Holland America Internet Packages

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, FlorenceItaly said:

May we call and add(and pay for) plan before leaving?   We have a 51 day cruise later in the year and I would like to prepay as much as I can.  Thank you!

 

Iirc, in August, we could not buy a plan before boarding, at least not via the HAL web site. If it is the case that you must buy it in board, couldn’t you at least buy yourself some OBC to cover the cost, which would at least deal with your prepayment desire? 

 

Edited to add: obviously I was typing just as richwmn was posting. 

Edited January 25, 2019 by Turtles06

[FlorenceItaly]

Thank you both.  Great idea!

[loonyhiker]

We are looking at doing a 24 day cruise on the Zuiderdam in May. Does anyone know if these unlimited internet rates are the same on the Zuiderdam? 

[drowelf]

2 hours ago, loonyhiker said:

We are looking at doing a 24 day cruise on the Zuiderdam in May. Does anyone know if these unlimited internet rates are the same on the Zuiderdam? 

All the information I've seen is that the rates are constant across all the ships. Its the tier you select and the number of days on your cruise that affects the price. 

[TX_Wyldcat]

3 hours ago, loonyhiker said:

We are looking at doing a 24 day cruise on the Zuiderdam in May. Does anyone know if these unlimited internet rates are the same on the Zuiderdam? 

 

I am on the Zuiderdam March 31 and there is an option to pre-order the Premium Internet package for $143.99 for the ten day cruise. No options for the Social or Surf levels. I might have to get it as a trial since I would like to take some longer cruises but can't take that much vacation time. If I can work from the Lido during sea days it could be a great deal.

[richwmn]

3 minutes ago, TX_Wyldcat said:

 

I am on the Zuiderdam March 31 and there is an option to pre-order the Premium Internet package for $143.99 for the ten day cruise. No options for the Social or Surf levels. I might have to get it as a trial since I would like to take some longer cruises but can't take that much vacation time. If I can work from the Lido during sea days it could be a great deal.

Unless what you need to do includes streaming video and maybe video calls, I would stick to the surf package. For the first few cruises I did with the tiered packages I paid for the Premium Package as I thought I would need it. On my more recent three weeks I purchased only the surf package and it was fine for my needs. It will allow voice calls using What'sAp and Vontage VoIP.  There will be no problem purchasing it once you are on board.

[JennysUncle]

In Jan/Feb we were on the Koningsdam.  There was a new staffer - the Digital Communications Manager (named Moses).  His job was to help anyone with their phone/tablet/computer problems.  He was available for much of the day, either at a desk by the Front Office or a desk in the Crows Nest.  He said that this was a test and encouraged feedback.  It is an attempt to deal with all the problems that other staff who don't have appropriate skills have had to deal with.  He was very helpful, so I hope that this is rolled out to all the ships.  (Sort of offsets the loss of the librarian.)

 

Anyhow, back to the point of this thread:  he said that "they" were well aware of the dissatisfaction of a lot of passengers with the new internet pricing.  While it is a good deal for the serious internet users, it is way overpriced for those who only need a few minutes now and then to check email.  He said that some sort of low usage rate is being considered.

 

I hope that comes through - I'm one of those 4-minutes at 0.75 users, and not about to spend $25 a day, or even $10/day net.  Adding a bunch of low-volume users would not affect the throughput for those on the high tier.

 

It may be that there is a technical problem.  Given what has been reported about the "limits" on the tiers, it seems that they do not really have a way to throttle or limit the usage by account.

[tv24]

So do the costs of the internet packages vary from ship to ship?  And according to the length of the cruise?

[richwmn]

38 minutes ago, tv24 said:

So do the costs of the internet packages vary from ship to ship?  And according to the length of the cruise?

Not from ship to ship, yes to length of cruise.

 

All ships now have the three tiered plans which get cheaper per day as the cruise gets longer.

 

[tv24]

37 minutes ago, richwmn said:

Not from ship to ship, yes to length of cruise.

 

All ships now have the three tiered plans which get cheaper per day as the cruise gets longer.

 

Thanks for the info.  We'll figure out what works best for us once we are on board.