Internet on the Grand Princess

[Cruise Raider]

LOL, no snow, but about an inch of hail!:eek:

 

Same for us in the lowlands but the hills are all covered with snow and it is a beautiful sight!!

 

So, I have an update and my cruise personalizer for my upcoming sailing now shows my internet options and even the unlimited option is available at a discount. I don't think the elite status is considered in the discount. Nevertheless, I think I will purchase the unlimited package for the streaming.... or what they call the premium. I will mostly use it at night so probably won't be too bogged down ... or that might be wishful thinking but if it just doesn't work, I will deal with that onboard. It is $110 for the premium unlimited option for the entire cruise which is expensive compared to land based packages but I was able to secure a $100 statement credit through the latest Amex offer so it all evens out in the long run.

If I am not successful with any streaming, I will go to guest services at that point and see what they can do for me.

[cruisincdns]

I just got off the Grand a little over a week ago. They were offering the unlimited internet. I'm Elite so I took the free minutes but could have purchased the unlimited at a discount. HOWEVER, and this is a BIG however, the Internet speed was slow, I'm talking dial-up slow. So maybe they have discontinued their test of the unlimited packages on the Grand because people couldn't do anything with it and complained about paying so much for SLOW, unusable service.

 

Jackie

 

We got off the Grand this past Monday, February 26, 2018 and the Internet was EXTREMELY slow. It took 30 minutes for me to complete my check-in process and there were only 6 people in the Internet cafe. This was at 2pm.

 

Paul

[LifeisaWOW]

Was on the Grand over Xmas 2018 and the  WiFi was beyond useless.  Even with the most expensive upgraded package it was nothing but irritating.

 

Asked  for a full refund but only received a partial.

 

everyone was complaining.  Made no difference where on the ship you were.

 

This was a cruise to Hawaii.  In ports, as expected,  you could send/receive  all of for backed up attempts.

 

I believe they are really dishonest.

 

 

[peachyjam]

I was also on the Hawaii cruise over Christmas and can attest that it was so horrible and useless about 95% of the 14 day cruise.

 

I am actually sailing again on Grand Princess again on March 20 to  Mexico in 3 weeks and I am purchasing the package begrudgingly again.

However time I will complain way more if it doesnt work.  They really should not be offering this package if it doesn't work. 

 

 

[srpilo]

1 hour ago, peachyjam said:

I was also on the Hawaii cruise over Christmas and can attest that it was so horrible and useless about 95% of the 14 day cruise.

 

I am actually sailing again on Grand Princess again on March 20 to  Mexico in 3 weeks and I am purchasing the package begrudgingly again.

However time I will complain way more if it doesnt work.  They really should not be offering this package if it doesn't work. 

 

 

 

I'm on the same March 20th cruise, and I'm hoping the dry dock next week will address the internet issues once and for alI. I was on the Grand in August 2017, and I was unable to get online anywhere on the ship at any time of the day 99% of the cruise..  And yet they were selling unlimited options. Grand is by far the worst internet offender in the entire Princess fleet.

 

Fingers crossed for my sailing in three weeks

Srpilo

[Colo Cruiser]

6 minutes ago, srpilo said:

 

I'm on the same March 20th cruise, and I'm hoping the dry dock next week will address the internet issues once and for alI. I was on the Grand in August 2017, and I was unable to get online anywhere on the ship at any time of the day 99% of the cruise..  And yet they were selling unlimited options. Grand is by far the worst internet offender in the entire Princess fleet.

 

Fingers crossed for my sailing in three weeks

Srpilo

I hope so.   After using the new system it would be a shock to have to go back to that crap. 

[gdisney]

5 minutes ago, srpilo said:

 

I'm on the same March 20th cruise, and I'm hoping the dry dock next week will address the internet issues once and for alI.

 

I read somewhere that they were doing initial pre-wiring for Medallion, and replace some furniture and flooring in the more heavily trafficked bar areas and buffet area. Not sure if any internet improvement would be included with the pre-wiring, since the Grand won't be offering Medallion for awhile. Anyone know any more?

[Almighty188]

I am on the Grand right now as part of the 02/21 sailing and basically with the Premium Unlimited, you would get 500MB per day at what they call fast speeds.  The internet is not usable and they blocked a lot of sites.  

