internet access

[xeena]

exactly why i put quotes around FREE !!  there is NO free lunch! but, after you paid the fare...it feels "free" while onboard despite the higher price tag....😉

[BoughtMyPoints]

On 11/9/2019 at 5:32 PM, xeena said:

how bad is the internet on nieuw statendam?   (i am now spoiled by oceana and viking where it is "free"...)

 

i usually only check emails twice a day, delete spam and send a few imessages....I know where several wifi spots are in the ports we will visit....but it might be worth buying the 100 min package if it does not take forever to connect on board...any advice?

Incredibly bad.

Yahoo, Twitter, .gov sites, plus many others are blocked.   Hotmail and gmail are not, so try and get Outlook or other email program to collect Yahoo mail for you.  Most days,  Yahoo mail would ping and once a day you would get incoming emails but would have to reply using a different email.  Attachments could not be downloaded from Yahoo.com.

Strangely,  Whatsapp and Facebook and TV streaming generally functions well but there are times when everything grinds to a very slow crawl.

They know perfectly well they have a problem.

After negotiations on board, I received $200 (refundable) credit on what had been a suite class perk.

I use a combination of shipboard and mobile internet.  

[DougK]

16 hours ago, TAD2005 said:

There is no "free lunch".   The "free" internet on Oceana and Viking is paid for in their higher per day fares.   And for the folks who don't need to be "connected at the hip" 24/7/365, (internet), they are paying for a service that they don't want or need.   I think the "ala carte" system is better.  Lower fares, and for the extra services you want, you pay separately for them.   Same for drink packages.   Many elite cruise lines include free drinks in their fares.  But on those lines, you cannot opt-out of the free drinks.  If you do not imbibe enough to warrant a drink package, you are paying for something in your base fare that you will not use.

 

The question is where one draws the line. One could separate out every component of the cruise and charge separately: all meals a la carte, entertainment, use of loungers and pools, religious services, even housekeeping, and I'm sure the list goes on and on. For each of these, some passengers use them and others don't. For example, I haven't been in a pool other than a T-pool on a cruise ship for decades (if ever), rarely use loungers, rarely go to shows, don't go to religious services, am vegetarian so never have steak/lobster/etc., and would be fine with housekeeping only every couple of days. Yet I pay the same price as passengers who do all of those, so effectively I'm subsidizing them. Why shouldn't they subsidize my internet use in return?

 

I think much of the draw of cruising traditionally has been its inclusiveness, where passengers don't pay separately for each item. Heck, look at the uproar on these boards when HAL experimented with a charge for second entrees--even though most people don't want/need them. Imagine the uproar if they started charging for each item on the menu, or for each show. Personally, I much prefer an all-inclusive system, even though it effectively means I subsidize other passengers who use more than I do--the simplicity and absence of constant upselling is a big attraction to me, and makes up for savings I would get from a true a la carte system.

 

I think a lot of the distinctions between what is and isn't included in the base fare come more from history than from a logical difference between items. If one were starting fresh today, I suspect that internet usage would be considered as much a staple as production shows. But nobody is starting fresh; even new cruise lines have to deal with expectations of passengers based on past cruise lines.