New Internet Pricing - MB vs Minute - Which Ships & Experience

It appears that at least one ship (Breakaway) has begun to offer a MB or "volume transmitted" rate vs the per minute rate. See posting here

Any other ships offering this yet? Experiences?

Small 100 MB for $9

Medium 300 MB for $19

Large 1000 MB for $39

vs long standing per minute rates

250 minutes for $100 ($0.40 per minute)

100 minutes for $55 ($0.55 per minute)

Pay as you go $0.75 per minute

And, before someone asks, use of internet is the same on phone, tablet, your laptop or their computers. And, it appears that just like the old plan the minutes or MB can be spread across multiple devices as it is ACCOUNT driven, not device driven.

Am I missing something. Isn't this a big loss of revenue for NCL?

I was told on the other thread that 1Mb was about 1000 pages of email text. I wouldn't even need that much.

Based on NCL's website, Latitude Section, it seems to only be on the Breakaway. However, they are giving Latitude members additional mb with their purchase: 10 mb for 300 purchased and an additional 20 for the 1,000 mb purchase. Looking forward to trying it out on our upcoming sailing.

Why did you post another thread to reference a recent post that has the same info and that post is only ten threads down? lol

Why did you post another thread to reference a recent post that has the same info and that post is only ten threads down? lol

Good question. I did think about that, but the other thread was specifically about the BREAKAWAY which many skip right over since they are not sailing on her or care about her.

Maybe it is just me, but there are so many threads about BA that I don't bother reading them.

Am I missing something. Isn't this a big loss of revenue for NCL?

 

I was told on the other thread that 1Mb was about 1000 pages of email text. I wouldn't even need that much.

I'm with you...I understood minutes but have no clue regarding MB's. Can anyone who is computer savy help me out on this?

Good question. I did think about that, but the other thread was specifically about the BREAKAWAY which many skip right over since they are not sailing on her or care about her.

 

Maybe it is just me, but there are so many threads about BA that I don't bother reading them.

I'm just goofing with you GC. I always enjoy your posts. :D

Am I missing something. Isn't this a big loss of revenue for NCL?

I have to wonder the same thing. I also wondered about the confusion about transitioning to buying blocks of data instead of time, but then I realized that we've been doing that for our smart phones for quite some time now. Perhaps it just makes more sense overall.

I'm definitely in favor of it at these rates.

I was told on the other thread that 1Mb was about 1000 pages of email text. I wouldn't even need that much.

Just to clarify, that estimate (and it should be written as "MB" [megabyte] with capital letters as "Mb" is a different amount of data [megabit, or 1/8 of a megabyte]) doesn't include the data overhead that would be required to send or receive those pages of email. Internet protocols will add some data consumption as well. So, 1 MB of data might allow you to download or send, say, 250-500 small, plain-text email messages. And this is talking about using a proper email client and not a web-based email client like gmail.com which would use more data.

Web surfing, especially on picture-laden sites, will use up far more data.

(Posting as someone that hasn't and won't read the Breakaway thread that incidentally apparently mentions this)

I would think this frees up staff from the complaints and refunds issue when there is difficulty connecting, or there are slow connections. Simplifies things and holds them less liable for issues. THAT's why they'd make this move.

Yeah, I know the difference. Darn autocorrect and capitalization/punctuation "I know best" attitude of these new fangled devices.

(I was an IT professional with AT&T for 30+ years but that was quite a while ago.)

As an indication, last night I turned wifi off on my phone and reset the usage statistics.

Using my phone today, doing some internet stuff, checking and posting here and on other message boards and downloading all my work and personal emails (including a few word and PDF documents) I have used about 40mb.

That means that the $39 package should be more than adequate for a 7 day cruise. Usually I get the $100 package and use all the time up.

Just checking email can easily take 5-10 minutes onboard. The data downloaded would only be a few mb.

Yeah, I know the difference. Darn autocorrect and capitalization/punctuation "I know best" attitude of these new fangled devices.

I often get frustrated by that, too. It's only the fact that sometimes it autocorrects correctly that I leave it enabled. :)

Lowered pricing meant that more cruise pax would lean toward using the services more vs. being perceived as over-priced and slow & poor services - MTN/NCL cannot make any money at all if majority refused to use it & stay on airplane mode. The downside to all these - more smartphones (tablets) going off in the dining room and/or theater, etc. and yelping away ... as better & faster hardware/server technologies get rolled up & ships getting upgraded.

Newer devices with all their background running apps can be very data hungry and chew up MB's of data if they stayed turned ON for the duration of the cruise - hopefully, they can and will balance the bandwidth with Apps like FB and video streaming, etc.

For a given month, we typically don't use more than 750 MB to 1GB worth of data as we are on secured WiFi at home and/or at the office - and on older Windows Mobile OS devices, we managed to used as little as 50 to 100 MB worth of data for a given week while cruising & roaming on other carriers. With auto-update and background refresh/sync. options ON by default, usage will go way up - but, the "smart" user can get by the entire week with 300 MB worth of data on the ship for a week, and at $19 - a good deal.

For 1GB worth of data, more than a month's worth of the typical VZW, AT&T or T-Mo's lowest tier of mobile data, at $39 is almost a steal with no taxes/surcharges - especially when it would be covered by our usually generous amount of OBC. So, this is going to be very interesting for us (and in using it) if they roll it out to our other favorite homeport ship, the GEM but unlikely to see it before drydocking.

