Wifi package

[MissMarmalade]

i was thinking of purchasing the social wifi plan for my upcoming cruise....has anyone purchased any of their wifi plans before? I have a couple questions for those who have. How is the wifi speed fast or kinda slow? Can I preorder or would I have to go to guest services on the ship and purchase? Also I read the social plan is $5 per day but you can get a discount for the entire voyage so how much of a discount is it?

[Doggielover68]

It's around $25 for the week. Speed varies depending on how many people are using it...slower on sea days, faster on port days. You don't have to go to guest services. You can purchase it through the Hub app using your folio number once you are on board.

 

 

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[Organized Chaos]

We got the Social plan last year on board the Conquest. By purchasing it on day 1 for the entire cruise, we got it for $18 per device instead of what would've been $25. They may have adjusted the pricing since then. I don't know much about the speeds, we only used the plan to text via iMessage on iPhones (did pretty good, by the way), but I've read that it's pretty slow, then gets a little better with the 2nd & 3rd tier plans. When you get on board, you can connect to the ship's wifi and go to www.carnivalwifi.com on your phone to purchase one of the plans. Or you can use one of the ship's computers in the internet cafe area. Or yeah, guest services can do it.

 

Once you're underway and they activate the ship's satellite network (or well before to be safe) be sure to turn on Airplane Mode on your phone to prevent it from connecting to the ship's network and incurring roaming fees from your carrier. Very expensive. Once Airplane Mode is turned on, you can then turn your phone's Wifi back on to reconnect to the ship's Wifi.

[coevan]

we had the top tier at $119 for the week and it's always slow, just slower during peak usage. Streaming is nearly impossible. I logged onto whatsmyspeed.com and never got over 3 Mb, during peak periods it took 2-3 minutes just to load

[MischaH123]

we had the top tier at $119 for the week and it's always slow, just slower during peak usage. Streaming is nearly impossible. I logged onto whatsmyspeed.com and never got over 3 Mb, during peak periods it took 2-3 minutes just to load

 

How recent was your experience? Where and what ship? I wonder if it depends on the ship's wifi more than its satellite connection?

[Tiger0613]

I always get the Value plan. I have always found the speed to be adequate for general websurfing, email, and texting using a Samsung Galaxy S5. It is somewhat slow on my mom's first generation Kindle Fire HD(2012).

 

I was even able to watch Youtube. It was the afternoon and evening of the last day, and I decided to try it. The videos took a few seconds to load, but they played without buffering. I was in my cabin(Triumph 1206). I believe I benefited from very few people being near that access point at the time.

 

Prices have definitely gone up.

2/2016: 4 days = $35

8/2016: 4 days = $35

2/2017: 4 days = $42

 

3-day and 4-day cruises were the same price. 7-day and 8-day cruises were the same price. I don't know if that is still true.

[coevan]

How recent was your experience? Where and what ship? I wonder if it depends on the ship's wifi more than its satellite connection?

 

 

We were on the Magic, B2B in January. I highly doubt the ships have different wifi equipment. Maybe the brand new ships have upgraded equipment, but from what I have read on this board, the Vista is slow as well. Wifi is not internet, you can 5 bars of wifi and no satellite. The wifi is plenty strong on the ship. The internet signal is not strong enough for 3,000 people. Hi usage slows down even the best signals

[bUU]

Without a doubt. From what I've read many folks note a distinct advantage attempting to use the internet connection on cruise ships at off hours such as 2 a.m. 3 a.m. 4 a.m. and that makes sense from a technical standpoint since it is likely that Network congestion and contention for the available bandwidth will be at a minimum during those hours.

 

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[stefyo]

I sailed on the Sensation middle of March and bought the social media package - it was $22 for 5 days. It worked well but was very slow at times you just have to be patient to wait for things to load. I was able to use Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Snapchat.

[mistyinca]

I've gotten the social plan a couple of times. I am able to use imessage on it. Posting pictures to Facebook is next to impossible on it, but messaging works ok.

[MyNameIsGermy]

We were on the Magic, B2B in January. I highly doubt the ships have different wifi equipment. Maybe the brand new ships have upgraded equipment, but from what I have read on this board, the Vista is slow as well. Wifi is not internet, you can 5 bars of wifi and no satellite. The wifi is plenty strong on the ship. The internet signal is not strong enough for 3,000 people. Hi usage slows down even the best signals

 

Mostly correct but it's also a testament to the investment in their infrastructure.

 

For instance, a competing cruise line (we'll say it rhymes with RCI) has their Oasis class ships (6k passengers) outfitted with a better satellite system and you can stream movies (including HD) day or night on their service. We were surprised at how well it worked (we streamed to an Amazon FireTV Stick) and even more surprised that Carnival hasn't invested in to a similar platform.

[sk8rmomof3]

When you get the social package, it is per device, or per room? If I pay the $25 for the week, can both my husband and I use it to post pictures, etc? Could I use my laptop to upload things? Or do you pay $25 per device?

[Organized Chaos]

When you get the social package, it is per device, or per room? If I pay the $25 for the week, can both my husband and I use it to post pictures, etc? Could I use my laptop to upload things? Or do you pay $25 per device?

The fee for internet plans are per device. But you can log out of one device and log into the same plan with another. Using two at the same time means purchasing two plans.