Holland America Internet Packages

[eyeeye]

Sailing on the NA in a few weeks. Any update or tips on internet packages ? 

 

TIA

[POA1]

They're unlimited now with three tiers. I tried to search for the thread where someone gave the pricing based on the length of a cruise, but I don't think that CruiseCritic is done indexing their database. 

[Turtles06]

On our recent 20-day Zuiderdam cruise, the middle tier "surf" package cost approx. $10/day (for one device).  The lowest tier package was for social media only -- no email or surfing the web.  (The middle tier "surf" package allowed email and surfing, and was sufficient for our needs.) The highest priced package allowed streaming.  All the packages were unlimited.   Things started out well the first week or so, but midway through the cruise the internet became frustratingly slow, except in the middle of the night.

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

Edited October 22, 2018 by Turtles06

[OlsSalt]

Don't have the price, but we got the lower "Surf" tier too for the entire cruise - slow and pokey at times, other time fine. We were in pretty remote areas but as DH said, this is satellite so it should not have mattered.  But it was nice to know we were not paying by the minute.  The internet quirks were a running joke on the ship with a lot of knowing laughs, but this is way better than the former plan by the minutes only. 

Edited October 22, 2018 by OlsSalt

[richwmn]

As I stated on another thread, I don't know where this came from but it was posted to the VoV Roll Call. From what I have seen, I believe it is accurate

 

[Alberta Quilter]

On my 28 day cruise, the Surf plan was $259.99, same cost as the 31 day plan in the listing above.

[ellieanne]

The list above reflects the pricing from my cruise in January.

 

I can say that they mean it when the Social Package only allows access to the named social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and maybe a couple of others). If all you want, like me, is to check your email or do a bit of internet banking/bill paying, then the Surf Package is what you need. But even so, $24.99/day is insane for pricing. Better to sign up for a VPN and use the free/provided internet at shore-based Starbucks or the like. It actually worked out cheaper for my husband to pay the fee to have unlimited data roaming on his Australian based phone and for us to use that as a hotspot!

 

I am not pleased with the new internet pricing schemes. I wish they would return to a minute-based system for those of us who just need a few minutes each day to keep up with important projects at work or handle a bit of banking.

[Turtles06]

24 minutes ago, ellieanne said:

The list above reflects the pricing from my cruise in January.

 

I can say that they mean it when the Social Package only allows access to the named social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and maybe a couple of others). If all you want, like me, is to check your email or do a bit of internet banking/bill paying, then the Surf Package is what you need. But even so, $24.99/day is insane for pricing. Better to sign up for a VPN and use the free/provided internet at shore-based Starbucks or the like. It actually worked out cheaper for my husband to pay the fee to have unlimited data roaming on his Australian based phone and for us to use that as a hotspot!

 

I am not pleased with the new internet pricing schemes. I wish they would return to a minute-based system for those of us who just need a few minutes each day to keep up with important projects at work or handle a bit of banking.

I agree that $24.99/day is insane for internet pricing, but as the chart above shows, that’s not really the price.  The longer the cruise, the cheaper the price.  As I mentioned in another comment, we paid $10/day for the surf plan on our recent Zuiderdam Cruise.  This is a good bit less than we are paying for unlimited internet on an upcoming Celebrity cruise.  Overall though, I think the cruise lines are charging too much for internet access.

[ellieanne]

44 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

I agree that $24.99/day is insane for internet pricing, but as the chart above shows, that’s not really the price.  The longer the cruise, the cheaper the price.  As I mentioned in another comment, we paid $10/day for the surf plan on our recent Zuiderdam Cruise.  This is a good bit less than we are paying for unlimited internet on an upcoming Celebrity cruise.  Overall though, I think the cruise lines are charging too much for internet access.

Yes, but even at the cheapest per/day pricing it was more than I needed to pay for the grand total of half an hour I was on the internet. I would have happily paid $24.99 for 24 hours of time, to be used across several days. But if I needed the internet for a few minutes only a couple of days on my 11 day cruise, I paid $50 for 30 minutes across 2 separate days (so like a Wednesday and Saturday, not a Wednesday and Thursday.) That's a lot compared to the per-minute pricing plans that were offered previously which could be used across the whole cruise, not just on a specific 24-hour period.

[ksqueak]

I just got off the Prinsendam on Oct 13.  The above chart were the quoted prices, however when I actually signed up for the social plan - it only cost me $99 for 14 days.  I missed having access to the internet but I was able to take care of what I needed to.  It looked all the plans had some sort of discount applied if you signed up for the whole voyage. 

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

How is the 5 star Mariner benefit of a 50% discount on the  100 minutes Internet package handled with this new tier arrangement?

[Dogstar]

Is there still a “last day” small minutes package option, or similar variant? Just need to do the usual airline check-in & seat assignments thing. 

[POA1]

Thanks for the table Rich. It matches what I was quoted for our upcoming cruise. For me, the new pricing works out much better. I would have needed a $250 and $100 per minute plan on our 10 day sailing. 

[drlee]

Our experience was a $30 discount on internet packages, not 50% for five stars. (Prinsendam in July)

[POA1]

5 minutes ago, drlee said:

Our experience was a $30 discount on internet packages, not 50% for five stars. (Prinsendam in July)

That seems fair. It's anywhere from 2 to 4 free days depending on the length of the cruise. Of course, it still doesn't help people who only use a few minutes per cruise.

[STANCPA44]

Can you buy the internet package before you cruise?

[POA1]

2 minutes ago, STANCPA44 said:

Can you buy the internet package before you cruise?

Only on the longer voyages, like Grand Voyages.

[kazu]

3 hours ago, STANCPA44 said:

Can you buy the internet package before you cruise?

 

3 hours ago, POA1 said:

Only on the longer voyages, like Grand Voyages.

POA1 is correct.

 

What I do is buy any on board credit in advance so that the internet is paid for before I cruise and I don't have a big bill after the cruise.

 

It works the same if that helps.

[POA1]

2 hours ago, kazu said:

 

POA1 is correct.

 

What I do is buy any on board credit in advance so that the internet is paid for before I cruise and I don't have a big bill after the cruise.

 

It works the same if that helps.

I do that as well because it's a business expense and I need to pay for it separately. 

[eyeeye]

any idea if it is per stateroom or device?

[Turtles06]

14 minutes ago, eyeeye said:

any idea if it is per stateroom or device?

If you are referring to the internet package prices, those are per device.  If you buy a one-device package, you can share the package with anyone, but only one device may be logged on at a time.

Edited October 27, 2018 by Turtles06

[gingermegs]

Just off Noordam and took the premium package. Is a waste, as the internet is so slow you cannot possibly stream or FaceTime. 

Best value is the surf package. 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for sharing. 

[gjkov]

Because I need to still do some work when traveling, we purchased the premium package for $189 for our recent (October) 11 night cruise. DH and I shared the package, which meant only one of us could be online at a time, but that worked well for us. We rarely experienced any problems with the speed or connectivity. Occasionally during “high usage” mid day times on sea days. It was certainly slower than our service at home, but that’s to be expected with any satellite service. I was able to email, upload and download documents with minimal issue. DH did some video streaming and reported it acceptable as well. 

Beyond that we found the complimentary HAL app to be very nice! It has a chat feature to allow you to communicate with your travel companions (or anyone onboard) without internet access. Also access to a few internet sites, link to dining (times, menus, etc), and “What’s Happening” which was basically a digital version of the daily schedule. I found myself using this feature often.

[richwmn]

Just boarded Koningsdam, Internet is minute plans