Majestic Princess Wifi/Internet/Gratuity

[Holiday Junkie]

We will be going on the Majestic Princess in January. Sydney-Fiji. Does anyone know if there is Internet connectivity or Wifi available? All my searches show that Wifi is not yet available. If no Wifi, does that then also mean we can not utilize all of the benefits of the Medallion? Also, since we are Canadian but sailing from Australia, would there be an automatic gratuity added for us? I understand sailings from Australia are exempt.

[GUT2407]

1 hour ago, Holiday Junkie said:

We will be going on the Majestic Princess in January. Sydney-Fiji. Does anyone know if there is Internet connectivity or Wifi available? All my searches show that Wifi is not yet available. If no Wifi, does that then also mean we can not utilize all of the benefits of the Medallion? Also, since we are Canadian but sailing from Australia, would there be an automatic gratuity added for us? I understand sailings from Australia are exempt.

Certainly has internet.

doesn’t have medallion

I think the exemption is only if you book in Australia so. So I Expect You will hav e gratuities added

 

Got off her a few days Ago

Edited December 28, 2019 by GUT2407

[azbirdmom]

There are three unlimited internet packages but as GUT2407 has said, it's not MedallionNet.  Still it allowed us to do anything we wanted to do in terms of keeping up with friends and family.

 

And unless you have booked under a promo that includes complementary gratuities, you will be charged the auto-tip.

[crystalspin]

Ship can have MedallionNet without OceanMedallion but not the other way around. You can buy internet/wifi on the old system. This is what we will have on the Golden next June.

[Holiday Junkie]

Sorry, but I don’t know what the difference is between MedallionNet and Ocean Medallion.

[lstone19]

38 minutes ago, Holiday Junkie said:

Sorry, but I don’t know what the difference is between MedallionNet and Ocean Medallion.

 

MedallionNet is the new Internet service on Princess ships. Ocean Medallion is the device that has replace your cruise card for charging to your account and unlocking your room. The only thing they have in common is the word "medallion"; other than that, to the customer, they're independent systems but thanks to the marketers having fallen in love with the word "medallion", much confusion has been created.

[satxdiver]

It is my understanding that Aussie booked cruises don't pay gratuities because the gratuity is built into the price of the cabin.  Thus one way or the other you are expected to pay the gratuity.  Another small gotcha is that the OBC granted in USD is converted to AUD on a 1 to 1 basis and not at the current exchange rate.  

 

Interesting that all of the royal class ships have or will have MedallionClass except the Majestic.   The ship strangely does not appear to be on the schedule for implementation in 2020.  

 

The OP will have to buy blocks of minutes to use the ship internet unless Platinum or above and receive the free block of time (100 or 250 minutes depending on the length of the cruise).  

[azbirdmom]

1 hour ago, satxdiver said:

It is my understanding that Aussie booked cruises don't pay gratuities because the gratuity is built into the price of the cabin.  Thus one way or the other you are expected to pay the gratuity.  Another small gotcha is that the OBC granted in USD is converted to AUD on a 1 to 1 basis and not at the current exchange rate.  

 

Interesting that all of the royal class ships have or will have MedallionClass except the Majestic.   The ship strangely does not appear to be on the schedule for implementation in 2020.  

 

The OP will have to buy blocks of minutes to use the ship internet unless Platinum or above and receive the free block of time (100 or 250 minutes depending on the length of the cruise).  

 

We had a promo that paid the auto tip on our voyage on the Majestic in October.  Aussies have it baked into the price of the cruise.  What was displayed in the "paid" section of the CP for gratuities was the same amount as it would be on any other ship, so it would seem that the tip pool would get shorted in the cases where the guest doesn't have a promo and is paying for it in AUD.

 

When onboard we were told that they were wiring the Majestic for OM and MedallionNet in March but they have only announced the date for the latter rollout which is April 18th.  I too find it peculiar that OM isn't on the schedule yet.

 

Finally, as I had mentioned, the Majestic does have the three unlimited Internet packages, I did not see any minutes-based packages available for sale but Platinums and Elites got their usual free minutes.  I bought the middle "Surf" package on the first day of the cruise and got a 25% discount by "turning in" my free minutes.  It sufficed for everything I wanted to do other than oddly I couldn't download a book on OverDrive from my library.  The Internet Manager said there were pages of exclusions and conditions for each package.  I told him they should publish those somewhere so folks could make an informed decision on which package to buy.  He agreed but said he doesn't make the rules.

[1025cruise]

PescardoAmarillo is currently on the Majestic. She has basically said that if she didn't have the 250 minutes of internet included, she wouldn't have wasted her money on it. She just got off the Ruby where they have the upgraded wifi which was a wonderful experience.

[Holiday Junkie]

So that means we wouldn’t even get that little medallion to get into our room? We had that on our last Princess cruise and it was really handy, especially to be able to find our friends on the ship.

 

in regards to the internet package, how much are they charging for it? I guess then one would have to go to the business centre to use it?

[Colo Cruiser]

15 minutes ago, Holiday Junkie said:

So that means we wouldn’t even get that little medallion to get into our room? We had that on our last Princess cruise and it was really handy, especially to be able to find our friends on the ship.

 

in regards to the internet package, how much are they charging for it? I guess then one would have to go to the business centre to use it?

(unless you are Platinum or above and qualify for the free minutes as mentioned in the next post below you would have to pay for minutes to use)

You would obtain the free minutes or pay for minutes on your phone or tablet or computer and it would be good all over the ship including your cabin. 

If you don't have any of those devices then you would go to the 

internet Cafe to purchase to use the computers there.

[geoherb]

2 hours ago, satxdiver said:

The OP will have to buy blocks of minutes to use the ship internet unless Platinum or above and receive the free block of time (100 or 250 minutes depending on the length of the cruise).  

 

The Platinum and above free internet minutes are 150 for cruises of up to 7 days in length, 250 for cruises 8 to 20 days, and 500 for cruises 21-plus days. If you're booked on individual segments, you should receive the amount of minutes per segment booked, although some internet managers try to give you the number of minutes based on your total days. I had to protest to get 300 minutes for my back-to-back cruises this summer on the Island Princess. 

[Holiday Junkie]

I just noticed on Princess.com that there is supposed to be a Princess@Sea Option that allows one to message other passengers. Does anyone know if it is available on the Majestic as well? 

[Colo Cruiser]

2 minutes ago, Holiday Junkie said:

I just noticed on Princess.com that there is supposed to be a Princess@Sea Option that allows one to message other passengers. Does anyone know if it is available on the Majestic as well? 

It is available on all Princess ships.

Anybody messaging each other has to allow it on their device.

There is no sound notification so you have to consistently check to see if there is a message.