[Tinkerbelle444]

On 2/25/2018 at 3:49 PM, Cruise Raider said:

I may just have to place a call to Princess but thought I would ask here first. I am going into my cruise personalizer for an upcoming cruise (still 2 months away) and don't have any option to purchase unlimited internet. What is odd is that I do have that availability to purchase this for a cruise on this ship later this year.

For this upcoming cruise, we are in a suite and this is the first time ever in this cabin type but don't see any documentation on the Princess website stating that unlimited internet is included. Just not sure why it is not showing up for me as a purchase option. ????

I just got off the Grand Princess...the option for "unlimited" was made available both BEFORE we 

sailed and again right when you get on the ship.

I had 500 minutes but used them up (slow) by day 3..so I purchased the unlimited package..it worked great and was completely happy for the money well spent.  I understand that they will be upgrading the internet system while in dry dock.  Hope this helps.

 

 

[Jetty John]

My wife and I are sailing on the April 21st cruise to Hawaii.  We are trying to decide on the $99 Social package or the $139 Surf package.  We just want to be able to keep in touch with kids by email.  But may want to hook up to a web site here and there.  Does anyone know if there is a big difference between the two?

Thanks!

 

[LifeisaWOW]

We were on Princess Xmas time to Hawaii.

 

Had the grade up from the “surf” and it was not only practically useless but a real ripoff. Too many users  also with horrible connection.

 

Everyday a line of complainers asking for a refund.

 

Best if you can to wait until in port with free WiFi or internet.

 

Just remember my words “RIPOFF.”

 

 

[Almighty188]

3 hours ago, Jetty John said:

My wife and I are sailing on the April 21st cruise to Hawaii.  We are trying to decide on the $99 Social package or the $139 Surf package.  We just want to be able to keep in touch with kids by email.  But may want to hook up to a web site here and there.  Does anyone know if there is a big difference between the two?

Thanks!

 

Are those the prices you see after going into your booking on princess.com?  I had the unlimited Premium Package on the Grand and it basically was a joke in terms of speed since it was like dialup and it has a 500MB per day limit at fast speeds which is like a dialup but still blocks certain sites.

Here is what I found here on CC:
 

PrincessCONNECT — Premium Package

From e-mail to streaming, enjoy truly premium, unlimited access!

All Internet usage subject to Princess Cruises' standard policies, which may limit browsing of sites due to network security and bandwidth usage. Applications that use high bandwidth may be blocked and offerings subject to change. 

PrincessCONNECT — Surf Package

Surf your favorite sites from e-mail, news, sports and more.*

*May not allow for audio/video calling and streaming.

PrincessCONNECT — Social Package

Unlimited access to the most popular social websites and applications.*

*May not allow for audio/video calling and streaming.

 

[RobertSV]

Hi Jetta J

My wife and I are currently on the 15 day cruise from San Francisco to Hawaii on the Grand Princess. Internet may generously be described as worse than the most impoverished nation on either hemisphere.   We bought the $249 Premium Connect package which gets discounted to $199 close to the departure date.  It’s per device/ person so if you have a phone for you and a phone for your wife, you need 2 internet connections. If you want a computer too, then you disconnect one device and log on with the computer. This package still has sites that are excluded from usage. Hulu, Netflix are just two. If you buy a cheaper package, more sites are excluded. Internet is very very very slow. WhatsApp works well for text and voice.  The TV does not have a way to connect a HDMI input, so lie back and enjoy Love Boat reruns. 

Edited April 16, 2019 by RobertSV

[caribill]

3 hours ago, Almighty188 said:

Are those the prices you see after going into your booking on princess.com?  I had the unlimited Premium Package on the Grand and it basically was a joke in terms of speed since it was like dialup and it has a 500MB per day limit at fast speeds which is like a dialup but still blocks certain sites.

Here is what I found here on CC:
 

PrincessCONNECT — Premium Package

From e-mail to streaming, enjoy truly premium, unlimited access!

All Internet usage subject to Princess Cruises' standard policies, which may limit browsing of sites due to network security and bandwidth usage. Applications that use high bandwidth may be blocked and offerings subject to change. 

PrincessCONNECT — Surf Package

Surf your favorite sites from e-mail, news, sports and more.*

*May not allow for audio/video calling and streaming.

PrincessCONNECT — Social Package

Unlimited access to the most popular social websites and applications.*

*May not allow for audio/video calling and streaming.

