Unlimited Internet Zuiderdam $99.99 10 day

[Himself]

I am on the Zuiderdam 10 day Panama Canal cruise 3/29/2013- 4/8/2013 and they have 2 internet packages available. A 39.99 for 24hrs or 99.99 for the entire 10 day cruise. I thought the 99.99 deal is pretty good. And the wifi is pretty good.

 

Bill

 

Sounds pretty good to me!

[foodgirl]

What a fabulous deal!!!! I would be so happy to pay that and use as much as I want. I haven't used at all the last couple of cruises because the price and the slow speed drove me crazy. Any word on if it will be on the NA soon?? Sailing 2weeks from today and that would be so wonderful to have. A girl can dream right? ;)

[flatlander7]

This needs to spread to more ships. I would defiantly pay the $ for unlimited.

[MrBill64]

From what is being reported the Zuiderdam is the first to have the new equipment and accessing of the new towers. Now my question is that I like the new pricing but I am wondering what the pricing will be for longer cruises such as the upcoming 22 or 17 day Zuiderdam as well as what pricing they will charge for the 7 day cruise or will it be either a one day package at $39.99 or the full voyage at a flat rate. Will that flat rate be less for 7 day cruises. I will be on a B2B of a 4 day then a 7 day and last year because I was on the B2B my minutes just automatically carried over into the 2nd segment. I would love to purchase a flat rate of $99.00 for the full 11 days.

 

My question for those on board the Zuiderdam now...was there also still the $3.95 set up fee?

 

 

To the best of my knowledge no set up fee.

 

I will quiz the internet manager at some point if he has info on pricing for upcoming cruises and if he knows any future plans HAL has for other ships.

 

Bill

[LAFFNVEGAS]

To the best of my knowledge no set up fee.

 

I will quiz the internet manager at some point if he has info on pricing for upcoming cruises and if he knows any future plans HAL has for other ships.

 

Bill

 

Bill, thanks so much for checking this all out for us and keeping us updated. Something tells me we could start to see a few more "LIVE" from reports ;)

[startwin]

To the best of my knowledge no set up fee.

 

I will quiz the internet manager at some point if he has info on pricing for upcoming cruises and if he knows any future plans HAL has for other ships.

 

Bill

 

Thank you, will look forward to hearing what you find out. I'd be embarrassed to tell you what I spent on internet on my last Zuiderdam cruise. Yes it was 22 days, but still it was a heck of lot of money:o This sounds like a fantastic deal.

[startwin]

The key thing you must remember is that what you previously experience with Internet on the ships no longer applies, there were brand new cell towers installed in Caribbean and Bahamas and Alaska and obviously the new equipment has been added now to the Zuiderdam. The ships are no longer accessing the satellite directly. So what you experienced in the past will no longer apply

 

This is a quote from the News article

MTN is building out new shore-to-ship wireless systems in major cruise ports in the Bahamas, Caribbean, Alaska and Europe that will allow the company to greatly increase the amount of data it routes to ships at sea. Cruise ships approaching ports fitted with the new wireless systems will be able to switch from the company's satellite system and get data directly from land at much higher speeds, freeing up satellite bandwith for other vessels.

 

Olivier says MTN already has built out the new wireless systems at seven sites in Alaska and is now beginning to roll them out in the Caribbean and Europe. The company plans to have the systems deployed at 39 locations frequented by cruise ships by the second quarter of 2013, he says.

 

A third prong in the new effort is to outfit cruise ships with more sophisticated systems that will allow the vessels to cache large data files such as Netflix videos that cruisers download from the Internet. Once stored on board, the data could be accessed again and again by cruisers at high speed without having to be re-transmitted over a satellite.

 

In short, when one cruiser downloads a video to a ship, under the new system, "we can save it on board and reuse it again," says Olivier.

 

The ability of the new land-based wireless systems to transmit large amounts of data to ships when they are in or near ports will open up new possibilities in data package pricing for cruisers.

 

I just read back through the thread. Thank you for this information Lisa.

[PaulMCO]

The faster speed has nothing to do with cell towers in the Bahamas etc. Since it is a sea day. My guess is that they widened the pipe or are using a better compression algorithm.

 

Have noticed NO difference in speed morning, day or night.

 

I am wondering whether it is a marketing test with this low rate or that HAL wants to test the system and encourage users to load the system to the maximum.. Only time will tell.

 

There was no set-up fee and you register/setup your account on line.

[MrBill64]

After talking with the internet manager for a bit this morning he told me that the new internet pricing and plans will continue on the Zuiderdam for the next couple weeks. If it goes well, and he seemed to think that so far it has been a success, it will expand to the rest of the fleet. He did say that he thought 7-10 day cruises would have the two plans available, $99 entire cruise and $39 24hr plans, while shorter cruises would go back to per minute plans. Longer cruises would probably have the daily plan along with an entire cruise plan but he did not know the pricing.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Bill

[sail7seas]

Thanks, Mr. Bill.

How's your cruise otherwise? Hope you are enjoying. :)

[kazu]

After talking with the internet manager for a bit this morning he told me that the new internet pricing and plans will continue on the Zuiderdam for the next couple weeks. If it goes well, and he seemed to think that so far it has been a success, it will expand to the rest of the fleet. He did say that he thought 7-10 day cruises would have the two plans available, $99 entire cruise and $39 24hr plans, while shorter cruises would go back to per minute plans. Longer cruises would probably have the daily plan along with an entire cruise plan but he did not know the pricing.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Bill

 

Thanks Bill - I am crossing my fingers that this new plan reaches the Prinsendam in 45 days:D Great info and much appreciated:D

 

Have a great cruise and enjoy

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thanks again Bill, keeping my fingers crossed that in 5 weeks I can get this for my B2B 11 days on the Zuiderdam. it would certainly help since I plan to do another Live from :)

[igraf]

You are getting at the evil side of this "unlimited" data plan. If HAL sells this package to a large number of passengers but does not improve the total ship bandwidth, then the internet service will be very poor.

