Ship Internet Questions

[TheDivineMrsM]

As 1st time cruisers, I'm wondering what the cost for internet is on an 8 day cruise. We are heading from Baltimore to the Bahamas next month. I don't see a price on the RCI webiste, it just says to check while onboard. I see something about internet being available at different spots on the ship. I'm sort of confused. Any advice?

[FLACRUISER99]

As 1st time cruisers, I'm wondering what the cost for internet is on an 8 day cruise. We are heading from Baltimore to the Bahamas next month. I don't see a price on the RCI webiste, it just says to check while onboard. I see something about internet being available at different spots on the ship. I'm sort of confused. Any advice?

The RCI internet is in being upgraded with unlimited programs are being added. The max price would be $.75 per minute. Edited July 5, 2014 by FLACRUISER99

[Paulxyz2004]

As 1st time cruisers, I'm wondering what the cost for internet is on an 8 day cruise. We are heading from Baltimore to the Bahamas next month. I don't see a price on the RCI webiste, it just says to check while onboard. I see something about internet being available at different spots on the ship. I'm sort of confused. Any advice?

 

The reason why they say this is, it varies from ship to ship these days and is subject to changes.

 

To give you a ballpark number, it´s about .65 per Minute, whith packages available that will bring down the Price a bit.

[Clarea]

As 1st time cruisers, I'm wondering what the cost for internet is on an 8 day cruise. We are heading from Baltimore to the Bahamas next month. I don't see a price on the RCI webiste, it just says to check while onboard. I see something about internet being available at different spots on the ship. I'm sort of confused. Any advice?

Grandeur has been upgraded to include pervasive wireless, so it's all over the ship now. If they still charge by the minute, it will start at $0.75 or $0.85 per minute with packages of minutes available that reduce the per minute cost. If they have gone to unlimited, the cost is around $190 for a 7 day cruise.

[TheDivineMrsM]

Oh, okay, so it's per minute that you're charged. And that would be per person or per room? Would you be able to use internet in the room or just in certain spots on the ship?

 

Personally, I want to go without internet, I have no problem with that at all. But my adult son is questioning what the cost is. To me, it would be like the fourth person on our trip, me, husband, son and internet. But I still wanted to ask.

[Clarea]

Oh, okay, so it's per minute that you're charged. And that would be per person or per room? Would you be able to use internet in the room or just in certain spots on the ship?

 

Personally, I want to go without internet, I have no problem with that at all. But my adult son is questioning what the cost is. To me, it would be like the fourth person on our trip, me, husband, son and internet. But I still wanted to ask.

Internet is all over the ship, so yes you can use it in your stateroom.

 

The internet is charged per device that is connected.

[FLACRUISER99]

Oh, okay, so it's per minute that you're charged. And that would be per person or per room? Would you be able to use internet in the room or just in certain spots on the ship?

 

Personally, I want to go without internet, I have no problem with that at all. But my adult son is questioning what the cost is. To me, it would be like the fourth person on our trip, me, husband, son and internet. But I still wanted to ask.

Like I said all ships are different because of the change over to Unlimited Internet. The attached file will give you an example of cost for a 3 day cruise.

MJ WiFi.pdf

[PompeySailor]

This is 3 weeks old, showing the internet packages

 

[Clarea]

This is 3 weeks old, showing the internet packages

 

What that from Grandeur?

[PompeySailor]

What that from Grandeur?

 

Navigator:)

[Clarea]

Navigator:)

Thanks.:)

[TheDivineMrsM]

Thanks for all the replies and the copies of listed prices. It's appreciated!

[rummenroman]

Thanks for all the replies and the copies of listed prices. It's appreciated!

 

The internet is VERY VERY slow. I liken it to the speed of a 56k modem on it's best day. Your son won't be able to do much online with those speeds. Just thought I would add another factor into the decision.

[jd07]

And on the radiance a little known discount of half price internet between 11pm and 5am. One small A4 sign deep on a shelf :)

 

 

Sent from JD's iPhone using Tapatalk

[Trekker954]

Use the internet on the ship sparingly (it takes about 5 minutes to initially connect). kaching, kaching. There will be quite a few places to connect once you reach Nassau.

[Paulxyz2004]

Use the internet on the ship sparingly (it takes about 5 minutes to initially connect). kaching, kaching. There will be quite a few places to connect once you reach Nassau.

 

 

5 minutes to connect? I´ve never had it taking that Long and even if it did, there is no Charge until you are connected.

 

I download my emails to Outlook or my ipad, write my emails offline and then connect to send them.

 

Connecting to download and upload emails usually takes one or two minutes of paid Internet time and while it does that I most of the time load a couple of Internet sites I then read later after I have signed off again.

 

Speed is not up to your highspeed at home, but it´s not like many years ago anymore either. The reference to the 56k modem by rummenroman is as outdated as 56k Modems themselves.

[TheDivineMrsM]

It hardly seems worth it to me. I don't need to worry about email and not sure why anyone would need or want to spend $200 to find out what others are doing on Facebook, ect. The $200 price tag, approximate cost for unlimited minutes, is what I paid last year for 10 months of internet when at&t was running a special.

