Internet on Westerdam

[rafinmd]

Does anyone know if the Westerdam is offering HAL's traditional internet plans or are they part of the experiment with unlimited internet?

 

If so, are the traditional plans still available?

 

Roy

[Reagan0712]

If the Westerdam is still offering the old plan, check out the satellite plans, 3G or 4G, for iPads or Kindles. I used a plan for my iPad for 30 days in April. It was half the cost of the ship plan and kicked in most of the time when we were an hour or so away from port.

[unclerich]

Roy,

We paid $139.99 for the 'highest level' unlimited 7 day plan on Westerdam - Alaska in June.

 

If I recall correctly, they had three levels of use (+/- social media, +/- video, etc) for daily and 7 day, unlimited.

 

I didn't bring the info sheet home. Hope this is helpful.

 

Richard

[rafinmd]

Thanks

 

Roy

[mellowrose]

I don't mind paying as long as the internet works quickly!

[hjmlmiller]

Roy,

We paid $139.99 for the 'highest level' unlimited 7 day plan on Westerdam - Alaska in June.

 

If I recall correctly, they had three levels of use (+/- social media, +/- video, etc) for daily and 7 day, unlimited.

 

I didn't bring the info sheet home. Hope this is helpful.

 

Richard

 

 

Hi there, thanks for the info. Did the internet work well? Was the $139.99 for one login per person or could you use multiple devices/per cabin?

 

Thanks!

[kazu]

Does anyone know if the Westerdam is offering HAL's traditional internet plans or are they part of the experiment with unlimited internet?

 

If so, are the traditional plans still available?

 

Roy

 

Westerdam has had the unlimited plans since at least 2016. It was excellent on our Panama cruise.

 

On our cruise to Hawaii, Tahiti & Marquesas we had some serious outages - Hawaii and a few other spots (I don't think the guy knew how to operate the satellite - LOL)

 

How long is your cruise for Roy? I found the pricing very good on the longer cruises. Not the same per diem as the 7 day cruises at all.

 

Hope this helps a bit.

[rafinmd]

This is the Inside Passage Seward to Vancouver at the end of the month. I was surprised by another thing. Somebody did a thread on the Volendam early in the season and posted "When and Where" and there was a note the first day that internet was available "from $14.99 per day. The new system may be starting to expand throughout the fleet (although I suspect neither of us will see it on the Elegant Explorer).

 

Roy

[kazu]

This is the Inside Passage Seward to Vancouver at the end of the month. I was surprised by another thing. Somebody did a thread on the Volendam early in the season and posted "When and Where" and there was a note the first day that internet was available "from $14.99 per day. The new system may be starting to expand throughout the fleet (although I suspect neither of us will see it on the Elegant Explorer).

 

Roy

 

Ok, I am so used to you doing longer cruises, that I "assumed" you were (you know what happens when you assume ;) ).

 

There will be a by the minute package at the end of the cruise to do flights, etc. if she follows the same pattern that we had.

 

When we were on her, they offered the three unlimited packages (the medium package more than did the trick for me and the more expensive package was not faster - I had it for the 1st day when the internet manager gave me incorrect info and had it changed to the medium.).

 

As I recall, we could sign on for one day if needed.

 

Pricing from my 33 day cruise:

 

Internet onboard......

 

The Internet is the unlimited again - YAY.

 

A bit of confusion surrounding it as when you see the prices, it says for the 30 day cruise.

 

When you sign up, it says "until the end of the voyage"

 

I asked our concierge to confirm if we had the package until San Diego or until Vancouver. (I chose NOT to ask the Internet manager for a reason - incorrect information given already - see below). Concierge emailed whomever and confirmed we have it until Vancouver.

 

For all you 5*'s out there - be careful. There were several of us asking the Internet manager how the 5* discount worked. He said as long as you took the premier package (the most expensive one), we would receive a 50% discount which would be applied at the end of the cruise. This sounded a little strange to me since we normally get discounts immediately and 50% seemed too good to be true. So, I repeated it back and he confirmed. Good enough so I signed up for the premier package.

 

Checked my on board account and I had received a $32 discount. Hmmmm??? So, asked the concierge to check. He told me we received the equivalent of the 50% off the 100 minute package (which makes sense). I told him someone better let the Internet manager know as there were going to be some ticked of 5* mariner's at the end of the cruise. AND I wouldn't have taken the top package if it were not for what I was told. He agreed and arranged to refund me the difference between the two packages. Very nice.

 

Here is the Internet package offered on board the beautiful, elegant Westerdam

 

 

As you can see, the cost was not the same for the full cruise but it was a longer one.

Edited July 3, 2018 by kazu

[POA1]

There was a press release in the spring stating that the all you can eat Internet was supposed to be rolling out fleetwide by late 2018.

 

I really hope that's true. The unlimited Internet was quite honestly the highlight of our NCL cruise last fall.

[sandyss]

For 7 days unlimited internet on the Westerdam - Surfing - we paid $99.99. We could share the connection - as long as only one of us was signed in at one time.

[rafinmd]

For 7 days unlimited internet on the Westerdam - Surfing - we paid $99.99. We could share the connection - as long as only one of us was signed in at one time.

 

Was that just the social package or could you do email, cruise critic, and other websites?

 

Roy

[unclerich]

Hi there, thanks for the info. Did the internet work well? Was the $139.99 for one login per person or could you use multiple devices/per cabin?

 

Thanks!

The cost is, essentially, for the stateroom. Only one device may be signed in at a time. If a second device tries to sign in, the first will either be knocked off or the second be unable to sign in.

 

For the Alaska cruise, the internet connectivity was very variable. There were times that it was very quick, and on rare occasions, nearly impossible to connect. Overall, much better than several years ago.

[sandyss]

Was that just the social package or could you do email, cruise critic, and other websites?

 

Roy

 

We were able to access email, Internet, but not streaming or Skype type access.

[kazu]

Was that just the social package or could you do email, cruise critic, and other websites?

 

Roy

 

You need the medium package to do email, cc etc., Roy.

[rafinmd]

We were able to access email, Internet, but not streaming or Skype type access.

 

You need the medium package to do email, cc etc., Roy.

 

I normally budget 30 minutes per day for internet so on the old plans I'd have rounded up to 250 minutes at 100, so it sounds like the Westerdam will be a price wash with more flexibility.

 

I do think I'll need to cough up some extra money on the Volendam.

 

Roy

[KirkNC]

How does all this factor into the 5 star benefit of 1/2 off a 100 minute package?

[sandyss]

You need the medium package to do email, cc etc., Roy.

 

That was the medium priced package. It was called the "surf" package.

[ljhershey]

On 7/3/2018 at 8:26 PM, sandyss said:

 

That was the medium priced package. It was called the "surf" package.

Thx for this helpful information.

[USN59-79]

In February, 2020 the Westerdam decided to end our Asia cruise and let all the passengers off in Thailand.  That afternoon anyone who needed to book a flight was granted free internet access.  It worked, but was fairly slow.  By about three the next morning I had finally booked our flights from Bangkok to Seattle.  However, Thailand changed their mind,  a Navy ship escorted us away from their coast and we didn't know where we would end up.  That was the only time I used the Westerdam internet.  BTW, we were accepted by and well treated in Cambodia.

Ray