 

Keep in mind that one can write a bunch of emails at one's leisure offline and then dump them all at once (and retrieve new messages) at a free or low cost wifi point in port. Likewise, there are software utilities that will quickly grab the latest versions of your favorite web pages and sublinks for offline reading later on.

 

On the other hand, I am a computer systems engineer and my definition of a vacation includes staying off of computers as much as possible while cruising.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

Thanks for clarifying Paul. I said this since I noticed that HAL's service is much faster early in the morning when fewer users are online. Perhaps this is due to the users actually using the service rather than just being online?

 

DaveOKC

[cruz chic]

You are getting at the evil side of this "unlimited" data plan. If HAL sells this package to a large number of passengers but does not improve the total ship bandwidth, then the internet service will be very poor.

 

Keep in mind that one can write a bunch of emails at one's leisure offline and then dump them all at once (and retrieve new messages) at a free or low cost wifi point in port. Likewise, there are software utilities that will quickly grab the latest versions of your favorite web pages and sublinks for offline reading later on.

 

On the other hand, I am a computer systems engineer and my definition of a vacation includes staying off of computers as much as possible while cruising.

 

igraf

From the sound of some posts in this thread it appears that the internet is "different" from the usual internet on ships. It doesn't sound like that will be a problem.

[sansterre]

Thanks again Bill, keeping my fingers crossed that in 5 weeks I can get this for my B2B 11 days on the Zuiderdam. it would certainly help since I plan to do another Live from :)

 

Yippeeee! I am another one who likes to do "Live from..." and spends a lot on internet fees....way to much even IMO:)

[Linda&Vern]

IMO the next generation of cruisers will demand unlimited access to reasonably priced internet. They've grown up with their tech devices, and they won't give them up for a cruise vacation. Cruise lines would be very smart to start working now on planning for the cruisers who will one day replace us.

[jtl513]

Yippeeee! I am another one who likes to do "Live from..." and spends a lot on internet fees....way to much even IMO:)

And if a lot of others have the same idea the throughput could become a lot worse than currently. I see teenagers "parked" on a computer for long stretches playing games or just passing time with friends on social media. :(

 

Cruise lines would be very smart to start working now on planning for the cruisers who will one day replace us.

Why would you think that they aren't already doing that?

[iancal]

We had a similar offer on our early March Carnival Glory cruise. It was something like $ 70. for seven days unlimited. They also had a more expensive super user package for more money. We did not bother with either so cannot report on the speeds/feeds. We used wireless in port.

[Linda&Vern]

Originally Posted by Linda&Vern

IMO the next generation of cruisers will demand unlimited access to reasonably priced internet. They've grown up with their tech devices, and they won't give them up for a cruise vacation.Cruise lines would be very smart to start working now on planning for the cruisers who will one day replace us.

 

Why would you think that they aren't already doing that?

It was a statement showing I was in agreement with the new reasonable rate, unlimited internet plan being tested. Perhaps I should have said "Cruise lines ARE very smart to start working on planning for the cruisers who will one day replace us." :confused:

[Vict0riann]

If we can get a really good deal, I might be tempted to go on line while we are on the Eurodam starting Saturday. DH will have his ipad, but I think I might not be able to get into CC using it? Would have to get into my own "name" and then google CC. I'm not terribly computer literate, but maybe someone will help me in the computer room. If I can do it, I will!

[Alberta Quilter]

If we can get a really good deal, I might be tempted to go on line while we are on the Eurodam starting Saturday. DH will have his ipad, but I think I might not be able to get into CC using it? Would have to get into my own "name" and then google CC. I'm not terribly computer literate, but maybe someone will help me in the computer room. If I can do it, I will!

 

Would you come back and let us know? I'm joining you, on the Eurodam, after your TA, and have been debating on the merits of getting a package. I'm just not sure I would use it enough to make it worthwhile, particularly since we have so many port days.

 

BTW - You should be able to get into CC using his iPad. You would just need his passcode to get into the iPad and then use Safari to get to CC and log in as you normally would. Have him set up CC as a bookmark for you to make it a little easier, or keep it open on a separate tab. I've done both.

[arzz]

I have blogged many a cruise using my iPad since June 2010 -- never had an issue getting into cruise critic based on the ipad -- did have an occasional issue based upon geographic location -- though the issues at those times usually extended to the internet as a whole, not just CC.

 

Go, blog and enjoy your new freedom!

[Vict0riann]

I'll do my best! :D

[Foolds]

If you need help with CC on the TA part of the Eurodam Cruise come see it in 5051 Happy to help. That would be great if we got unlimited Internet for 100 -/+

 

I am a guy who still has to do some work while I'm onboard on line =(

 

JJ

[Vict0riann]

Thanks for the offer of help. I may need it!:) What I am hoping is that the (23-day) Collector's will count as one cruise when it comes to purchasing internet time! Wouldn't that be great. It's probably too much to wish for though. We usually just buy a small package and eke it out. There will be free wifi in ports, too, I'm sure. See you at the Meet & Greet? Cheers. Ann