Upgrade from free to unlimited wifi midway thru cruise?

[erdoran]

Doing 14 day cruise that’s fairly port-intensive, but also do have a few sea days, most notably the last three....we are debating whether to go with the 250 mins perk plus 50 min platinum free wifi and do the more intensive online stuff in port vs upgrading to unlimited - although I will most likely have to keep in touch with work and who knows what family disasters will happen while we are away....

 

Having said that, do you know if we have the option to upgrade at any point during the trip - even during the second week - and if we have used up our free time before upgrading, do we still get credit?  

 

I seem to remember last spring on Jade which was also a 14 day cruise the unlimited wifi was only available the first two days but not sure.  Anyone know?  If it matters, this is Bliss 1/5/20 2-wk W. Caribbean.

 

TIA

[mking8288]

For 14 nights, you should be able to upgrade as late as Day 4 to the unlimited options & get credit for the 250 minutes.  

 

On our January NYC "Escape" on a port intensive itinerary, we managed without it, used cellular data in ports.

[BirdTravels]

38 minutes ago, erdoran said:

Having said that, do you know if we have the option to upgrade at any point during the trip - even during the second week - and if we have used up our free time before upgrading, do we still get credit?  

Make sure to talk directly to the internet manager on embarkation day and get the specific answer for your cruise (vs something on Cruise Critic). Normally it is day 1 and 2 only because they want to make money off of you. 

[mking8288]

Here's ours, terms & pricing & offers subject to change without prior notice, and as always, YMMV ... retrieved from our unlimited edu's online Google drive.

 

Upper left has the terms for the offer - zoomable.

 

[erdoran]

Thanks guys!

[MLA]

I decided it was not worth fretting over how many minutes I had left and upgraded to unlimited online for $224 (Bliss, 2 week sailing). I don’t see how you could upgrade on board after already using your free at sea 250 minutes and get the deal minus that $125. It seems to me you could only get the unlimited minus the $125 if you didn’t use any minutes on board prior to upgrading. Of course, math is not my forte, so correct me if I’m wrong. My TA said it wasn’t possible too,by the way. 

[Pduaime]

We'll be a 12 day cruise in February and have the 250 minute package included.  If we get to the point that we have use up our minutes, but still have one or two days of the cruise left, is it possible to purchase just one day for the daily rate of $24.99.  

[mking8288]

2 hours ago, MLA said:

I decided it was not worth fretting (snipped) ... upgraded to unlimited online for $224 (Bliss, 2 week sailing). I don’t see how you could upgrade on board after already using your free at sea 250 minutes ... only get the unlimited minus the $125 if you didn’t use any minutes ... prior to upgrading.

 

Correct/point of clarifications - the upgrade credit is good before you activate/use any of the free 250 minutes associated with the booking/stateroom - we did ours last week on the Dawn's 8 nights - on Day 3, just charged only the upgrade difference for 6 days = $30 x 6 @ $180 less $125 for $55, against non-refundable OBC in our account.  

 

We only used up our Platinum/+ minutes (120+10) on embarkation late evening only (day 1) and next full sea day ... day 3 with a midday arrival to port / stop #1 with shore signals (cellular & free WiFi inside the terminal) ...   

 

59 minutes ago, Pduaime said:

We'll be a 12 day cruise in February and have the 250 minute package included.  If we get to the point that we have use up our minutes, but still have one or two days of the cruise left, is it possible to purchase just one day for the daily rate of $24.99.  

 

The unlimited basic plan can be purchased up to day 3 (maybe day 4) on a 12 nights (with a 7 nights - only as late as day 2 for 6 day's worth) for the remaining duration, not just a day or two of your choosing.  

 

For light users, toward the end of the cruise - smaller plans for 15 or 30 minutes are offered, in addition to the 100 or 250 minutes paid plans available throughout the cruise - for infrequent usage.  

 

Usable data transfer, latency & connections are the worst on that last 1 or 2 days of the cruise (reconfirming air travel, online check-in, changing hotel & car rental reservations, etc.) so it can be frustrating even on an unlimited basic or premium streaming plan.  

 

As I noted in our recent Gem sailing's blog last week, we took full advantage of fast 3.5G and 4G/LTE cellular data speed whenever we are within range of land towers abroad (non-USA carriers) ... dirty cheap pricing on Google Fi's plan, split among 3 devices - for no more than $10 to $15 USD in total/extra charges. 

 

Check & have a look at your itinerary on port stops and whether you can "meter" & save those "free" minutes for sea days.  

Edited December 26, 2019 by mking8288