 

 

The PrincessCONNECT Internet is the same old s-l-o-w Internet that Princess has had for a long time. The only difference is now they sell unlimited usage packages instead of selling minutes packages. Speed (or lack of it) is the same as always.

 

When ships are rewired for the Medallions, newer Internet nis also installed and is often implemented before the Medallion itself is available. Speeds with this newer technology which Princess calls MedallionNet are very fast (unless the ship is at very high latitudes) and only a single unlimited usage package is sold, not a choice of three unlimited options.

 

With both PrincessCONNECT and MedallionNet, the Platinum/Elite Internet benefit is still the same number of minutes it has been, based on the length of the cruise. When you first sign in to use the minutes, you are offered the opportunity to give up the free minutes and instead purchase the an unlimited package at a slight discount from the pre-cruise pricing that anyone can use. If the ship has MedallionNet, then the free minutes at the higher Internet speeds may be sufficient and you may not need to purchase the unlimited package unless you want to use the Internet 24 hours/day.

[Almighty188]

3 hours ago, RobertSV said:

Hi Jetta J

My wife and I are currently on the 15 day cruise from San Francisco to Hawaii on the Grand Princess. Internet may generously be described as worse than the most impoverished nation on either hemisphere.   We bought the $249 Premium Connect package which gets discounted to $199 close to the departure date.  It’s per device/ person so if you have a phone for you and a phone for your wife, you need 2 internet connections. If you want a computer too, then you disconnect one device and log on with the computer. This package still has sites that are excluded from usage. Hulu, Netflix are just two. If you buy a cheaper package, more sites are excluded. Internet is very very very slow. WhatsApp works well for text and voice.  The TV does not have a way to connect a HDMI input, so lie back and enjoy Love Boat reruns. 

And they have a limit of one internet package that you can use under person so even if you bought 10 Premium, you can only use one as I did buy 3 but only can register two, one under me and one under my mom on the Grand Princess.  That's actually pre-paying the package but you can still select any other package when you register the account as my niece for example selected the $89 package instead of $139 for the 10 day San Francisco Mexican Rivera sailing since they first put the $139 into your account as a credit and whatever you select, it will just debit from it.  The Premium Connect for me gets debited at $179 first and then they will credit the $30 to the shipboard account within a few days so basically the 3rd account I had, it just remained as $139 credit.  If you register and activate the package after the first day, it will be cheaper as my mom's account was registered on day 2 and the package price was $169 and they basically gave back $40 in credits after 2 days.  DISHAnywhere is also blocked with the Premium Connect package so the way around it is to use a VPN.  There is a way to connect multiple devices by using a computer as the router with the VPN also on the computer.  The TV does have a HDMI input as it is on the upper left side of the Viewsonic N2690W tv.  You might have to clean the HDMI connector due to oxidation, I basically used water by dipping the entire HDMI connector of my Amazon Firestick 4K as I didn't have Isopropyl alcohol with me but if you can select the HDMI input and still don't get video, then you have to  use the remote to turn down the volume to 0, press mute then 9876 using the remote which will get you into the service menu.  

 

Edited April 16, 2019 by Almighty188

[RobertSV]

April 16, 2019

Thanks for the detailed information, Al...188,

our tv is LG and the remote has no number buttons.  Good trip nonetheless 

[Jetty John]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

Are those the prices you see after going into your booking on princess.com?  I had the unlimited Premium Package on the Grand and it basically was a joke in terms of speed since it was like dialup and it has a 500MB per day limit at fast speeds which is like a dialup but still blocks certain sites.

 

Yes, those are the prices we see on Princess after we go into our booking.  They are discounted prices as the originals are slashed through.  There is no mention of a 500 minute limit anywhere.  In fact, the premium and social package specifically state unlimited, and the surf package doesn't indicate any time limitations.  We won't be spending a lot of time on the net anyway, just want to stay in touch with our son who is watching our house and be able to check our security cameras.  

 

We don't care about netflix and hulu.  We're leaving our Roku sticks home, we aren't going on the cruise to watch television.  

 

We will probably just get the social package, and upgrade if necessary.  Thanks for all the input everyone.  

[Almighty188]

1 hour ago, RobertSV said:

April 16, 2019

Thanks for the detailed information, Al...188,

our tv is LG and the remote has no number buttons.  Good trip nonetheless 

Yeah, I think the Grand got docked after our sailing on March 3, 2019 so they may have actually changed the tv's.  Either that or they use different makes/models of tv's even on the same ship.  Can you get the model # of your tv?  

