Internet, wi-fi, promo minutes Help

[steelersfan4ever]

Hello, we are sailing on the Breakaway in a few weeks and are very confused by internet/data/wi-fi. We received 100 free internet minutes with our booking.

 

What exactly does 100 free minutes mean?

 

Someone in our group is under the impression that we get free wi-fi and 100 minutes of data? (not even sure what that means)

 

Is there free wi-fi on the ship?

 

Is the iconcierge free at all to use on the ship?

 

We tried finding these answers on here, but had no luck on understanding what is going on, Thanks in advance for any help.

[sanger727]

Hello, we are sailing on the Breakaway in a few weeks and are very confused by internet/data/wi-fi. We received 100 free internet minutes with our booking.

 

What exactly does 100 free minutes mean?

 

Someone in our group is under the impression that we get free wi-fi and 100 minutes of data? (not even sure what that means)

 

Is there free wi-fi on the ship?

 

Is the iconcierge free at all to use on the ship?

 

We tried finding these answers on here, but had no luck on understanding what is going on, Thanks in advance for any help.

 

 

There is no free Wi-Fi on the ship. All wifi is purchase and paid for to Norweigan. Data is from your cell phone carrier - not relevant. 100 free minutes means just that, you can log on and off the internet throughout the trip (so can't just leave on for facebook updates and imessage) until you log 100 minutes of "internet time." Out side the packages internet costs roughly $1 a minute.

 

iconcierge is an app you can download before you get onboard. It allows you to connect to the ship only for free. So can't surf the web or chat or facebook or anything like that; but you can view you account and make dinner reservations for free. If you pay a separate $10 fee per phone you can use iconcierge to call and text other people on the ship who paid that fee (you don't use your real numbers, you use a number the app assigns you).

[BirdTravels]

Hello, we are sailing on the Breakaway in a few weeks and are very confused by internet/data/wi-fi. We received 100 free internet minutes with our booking.

 

What exactly does 100 free minutes mean? Someone in our group is under the impression that we get free wi-fi and 100 minutes of data? (not even sure what that means)

On all ships, except the breakaway, you can log on and use the wifi for 100 minutes. On the breakaway, it will probably be 200 MB of data (breakaway is the only ship that sells wifi by the MB).

 

Is there free wi-fi on the ship? Is the iconcierge free at all to use on the ship?

You can use the ship's wifi for free to check your room account, make reservations, check the schedule of events on the ship. You use iConcierge to access all of the free information.

 

For a fee, you can use iConcierge to call each other on the ship or text each other on the ship. It is a flat fee per mobile phone. That will also give you ship to shore calls for $0.79/ minute.

 

You can NOT get to the internet for free. All internet usage is charged by the MB.

 

We tried finding these answers on here, but had no luck on understanding what is going on, Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Have a good cruise.

[Crusin6]

If you take the free wifi as a perk you can upgrade once on board to the unlimited package at the internet desk

 

I saw it done and the pax paid the difference to upgrade

 

My free wifi package was valued at $150 and I had no need to upgrade but the other pax paid $125 I believe to upgrade to unlimited wifi on the gem. Approx

 

 

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[sanger727]

Actually all internet onboard is charged by the minute, not the MB. This is an important distinction if you phone is set to download emails because a bunch off ad emails with pictures will use a bunch of MB to download; but could only take a minute or two in terms of what you are charged.

 

 

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[mking8288]

... all internet onboard is charged by the minute, not the MB ...

satellite-routed inTERnet onboard NCL ships are charged by the minutes, not by MB, EXCEPT for the Breakaway - which I can attest to as repeat pax. If there is a new setup lately, I stand corrected.

 

Ships that are part of the NCL fleet with iConcierge app functions enabled and supported, only need basic inTRAnet access within its closed loop server, behind the inTERnet firewall (that needs to registered, activated and enabled for going beyond the firewall to reach the satellite uplinks and downlinks, i.e. to reach land-based sites, except for NCL dot com (and, to do simple Google searches ... its default search engine to browse) Both internet and intranet features use data, former isn't free but latter is free, like accessing one's Onboard Account to review charges posted, read the daily posting, dining menu and make specialty dining reservations, or even read the few emails to pax from the ship housed on its server.

 

For the BA, pax have the choice of a # of plans & options, prices varied & posted online & at the ship's internet cafe, also from one's mobile or desktop browser's startup homepage. Those with the 250 minutes free WiFi offer will get not 250, but 1,000 MB data and it is tracked on the usage meter - that's 1 GB of data, not 250 minutes and in practice (based on personal experience) equivalent of 1,000 minutes of usage. For light email & web browsing, it is more than sufficient for a typical 7 days cruise as most users are not glued to their gadgets and devices around the clock and will be ashore at times, with access to whatever on land/in ports - whether it's cellular or WiFi, paid or free, etc. That's roughly about 2.75 hours of daily usage, regardless of the actual speed & latency of the connection. On the BA, the transfer rate is about 1 MB per minute of usage.

