Internet Charges on SS

[fudge]

We have just completed our 5th cruise with SS, one thing that really bugs me is the cost of Internet on board! Is this the same on most cruise lines? I have mentioned this on more than one occasion and met with no response from SS.

[dougburns]

Can't speak for all of the cruise lines, but most that I know of are the same as far as charges go. The thing that bugs me is that many of the lines use the same provider and they don't have enough band width and they oversell what they have. That often makes things very slow. Of course, you can always get one of the high priced suites and get free internet.

[duct tape]

That doesn't make it any faster. :-)

[RachelG]

The really frustrating thing is that you are having to pay extra for it, and then it is so slow that you are using up a lot of minutes just waiting.

I have learned a couple of tricks to save minutes. I download all my email, but then go off line to read it. I can cull out the junk and the things that do not require a response. I compose my responses off line then log back on to send.

Same with posting here. I compose offline then sign on to post and to quickly read questions and responses.

[Tothesunset]

The charges are a touch eye-watering. We took the 250 mins for 85 bucks option recently and I suspect that at least 100 of those minutes were wasted waiting for stuff to load at glacial speeds.

 

We trimmed our use by logging out as soon as emails had downloaded, composing replies and then logging back on to send. Gave up on photos pretty quickly, the upload speeds are neanderthal.

[WesW]

Concur the internet costs are high, but at least for 2013 (SS gave us $1000SBC for each voyage--normally purchase 1000 minutes for $250 of this SS SBC) we extend our minutes () by using Microsoft word to compose replies, logging on, then replying accordingly. As for downloading pix, we first use Microsoft pictures to download (can upload these directly to Facebook), but it is painfully slow to use Photobucket (or your choice of photo hosting site) to download our pix--our solution is to download early (5-5:30am or late 11-11:30pm). This worked well for our Spirit crossing in April (posted over 100 pix in our crossing thread).

[Keith1010]

Unfortunately satellite capacity is very costly. For those of you who remember the old days of making international calls the costs for calls were very high and the quality was poor. Do you remember the delays? Satellite is a terrible vehicle for the internet.

 

I suspect over time with additional technology that we will gradually see rates go down but they will still seem high.

 

Unfortunately, we can't hook up a fiber cable to the ship. Now if we could costs would go down and quality would improve.

 

Keith

[Grandma Gilly]

We too used our OBC for our internet charges but I understand SS has done away with that $1000 OBC.

I was discussing yesterday with a friend how, these days, having Internet is one of the things that decides where we will stay and what we will do.

 

On Aazamara, if you are on their top loyalty level you get 237 free Internet minutes, so for two people that's quite sufficient.

 

Shame a few more cruise lines don't follow.

[drron29]

The more people accessing the internet the less the bandwidth copes and the slower it gets.Again I will always compose offline.I downsize my photos before adding to a cruise report so they load quite quickly.They are put into the post though offline.

[fudge]

Further to my first post, wouldn't be so bad if they offered free internet in one of the lounges, or in the public areas.

[LaVieBoheme]

Further to my first post, wouldn't be so bad if they offered free internet in one of the lounges, or in the public areas.

 

But then everyone would just go to that one lounge and attempt to access the internet through the (probably) single wireless router - making access even slower - while, at the same time, hogging all the chairs and typing away on their keyboards hence annoying the people who want to just sit in the lounge and enjoy a quiet drink and/or read a book/admire the view.

 

Compared to the total cost of the vacation I find that the additional amount we pay for internet access is not that significant.

[UKCruiseJeff]

But then everyone would just go to that one lounge and attempt to access the internet through the (probably) single wireless router - making access even slower - while, at the same time, hogging all the chairs and typing away on their keyboards hence annoying the people who want to just sit in the lounge and enjoy a quiet drink and/or read a book/admire the view.

 

Compared to the total cost of the vacation I find that the additional amount we pay for internet access is not that significant.

 

.... or shout into their Skype or wifi enabled mobile phones..... ughhhhh

 

 

:o

[oregon50]

I've been on several different lines the past year and none had identical charges. We pay nothing on Seabourn for unlimited usage and when we did pay, it was $400 for entire length of stay.

[RachelG]

Internet is included on Regent once you are past 25 days. One of the reasons (the other being smoking policy, which is now fixed) that I was so hesitant to try out Silversea. I do wish they would make included internet an additional loyalty perk after a certain number of days.

[kyriecat]

I haven't taken my first SS cruise yet (booked for Feb.) but I have been on other cruise lines. SS internet charges (not sure about connection speed) are a little cheaper than other cruise lines.

 

Royal Caribbean:

The cost is $.65 per minute or you can choose a prepaid package:

$35 for 60 minutes

$55 for 100 minutes

$75 for 150 minutes

$100 for 250 minutes

$150 for 500 minutes

 

Silversea:

Basic Rate: $0.50 per minute (pay as you go)

Time Plan 1: 100 minutes for $45 ($0.45 per minute)

Time Plan 2: 250 minutes for $85 ($0.34 per minute)

Time Plan 3: 1000 minutes for $250 ($0.25 per minute)

 

Holland America:

One-time Activation Fee of $3.95 applies to each user.

Basic time charge $0.75 per minute, pay as you go

250 minutes for $100.00, $0.40 per minute

100 minutes for $55.00, $0.55 per minute

 

Celebrity:

Cost is $.75 per minute or you can choose a prepaid package:

$24.95 for 38 minutes

$49.95 for 90 minutes

$99.95 for 208 minutes

$199.95 for 555 minutes

$399.95 for 166 minutes

 

Frequent cruisers on RC get 10% off if they purchase an internet package and frequent Celebrity cruisers get 90 free minutes. I don't think HAL had any internet benefits for frequent cruisers. HAL is the only cruise line that I know of who charges an "activation fee" to use the internet.

[Portolan]

Internet is included on Regent once you are past 25 days. One of the reasons (the other being smoking policy, which is now fixed) that I was so hesitant to try out Silversea. I do wish they would make included internet an additional loyalty perk after a certain number of days.

 

and, with a policy change last year, the benefit is available for the entire cruise on which you cross the 20 day threshold. You also get an hour of ship-to-shore phone time (you know, the one that is $10-15 a minute which you'd only use in an emergency otherwise!).

[RachelG]

The ship to shore free phone is really important to us as my mom is 95, sharp as a tack, but I like to talk to her at least once a week. Really missed being able to do that on silversea. She gets a huge kick out of it when I tell her I am calling from Istanbul or Lima Peru.

[SuzCruise]

As I said in my recent review, it is infuriating that luxury cruises and hotels charge for something that La Quinta and other cheap motels give away for free. I am hoping that this horrible policy changes soon. I'm not going to chose La Quinta over a luxury hotel because of this charge, though. I understand that the possibility of free wifi may be different at sea, because the cost to the cruise line might be much higher. But the usage is also possibly less because so many people get fed up with the slow connection and give up. I did.

 

Like Rachel, we have status on RSSC that gives us free Internet, I believe unlimited. I don't complain as much about how slow it is when it is free. Though in comparing our last RSSC cruise with our recent SS cruise, SS Internet was MUCH slower. We just waited until we went ashore and then found free wifi. It's everywhere. When we do non cruise vacations to Europe we just find free wifi and do our emailing or skyping while having cocktails somewhere. If we ever do another SS cruise, or any line where we have to pay for Internet, I will remember this thread and just wait til we go ashore.