Query about Internet charges

[CABINET]

Way back in early 2022 we decided to book a cruise to the Canaries this winter.

 

We are getting close to final payment so I have started to give it some thought and I notice that our Platinum benefits regarding the internet has changed from 140 minutes to $80 towards an internet 'plan'.

 

Personally the 140 minutes worked well enough for us as we just logged in occasionally throughout our holiday to get our emails and reply to any that we wished to.

 

We don't need to be online for the whole holiday but I can't really work out whether we can just buy internet for say four days at a daily rate and use up our $80 one at a time which would cover us for sea days.  My partner has free roaming in Europe so we could use that when on land. 

 

Does anybody know whether we can use our credit for just a few odd days here and there (I see that they charge more if you buy by the day) or whether it will only be redeemable against a 'plan' for the whole holiday.

 

Sorry if I haven't been very clear. 

[Host Hattie]

Yes, that's what we do. We also share 1 login via Bluetooth.

[exlondoner]

You an buy a day at a time, which stretches it out quite well if you don’t have it for port days.

[TheOldBear]

If you buy a plan, the WC internet credit applied is only for one person - the other passenger's WC credit is not applied unless you sign up for two separate plans.

 

The WC credit went quite a bit further on the older 'minute by minute' plan than the current 'any usage is the same charge as a full day' plan.

 

Things are likely to have some changes before our October 2024 sailing, but with today's prices we will buy a day at a time until the both our WC internet credits are expended. We _might_ buy a plan for any remaining days.

[alibabacruisers]

How does that work, buying a day at a time?  It sounds so confusing.

[TheOldBear]

15 minutes ago, alibabacruisers said:

How does that work, buying a day at a time?  It sounds so confusing.

its just a sign in option - fee deducted first from WC internet credit and then charged to the onboard account.

Last time, only my WC internet credit was applied - Mrs Bear's credit was not used - and could not be applied once the 'whole voyage' rate was applied.

[bluemarble]

52 minutes ago, alibabacruisers said:

How does that work, buying a day at a time?  It sounds so confusing.

 

When you buy an individual day, you have a full 24 hours from the time of purchase. So if you purchase an individual day at 2:00pm, you have until 2:00pm the next day to use it.

[sfred]

44 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

When you buy an individual day, you have a full 24 hours from the time of purchase. So if you purchase an individual day at 2:00pm, you have until 2:00pm the next day to use it.

 

@bluemarble's point is very useful to enable one day's internet purchase to stretch to two days of usage.  Because I only really need a few hours a day at most for checking emails and catching up on news, I combine the afternoon of one day and the morning of the following day to stretch the World Club allowance on a longer voyage.

[CABINET]

Thanks everybody for your input.

 

Personally I preferred the old system I think but it is good to know that we can at least use our credit to buy on a daily basis.   I was worried that if we didn't buy a 'plan' involving the whole holiday we wouldn't be able to use it at all.

[Bell Boy]

1 hour ago, CABINET said:

Thanks everybody for your input.

 

Personally I preferred the old system I think but it is good to know that we can at least use our credit to buy on a daily basis.   I was worried that if we didn't buy a 'plan' involving the whole holiday we wouldn't be able to use it at all.

To be very honest I find the 'New Plan' is much better, now that I'm use to it. As mentioned in other replies just buy one 24 Hr at $20 and login late afternoon ,better still log in every other day depending on the length of your itinerary. 

I just wish Cunard would add an additional $5 to the Diamond plan $135 , I'd be able to stretch out the 24 Hr daily rate to 7 days rather than six at the moment .

[exlondoner]

30 minutes ago, Bell Boy said:

To be very honest I find the 'New Plan' is much better, now that I'm use to it. As mentioned in other replies just buy one 24 Hr at $20 and login late afternoon ,better still log in every other day depending on the length of your itinerary. 

I just wish Cunard would add an additional $5 to the Diamond plan $135 , I'd be able to stretch out the 24 Hr daily rate to 7 days rather than six at the moment .

On our last, 12 days, cruise, it got to the point where I could use our remaining diamond perk amount to buy for the rest of the cruise in one go.

[bluemarble]

4 hours ago, Bell Boy said:

To be very honest I find the 'New Plan' is much better, now that I'm use to it. As mentioned in other replies just buy one 24 Hr at $20 and login late afternoon ,better still log in every other day depending on the length of your itinerary. 

I just wish Cunard would add an additional $5 to the Diamond plan $135 , I'd be able to stretch out the 24 Hr daily rate to 7 days rather than six at the moment .

