Faster Internet being added to packages!!!

[reedprincess]

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

when was the latest price increase on PLUS and Premier? - just the date - don't really care about the fluff that was added to justify.

 

I'd really like for some of you great posters here on CC could do a timeline since PLUS was first released.

The last price increase on Plus and Premier Cruise Packages happened Dec. 14, 2022. Went from $50 to $60, and $70 (75?) to 80, respectively .

There was approximately 10 or so days warning, where you could buy at the old price, with the current inclusions.  The new package additions actually went into effect February 2023, even though the price changed back in December.

 

August 2023 saw the addition of the casual dining,room service and Ocean Now delivery charges, etc - and no price increases..

Theoretically, yeah, they're probably due for an increase, as well as a drink price cap increase, particularly as Sun has higher prices, for everything, aboard - and we all know it's a matter of time till that trickles to the rest of the fleet. The vast majority of cocktails are $16 and up, thus not covered by Plus, and specialty dining is $45, etc.  

 

Time will tell. If they follow past patterns, there will be 10-14 days or so notice of a price increase, allowing to buy beforehand the increase, with what's included now, or wait and buy at the new cost and inclusions...

[TRLD]

2 hours ago, FLAlaska said:

I know they say classic service will stay the same but Im doubting if it wont be downgraded like other cruiselines . We will see. But I havent had any issue working, streaming Netflix, etc with the current service.

I would expect that those with the max service will have a higher priority than those of us that do not get packages and have the classic.

 

If so our performance will vary a bit more than it does currently. Will be interesting to see how it impacts video conferencing, streaming and wifi calls.

[FLAlaska]

Just like the Sanctuary, on the newer ships you can only get it if you pay Sanctuary prices, no more pay per use. This will be the same, can't get it unless you pay for a package which will certainly rise in price.

 

I don't mind the added charge ups, what I don't like is they do it in a way that you can't get it unless you pay for a package and it comes bundled.

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, reedprincess said:

Theoretically, yeah, they're probably due for an increase,...

Or, they could keep the price where it is and carve back some of the benefits.  While it might irk some, if Premier included only 10 Specialty Desserts and 10 Fitness Classes per day instead of "Unlimited", I would still be willing to pay $80.  Catch me in a good mood and I might even agree to 5 of each per day.

 

On an unrelated note, the following excerpt from the press release is a word salad for me.  A seemingly thrown together jumble of syllables cobbled together by a team of Rhesus monkeys banging away at their keyboards.  I guess I am old-ish: 

"To preview the new service tier, Princess Cruises will host the first-ever land/sea custom UGC competition, leveraging a custom Minecraft world - Princess Cruises Nautical Quest. The August 7 match up will feature 32 of the world's most popular UGC players, with eight of the gamers - Shubble, Krinios, Fruitberries, vGumiho, Sneegsnag, JimmyHere, Smajor, and Hannahxxrose - competing aboard Enchanted Princess in the Caribbean..." 

[Rick&Jeannie]

OK...I have a theory.  We all know that all Princess ships upgraded to Starlink.  By and large, most everyone agrees that internet speed/reliability went up after said upgrade.  I think maybe we have all just *assumed* (?) that we were given the max available bandwidth that was being delivered.

 

Consider if you will...(apologies to Rod Serling!) if they have been throttling back that bandwidth all along (not hard to imagine) as an "experiment" to see how things go.  Now consider that some wet behind the ears newly hired marketing major came up with the bright idea to un-throttle that bandwidth and deliver it *only* to those who have signed on for a package.  It costs Princess NOTHING to un-throttle...likely a few mouse clicks!  It's really not too hard to imagine this scenario, is it?

