Oceania Cruises Introduces Free Wi-Fi Fleetwide

I hope this is as good as it sounds.

I hope this is as good as it sounds.

+1

I'm particularly glad that those who MUST Skype their puppies daily, may now put their money where their eccentricities are..... :rolleyes:

Laura, if you are booked in a concierge or higher level cabin, which currently includes Unlimited Internet, will those folks also have to pay the additional $9.99/day for Wavenet Prime or will that option be included as part of their package?

Currently, because of bandwidth size, people can’t Skype or reliably download massive files. Even with this new technology, the system will still have capacity limitations. My questions are:

1. If one pays the extra money per day, do they get priority in the pipe to hog all the bandwidth they want?

2. If #1 is yes, how much capacity will be left for those of us not paying for the upgrade? If free becomes worthless, isn’t this really just a revenue enhancement for Oceania?

3. For those not paying the upgrade, should they expect better internet service than they now have or worse. What happens if too many people buy the upgrade and attempt to utilize the additional services at high demand times, will they actually see better service, or might things actually get worse for them also?

Those are good news. I wonder what perk will come with the Olife as standard benefit. Internet was the one.

Ivi

Best news I heard today! The technology has been available for a while now (air and sea) and glad to see O finally stepping up to the plate.

So, it will cost $20/day for my wife to post all her photo's on facebook and for me to stream sports in the evenings when returning from port activities ($10 each/day).

Don't know about anyone else but, have plenty of OBC to cover this minor cost (I say minor as a factor of total $ spend on trip).

Thanks O!

John

Wondering if you will need to book the upgrade for the entire cruise ... or just on an "as-needed" daily basis.

Currently, because of bandwidth size, people can’t Skype or reliably download massive files. Even with this new technology, the system will still have capacity limitations. My questions are:

 

 

 

1. If one pays the extra money per day, do they get priority in the pipe to hog all the bandwidth they want?

 

 

 

2. If #1 is yes, how much capacity will be left for those of us not paying for the upgrade? If free becomes worthless, isn’t this really just a revenue enhancement for Oceania?

 

 

 

3. For those not paying the upgrade, should they expect better internet service than they now have or worse. What happens if too many people buy the upgrade and attempt to utilize the additional services at high demand times, will they actually see better service, or might things actually get worse for them also?

Last year Oceania deployed “SpeedNet”. Promising 4x bandwidth enhancements. Well we know how well that went. With everyone on O life plus crew getting free time, internet while at sea was pretty useless. Even at midnight was incredibly slow.

I think you will find lots of O regulars using their OBC to gain the extra BW. No details except the press release hype. As a telecom Engineer the technology is there but the limitation is $$$$. I still think most of this extra space is coming from ground based terminals near shore and increase will be limited to certain parts of the world.

I also think that everyone gets the extra bandwidth but the $9.99 gets you unblocked from streaming sites.

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Oceania Cruises Introduces Free Wi-Fi Fleetwide

Awesome news! Thanks Laura! :)

Not sure if this is accurate information, but I was told by my TA that Wavenet and Wavenet Prime will be offered this April to passengers booking a sailing in 2020. Not the same thing as free WiFi starting in April for 2018 cruisers. If anyone can provide a little more official information, it will be appreciated, as I was hoping to capture this benefit for our August sailing.

Not sure if this is accurate information, but I was told by my TA that Wavenet and Wavenet Prime will be offered this April to passengers booking a sailing in 2020. Not the same thing as free WiFi starting in April for 2018 cruisers. If anyone can provide a little more official information, it will be appreciated, as I was hoping to capture this benefit for our August sailing.

Not accurate.

Here’s the press release:

March 14, 2018

(10:05 a.m. EDT) -- Oceania Cruises is joining other high-end cruise lines in offering free Wi-Fi to all passengers. The cruise line revealed today that unlimited, complimentary Internet access would be available across all of its ships by the end of April.

The new Wavenet high-speed internet service will allow passengers to do low-bandwidth activities, such as surf the Web and post to social media. Passengers who would like to stream music and movies or video chat with friends and family at home will need to upgrade to Wavenet Prime, at a cost of $9.99 per person, per day.

"With our new Wavenet high-speed internet, our guests and crew can continue to surf, post and stream aboard our ships from anywhere around the globe, just as they would at home," stated Bob Binder, president & CEO of Oceania Cruises, in a company statement.

The addition of free Wi-Fi brings Oceania in line with other upscale cruise companies, such as Viking Ocean Cruises, Crystal Cruises and sister line Regent Seven Seas Cruises, who all offer free, unlimited Internet access to passengers. Silversea offers an hour of free Wi-Fi to most passengers, with unlimited access for the top suites.

Yes, I read that press release, but I wonder why there is nothing official posted in the Media section of the Oceania web site?

Yes, I read that press release, but I wonder why there is nothing official posted in the Media section of the Oceania web site?

Seems then you have all the info.

As to "why", perhaps testing response from CC "announcements" . LauraS has posted this officially on a couple of boards so maybe assessing value of these announcements and contained reaction.

Last year Oceania deployed “SpeedNet”. Promising 4x bandwidth enhancements. Well we know how well that went. With everyone on O life plus crew getting free time, internet while at sea was pretty useless. Even at midnight was incredibly slow.