 

As a diamond member, I also prefer the new plan, especially for voyages of 7 days. The prices went up earlier this year from $15 to $18 per day for the Essential plan for the full voyage and from $20 to $24 per individual 24 hour purchases. The $135 diamond perk now covers 7 days at the full voyage price of $18 per day or 5 days of individual 24 hour packages at $24 per day.

 

So, for a 7 day voyage, the diamond benefit now provides 24-hour per day connectivity for the entire voyage. The old diamond benefit of 480 minutes meant you were limited to about 1 hour per day over a 7 day voyage.

[Winifred 22]

I agree.  Whole week free WiFi for me is a win. I found the basic package was fine for what I needed too. 

[bluemarble]

4 hours ago, exlondoner said:

On our last, 12 days, cruise, it got to the point where I could use our remaining diamond perk amount to buy for the rest of the cruise in one go.

 

For a couple that are both diamond members, a 12 day cruise is the sweet spot for being able to stretch your internet connectivity over the entire cruise at the Essential Plan level. One person can use their benefit to purchase the first 5 days as individual 24 hour packages of $24 each using up $120 of their $135 diamond benefit. Then with 7 days left, the other person can purchase the full voyage plan at $18 per day using up $126 of their $135 diamond benefit.

 

For a longer voyage such as a 14 day cruise, a good strategy at the diamond level is for one person to spread out their purchases of 24 hour packages to cover 5 separate days at the beginning of the cruise, perhaps skipping purchases on port days if applicable. Then once again, the other person can purchase the full voyage plan when there are 7 days left in the voyage.

[TheOldBear]

That may be a good [bugsBunny]stragety[/bugsBunny] for shorter sailings - we typically book transatlantic round trips [and next year's sailing was just boosted from 19 to 21 days].

 

A nice 'feature' of the old minute by minute plan was that there was a fresh allocation of WC minutes for each segment of a cruise that was sold as a separate 'voyage' [e.g. Brooklyn - Southampton, Southampton - Hamburg, Hamburg - Southampton, Southampton - LeHavre - Brooklyn] back in 2019 yielded 4 'gold' tier minute allocations for each of us. We ended the round trip with unused minutes.

 

[Winifred 22]

Does that work if you book a return as one ticket? I am going Southampton NY Southampton in August will I get 2 allocations of World Club internet then ? Anyone know ? 

[TheOldBear]

1 hour ago, Winifred 22 said:

Does that work if you book a return as one ticket? I am going Southampton NY Southampton in August will I get 2 allocations of World Club internet then ? Anyone know ? 

Based on what I experienced last autumn, the system now 'knows' that you are on a multi segment booking - no fresh allocation of WC internet credit per segment.

[Winifred 22]

Thanks for the info. 

[alibabacruisers]

I usually check the internet an hour a day (or less) and with our next cruise of 34 days, I will have to try and manage my time better and figure out the best way to do that.

Edited June 27, 2023 by alibabacruisers

[fourmile.ranch]

On 6/27/2023 at 2:01 PM, TheOldBear said:

Based on what I experienced last autumn, the system now 'knows' that you are on a multi segment booking - no fresh allocation of WC internet credit per segment.

We are currently on NY-NY RT crossing. Paperwork in cabin showed our benefits as a Platinum member $80 wifi credit the 7th-13th and another $80 the 14th-21st.

 

This seemed incorrect as we booked as a RT but a trip to the Purser's Desk assured us that we would indeed receive $80 per week. 

[exlondoner]

4 minutes ago, fourmile.ranch said:

We are currently on NY-NY RT crossing. Paperwork in cabin showed our benefits as a Platinum member $80 wifi credit the 7th-13th and another $80 the 14th-21st.

 

This seemed incorrect as we booked as a RT but a trip to the Purser's Desk assured us that we would indeed receive $80 per week. 

Excellent.

[Winifred 22]

I am a Southampton NY Southampton in August. I hope I get this double allowance too. 

[fourmile.ranch]

🤷‍♂️

[Victoria2]

I put my brain in gear this morning and realised, by just taking on a 'full voyage' internet plan between the two of us, I was theoretically gifting Cunard, $135 if not using both allowances and if that's the case I can save $100 buying on a daily basis by using both allowances

 

unless

the accounts dept. subtract both allowances from the internet charges on the final invoice in which case, we wouldn't owe anything.

 

Having thrown June's final invoice away, I can't check. Can anyone enlighten me please?

Thanks

[Victoria2]

Having found an near final invoice in my husband's rucksack, it looks as if we utilised one lot of credit.

 

Hmm. He didn't use it much apparently as he used his  Smart phone quite a lot. Savvy planning for the next trip methinks!