When / How to upgrade Plat 30 min free Internet to Unlimited?

[SAPMAN]

As Plat, my wife and I both have 30 min free internet.  If we want to upgrade to Unlimited, can we do this in advance or have to wait on board or ??

 

Thanks.

[don't-use-real-name]

I believe that you must do this on board.

The Unlimited packages can be purchased in advance but the conversion can not be done till on board.

You will need to visit the Internet Café and talk with the agent.

He will be very busy the first day of the cruise.

Best contact on the second day or as late as possible on the first night - check his hours of operation and

where the heck is Waldo his little corner of the ship !

You can take your 30 minutes (each) and use that initially in setting up your internet account.

And sadly I don't think the 30 minutes has any conversion value in going to the Unlimited.

The program that does is the Promo with 5 offers of 250 minutes that is convertible.

Unless you are big time users of the internet you could get by with your 30 minutes each and use any

free services at ports of call or with your smart phone at those ports in the USA Canada.

The best feature about the unlimited plan is not having to worry about signing off and receiving S-L-O-W

service when connected wasting precious time.

Telling us your ship and itinerary may offer more helpful clues about what is the best application.

 

 

[zqvol]

You can do it any time, but if you upgrade before you use the 30 minutes you basically lose the 30 minutes. IMO the 30 minutes are worthless if you are going to upgrade to unlimited, so I would just do it before boarding.

 

I base this on doing exactly this on our recent Gem B2B (we got home last Friday so I know it works this way).

Edited October 22, 2019 by zqvol

[SAPMAN]

So glad I asked. You guys are great.   I re-checked and do have the 250 minutes as one of my perks.  So I will try to get on early (as Platinum should help) and go straight to Internet desk.  I guess there are reasons, but wish they could do this (and other things) before embarkation.  We are on the Jade  Singapore to HK 12 days. I know i can get WiFi in ports, but likely will not have too much free time there as we have many excursions - but do have an overnight in Bangkok where I can catch up at the hotel.    Thanks again.  Very helpful.  

 

 

 

[don't-use-real-name]

24 minutes ago, SAPMAN said:

So glad I asked. You guys are great.   I re-checked and do have the 250 minutes as one of my perks.  So I will try to get on early (as Platinum should help) and go straight to Internet desk.  I guess there are reasons, but wish they could do this (and other things) before embarkation.  We are on the Jade  Singapore to HK 12 days. I know i can get WiFi in ports, but likely will not have too much free time there as we have many excursions - but do have an overnight in Bangkok where I can catch up at the hotel.    Thanks again.  Very helpful.  

 

 

 

Since you are on a foreign cruise your USA smart phone would not be of much use for internet use - but overall

you have a workable plan and even better with that 250 minute promo which converted will cut the cost of the

Unlimited plans in half and no worry about signing off. That 250 minute plan evaporates after 4 hours and 10 minutes.

So do the conversion - there are two plans depending on how extreme your internet use demands. LINK:

 

https://www.ncl.com/onboard-packages/internet-packages

[mking8288]

2 hours ago, SAPMAN said:

... do have the 250 minutes as one of my perks.  So I will try to get on early ... on the Jade  Singapore to HK 12 days. I know i can get WiFi in ports ... 

 

Actually, check your offers online again - under the reservations (now or soon, as it get closer) - internet upgrade offers should be there, with the "discounted" prices to upgrade now, taking into account the full trade-up value of that 250 minutes ... and, be done with.  No need to stand in line abroad in SGN.  

 

Prepaid visitors/traveler's sim cards - short term plans are inexpensive in SGN and HKG ... you might still want to get one to use while in town, they can be picked up on arrival at the airport (passport is needed in SGN).  If you are connecting via HKG: (time-permitting during your layover) 7-11 shops airside also sell select sim card/plans for travelers, cheap & easy to activate (passport not needed) - tell the agent/sales you will be in SGN, Thailand, VN before returning to HKG and they can recommend a compatible smartphone sim card w. loaded store value to use.  Probably want to load extra $$ values onto that sim as part of the activation process - to have sufficient values for use ashore in different ports.  

[Hotspring]

3 hours ago, SAPMAN said:

So glad I asked. You guys are great.   I re-checked and do have the 250 minutes as one of my perks.  So I will try to get on early (as Platinum should help) and go straight to Internet desk.  I guess there are reasons, but wish they could do this (and other things) before embarkation.  We are on the Jade  Singapore to HK 12 days. I know i can get WiFi in ports, but likely will not have too much free time there as we have many excursions - but do have an overnight in Bangkok where I can catch up at the hotel.    Thanks again.  Very helpful.  

 

 

 

Hey, that desk may not yet be open that early.    But if you purchase the upgrade ahead of time you will see that once you are on board, or perhaps right beside the ship, that you can sign in to the NCL App, follow the prompts and have access to your unlimited access without additional support.   Spend you time elsewhere, such as completing your reservations.  Enjoy.

[erdoran]

Are you able to upgrade pre-cruise and get the credit for 250 mins?  I thought you weren’t, that you had to wait till you are onboard.

[SAPMAN]

Thanks again for the advice.  I will try to upgrade in advance.  And get SIM.

   I do have NCL app. 

[ggTexasGal]

1 hour ago, SAPMAN said:

Thanks again for the advice.  I will try to upgrade in advance.  And get SIM.

   I do have NCL app. 

Have you checked your "My NCL" account?  There should be a place that offers the upgrade.  Look for "Explore and Plan", then where it says "What's Onboard", scroll down to "Internet Packages"!

I hope this helps you,

gg

[Mike_DeA]

The free 30 minutes have no value.  As noted above, you can upgrade the Free at Sea 250 plan to unlimited and get a credit of $125 towards an unlimited plan.  Now you can do this online before your trip.  Previously it was only available once onboard.

 

Just a suggestions, but you can save one day's worth of the unlimited plan ($30 or $35) by not upgrading until the 2nd day of the cruise.  Pretty much any time after midnight would work.  You can use your free 30 minutes on embarkation day if you need to be online. 

 

Either way, if you decide to wait and upgrade onboard you can do it without assistance, by logging into your account and going online, select your free 250 min plan, then it will ask you if you want to upgrade and show you the prices for unlimited and unlimited with streaming, along with your $125 credit for the 250 min plan.

[ddlb]

12 hours ago, mking8288 said:

 

Actually, check your offers online again - under the reservations (now or soon, as it get closer) - internet upgrade offers should be there, with the "discounted" prices to upgrade now, taking into account the full trade-up value of that 250 minutes ... and, be done with.  No need to stand in line abroad in SGN.  

 

Prepaid visitors/traveler's sim cards - short term plans are inexpensive in SGN and HKG ... you might still want to get one to use while in town, they can be picked up on arrival at the airport (passport is needed in SGN).  If you are connecting via HKG: (time-permitting during your layover) 7-11 shops airside also sell select sim card/plans for travelers, cheap & easy to activate (passport not needed) - tell the agent/sales you will be in SGN, Thailand, VN before returning to HKG and they can recommend a compatible smartphone sim card w. loaded store value to use.  Probably want to load extra $$ values onto that sim as part of the activation process - to have sufficient values for use ashore in different ports.  

I just bought a sim for my ipad air from amazon for $18.28 - internet with legs that provides 3 gb of data for the ports on my med cruise. Will be using texting and calling apps like pinger and whats app and messenger etc.  beats  paying for  unlimited as I didn't get the 250 min perk.    But will use the 30 min perk on ship.