Wi-Fi question

[2+2]

We chose the 250 minute free Wi-Fi. We have never used a ships Wi-Fi before but this will be a nice way to stay in touch with family. We are both bringing our Android phones with internet access and  G-mail to stay in contact. My question is . - Will only one device be able to be logged into the ships account, or can multiple device be logged into our free account? And while I am asking questions, I would like to hear tips and other do's and dont's, learn on the fly experiences, from those that have used it.

    Thanks in advance.  Signed, Grandpa.

[Greenpea2]

1 minute ago, 2+2 said:

We chose the 250 minute free Wi-Fi. We have never used a ships Wi-Fi before but this will be a nice way to stay in touch with family. We are both bringing our Android phones with internet access and  G-mail to stay in contact. My question is . - Will only one device be able to be logged into the ships account, or can multiple device be logged into our free account? And while I am asking questions, I would like to hear tips and other do's and dont's, learn on the fly experiences, from those that have used it.

    Thanks in advance.  Signed, Grandpa.

Only one device at a time. It can be very slow and eat minutes up fast, so always be sure to log out when you are finished using it.

 

[roger001]

If you plan or need to use wifi much, as mentioned this can be eaten up quickly having to sign in and out each time, and forgetting to sign out of it incorrectly.  You may wish to exchange the 250 minutes for unlimited once you are on board.  Can be done the first day from your room or through the internet manager.  Then you can use it relaxed, no hurry, still just one device at a time logged in though.  

[ColeThornton]

https://www.ncl.com/about/staying-connected-sea-internet-access

[melodyesch]

250 minutes were plenty for my DH and I for our 2 week Bliss cruise to keep in touch with family.  We simply logged on to retrieve our email and immediately logged off.  We created the email responses and any new emails while we were offline.  Then, once completed, we logged back on to send the composed emails.  So that process really only used up a couple of minutes.  If you're talking about a 7 night cruise, that's 35 minutes per day.  For 2 weeks, we had 17 minutes per day and that was plenty to check and send emails several times per day.    I was also able to download several kindle books that I had forgotten and DH was able to check the news highlights daily.  

 

You HAVE to log out every time when you're done.  Even when I knew I had logged out, I would attempt to go to a website just to make sure.  I've read stories about people thinking they had logged out when they didn't and ate up all of their minutes.

[roger001]

7 minutes ago, melodyesch said:

250 minutes were plenty for my DH and I for our 2 week Bliss cruise to keep in touch with family.  We simply logged on to retrieve our email and immediately logged off.  We created the email responses and any new emails while we were offline.  Then, once completed, we logged back on to send the composed emails.  So that process really only used up a couple of minutes.  If you're talking about a 7 night cruise, that's 35 minutes per day.  For 2 weeks, we had 17 minutes per day and that was plenty to check and send emails several times per day.    I was also able to download several kindle books that I had forgotten and DH was able to check the news highlights daily.  

 

You HAVE to log out every time when you're done.  Even when I knew I had logged out, I would attempt to go to a website just to make sure.  I've read stories about people thinking they had logged out when they didn't and ate up all of their minutes.

Me.   Not once...but twice.   I whined to the internet manager and he felt sorry I guess and reset them.   

[belchro22]

We had 250 minutes for our 10 day cruise. I found it reliable. I used it to send and check emails and Face timed family almost every day. Actually had about 10 minutes left at end of cruise. As others have said its important to log out the proper way or your minutes can get eaten up. When you log out it should take you to a page with the account info and minutes used and remaining. You'll need to make sure your device is in airplane mode to use it.

[gmbhardy]

1 hour ago, roger001 said:

Me.   Not once...but twice.   I whined to the internet manager and he felt sorry I guess and reset them.   

It’s been our experience that if it’s an honest mistake (forgetting to log out) the internet manager will reset your time.

[ngrund]

as others have said, one login at a time. last cruise, 10 days and the 250 minutes worked out perfect for me, wife hardly used it. But, I just checked e-mail and a couple of minutes to catch up on news.

 

Just so I can not worry about minutes, I just spent the c-note and upgraded to unlimited for our cruise leaving next Saturday

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Supposedly you save a little bit of money if you buy online ahead of time vs on board.  Also, I'll just share the datapoint, they can sell out of the unlimited package

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Supposedly you save a little bit of money if you buy online ahead of time vs on board.  Also, I'll just share the datapoint, they can sell out of the unlimited package

 

That's fascinating, thanks for sharing that information.  I haven't read it here before.  I wonder how they determine how much possible usage is too much and then cut off those packages.

 

We were just on the Gem for 20 days, NY to San Francisco via the Panama Canal.   We paid to upgrade our "free" 250 minutes to the unlimited plan.   We found internet access and speeds to be erratic.  For example, there were three entire days (just after we left Colombia and transited the Canal) during which we had no internet access at all.  It was such a problem that staff (e.g., the Cruise Next Manager) were complaining about how it was affecting their ability to do their jobs.

 

I was also shocked to find out that I could not use WiFi calling on my iPhone with the unlimited plan, since nothing in NCL's materials said this.  The only thing those docs say is that you can't stream unless you have the premium unlimited plan.  I spoke to the Internet Manager about this, and she said that they BLOCK the ports for WiFi calling unless you pay for the premium package.  When I pointed out to her that this is not what the documents say, she upgraded us to premium for a relatively modest amount on top of the $$$ we'd already paid for 20 days of unlimited.  

 

I think NCL's internet product is pretty crappy and absurdly expensive.    YMMV. 

[2+2]

Thank you for the replys.  

[Sim7]

WiFi quality seems to differ ship to ship. Encore in November was exceptional, Escape last week was absolutely pointless. Remember the magic logout.com page! Any problems, the Internet desk are usually helpful - I fell asleep one night while Facebooking and told the desk manager. He very kindly gave me minutes back as it was clear I wasn’t browsing!

[luv2kroooz]

On 2/9/2020 at 12:36 PM, melodyesch said:

We simply logged on to retrieve our email and immediately logged off.  We created the email responses and any new emails while we were offline.  Then, once completed, we logged back on to send the composed emails.  So that process really only used up a couple of minutes.

Great advice, right here. 👍👍

[roger001]

On 2/9/2020 at 1:22 PM, ngrund said:

as others have said, one login at a time. last cruise, 10 days and the 250 minutes worked out perfect for me, wife hardly used it. But, I just checked e-mail and a couple of minutes to catch up on news.

 

Just so I can not worry about minutes, I just spent the c-note and upgraded to unlimited for our cruise leaving next Saturday

 

Same here.  Probably don't need it, but takes the worry out of using it.  Keeps the cruise relaxed as it should be.  

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Upgrade to Unlimited WiFi

Normally retails for $29.99/day, but you only pay a fraction of that when you upgrade your Free At Sea minute package.

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