(screenshot pix - as shown)

 

For pax getting only 100 minutes on the BA, it should be given as 250 MB of data to use, same as 250 minutes - exclusive to the BA and not on other ships, AFAIK. A 300 MB data plan is among the options that can be added in addition to the daily unlimited plan.

(screenshot # 2 - as below)

 

As for using background data, whether it's on a smartphone, tablet or a laptop PC, it's up to the user to learn, know & turn-off those downloads - and, there is a usage meter that pop up at the beginning & end of each session, as you need to log-in with userid and password and also log-out to stop the usage meter.

 

For help, the onboard internet cafe manager can help with setting up the plan, doing a quick check on popular smartphone browser with settings - and, offer any unadvertised specials (such as credits & refunds if it doesn't work, for whatever reasons)

[mking8288]

Screenshots not uploading from Tapatalk, as above post

 

 

** for additional tips about Breakaway's inTERnet and inTRAnet WiFi usage, iConcierge, shore-based cellular data (in Bermuda, for 2016 season) - expand under "Signature" & look under BA review for more details.

 

sent from Nexus 5X on Nougat 7.1.1 via Tapatalk, VPN secured

[sanger727]

Mking8288 - sorry, didn't realize that breakaway worked differently than the other ships.

 

 

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[NCruiser2012]

We are sailing on the Getaway this summer. One of our perks is (250 minutes or 1GB). Does anyone know the cost to upgrade to unlimited minutes/data? Unfortunately, my husband has to keep in contact with work and we have two sea days.

[Crusin6]

We are sailing on the Getaway this summer. One of our perks is (250 minutes or 1GB). Does anyone know the cost to upgrade to unlimited minutes/data? Unfortunately, my husband has to keep in contact with work and we have two sea days.

 

 

The wifi perk is valued at approx $150 so you just pay the difference to the unlimited plan

 

Look for the cost online for the unlimited plan...on the mega ships isn't it something like $30 a day

 

 

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[mking8288]

We are sailing on the Getaway this summer. One of our perks is (250 minutes or 1GB). Does anyone know the cost to upgrade to unlimited minutes/data? Unfortunately, my husband has to keep in contact with work and we have two sea days.

One of my niece's did that twice on the GA, speak to the nice internet cafe manager once onboard to maks the unofficial deal. It's slower than BA but usage for even FT video, Skype is good. There's a free SpeedNet App by MTN for iOS and Android to boost cache, download ahead to use, although another user said it is buggy and unsafe to use.

 

On GA, it is by the minutes and 250 plan was $129 value. She asked for a deal on day 2 so difference wasn't bad to pay for. Still, you will need access from land providers in those ports.

 

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[Crusin6]

One of my niece's did that twice on the GA, speak to the nice internet cafe manager once onboard to maks the unofficial deal. It's slower than BA but usage for even FT video, Skype is good. There's a free SpeedNet App by MTN for iOS and Android to boost cache, download ahead to use, although another user said it is buggy and unsafe to use.

 

On GA, it is by the minutes and 250 plan was $129 value. She asked for a deal on day 2 so difference wasn't bad to pay for. Still, you will need access from land providers in those ports.

 

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It's not an "unofficial" deal so don't make it sound like one

 

 

If you pick the free wifi as a perk you can easily just go to the internet desk and upgrade to unlimited and just pay the difference from what the free wifi perk is valued at and the cost of the unlimited deal

 

 

Nothing unofficial nothing sinister.....

 

 

However that's not to say that the internet manager won't make it sound like they are doing you an incredible favor. Computer peeps still need the adoration it seems and like to feel as though you can't survive without them Lol. The problem with having a limited amount of wifi versus unlimited is that the internet desk will have you in a tizzy about properly logging on and off and put the fear of god in you that you will burn through your wifi in a matter of minutes if you don't sign off correctly

 

 

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[BirdTravels]

It's not an "unofficial" deal so don't make it sound like one

If you pick the free wifi as a perk you can easily just go to the internet desk and upgrade to unlimited and just pay the difference from what the free wifi perk is valued at and the cost of the unlimited deal

Nothing unofficial nothing sinister.....

 

However that's not to say that the internet manager won't make it sound like they are doing you an incredible favor. Computer peeps still need the adoration it seems and like to feel as though you can't survive without them Lol. The problem with having a limited amount of wifi versus unlimited is that the internet desk will have you in a tizzy about properly logging on and off and put the fear of god in you that you will burn through your wifi in a matter of minutes if you don't sign off correctly

 

 

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It is unofficial because I have tried to do this and was told that it was not allowed. We sail about 6 times a year and know our way around "official" and "unofficial". Never seen anything in writing that allows an upgrade. And on at least one occasion was told by the internet manager that he was not allowed to do it.

[Crusin6]

They gladly upgraded the guy standing in front of me on the gem. He just paid the fee. This was in oct 16

 

 

The guy in front of me paid around $130 to upgrade

 

Ncl has no reason to not do this

 

I think your internet manager was trying to look like they were going above and beyond

 

Just like when the Mdr waiter "insists" on bringing you something extra

 

It's no big deal for the waiter to do this of course...but makes it sound like he's going above and beyond. Lol

 

 

 

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