MedallionNet experience

[AZ Stan (FKA Stan in Chicago)]

On 4/25/2019 at 8:23 AM, jdeanski said:

MedallionNet is great, almost like wifi at home. Wifi calling over MedallionNet works very well too.

I noticed your comment about WiFi calling.  My phone service uses WiFi as a default, unless it is not available, then uses cellular.  According to your experience, do you think I could make phone calls using Medallion Net onboard?

Stan

[chinita415]

55 minutes ago, AZ Stan (FKA Stan in Chicago) said:

I noticed your comment about WiFi calling.  My phone service uses WiFi as a default, unless it is not available, then uses cellular.  According to your experience, do you think I could make phone calls using Medallion Net onboard?

Stan

 

We were on the Royal 2 weeks ago and got unlimited Wifi. We have Verizon and did set up Wifi calling and texting because my father was in a respite nursing home and we needed to be available. Worked great. 

[jdeanski]

5 hours ago, AZ Stan (FKA Stan in Chicago) said:

I noticed your comment about WiFi calling.  My phone service uses WiFi as a default, unless it is not available, then uses cellular.  According to your experience, do you think I could make phone calls using Medallion Net onboard?

Stan

Yes, the wifi calling feature worked very well with no problems.  I'd just make sure your phone said wifi and not whatever the onboard cellular network is....

[satxdiver]

I was on the CB recently and the internet speed that I was getting was over 100 mbps up and down.  It was so fast that I was able to do what I needed to get done well within my elite minutes.  I did not have any incentive to buy more time.  I go on a cruise to get away from my usual activities, sit back and watch the world go by.  

[chinita415]

3 hours ago, jdeanski said:

Yes, the wifi calling feature worked very well with no problems.  I'd just make sure your phone said wifi and not whatever the onboard cellular network is....

 

Maritime Net or something. I messed up and roamed $18 for 4 mins. Doh. Had paid for $5 a day roaming in Mexico and didn't turn on airplane mode again when we boarded. I caught the error soon though. 

[SETexaslady]

On 4/25/2019 at 10:23 AM, jdeanski said:

MedallionNet is great, almost like wifi at home. Wifi calling over MedallionNet works very well too.

Is wifi calling included with the unlimited MedallinNet plan?  Is it like using facebook messenger calling?  Can you receive calls as well?  (I'm hoping to avoid the $2.99 per minute that Verizon charges IF I need to make a call or receive one.)  😛

[jdeanski]

3 minutes ago, SETexaslady said:

Is wifi calling included with the unlimited MedallinNet plan?  Is it like using facebook messenger calling?  Can you receive calls as well?  (I'm hoping to avoid the $2.99 per minute that Verizon charges IF I need to make a call or receive one.)  😛

 

If you purchase the unlimited plan AND if your phone supports wifi calling you'll be able to both make and receive calls.  I'm not real sure about messaging unless you have an iPhone and are using iMessage. Those work fine. 

[turquoisesea]

On 4/23/2019 at 12:58 PM, Colo Cruiser said:

The unlimited MedallionNet package is awesome.

If it is fully up and running the speed is outstanding.

I have experienced it on the Regal and the Caribbean Princess.

I stayed logged in 24/7!

Yes you can purchase onboard and when charged to your shipboard account it should count against the OBC.

 

Do you know if we will be able to use it to stream the final episode of Game of Thrones while we are cruising?!  Apparently this is very important to “some”.  😂

[tuofengc]

I'm currently on the Royal Princess on an Alaskan cruise. The speed is almost non-existent. Do NOT purchase the medallion net package on Alaskan cruises. According to the internet team there, there is barely any reception as opposed to locations such as the Carribean. Luckily I got a refund, but it felt like false advertisement of 'high speeds'.

 

MBPS download of 0.21

MBPS upload of 0.48

[hpeabody]

@tuofengc    I too am just off the Royal and agree with you totally!  It is such a poor product, Princess should be embarrassed to be charging us all this money for the lame service.  I do feel bad for Lei and I don't know how he does it.  I sure regret not asking for a refund.   Oh, this definitely will be part of the survey, which I have yet to complete. 