[Almighty188]

1 hour ago, Jetty John said:

 

Yes, those are the prices we see on Princess after we go into our booking.  They are discounted prices as the originals are slashed through.  There is no mention of a 500 minute limit anywhere.  In fact, the premium and social package specifically state unlimited, and the surf package doesn't indicate any time limitations.  We won't be spending a lot of time on the net anyway, just want to stay in touch with our son who is watching our house and be able to check our security cameras.  

 

We don't care about netflix and hulu.  We're leaving our Roku sticks home, we aren't going on the cruise to watch television.  

 

We will probably just get the social package, and upgrade if necessary.  Thanks for all the input everyone.  

It's not a 500 minute limit, it's a 500MB data daily limit, you will see it when you register and select the internet package to activate it once you are actually on the ship, as you will notice that online, they will always put the line, subject to the internet policy, forgot the exact words they used on the same page where you saw the discounted prices, but they never disclose what the policy is until you are actually on the ship itself and connected to the WiFi of the ship.  You can see for example in post #14 in the thread https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2553872-grand-princess-recent-internet-experience/ where someone else talks about the 500MB limit as well.  Think of it as a cap except unlike other providers who discloses it before purchase, you won't know about it until after it's purchased but whatever you purchase will still be a credit on your stateroom account so if you decide not to activate it, you will still have that credit available.  Other providers for example even Comcast/XFINITY has a 1TeraByte monthly data limit.  Mobile phones usually is unlimited until you reach a certain GB size per month for 4G speeds and then you will get slower speeds after that.  Princess is 500MegaBytes daily of the fast speed (modem dialup speeds in reality) and once you reached that, it will be slower for that day only as it will be fast again the next day for the first 500MB's each day.

Depending on the bandwidth requirements of the security cameras, it may or may not work.  Here is a screenshot while I was on the ship since it even mentions the 500MB.

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2019 by Almighty188

[Jetty John]

8 hours ago, Almighty188 said:

It's not a 500 minute limit, it's a 500MB data daily limit

 

 

 

Oh jeez, I misread that.  I doubt if we'd hit that threshold, but nice to know.  You are correct about the bandwith of the security cameras.  We will see.  Thanks for the clarification CC.  I'll let you know how it works out.

[myjillian]

On 2/27/2019 at 11:48 AM, peachyjam said:

I was also on the Hawaii cruise over Christmas and can attest that it was so horrible and useless about 95% of the 14 day cruise.

 

I am actually sailing again on Grand Princess again on March 20 to  Mexico in 3 weeks and I am purchasing the package begrudgingly again.

However time I will complain way more if it doesnt work.  They really should not be offering this package if it doesn't work. 

 

 

keep sailing until your Elite and then you'll get those sllloooooowwwwwwww minutes FOR FREE😁

[xCity]

Any more recent cruisers want to share their internet experience on board the Grand Princess?  I'm assuming it's probably still as slow since there hasn't been any new work done on the ship since the dry dock?

[Cruise Raider]

On 11/15/2019 at 7:19 PM, xCity said:

Any more recent cruisers want to share their internet experience on board the Grand Princess?  I'm assuming it's probably still as slow since there hasn't been any new work done on the ship since the dry dock?

 

We were onboard last month ... the internet is still awful.  Most times, I just couldn't even log on and by the looks of the numerous people complaining about it at the front desk, they couldn't either.  There are many other things to love about the Grand, namely the staff, the internet is not one of them.  

[xCity]

On 11/17/2019 at 4:54 PM, Cruise Raider said:

 

We were onboard last month ... the internet is still awful.  Most times, I just couldn't even log on and by the looks of the numerous people complaining about it at the front desk, they couldn't either.  There are many other things to love about the Grand, namely the staff, the internet is not one of them.  

 

Thanks for the info.  I just checked princess.com, and it looks like they pushed up the install/activation of MedallionNet to 12/3/2019.  Hopefully that will solve the connectivity issues.

[Cruise Raider]

12 minutes ago, xCity said:

 

Thanks for the info.  I just checked princess.com, and it looks like they pushed up the install/activation of MedallionNet to 12/3/2019.  Hopefully that will solve the connectivity issues.

 

That would be fabulous as we are sailing on the Grand again in January!  I would love it if they had decent internet services for that sailing.  Thanks for the update.