Live from the Discovery Princess - 10/22/22-10/29/22 - aka “The Love Boat Cruise”

[victory2020]

1 hour ago, LawDog61 said:

We were on her last week for a coastal.  You would think WiFi would be pretty good as we were not far out at sea.  But it was the worst I ever had.  Going to Hawaii in a few weeks on Sapphire and am thinking I will go old school and skip the internet. 

Internet was good on the Sapphire - was able to do internet calling

[Hulagirl]

We were on the cruise last week also (CA Coastal).  This was without a doubt the worst wifi I've ever encountered on any Princess ship.  Basically worthless.  The crew also talks about how bad it is also.  Took my computer with me and never was able to use it, so hauled it for nothing.

 

Honestly that was the only negative thing I can say about our cruise.  Vanessa in the Concierge lounge told me that the ship was just shy at being full capacity. 

[HBCcruiser]

Just now, Hulagirl said:

We were on the cruise last week also (CA Coastal).  This was without a doubt the worst wifi I've ever encountered on any Princess ship.  Basically worthless.  The crew also talks about how bad it is also.  Took my computer with me and never was able to use it, so hauled it for nothing.

 

Honestly that was the only negative thing I can say about our cruise.  Vanessa in the Concierge lounge told me that the ship was just shy at being full capacity. 

Did they give you any explanation as to why the internet is so terrible? 

[c-boy]

1 minute ago, Hulagirl said:

We were on the cruise last week also (CA Coastal).  This was without a doubt the worst wifi I've ever encountered on any Princess ship.  Basically worthless.  The crew also talks about how bad it is also.  Took my computer with me and never was able to use it, so hauled it for nothing.

 

Honestly that was the only negative thing I can say about our cruise.  Vanessa in the Concierge lounge told me that the ship was just shy at being full capacity. 

when I/we were onboard earlier in the year service was slow due to high capacity and the number of devices being used. I did most of my business after 8pm when the load wasn't so high, with no problems.  Can you imagine what spring break would be like.

[malba2366]

14 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

Did they give you any explanation as to why the internet is so terrible? 

 

Probably significantly more people on it now that for the first time the internet is included with the drink packages, and the ships are near full capacity.

[gvre]

56 minutes ago, c-boy said:

when I/we were onboard earlier in the year service was slow due to high capacity and the number of devices being used. I did most of my business after 8pm when the load wasn't so high, with no problems.  Can you imagine what spring break would be like.

We were on the Majestic in August and November also the Grand in February. These cruises were about 60% capacity and internet was really good.

Able to work the whole time

Just got off the Island it was non-existent the whole 10 days. Totally frustrating, worst ever!

We will be on the Discovery in 4 days and agree I will just give work a break.

 

[CruzDayz]

2 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

Princess needs to get its act together with regards to providing decent internet. Many people have to stay connected these days, even when on vacation.

I agree, and I have learned the hard way on the Discovery to copy everything I want to send. I have had a few emails just go away after trying to send them over and over. 
Have a great Love Boat cruise people, and keep us updated. 😊🎃

[Guest ldtr]

On 10/22/2022 at 4:44 PM, PacnGoNow said:

Does it normally go smoothly?  What time do you usually checkin and then OB about what time?

TIA

Have done 5 cruises out of San Pedro since the restart, including one where everyone had to test at the pier before boarding, all went smoothly (considering what is involved with the boarding process in general).  

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, malba2366 said:

 

Probably significantly more people on it now that for the first time the internet is included with the drink packages, and the ships are near full capacity.

Have been on Princess ships at 60% with horrid internet performance( Ruby and Grand), as well as one with 90% that worked well (Majestic).  Even very late at night (2am), when you would expect very few to be on line, the performance has been about the same as the old dial up modem days.

Edited October 24, 2022 by ldtr

[LawDog61]

They gave me a $50 OBC to compensate for the unusable internet.  I think that’s their strategy.   Sell a crappy internet, provide some OBC to complainers.  I realize  CCL is in a struggle to avoid bankruptcy,  but don’t think selling unusable internet is a good business decision.  It really frustrates people .

[LawDog61]

2 hours ago, Hulagirl said:

We were on the cruise last week also (CA Coastal).  This was without a doubt the worst wifi I've ever encountered on any Princess ship.  Basically worthless.  The crew also talks about how bad it is also.  Took my computer with me and never was able to use it, so hauled it for nothing.

 

Honestly that was the only negative thing I can say about our cruise.  Vanessa in the Concierge lounge told me that the ship was just shy at being full capacity. 

Got to agree with you.   It was a great cruise on a great ship except for the internet.  

[ebeluga]

3 hours ago, chubbypiggy said:

Did they refund you with credit back to your credit card you used to pay?  Or credit your onboard account with "refundable" credit or "non-refundable" OBC?