[NorbertsNiece]

I blog every cruise.

 

There are hiccoughs. Sure. The trick is to check the wifi connection before you log on..... even ships with pervasive wifi have hot spots, places where the signal is much stronger than in your room.

 

My latest cruise blog was on Legend. I only once had connection problems and that time was credited back to me via Guest Services. It never took me 5 minutes to connect when at a hotspot.... it was always instant. I was able to upload pics to Photobucket and then post them to the Blog.

[Daghis]

It hardly seems worth it to me. I don't need to worry about email and not sure why anyone would need or want to spend $200 to find out what others are doing on Facebook, ect. The $200 price tag, approximate cost for unlimited minutes, is what I paid last year for 10 months of internet when at&t was running a special.

Although spending $200 may not be worth it to you, it's hardly a fair comparison between land-based and ship-based internet services. Ship-based internet is through a satellite connection which is much more expensive service to use.

[Daghis]

What would be interesting is if Royal Caribbean would switch from per-minute to per-megabyte pricing. Over in the Norwegian forum, someone posted that NCL was experimenting with per-MB pricing on Norwegian Breakaway, including rates like $39 per gigabyte. It was later said that this is promotional pricing while they try out per-MB pricing and that the normal rate would be $89/GB.

 

Still, that'd be fantastic for most of us. First, the concept of paying per-minute for internet access is less common with most of us experiencing per-GB rates, when internet service is metered, such as on mobile devices. Second, I suspect that most people would use far less than a gigabyte over the course of a week, even with fairly active use of e-mail and web surfing.

[Clarea]

What would be interesting is if Royal Caribbean would switch from per-minute to per-megabyte pricing. Over in the Norwegian forum, someone posted that NCL was experimenting with per-MB pricing on Norwegian Breakaway, including rates like $39 per gigabyte. It was later said that this is promotional pricing while they try out per-MB pricing and that the normal rate would be $89/GB.

 

Still, that'd be fantastic for most of us. First, the concept of paying per-minute for internet access is less common with most of us experiencing per-GB rates, when internet service is metered, such as on mobile devices. Second, I suspect that most people would use far less than a gigabyte over the course of a week, even with fairly active use of e-mail and web surfing.

It would be great for the consumer to be billed per MB, because the slower the connection, the less we would pay. The way it is now, the slower the connection, the more money the company makes - until it gets so slow that everyone just gives up.

[TheDivineMrsM]

daghis, you are welcome to compare what you like. I don't know about the different type connections. I'm looking at what I do know, and am comparing 8 days with 10 months, that's all. To be on a ship, something we've never done before, sailing to places we've never been to have experiences we've never had, I will give up internet and save $200 for that, easy trade-off for me.

[markeb]

What would be interesting is if Royal Caribbean would switch from per-minute to per-megabyte pricing. Over in the Norwegian forum, someone posted that NCL was experimenting with per-MB pricing on Norwegian Breakaway, including rates like $39 per gigabyte. It was later said that this is promotional pricing while they try out per-MB pricing and that the normal rate would be $89/GB.

 

Still, that'd be fantastic for most of us. First, the concept of paying per-minute for internet access is less common with most of us experiencing per-GB rates, when internet service is metered, such as on mobile devices. Second, I suspect that most people would use far less than a gigabyte over the course of a week, even with fairly active use of e-mail and web surfing.

 

I've thought the same thing, but I actually think their rate limiting step is the INTRA ship infrastructure such as the routers and DHCP servers. They generally have very poor bandwidth to the access point, so charging by data usage would encourage people to maintain a data connection even when they're not doing much, which divides the available bandwidth on the ship. They need some serious upgrades to the basic WiFi system to have a prayer of dealing with the number of users that might be attracted by a data versus time based billing system!

 

I did do an unlimited package as an experiment on our most recent cruise. The ship (Explorer) didn't have pervasive WiFi, so I was only able to connect at hot spots, and believe me you didn't want to try to connect at 4:00 p.m. in the bar on the Promenade!

 

But, charging by the minute is pretty silly, isn't it?

[RN7997]

I am sailing explorer to Bermuda next month for 5 nights. My kids will be at home and I need to check emails for work while I am away, so what is my best bet for that? What am I looking at for cost for the 5 nights if I did unlimited? Am I understanding I can't access it in my room on that ship? I am Platinum with C&A any discounts for that?

[Clarea]

I am sailing explorer to Bermuda next month for 5 nights. My kids will be at home and I need to check emails for work while I am away, so what is my best bet for that? What am I looking at for cost for the 5 nights if I did unlimited? Am I understanding I can't access it in my room on that ship? I am Platinum with C&A any discounts for that?

Explorer does not yet have ship-wide pervasive wireless. Wireless is only available in about 6 different hot spots.

 

If Explorer has unlimited internet, you are probably looking at around $150 for the 5 day cruise. If Explorer is still on the per minute plan, then that would start at $0.75 or $0.85 per minute, with packages of minutes available to reduce the per minute rate.

 

Platinum members get 15% off internet packages.

Edited July 9, 2014 by clarea