 

I think you will find lots of O regulars using their OBC to gain the extra BW. No details except the press release hype. As a telecom Engineer the technology is there but the limitation is $$$$. I still think most of this extra space is coming from ground based terminals near shore and increase will be limited to certain parts of the world.

 

I also think that everyone gets the extra bandwidth but the $9.99 gets you unblocked from streaming sites.

s

I'm fine as a very infrequent on board internet user; the occasional email or confirmation with a guide or upcoming flight or hotel is great. But if paying the extra fee to entertain myself with a movie or broadcast I might not be so happy with the increased traffic. of course that can be fixed by raising the fee and so less video use and so becomes self limiting plus more profitable.

Sounds like a good plan.

I think you will find lots of O regulars using their OBC to gain the extra BW. No details except the press release hype. As a telecom Engineer the technology is there but the limitation is $$$$. I still think most of this extra space is coming from ground based terminals near shore and increase will be limited to certain parts of the world.

 

Or they could be using the O3b satellites like Royal Caribbean. Those are medium orbit satellites that reduce latency. On RCI Oasis class ships I had no problem streaming Netflix and posting to Facebook with their unlimited Voom stream option.

I am wondering if by the statement "all passengers have internet access" that means it's no tied to one person in a stateroom. On Viking, anyone logs in which is better than kicking my hubby off when I need to use it.

I'm an O regular, but have to admit that Viking's internet is awesome, at least where I've been on Viking (Europe, Cuba).

I probably won't want it, but even so, I'm still curious if that $10 per person per day option means you can purchase just one day, one person, or if you're required to pay for using it the whole cruise, entire number of people in your cabin.

Is free internet part of loyalty awards/freebies for past passengers? I don't think so, but am curious.

I'll still take a tablet and probably use wifi in port terminals as I have in the past. However, if the internet is faster than before, I'm all for this change - especially if it is indeed complimentary. If nothing else, I like to go on sites like Marine Traffic to get a better idea of where I am in the world. (Yes, I know ship location is available on the TV, but the info is quite general.)

What about those of us who bought into the olife program because it included WiFi! Will we be receiving a refund? Or shipboard credit!

Very nice perk. We enjoyed internet because we were in a PH on the Marina in December. Best news for us was that the connectivity was FAR superior than what we have experienced on many other lines: Cunard, Princess, HAL, and Seabourn. Not perfect, but way more modern. Kudos to Oceania for doing a better job adjusting to the 21st Century!

What about those of us who bought into the olife program because it included WiFi! Will we be receiving a refund? Or shipboard credit!

Highly unlikely -- the cost of O life is the other perks. If you have not done a final payment you can always switch to cruise only.

Highly unlikely -- the cost of O life is the other perks. If you have not done a final payment you can always switch to cruise only.

So a person who has chosen OLife Choice without airfare pays (for example) $400 more than Cruise Only and gets a non-refundable OBC of $400. Well without any other included amenities, in the future they can book cruise only and won't have to find a way to use the non-refundable OBC, they can just use their own fully refundable $ to buy stuff. This coming from a non-drinker who doesn't do O's shore excursions.

Yes! This is the end of OLife Choice IMO unless they positively enhance Olife in some manner as the included Internet was what was being added at no cost. I use the term "positively" as O has proven that when they use the term enhance (recent Oceania Member level benefits), they don't necessarily mean "make better" or "offer more".

 

So a person who has chosen OLife Choice without airfare pays (for example) $400 more than Cruise Only and gets a non-refundable OBC of $400. Well without any other included amenities, in the future they can book cruise only and won't have to find a way to use the non-refundable OBC, they can just use their own fully refundable $ to buy stuff. This coming from a non-drinker who doesn't do O's shore excursions.

So, if more people move away from O'Life Choice, that would probably cut in to TA's bottom line commission. Might get tremor of an uprising there?

Yes! This is the end of OLife Choice IMO unless they positively enhance Olife in some manner as the included Internet was what was being added at no cost. I use the term "positively" as O has proven that when they use the term enhance (recent Oceania Member level benefits), they don't necessarily mean "make better" or "offer more".

 

So a person who has chosen OLife Choice without airfare pays (for example) $400 more than Cruise Only and gets a non-refundable OBC of $400. Well without any other included amenities, in the future they can book cruise only and won't have to find a way to use the non-refundable OBC, they can just use their own fully refundable $ to buy stuff. This coming from a non-drinker who doesn't do O's shore excursions.

That is exactly what we just did. As soon as I read this announcement we booked with no perks. As you said, why would I pay $400 to get $400 NR OBC.

I wish they would do away with OLife completely! We don't drink much so don't need the drink package. We do like wine with dinner and usually have a few free bottles and purchase a few more. The Oceania excursions are very overpriced and private excursions is the way to go in my opinion. We book our own air with mileage. I would like Oceania to be completely "A-La-Carte". It's about time that they are including Internet, like Viking and some of the other lines. We like Viking too. We currently have one cruise booked on Regent, one on Viking and waiting for the new itineraries to come out for Oceania so we can book another. I have to admit though we have only been on the Marina and don't think we would like the smaller ships....only Marina or Riviera....spoiled by the penthouse suites!