 

MEDALLION NET = not impressed

Edited June 10, 2019 by hpeabody

[Lindaru]

I wonder why it was so bad on the Royal.  I did the inside Alaska last month on the Ruby and had no problems whatsoever.

 

[hpeabody]

25 minutes ago, Lindaru said:

I wonder why it was so bad on the Royal.  I did the inside Alaska last month on the Ruby and had no problems whatsoever.

 

I was also on the repositioning cruise around South America.  It was terrible then too.  

[Cruisefanner111]

On the Royal to Alaska right now and can also confirm the "MedallionNet" is utter trash. Only 0.5 Mbps download, just barely can stream at 240p on YouTube.

 

If the internet starts cutting out as well I'm definitely asking for a refund!

[pablo222]

On 6/9/2019 at 7:56 PM, tuofengc said:

I'm currently on the Royal Princess on an Alaskan cruise. The speed is almost non-existent. Do NOT purchase the medallion net package on Alaskan cruises. According to the internet team there, there is barely any reception as opposed to locations such as the Carribean. Luckily I got a refund, but it felt like false advertisement of 'high speeds'.

 

MBPS download of 0.21

MBPS upload of 0.48

 

OMG.  I wonder what the speed was before they upgraded to 'high speed'!

 

[FollowingTheSun]

My experience on a May Baltic cruise on the Regal was equally dismal.

Unable to read our local newspaper on line much less consider any streaming.

Even banking was difficult.

 

Certainly, no better than the old system two years ago.

 

Another example of false advertising.

 

[Thrak]

Princess shouldn't offer these packages on Alaska itineraries. The low orbit satellites aren't visible so the high speed connection isn't available. We have a TA from Barcelona to FLL this fall and I'm hoping the constellation of O3b satellites is available to us. Obviously I haven't yet checked out the latitudes at which they are accessible - otherwise I'd have a good idea if the high speed connection will be available to us.

[BeachBum777]

Princess will sell what they can't deliver sometimes lol.

But to be fair they make it clear that this won't blaze in the northern hem until more low orbit sats are positioned there.

I will be trying this the first time through the PC and carib next month.

 

 

MEO Broad is the hot spots

[AF-1]

BeachBum777; you should have pretty fast medallion net on your cruise.  I was able to stream Netflix and my Sunday Church Service with no buffers.  We were in Western Caribbean by Mexico and Central America.  Never lost the fast wifi the entire week

[Steelers36]

On 4/24/2019 at 11:00 PM, 4cats4me said:

It was $59 per week on the Royal two weeks ago, and even cheaper for Elites and Platinums at $49 per week.  $52 total, or $104 for four devices.  MedallionNet is not even in the same league with the other awful internet on so many other Princess ships.  

That is not close to 25% off.  On our last cruise (June 1), the Elite/Platinum price was exactly 25% less than the non-status rate.  I will be very disappointed and let Princess know about it if I find we are not getting our benefit in Nov.  Last time I checked,  Princess had still not made any update or notation to the benefit language - it still read like the old days of only minutes. 

 

I certainly hope we continue to get the discount at 25% off the regular pricing. 

 

ACK!!  I did not notice the old date of the post I replied to.  That said, we also got 25% off in Feb on Majestic.

 

Edited August 28, 2019 by steelers36

[hpeabody]

@steelers36   Just so you know ... That was a special limited time thing (It was on the website for about a week maybe) as the Royal was coming on line with MedallionNet and during our cruise Medallion Class all the way.  IIRC those platinum and elites who did not grab it on line did get the 25% off.   It was a total 49 day cruise, so it added up to a lot for them.  BTW, on that cruise the MedallionNet pretty much sucked.  It was the South America repositioning cruise

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, hpeabody said:

@steelers36   Just so you know ... That was a special limited time thing (It was on the website for about a week maybe) as the Royal was coming on line with MedallionNet and during our cruise Medallion Class all the way.  IIRC those platinum and elites who did not grab it on line did get the 25% off.   It was a total 49 day cruise, so it added up to a lot for them.  BTW, on that cruise the MedallionNet pretty much sucked.  It was the South America repositioning cruise

Okay, but it has been pretty common knowledge on this board and I have heard the same info from Princess employees as well (you can take that at whatever value you like), plus more than one internet manager or employee on board that we get 25% off in lieu of our free minutes.  Perhaps it is a lower discount on a shorter cruise - but AFAIK it should be 25%.  I am waiting to purchase the plan on embarkation in Nov.

