Internet

[carnivalloverpa]

Hello everyone. Last year on the Magic we had a pay one price internet plan. I know that some of the ships have this and was wondering if anyone had a list of the ships that offer a pay one price plan? Thanks

[Spaniel Lover]

None of the ships have this anymore, as far as I know. It was an experiment on the Magic last year. I was lucky enough to have been on the Magic at that time and I got to experience it. From my perspective as someone who needs to be fully connected to the Internet even when on vacation, it was wonderful.

 

However, from Carnival's perspective... I understand that there were problems. I'm not entirely sure what the problems were, but I know the company concluded after the experiment on Magic that the whole thing was not ready for roll-out fleetwide yet.

 

I also know that Carnival understands that passengers want this... and that they are working towards this goal... but that the technology is not ready yet. Carnival recently made an announcement about a change in who they get their satellite Internet service from... and I'm sure that this is all part of the larger plan to improve Internet service on Carnival ships.

 

Hang in there... changes are coming... but I think we're talking about a few years from now, not months from now.

[golfadj]

10 years ago on RCCL they had it.

[tafische]

Hello everyone. Last year on the Magic we had a pay one price internet plan. I know that some of the ships have this and was wondering if anyone had a list of the ships that offer a pay one price plan? Thanks

 

Currently it is available on the Dream, Glory and Magic. I would expect to see it on more ships as they begin to roll out the new system fleet wide.

[tree.critter]

Currently it is available on the Dream, Glory and Magic. I would expect to see it on more ships as they begin to roll out the new system fleet wide.

 

Where'd you get this info? Sadly those ships are the ones they ran trials but as of Jan this year it was discontinued. Only know about the Dream for sure from experience but Ithink you just got old info.... darn!!

[tafische]

I had seen it on several sites recently and I was under the impression they were allowing it to continue on those boats for now but I could be wrong.

 

Harris CapRock just won a 5 year contract to provide Internet on the Carnival fleet so I would expect to see a dramatic improvement with their VSAT system.

[tafische]

According to John Heald the Glory and Breeze will get the new internet in December....The Dream and the Magic have already been completed.

[Whoop98]

Just off the Magic in Oct. They had high speed internet for one device at $134.99. We had it last year for around $100, but it was still great. Able to FaceTime home everyday.

[MicksMom]

We had it on The Magic the end of March. Seems like it was around $70 for the slower unlimited. I believe the faster was $120.

Edited November 13, 2013 by MicksMom

[tafische]

Just off the Magic in Oct. They had high speed internet for one device at $134.99. We had it last year for around $100, but it was still great. Able to FaceTime home everyday.

 

Really...you got FaceTime...cool...how was it? I would have expected the latency to be too high....that is indeed good news.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Cruzin2paradise09]

I believe I read the info on Carnival's website in the last week or so.

 

Go to the FAQs and search for internet.

[riclop]

The Breeze internet is super SLLOOWWWW.

[larkz]

10 years ago on RCCL they had it.

 

Carnival is plunging back to the future with their Internet. Soon, they'll be leaping forward to the 1990s.

[bigelow]

Carnival is in the process of changing internet providers and the change will be completed by the end of the month. In the new year they will have more info on internet packages.:)

[golfadj]

Carnival is plunging back to the future with their Internet. Soon, they'll be leaping forward to the 1990s.

 

Wow, very funny though.

[paradiselivin1]

LOL. Guess I will patiently wait to get to a port with free Wi-Fi instead of paying for lack of connectivity.. Have not had good luck in the past but you would think by now they would be into the 21st century ~ right?:confused:

[tafische]

LOL. Guess I will patiently wait to get to a port with free Wi-Fi instead of paying for lack of connectivity.. Have not had good luck in the past but you would think by now they would be into the 21st century ~ right?:confused:

 

Well you do have to remember that you are trying to have a two way satellite communication with a satellite 22,236 miles above your head from a moving ship. In addition, the bandwidth required to support the number of folks on a ship is fairly substantial. With staff and crew you could easily have 4,000 potential clients - even if 5% of those purchased WiFi, that is 200 people....lets say at peek time 50 (25%) are on at one time (and 5 are trying to Skype)- that is a LOT of bandwidth to support over that type of connection.

