Internet Fees

[saopbat1]

We are booked on the Christmas cruise aboard the Regatta and have a question about internet fees. I assume that the posted two dollar charge per e-mail is for outgoing messages, not incoming. Am I correct?

 

Thanks!!!!!

[PurpleCow]

The 2 dollar charge is for outgoing and it's per addressee, so you can't get around it by sending the same email to multiple addresees. This is in addition to the Internet charge of $1.00 per minute. If you use your own laptop in your stateroom, there is only the Internet charge, after the $25.00 set-up fee. There are Internet packages that reduce the cost a bit. The Internet was so slow that next time I won't bother and just use my cell phone to keep in contact with those at home.

[saopbat1]

PurplCow...Thanks for the info...so if I understand correctly, if we get the stateroom set-up, we can send unlimited e-mails for the in room internet charge (plus set-up fee)?

 

Thanks!!!!

[daniela]

"Yes, we do have internet access from your stateroom, although there is a one-time charge of $25 to configure your laptop to operate from your stateroom. For interent access, the per minute charge is $.95 or you may arrange for a multiple minute package such as 100 minutes for $80, 200 minutes for $140 or 500 minutes for $300."

Hope this helps.

[PurpleCow]

The person in charge in the Internet "Cafe" told me to just use minutes and then see at the end if I have enough minutes for one of the plans. I had 128 minutes, so instead of $128.00 (I'm rounding off the nickels for convenience) I ended up paying $80.00 for the first 100 minutes and, I think, $.80 for the other 28 minutes. One other thing, bring along a long phone cord. You can use one of theirs for a $25.00 returnable deposit, but who knos how many they have on hand. I say a long cord because you need to tap into the telephone which isn't anywhere near the desk. On, and one other thing, you have to pay Internet charges for the entire time you're connected to the network, even if you can't get online. I ate up a lot of minutes that way, or with mai that was partially sent and then timed out so I had to start all over again. I recommend sending only 1 email, text only or one small picture, at a time and disconnecting right away if you find you can't get online.

[sandbag7]

I recommend finding an internet cafe in the Cities you're visiting; much much cheaper, and they are readily available in most cities.

[esther e]

The person in charge in the Internet "Cafe" told me to just use minutes and then see at the end if I have enough minutes for one of the plans. I had 128 minutes, so instead of $128.00 (I'm rounding off the nickels for convenience) I ended up paying $80.00 for the first 100 minutes and, I think, $.80 for the other 28 minutes. One other thing, bring along a long phone cord. You can use one of theirs for a $25.00 returnable deposit, but who knos how many they have on hand. I say a long cord because you need to tap into the telephone which isn't anywhere near the desk. On, and one other thing, you have to pay Internet charges for the entire time you're connected to the network, even if you can't get online. I ate up a lot of minutes that way, or with mai that was partially sent and then timed out so I had to start all over again. I recommend sending only 1 email, text only or one small picture, at a time and disconnecting right away if you find you can't get online.

 

Hi Purple:o

I am going to ask a stupid question--you all will think it's stupid; to me it's not--but if I have to use the phone cord to connect to my laptop, does that mean I need to have dial-up service for it to connect? I have hi-speed, so will that not work?

Esther

[saopbat1]

Thanks for the responses. I went to the Oceania web site and read that the in-room set-up is $25.00 PER DAY!!!!!:eek: (plus the per minute or prepaid fees) I think will take the advice offered here and use the internet cafes or just use the ships internet center sparingly and leave my laptop at home and just spend the money on martinis!!!!!:rolleyes:

 

Thanks everyone!!!!!

[esther e]

I think it's a one-time charge of $25 and then you pay per minute.

 

Esther

[Molliem]

In the Already Booked section of Oceania's site there is a 'While Onboard' section that provides info on a number of subjects, including Internet Access. Included is the one time $25.00 setup fee for cabin dialup, per minute usage charges, and available packages.

[mike35]

Esther - you would have to use dial-up with the phone cord; the $25 seup fee configures you built-in (or external) modem to connect via the modem. And I fully agree that the service is so expensive and slow, that local internet cafes are the way to go.

 

Mike

[esther e]

Thanks Mike. We'll use our laptop just for photos.