[Rick&Jeannie]

29 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

On an unrelated note, the following excerpt from the press release is a word salad for me.  A seemingly thrown together jumble of syllables cobbled together by a team of Rhesus monkeys banging away at their keyboards.  I guess I am old-ish: 

"To preview the new service tier, Princess Cruises will host the first-ever land/sea custom UGC competition, leveraging a custom Minecraft world - Princess Cruises Nautical Quest. The August 7 match up will feature 32 of the world's most popular UGC players, with eight of the gamers - Shubble, Krinios, Fruitberries, vGumiho, Sneegsnag, JimmyHere, Smajor, and Hannahxxrose - competing aboard Enchanted Princess in the Caribbean..." 

Yeah...that means absolutely *nothing* to me since I don't live in the gaming world.  And...I really can't imagine a whole ton of other potential cruisers being impressed with this dog and pony show either!

[TRLD]

25 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

OK...I have a theory.  We all know that all Princess ships upgraded to Starlink.  By and large, most everyone agrees that internet speed/reliability went up after said upgrade.  I think maybe we have all just *assumed* (?) that we were given the max available bandwidth that was being delivered.

 

Consider if you will...(apologies to Rod Serling!) if they have been throttling back that bandwidth all along (not hard to imagine) as an "experiment" to see how things go.  Now consider that some wet behind the ears newly hired marketing major came up with the bright idea to un-throttle that bandwidth and deliver it *only* to those who have signed on for a package.  It costs Princess NOTHING to un-throttle...likely a few mouse clicks!  It's really not too hard to imagine this scenario, is it?

Not too sure about the cost nothing. In many cases you can contract for different levels of service at different prices. With the new service they may be purchasing a higher level of service, then throttling classic or making them a lower priority in the network traffic.

[Honolulu Blue]

6 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/princess-cruises-introduces-next-level-connectivity-extending

Thanks. I thought they might do something like this, deriving value from out of thin air.

 

Speeds haven't been great on my current Canada/New England cruise, mostly between 2 and 3 mbps.

 

 

I wonder how badly us non package buyers will get shafted once this change happens.

Edited August 7 by Honolulu Blue

[GonzoWCS]

Good stuff, we shall see how it works out soon!

 

Cheers

Edited August 7 by GonzoWCS
spelling

[Thrak]

7 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

An increase in package prices is overdue and expected. It's why I pre-purchase for cruises months in advance.

 

 

 

The last time we did that Princess changed the rules and we ended up with the "Old Plus" which no longer included things that were included back when we paid for the service. It was a really crummy thing to do to people who had paid for Plus expecting to receive everything they had been promised. We've already paid for Plus for our 2025 cruises. Hopefully they won't do the same sort of switcheroo again and tell us we have to pay more to get service.

 

Since I gave up online gaming many years ago I can live with the existing tier of speed. What I don't want to see is them changing more of the previously included items like Room Service, fresh juice, and Ocean Now - they way they did last time.

Edited August 7 by Thrak

[BlerkOne]

3 hours ago, TRLD said:

Not too sure about the cost nothing. In many cases you can contract for different levels of service at different prices. With the new service they may be purchasing a higher level of service, then throttling classic or making them a lower priority in the network traffic.

Starlink does have different levels of service and while not necessarily hard data caps, will slow down.

[FamilyGuy1010]

On the Sky Princess Norway/Iceland cruise last month the internet performance was fantastic the entire trip (14 nights).  I was able to work, stream and chat if I wanted to with no problems.  It was as good as my Cox cable internet here at home (I know that's not saying much).

[Mud_Shark]

Couple things:

 

1) Last price rise for internet was actually January 20th 2024.  I know because I pre-paid one day prior to the deadline for our 2024 cruises.

2) On the Enchanted in the Caribbean in March and April, internet was good mornings and evenings, but very slow from lunch to diner time.  Wouldn't load some sites, spinning wheels etc.

3) If it jumps in price again, it will likely price us out of the market.  Even with the 50% off, if sailing for a month it is already almost $400 for one device.  Choke cough.  We like to sail for about that duration and may just pick up internet for one day every week or so if no port calls.