 

My 3 b2b2b cruises starts this Saturday, and I bought 4-device internet for all 16 days.  From all the bad reviews I read so far, I don't know if I should cancel my purchases and get refund back to my credit card before my cruises start or leave it alone and see how it goes.  I do prefer to have internet service but if it is bad and I get "non-refundable" OBC, then I am stuck using the OBC during my cruise.  I already have a lot of "non-refundable" OBC I need to use.

 

Thank you.

I had the 4-device plan as well.  After the first night, even at 1am was unusable, I went to the internet cafe and asked for refund the next morning. On the account statement, it says goodwill credit, should be refundable (did not indicate otherwise) as my shareholder benefit is stated as non-refundable.

Edited October 24, 2022 by ebeluga

[ebeluga]

2 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

Did they give you any explanation as to why the internet is so terrible? 

They have no clue and was so comical that just because it can access google dot com, it proves the internet is fine.

[HBCcruiser]

4 minutes ago, ebeluga said:

They have no clue and was so comical that just because it can access google dot com, it proves the internet is fine.

🙄 UGH! 

[Kay S]

17 minutes ago, ebeluga said:

They have no clue and was so comical that just because it can access google dot com, it proves the internet is fine.

Did you Google "why is Princess internet access so bad?" 🙂

[chubbypiggy]

39 minutes ago, ebeluga said:

I had the 4-device plan as well.  After the first night, even at 1am was unusable, I went to the internet cafe and asked for refund the next morning. On the account statement, it says goodwill credit, should be refundable (did not indicate otherwise) as my shareholder benefit is stated as non-refundable.

After they gave you the refund, did they take away your 4-device plan for the rest of the cruise?

 

In April, I did a b2b on Regal. I bought the 4-device plans for my Transatlantic from Ft. Lauderdale to Barcelona (14 days) and RT Barcelona (14 day. The internet was terrible.  For the 1st 10 days, there was no internet at all, got a little bit better on day 11-14.  For the 2nd 14 days, 50%+ of the time, there was no internet. Didn't have to complain, they automatically refund everyone who bought the packages and still allowed the usage (although it was almost useless).   

[ebeluga]

46 minutes ago, chubbypiggy said:

After they gave you the refund, did they take away your 4-device plan for the rest of the cruise?

Yes I asked them to cancel and requested full refund. It was disconnected as soon as the manager got around to do it.

[chubbypiggy]

4 minutes ago, ebeluga said:

Yes I asked them to cancel and requested full refund. It was disconnected as soon as the manager got around to do it.

Thanks for the information.

[cr8tiv1]

Up and down California to Mexico

Southbound from Vancouver

California to Hawaii

 

Maybe a few hours without internet. 

I was able to FaceTime a tour of the ship

I was able to check emails, read the news, did not try to stream

 

Granted, my internet at home is 5 Mbps so I am happy to just be able to log on while on a cruise.

 

Learned that login.com and logout.com worked better than any other method to connect.

 

I do want Princess to remove the MedallionNet®The Best Wi-Fi at Sea slogan.

 

[TravelGirlinDallas]

Are you getting to interact with the Love Boat stars at all? 

[milogurd]

8 hours ago, LawDog61 said:

We were on her last week for a coastal.  You would think WiFi would be pretty good as we were not far out at sea.  But it was the worst I ever had.  Going to Hawaii in a few weeks on Sapphire and am thinking I will go old school and skip the internet. 

The WiFi signal does not come from a land based location, so distance from land is not the issue. The WiFi is provided by a satellite connection. Unfortunately, Princess changed satellite internet providers earlier this year, and the new company is providing apparently horrible service.

[malba2366]

1 minute ago, milogurd said:

The WiFi signal does not come from a land based location, so distance from land is not the issue. The WiFi is provided by a satellite connection. Unfortunately, Princess changed satellite internet providers earlier this year, and the new company is providing apparently horrible service.

 

Sounds like they need to call Elon....

[milogurd]

1 minute ago, malba2366 said:

 

Sounds like they need to call Elon....

Funny you said that. RCCL is contracting for Starlink internet.

[malba2366]

7 minutes ago, milogurd said:

Funny you said that. RCCL is contracting for Starlink internet.

 

Yeah I read that.  In all seriousness though it looks like Princess is the first user of 03B MPower satellite internet....these satellites were supposed to be launched in 2020, but looks like the first 6 are now supposed to be launched Q4 2022 (on  SpaceX rockets).   Right now, they are probably on SES's older satellite network until the new one is up and running.

Edited October 25, 2022 by malba2366

[7seascruising]

I paid for the extra devices the minute I got on the ship and had it refunded the next day. The sad thing is when they rolled out MedallionNet, my wife and I tried it out on the Sky on a transatlantic cruise and it was awesome. It’s been borderline unusable ever since. I can’t believe they are still trying to market this as the best internet at sea. We’re in Mazatlán this morning and have usable internet for the first time since Saturday.