug 20. Following are notes on the Internet that I have posted separately as part of a broader report.

 

The unlimited Internet option was available priced at $249, which we took. This was for a 12-day cruise. I found the Internet to be better than for any previous ship we have been on. The speed was faster and I was able to get on line anywhere in the ship that I tried. The sign-on procedure was simpler than I’ve seen previously.

 

One anomaly - the system kicked me off after one hour even if I was using it, and there was no warning or notice. I was in the middle of posting photos to Facebook and the system stalled. Eventually I gave up and logged off, only to find that the system had logged me off about 15 minutes before. I logged back on and the photos uploaded immediately. So you should keep track of your time and when you get close to the hour, log off then on again.

 

In addition to the unlimited option, there were four per-minute packages listed:

 

600 min - $199

400 min - $159

200 min - $99

30 min - $19

 

The instructions were available in the Explorations Cafe. They were clear and easy to follow.

[barb-ottawa]

So if I need to check my email in addition to Facebook, then the Social plan is not sufficient, right?

[POA1]

So if I need to check my email in addition to Facebook, then the Social plan is not sufficient, right?

That's the way I read it. Try not to think about the fact that email is way less bandwidth-intensive than the social plan stuff. It'll only make your head hurt. :eek:

Edited August 31, 2015 by POA1

[blizzardboy]

Toni and I are on our way to Alaska on the Westerdam (great experience as usual), and were very pleasantly surprised with the internet options available.

 

Social ($5 for 24 hours, $25 for the voyage)

Access the most popular social media websites and applications (Apps). This plan includes: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linked In, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. Does not include access to other websites or Apps.

 

Enhanced ($16 for 24 hours, $60 for the voyage)

Surf your favorite sites, including e-mail, news, sports, weather, banking and finance. Note: Does not support videoconferencing applications (e.g. Skype) or music streaming (e.g. Spotify).

 

Premiere ($25 for 24 hours, $99 for the voyage)

Surf your favorite sites, including e-mail, news, sports, weather, banking, finance and videoconferencing (i.e. Skype) and use your favorite Apps at our fastest shipboard speed.

 

For us it was a no-brainer. We went with the $99 Premier Plan. The only downside, is that you can only login on one device at a time. However, we also signed up for the $25 Social plan. Toni stays logged in to that on her phone, and it gives us the ability to use WhatsApp to call and text each other on the ship. Also, it gives us the ability to stay in touch with anyone back home that has the WhatsApp app.

 

Love it!

 

Frank

 

I asked my PCC about the plans and he said they are experimenting with the plans on a ship by ship basis. Nothing has been given to them in writing as of this date, which explains why googling the topic is pretty vague, except for Frank's quote here-in which pops up. Thanks for the info, Frank! So I guess for now it's wait and see if we get offered the new plans come January aboard the Oosterdam.

[wesport]

Does anyone know how many ships they have rolled this out to? Previous internet was a total waste of money. We opted to not even bother, so this will definitely increase revenue and customer satisfaction.

[JennysUncle]

It seems that Carnival Corporation is in the process of phasing in a change of maritime internet service providers from MTN to Harris CapRock for many if not all of its ships on all brands. New technology with higher bandwidth is part of the deal. HAL could say which ships will be converted and on what schedule, but presumably there are operational or competitive reasons not to. It probably requires new dome antennas and electronics, and so may be possible only during drydocks. It might be that the new passenger internet plans are showing up on ships that have been refitted, or that they are being test marketed in anticipation of the anticipated improved service.

 

http://www.law360.com/articles/502674/carnival-ends-suit-against-telecom-provider-inks-new-deal

 

http://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Cruise-industry-is-seeking-big-jump-in-telecom-speeds/

[POA1]

It seems that Carnival Corporation is in the process of phasing in a change of maritime internet service providers from MTN to Harris CapRock for many if not all of its ships on all brands. New technology with higher bandwidth is part of the deal.

 

No, it uses both providers and some Cisco ground based, long range wifi.

 

http://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/news-headlines/carnival-unveils-fast-hybrid-wi-fi-system-to-go-on-100-plus-ships.html

[sherilyn70]

This is great news! I just signed up for a new cruise on the Westerdam for the first week of November and all I really need is the access to Facebook and messenger. I hope this is still good on the Caribbean cruises.