[Over from NZ]

Even more reason why we're less and less likely to cruise again. They're eventually going to push everybody onto the more expensive packages. Then they'll be able to start removing some of the inclusions and charging separately for them.. and it all starts over again (but at a higher price). 

 

[SCX22]

13 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

In the past I would buy on board. Don't tell Princess, but they could always start by raising the purchase price once on the ship. Or give a discount for pre-purchasing (by not raising that price).

 

Princess already did this.  Once they got rid of the free Elite Internet minutes, they made it so Internet packages were cheaper if purchased pre-cruise.  If I'm not mistaken, if purchased pre-cruise, Internet was $10 per day, and if purchased on board, it was $15 per day (half those prices if you were Elite).  MedallionNet with SES was already around in those days.

[SCX22]

Not quite sure of why Princess is making MedallionNet Max available.  They don't have the demographic that cares about Internet speeds.  Heck, some of Princess current demographic doesn't even understand how to connect to the Internet once on board or the difference between Intranet and Internet.  I see very few Princess cruisers working for employers while cruising; the majority of them are already retired.  Some of the said demographic swear to locking their phone away in the safe for the duration of the cruise, effectively going off the grid.  I see mostly cell phones and iPads which have apps that can function just fine on the current MedallionNet speeds.  Basically Princess is saying this new Internet plan will encourage more people to purchase the package.  I don't think so.  If anything, this might backfire and discourage package fare purchases if the pricing gets too crazy.  Also, I don't understand the point about hosting a gaming competition on board prove speed and reliability.  Is Princess saying that they want to attract gamers?  If one wanted to game, one could stay at home and not pay for the price of a cruise to do so and be guaranteed the required Internet speed to game.  There's all this talk about speed, but what about ping?  If the ping is high, then fast Internet doesn't do anything for gamers because there will still be lag.

 

Princess does employ some type of software that limits bandwidth speeds.  I posed this question to an Internet Manager and this information was confirmed.  If the ship is sailing full, passengers'  speeds are capped at 3 MB.  If the ship isn't so full, passengers' speeds are capped at 5 MB.  Not sure what the threshold for "full" and "not full" are. That is, of course, also affected by the signal that the satellites can pick up.  

[CruisingFromLA]

So how fast is max going to be? On our last cruise with Princess in June, we got <2Mbps. It was so painfully slow (granted it was Alaska, but even the cruise before that was also slow through the Panama Canal). Even Carnival and RC offered faster speeds when we sailed with them. Our next 2 cruises isn't booked with Princess because of the slow internet speeds, as my husband I need faster internet for work purposes. 

 

 

[cruise_critical]

From the press release, this is how I read these blurbs:

 

> MedallionNet Classic will offer the same service performance, reliability, and global coverage that Princess guests enjoy today.

 

Going by what they say at least, it seems the ala-carte internet will stay the same as now or very similar. I doubt it will get much worse considering it wasn't that great anyways lol. I was barely able to stream Youtube at 480p smoothly last time I was on the Royal Princess about 8 months ago, and that was months after they installed Starlink on it.

 

> MedallionNet Max will now be the highest performing service tier with prioritized access to the highest quality and highest performance bandwidth available anywhere in the world which is typically Starlink.

 

Going by how they reckon it is now good enough to host online gaming tournaments, it surely has to be better than what it was before this announcement for both ping times and bandwidth.

> The appropriate service level will be assigned based on each guest's package, as indicated on the Princess app. A single guest network will remain, reduce guest confusion related to network names or any complications being added to the onboard experience.

I assume they enabled higher priority QoS for the Plus/Premier devices' traffic since they say it will still be a single network. There is also an assumption that they have increased the network's total bandwidth since if they didn't, it will mean much worse speeds / service for the ones on ala-carte plans while the MAX users gobble up more of the total bandwidth with priority. But yeah, who knows...

 

I have an upcoming Royal Princess cruise on a premier package in a few months, so I should be able to test how it is once onboard. I'm all for faster internet myself so this announcement is good news. Just hope they don't raise the price anytime soon.