 

I understand going around S.A. as we did that full circuit in Winter 2018 (our winter; not theirs).  At that time, the Island still had the old internet and I certainly churned through minutes.  This June, we were on Regal (Medallion Net) in the Baltic and I have to admit that at times the internet wasn't really connected, but when it was, I thought the performance wasn't too bad.  Our latitude varied some, but that is fairly far north.  I found things were better outside the cabin I think.  I recall being more concerned about latency of connection than the speed. 

 

This November, I am expecting "lightening speed" in the Caribbean. 

[hpeabody]

3 minutes ago, steelers36 said:

Okay, but it has been pretty common knowledge on this board and I have heard the same info from Princess employees as well (you can take that at whatever value you like), plus more than one internet manager or employee on board that we get 25% off in lieu of our free minutes.  Perhaps it is a lower discount on a shorter cruise - but AFAIK it should be 25%.  I am waiting to purchase the plan on embarkation in Nov.

 

I understand going around S.A. as we did that full circuit in Winter 2018 (our winter; not theirs).  At that time, the Island still had the old internet and I certainly churned through minutes.  This June, we were on Regal (Medallion Net) in the Baltic and I have to admit that at times the internet wasn't really connected, but when it was, I thought the performance wasn't too bad.  Our latitude varied some, but that is fairly far north.  I found things were better outside the cabin I think.  I recall being more concerned about latency of connection than the speed. 

 

This November, I am expecting "lightening speed" in the Caribbean. 

 

IMO waiting to board is best at this point and I think you will likely get that "lightening speed" in the Caribbean.

[idahospud]

20 minutes ago, steelers36 said:

Okay, but it has been pretty common knowledge on this board and I have heard the same info from Princess employees as well (you can take that at whatever value you like), plus more than one internet manager or employee on board that we get 25% off in lieu of our free minutes.  Perhaps it is a lower discount on a shorter cruise - but AFAIK it should be 25%.  I am waiting to purchase the plan on embarkation in Nov.

 

I understand going around S.A. as we did that full circuit in Winter 2018 (our winter; not theirs).  At that time, the Island still had the old internet and I certainly churned through minutes.  This June, we were on Regal (Medallion Net) in the Baltic and I have to admit that at times the internet wasn't really connected, but when it was, I thought the performance wasn't too bad.  Our latitude varied some, but that is fairly far north.  I found things were better outside the cabin I think.  I recall being more concerned about latency of connection than the speed. 

 

This November, I am expecting "lightening speed" in the Caribbean. 

FYI- we recently received an email pre-cruise about being able to keep or turn in our minutes. It had to be purchased onboard, though.

 

And yes, you will get lightning fast speed in the Caribbean.  My husband was streaming MLB games on the balcony with the door closed.

Edited August 29, 2019 by idahospud

[Colo Cruiser]

2 minutes ago, idahospud said:

FYI- we recently received an email pre-cruise about being able to keep or turn in our minutes. 

 

And yes, you will get lightning fast speed in the Caribbean.  My husband was streaming MLB games on the balcony with the door closed.

Thanks for posting this.

[BeachBum777]

17 hours ago, AF-1 said:

BeachBum777; you should have pretty fast medallion net on your cruise.  I was able to stream Netflix and my Sunday Church Service with no buffers.  We were in Western Caribbean by Mexico and Central America.  Never lost the fast wifi the entire week

Glad to see it. I had been telling princess i was cheating on them because the internet stunk. I like the little perks we get with them.