The question for me, is really, how fast is this connection now and how much time it will take to upload/download 25MB worth of data - hopefully, not too long on a mobile browser. The MB plan is a definite advantage over the pay-by-the-minutes plan offered, and is a win-win for everybody.

Lowered pricing meant that more cruise pax would lean toward using the services more vs. being perceived as over-priced and slow & poor services -..

 

The downside to all these - more smartphones (tablets) going off in the dining room and/or theater, etc. and yelping away ... ...

..

the "smart" user can get by the entire week with 300 MB worth of data on the ship for a week, and at $19 - a good deal.

....

Great summary of the whole thing.

Speed to me under this plan is only an irritant, but we can deal with it.

My biggest concern? And a real big one. Damn people sitting in shows and other places texting and doing all the stuff they do.

Great summary of the whole thing.

 

 

 

Speed to me under this plan is only an irritant, but we can deal with it.

 

 

 

My biggest concern? And a real big one. Damn people sitting in shows and other places texting and doing all the stuff they do.

There are certainly potential issues.

I have to check in with some work things every day. At the moment, I take 10 minutes each day to just check my emails etc.

Under the per mb pricing, it becomes an option to turn off background stuff and leave my phone connected. The possibility of being in a bar and "that email" arrives is not a positive development.

The answer of course is not to stay online, but I imagine many people won't be able to resist.

Why did you post another thread to reference a recent post that has the same info and that post is only ten threads down? lol

Well, it helped me because I kept reading the title as "Interest Rate" as in %...

Well, it helped me because I kept reading the title as "Interest Rate" as in %...

Ditto :D Plus it was only about the BA so....no interest here at all.....internet though... yup got that. :p

Why did you post another thread to reference a recent post that has the same info and that post is only ten threads down? lol

I am another person who does not read Breakaway threads so would have missed the info. So I am glad for this thread.

I have no intention of ever sailing on the huge ships of any line so I don't read BA threads or Getaway or Epic.

There are certainly potential issues.

 

I have to check in with some work things every day. At the moment, I take 10 minutes each day to just check my emails etc.

 

Under the per mb pricing, it becomes an option to turn off background stuff and leave my phone connected. The possibility of being in a bar and "that email" arrives is not a positive development.

 

The answer of course is not to stay online, but I imagine many people won't be able to resist.

So....here is my question - if someone could put it in simplest terms - While on board - what are my best options if I want to be able to text someone back home and check email only - maybe make a phone call while in Bermuda....

Which BA MB package should I buy?

Do I leave my phone on Airplane Mode?

Do I keep the wireless on?

Should I just get an international plan via Verizon?

I have an iPhone 5...

Need some advice!

Thanks!

As I remember it texts were cheap while at sea, like 50¢ to send one and nothing to receive, but that was 2010 on the Epic....

I only turned on my phone to send and receive when I wanted to checkon my kids and pets.

So....here is my question - if someone could put it in simplest terms - While on board - what are my best options if I want to be able to text someone back home and check email only - maybe make a phone call while in Bermuda....

 

Which BA MB package should I buy?

Do I leave my phone on Airplane Mode?

Do I keep the wireless on?

Should I just get an international plan via Verizon?

 

I have an iPhone 5...

 

Need some advice!

 

Thanks!

I guess it comes down to volume and how often your phone might ring if turned on. We leave our phones turned on most of the time. Yea, we might get a call or two at $2.49 a minute but we just deal with it. BUT - our phones are on all the time and family or work can get in touch without any hassle. Same with texts.

If your phone would be ringing often, then this will not work.

You said something about "keep my wireless on". I hope you meant wifi, not wireless.

The intl plans are sometimes good. Of no value on the ship and sometimes just not worth bothering with.

This is great news :D

I'm a self-professed technophile, so I'm pretty addicted to my data connection, hehe. I hope this gets rolled out to the Getaway before my trip in November.

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I guess it comes down to volume and how often your phone might ring if turned on. We leave our phones turned on most of the time. Yea, we might get a call or two at $2.49 a minute but we just deal with it. BUT - our phones are on all the time and family or work can get in touch without any hassle. Same with texts.

 

If your phone would be ringing often, then this will not work.

 

You said something about "keep my wireless on". I hope you meant wifi, not wireless.

 

The intl plans are sometimes good. Of no value on the ship and sometimes just not worth bothering with.

Just a bit of thread jacking-

Have a super- fab trip!!!

Ann

I'm excited about the switch to MB from a time based scenario (hopefully it goes fleet-wide!)

I agree that they might have found too many people just not using the internet especially on the BA going to Bermuda (where cheap wifi is plentiful for 3 days) and are seeing if they offer by MB that they will re-capture some of that business back.

With the time system and slow interenet - just opening up Yahoo or Gmail and sending a "we're alive and well...see you in 10 days" as we did on our Panama Canal cruise last year cost us over $5. After that experience we only sent that one email on the ship and we said then "we'll never send an email from a ship again". I'm sure we were not the only ones and it was hurting their bottom line - too many people complaining about the speeds and a page taking 3 mins to load and then getting charged by the min.

I'm sure someone somewhere said on a survey that they felt like it was being slowed down on purpose just to charge them for more usage.

Just back from breakaway.

I was pleasantly surprised at the new internet packages.

A few things to note:

Based on the login page the current pricing is a promo. Regular price appears to be double. So not sure how long will last. 300mb package should be more than sufficient for most for checking/sending some emails and basic web surfing.

While docked in bermuda speeds were amazing and comparable to what I'm used to. Out at sea it was slow and often couldn't even login.

Overall, Kudos to NCL for replacing by the minute with by the MB