Edited August 8 by cruise_critical

[Honolulu Blue]

5 hours ago, SCX22 said:

Not quite sure of why Princess is making MedallionNet Max available.  They don't have the demographic that cares about Internet speeds.  Heck, some of Princess current demographic doesn't even understand how to connect to the Internet once on board or the difference between Intranet and Internet.  I see very few Princess cruisers working for employers while cruising; the majority of them are already retired.  Some of the said demographic swear to locking their phone away in the safe for the duration of the cruise, effectively going off the grid.  I see mostly cell phones and iPads which have apps that can function just fine on the current MedallionNet speeds.  Basically Princess is saying this new Internet plan will encourage more people to purchase the package.  I don't think so.  If anything, this might backfire and discourage package fare purchases if the pricing gets too crazy.  Also, I don't understand the point about hosting a gaming competition on board prove speed and reliability.  Is Princess saying that they want to attract gamers?  If one wanted to game, one could stay at home and not pay for the price of a cruise to do so and be guaranteed the required Internet speed to game.  There's all this talk about speed, but what about ping?  If the ping is high, then fast Internet doesn't do anything for gamers because there will still be lag.

 

Princess does employ some type of software that limits bandwidth speeds.  I posed this question to an Internet Manager and this information was confirmed.  If the ship is sailing full, passengers'  speeds are capped at 3 MB.  If the ship isn't so full, passengers' speeds are capped at 5 MB.  Not sure what the threshold for "full" and "not full" are. That is, of course, also affected by the signal that the satellites can pick up.  

Thanks for the note on throttling. I can confirm that on my current cruise, Internet speeds are mostly bouncing between 2 and 3 mbps.

 

On other cruise lines, Celebrity seems to throttle their basic Internet at 1 mbps and premium (whatever they call it, too lazy to look) at 5 mbps. Royal's net is capped out around 5 mbps.

 

Also, on this cruise, we have a diverse age range. There are quite a few kids onboard, along with their parents, some younger couples, and some solos of various ages. And, of course, plenty of Princess classic oldsters. This group is noticeable but does not dominate here.

[555]

14 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

The last time we did that Princess changed the rules and we ended up with the "Old Plus" which no longer included things that were included back when we paid for the service. It was a really crummy thing to do to people who had paid for Plus expecting to receive everything they had been promised. We've already paid for Plus for our 2025 cruises. Hopefully they won't do the same sort of switcheroo again and tell us we have to pay more to get service.

 

Since I gave up online gaming many years ago I can live with the existing tier of speed. What I don't want to see is them changing more of the previously included items like Room Service, fresh juice, and Ocean Now - they way they did last time.

I would fully expect the same to occur moving forward. 

[voljeep]

56 minutes ago, 555 said:

I would fully expect the same to occur moving forward. 

unfortunately I may actually have to agree with you this time 🤑😉🍻🦄

[startedwithamouse]

Sounds like the stand alone internet may be the same speed as crew currently receives, which is very, very slow. They don't have to adjust anything, they can just switch a la carte guests over.

 

We have no horse in the race, as we always get Plus. 

 

 

[BlerkOne]

16 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

The last time we did that Princess changed the rules and we ended up with the "Old Plus" which no longer included things that were included back when we paid for the service.

 

Yes, but you got what you paid for, and there were more changes than just a simple adjustment to Internet speed. Perhaps more upgrades to the packages are coming. If not, then grandfathering should be possible.

[BlerkOne]

Simply adding Starlink antennas isn't a miracle cure for all things Internet. The rest of the infrastructure also needs attention. The newest ships already should have, but the older might have needed additional work.

 

Speed does not equal bandwidth does not equal throughput.

[sunsetme]

https://www.travelmarketreport.com/cruises/articles/princess-cruises-introduces-faster-internet-for-princess-package-cruisers-only