Iona connect WIFI

[welshy74]

With only two sea days I am thinking of getting the basic £7.75 24 hour WIFI package each of those dates.  How 'basic' is it?  Will it allow VOIP calls and facetime?  

I understand the socials are included but does it let you see video content and upload pictures?

[pennib]

Gosh, how brave are you? The internet on Azura was beyond awful and a lot of people got refunds. One way you could access it was via the My Holiday app but this did not always work and you were only allowed one device at a time. I am sorry but I am not tech-savvy enough to be able to advise if your chosen package is Ok for what  you require. And don’t talk to anyone who was trying to do their passenger locator forms using the ship’s wi fi.  The other thing was that we were told by  the reception staff that there was no one on the ship who was IT savvy. 
good luck!! 

[wowzz]

29 minutes ago, welshy74 said:

With only two sea days I am thinking of getting the basic £7.75 24 hour WIFI package each of those dates.  How 'basic' is it?  Will it allow VOIP calls and facetime?  

I understand the socials are included but does it let you see video content and upload pictures?

Not Iona specific, but from memory,  no chance of facetime.

[Fionboard]

Got it for a day on Ventura last year. So slow and kept dropping out. Got my money back. 

[MX-Drew]

We had WiFi on Britannia for Christmas / New Year 2019 - 2020 and we could Facetime with family. I think the package we got was so much per Mb not so much per day, not sure if that made a difference.  

[welshy74]

thanks for the replies.  I think I need to keep my expectations low.. very low.  Will give it a go on my first sea day and see how I get along.  

[Megabear2]

We bought the mid range package full cruise on our last two cruises on Britannia as required for work.  Even then to get proper contact had to go to the atrium floor 5 or one particular table in the Horizon. So used to seeing my OH at 7.30am every day the staff up there were they kept the table for him and supplied him with copious cups of tea!  Certainly couldn't facetime or zoom I'm afraid.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Megabear2

[MX-Drew]

36 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

We bought the mid range package full cruise on our last two cruises on Britannia as required for work.  Even then to get proper contact had to go to the atrium floor 5 or one particular table in the Horizon. So used to seeing my OH at 7.30am every day the staff up there were they kept the table for him and supplied him with copious cups of tea!  Certainly couldn't facetime or zoom I'm afraid.

That reminds me Megabear we did sit in the atrium as we used to facetime with the Christmas tree behind us.

[billi_mausi]

On 2/1/2022 at 3:32 PM, welshy74 said:

With only two sea days I am thinking of getting the basic £7.75 24 hour WIFI package each of those dates.  How 'basic' is it?  Will it allow VOIP calls and facetime?  

I understand the socials are included but does it let you see video content and upload pictures?

 

Was wondering how you got on with the Iona WiFi.

 

I was hoping to book the 4th March Spain and Portugal itinerary, but for me, would actually become a working-from-ship instead of working-from-home cruise.

I have to use Teams and video chat some days but think it might be too frustrating if the connection is that bad.

[welshy74]

Back from my fantastic, if rather eventful, cruise

 

My first sea day I took the basic package which was £7.95 as I wanted to make sure it worked ok.. and it did.  I was actually quite surprised how well it worked.   For the other sea days I went for the medium package at £12.50 and again it worked perfectly.  At £12.50 I could browse and upload on social media, even a 7 min video.  I could not facetime or VOIP but that was fine and expected.  

Shame its so expensive though.  P&O need to rethink their internet package costs if they are to appeal to families and younger cruisers.  

[welshy74]

On 2/11/2022 at 11:37 AM, billi_mausi said:

 

Was wondering how you got on with the Iona WiFi.

 

I was hoping to book the 4th March Spain and Portugal itinerary, but for me, would actually become a working-from-ship instead of working-from-home cruise.

I have to use Teams and video chat some days but think it might be too frustrating if the connection is that bad.

You will certainly need to top package.  The basic and mid package worked well for what I needed to do, cant comment how well the top package would perform though. 

[gazwag]

2 hours ago, welshy74 said:

Back from my fantastic, if rather eventful, cruise

 

My first sea day I took the basic package which was £7.95 as I wanted to make sure it worked ok.. and it did.  I was actually quite surprised how well it worked.   For the other sea days I went for the medium package at £12.50 and again it worked perfectly.  At £12.50 I could browse and upload on social media, even a 7 min video.  I could not facetime or VOIP but that was fine and expected.  

Shame its so expensive though.  P&O need to rethink their internet package costs if they are to appeal to families and younger cruisers.  

If they make it cheap everybody will have it and it will be unusable due the number of people using it, put people off will mean those who cannot cope without facebook for five minutes might be able to post an update about a waiter taking ten minutes to bring their cheese while they are sitting in the restaurant. 

 

I cannot imagine it is cheap for the ship to provide access either.

[welshy74]

2 hours ago, gazwag said:

If they make it cheap everybody will have it and it will be unusable due the number of people using it, put people off will mean those who cannot cope without facebook for five minutes might be able to post an update about a waiter taking ten minutes to bring their cheese while they are sitting in the restaurant. 

 

I cannot imagine it is cheap for the ship to provide access either.

If Princess can do it, I can’t see why P&O can’t