New Internet Plans and Pricing

[colonialinnkeeper]

Just disembarked from back to back on Oosterdam.  After first segment a new internet plan was implemented called  "Social/Surf/Premium" Internet packages.  This was supposedly done after some upgrades were made on the internet system.  There are no more plans that offer "minutes" but rather you buy it per day (24 hour hour period from first use).  The Social plan offers just being able to surf social media sites (no email use) such as Facebook and is priced at $14.95, the Surf package (includes email)  at $24.95 and the Premium at $29.95.  As far as I could tell there was no increase in speed and I couldn't download most of my email.    Very disappointed in this new system and hope that we can have a choice of minutes or this new program.  Very expensive IMHO with no benefit.  

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for the new prices.  It is expensive.  

[knittinggirl]

That's pretty much what we had on the Veendam last month.  Mentioning it, because the Veendam is a older ship w/o much of the newer bells and whistles.  They did prorate it, because I purchased mine about halfway through the cruise.

[Cruising-along]

We had the Surf Package for 38 days on the Voyage of the Vikings.  It worked very well for us, and even seemed faster than previous experiences with by the minute plans.  I guess it just depends on what ship, we were on the Rotterdam.  We actually spent less money because the connection was so fast.  We had no problems.  

[ricka47]

We'll be on the Nieuw Amsterdam next week and I was planning to purchase the weekly plan.  But, it appears that only "per day" is available and not for the entire cruise?  Is there a usage limit per day?

[kwb101]

On Zuiderdam in April and May, the plans you mention were available, but the Surf plan was also available for $10/day only if you purchased it for the remainder of the voyage (I'm not sure if there was an equivalent discount for the other two). IIRC, you could buy the $10/day plan at any time, but it was only for all remaining days, and expired at midnight on the day you docked. Hope this makes sense. 

[Cruising-along]

2 hours ago, ricka47 said:

We'll be on the Nieuw Amsterdam next week and I was planning to purchase the weekly plan.  But, it appears that only "per day" is available and not for the entire cruise?  Is there a usage limit per day?

We got ours for the entire cruise.  I think there is a usage limit but we never hit the limit and used it a lot.

[drowelf]

2 hours ago, ricka47 said:

We'll be on the Nieuw Amsterdam next week and I was planning to purchase the weekly plan.  But, it appears that only "per day" is available and not for the entire cruise?  Is there a usage limit per day?

When you dig into it, you should be able to find that you can buy it for the entire cruise as a discounted rate. Back in August we where on the Prinsendam for 14 days. The Surf Plan is the one I'd always need, as I need to be able to access web sites and my email server(s). So it was $24.95 for a single day, but on embarkation it was $169.95 (or maybe .99), which brings the per cost down to about $12.15/day. I seem to remember seeing that this rate stayed pretty much the same as the cruise when on. For example when there was 11 days left it would have been about $134.95. It was not always an exact multiple, as I think they round it up.down to the nearest $5 mark. 

 

I never encountered any performance issues for the stuff I was doing. I even had to VPN into a client site a couple of times to take care of some emergency stuff. 

 

The per minute plans are gone, gone, gone. I don't even think they offered the 15 minute plan at the end of the cruise for folks to do online check-in. 

 

[ricka47]

That sounds much better than $25 per day.  I teach online and, while my students are generally self-paced, I do need to keep an eye on them.  So, that should work out fine.  I've done this from Celebrity and RCI ships without any issues and hope it will be the same on HAL.

[NYteacher]

Does anyone know which specific social media sites are included in the social media package? I ask because I’m thinking of gifting one for my 16 year old son. He doesn’t use Facebook (according to him ‘no one’ uses Facebook anymore). He does use Instagram and SnapChat. It would also be a way for him to keep in touch with his girlfriend back home. 

[a.madruga]

We go on cruises to get away from the hustle and bustle but do understand that the need is there for some cruisers JMO good luck to all interested 

[Sonora5]

We were on the 26 day Oosterdam b2b as well. We had not purchased the internet package (old system) at the beginning of the cruise because we had so many port days. We did want to purchase it for the last week (the TA part).

HAL changed to the new system halfway through. We use a ton of internet and I have to be in touch with the office, so we bought the most expensive package. It was 29.95/day, with an offer to upgrade to 7 days for $110. That is what we did.

 

It was extremely slow for the first day or so, then it sped up somewhat. However, it was troublesome enough that we wanted to book a future cruise while on Board, but the FCC was backed up because of the slow slow speed.

 

We were told that HAL is doing another upgrade in January.

[kwb101]

2 hours ago, drowelf said:

When you dig into it, you should be able to find that you can buy it for the entire cruise as a discounted rate. <snip> 

Sorry for my lack of clarity: we were offered all three plans ar a one-day-at-a-time rate (surf was $24.95) OR $10 per day ($200 total) for the 20 days of the voyage.  The $10 offer was on the same page with all the other plan info, there was no digging to be done.  This offer was available throughout the trip, so you could sign up at any time for the $10/day rate,  but you paid for all the remaining days at once. I expect similar offers were available for the other plans. 

Speeds were anywhere from moderate to almost zero, and (again, IIRC) daily limits were Social 200MB, Surf 300MB, and Premium 500MB. 

[alwaysfrantic]

7 hours ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

Thank you for the new prices.  It is expensive.  

That is REALLY expensive!

[kwb101]

$10 a day is expensive? It's about the same as a glass of wine (plus gratuity) onboard. Please forgive me: I live in California, where almost everything is expensive, but, given the cost of things onboard, $10 doesn't seem too bad. Actually,  I balk at the wine and liquor prices (coffee drinks are pretty much on par with where we live in northern part of the state).

OTOH, if you're paying by the day, $24.95 is steep...but that's why we paid for the whole trip in advance at a 60% discount.

Check the main HAL board for other threads about this. One thing to consider is that your connection is through a satellite, which isn't cheap.

Good luck, enjoy your trip! 

[ricka47]

On HAL, do you sign up for access once on board by logging on or do you have to go to Guest Services to get set up?

[catl331]

Easy self-setup. Select the guest network, open a browser, enter "login.com"

 

Edited November 13, 2018 by catl331

[whogo]

I spent $334.98 on the surf package for our 38 day cruise on the Noordam, roughly $9 per day. Only sold a month at a time, had to make a second purchase for the remaining days. All was spelled out clearly, I got what I paid for.

 

Laundry package was $228 or only $6 per day.