 

Esther

[drwong]

The 2 dollar charge is for outgoing and it's per addressee, so you can't get around it by sending the same email to multiple addresees. This is in addition to the Internet charge of $1.00 per minute.

 

The $2.00 per message fee is per incoming and outgoing message and is an alternative to the online internet charge. To send (or receive) e-mails, you can either use your Oceania@Sea.com account (which works similar to Microsoft Outlook) OR you can go online and use your commercial e-mail service provier (e.g. Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc.).

 

If you use your Oceania@sea account, you don't have to log in to the internet at all. Instead, Oceania@sea's servers will automatically connect to cyberspace at various times of the day, uploading and downloading messages. (the actual transmission time is far less than a minute, but on the other hand, you have unlimited time to read and compose your messages. However, if you're using your account to send photos home, there'll be a surcharge if the attachments exceed a certain size). If you receive an incoming message for you, it'll be listed in the Oceania@sea email log kept at the entrance to the computer lab so you don't need to check your account every hour.

 

By the way, if you use a commercial account, you'll be charged $1.00 for every minute you're online (unless you buy a package plan), including time spent reading or composing a message. So if you can cut and paste the text of your emails into a Microsoft Word file instead and do it off-line, you can cut down on your actual on-line time.:)

[drwong]

Thanks for the responses. I went to the Oceania web site and read that the in-room set-up is $25.00 PER DAY!!!!!:eek: (plus the per minute or prepaid fees) I think will take the advice offered here and use the internet cafes or just use the ships internet center sparingly and leave my laptop at home and just spend the money on martinis!!!!!:rolleyes:

 

Thanks everyone!!!!!

 

The $25 per day charge appeared in last year's materials, but it's actually per cruise. I thought Oceania would have changed that bit of misinformation by now, seeing how it probably caused others to respond in a manner similar to your emoticon;) , but I guess they (or Highseas Computer Services, their contractor) hasn't had the time. (Trivial note - HCS used to provide the same services for Crystal Cruises and they currently operate Celebrity@Sea program as well as Oceania's).

[PurpleCow]

I guess I misunderstood. I used my own laptop in my stateroom, so my charges were simply the set-up fee and $.95 per minute. I didn't have any additional surcharge from my commercial carrier, just my nornal monthly fee. My business is online and I don't like o be out of touch, but service was so excruciatingly slow that I finally called the office on my cell phone (also $.95 per minute, but fast and efficient) and told them that if there were any fires that only I could put out and that couldn't wait until I got home to just call me. idn't happen. Internet cafes were cheap and plentiful in almost every port.

[shoshona2]

Hi,

 

When I travel on Oceania and use the computers in the lab or library to send and receive messages, I NEVER use the $2.00 per message option. I use my Yahoo address which I set up for travel purposes. I put all my friends and family names in the address book and send them all the same message at one time by hitting on "all". When someone answers me, it is easy to just hit "reply" and reply to that person. I signed up for the $80.00 plan and then used another $20 of time. If I used the $2.00 per message option, it would have been a fortune. The internet access aboard Oceania is very sloooooooooooowwwwwwww. We were in the Black Sea and only found one internet cafe, so I had to use the ship's computers since my daughter-in-law was due to have a baby.

 

Sheila

[john2003]

Here are a couple of my thoughts on their Internet service. First, on the transatlantic/Insignia we found the staff extremely helpful. I am used to services at sea being expensive and slow. Oceania's didn't appear as bad to me as perhaps others have found it. I have in the past looked to shore based facilities but I have certainly found in some countries that the ship has seemed like Utopia so it does depend where one is!

 

Unllike some other services they charge for connect time not PC time. They also don't charge for printing. Both of these comments are as of last March but I don't think they have changed.

 

Why is this important? I composed emails in Word and then logged out. When I logged back in "connect" mode, I opened the file cut and pasted into by email and sent the note. As I didn't have access to my address book, I even keyed all the addresses into the Word document so I could cut and paste them as well. When I received a note of any size, I printed it instead of reading it on line.

 

I still had a sizable bill but I used the service a lot so on balance I was not that unhappy.

 

I am not sure if this would be common practice and my apologies if it is.

 

They also had what appeared to be an excellent service for digital camera users. I understood this to allow photos to be stored on their server, with a single charge to burn the CD at the end of the trip. I don't have personal experience, as at that point I was still a "film" person.