[Whoop98]

Really...you got FaceTime...cool...how was it? I would have expected the latency to be too high....that is indeed good news.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Yes. 90-95% of the time no real issues. Sometimes it did lose the video, but you still had sound. But that was rare. One night we had to move around to get a better signal, but all in all out in the middle of the ocean, it was great!

[Spaniel Lover]

I reached out to John Heald via his Facebook page to inquire about this, as it was a surprise to hear from some CruiseCritic members that Carnival was still offering high-speed unlimited Internet service on a few ships.

 

Here's what John had to say:

 

Yes we still on for this program on a couple of our ships. However at the end of November we will move over to a new satellite provider and will soon announce new Internet packages and pricing. We feel the new provider will give us quicker service and more details on this subject will be forthcoming. Cheers mate

 

Where he said "we still on for this program" I believe he meant "we still offer this program".

 

So, it sounds like changes are coming around the beginning of December. If I haven't heard any more details from Carnival or CruiseCritic about these changes by mid-December, I'll make a point to ask John about it again.

[arush5268d]

Well you do have to remember that you are trying to have a two way satellite communication with a satellite 22,236 miles above your head from a moving ship. In addition, the bandwidth required to support the number of folks on a ship is fairly substantial. With staff and crew you could easily have 4,000 potential clients - even if 5% of those purchased WiFi, that is 200 people....lets say at peek time 50 (25%) are on at one time (and 5 are trying to Skype)- that is a LOT of bandwidth to support over that type of connection.

 

RCCL has been able to figure it out.

[arush5268d]

I reached out to John Heald via his Facebook page to inquire about this, as it was a surprise to hear from some CruiseCritic members that Carnival was still offering high-speed unlimited Internet service on a few ships.

 

Here's what John had to say:

 

 

 

Where he said "we still on for this program" I believe he meant "we still offer this program".

 

So, it sounds like changes are coming around the beginning of December. If I haven't heard any more details from Carnival or CruiseCritic about these changes by mid-December, I'll make a point to ask John about it again.

 

It's been mentioned a bunch lately, here and on JH's blog I believe.

[CoconutJD]

Magic had it last week. $134.99 for the week. You can use multiple devices, but only one can be connected at a time. So if you were using it on your tablet, you'd have to disconnect from the tablet in order to connect using another device.

[SportsMomof4]

I was wondering if anyone has seen any updates on this? I leave Sunday on the Breeze & would really like the internet to be in contact with home. We were on the Breeze last year & had the $99 unlimited package & it was awesome. We also did face time with my oldest son who stayed home.

 

I did ask John a couple of weeks ago & he did reply that they would be announcing the internet plans soon. I know he is now occupied with the passing of his Dad so I obviously don't want to bother him.

[zgwortz]

I'm making an educated guess that we'll hear something more official about this sometime next week.

 

That said, there *ought* to be something that current cruisers can tell us -- based on the original announcement and schedules, there ought to be at least a few (if not all) Carnival ships out there now which have switched over to using the new provider, even if the rate plans haven't changed. And that should mean a noticeable difference in connectivity and speed from the prior service.

 

Is there anyone out there who has cruised in the last couple of weeks (or is cruising now) who might have some feedback on this?

[tgunn1978]

Really...you got FaceTime...cool...how was it? I would have expected the latency to be too high....that is indeed good news.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

We had the high speed internet on Magic in May and were able to FaceTime as well. Our friends had the cheaper plan and it sucked. They said it was a huge waste of money. We were very happy with our $134.99 plan. We are going back on that ship in May and hoping they still have it.