Wi-Fi Calling Still Work on Surf since the change in Internet Packages?

[POA1]

The Internet Packages changed a few weeks ago. There's Surf, Premium & Stream. (They really missed the chance to call the high-end plan "Streamium.")'

 

Can anyone who's been on since mid-February 2024 tell me if Surf, which is your basic Have-It-All internet plan, still supports Wi-Fi calling?  Our carrier and our phones handle it fine, so it's just the ship I'm worried about,

 

We had Premium in December 2023 and purchased it a la carte. Our Wi-Fi calling (T-Mobile) worked fine.  I don't see anything in the service descriptions that lead me to believe that it won't work under Surf, but there's got to be some sort of differentiator now that they've added the new plan level.

 

I'm worried that I won't get the annoying political texts and chances to buy an extended car warranty when I am on the ship. 😉

 

Edited March 3 by POA1
Forgot the question mark on the topic title.

[peanutter]

Hello!  We were on NS Feb 4-11 and had the HIA package.  In our experience, no, the Wi-Fi calling did not work with the basic package.  We weren't sure if it was "us" or "them," but it just seemed like it was not a strong enough connection.  We upgraded to Premium and sure enough, both phones worked like a charm immediately for calls and texts (and Pandora and Sirius, etc.)  No doubt it was the connection speed, in our case.  FWIW, we also have T-Mobile.  

 

I also think Streamium would have been a cool name 😉

[POA1]

50 minutes ago, peanutter said:

We upgraded to Premium and sure enough, both phones worked like a charm immediately for calls and texts

What was the upgrade cost from HIA Surf to Premium?

[peanutter]

I think it was $30 each. Only a 7 day cruise and maybe two days in or so. Sorry my memory is not working for me!

[POA1]

5 minutes ago, peanutter said:

Sorry my memory is not working for me!

You probably needed to upgrade to Stream for extra memory. 😉

[peanutter]

Ha! If only I could. 

[Crew News]

5 hours ago, POA1 said:

What was the upgrade cost from HIA Surf to Premium?

The upgrade price is based on the cost of the Surf Plan.  This table was created from the different plan information provided by Ship's Services and should help to answer your question:  Upgrade Price from Surf Plan

 

I am interested in any feedback that validates this table.

[POA1]

1 hour ago, Crew News said:

 

I am interested in any feedback that validates this table

Will do. Thank you.

[CafeBruno]

1 hour ago, Crew News said:

The upgrade price is based on the cost of the Surf Plan.  This table was created from the different plan information provided by Ship's Services and should help to answer your question:  Upgrade Price from Surf Plan

 

I am interested in any feedback that validates this table.

 

I upgraded from the basic HIA internet plan to the middle (Premium) plan on our 21 day January Eurodam cruise and our 14 day February N. Statendam cruise, in order to be assured I could do Zoom and Teams calls, as I had to work some on both cruises. The prices in the chart you attached were what I paid - $80 for 17 days on my 21 day cruise, and $50 for the 14 day cruise. And the call/video quality was perfect, no difference from my high speed connection at home. I'm really glad HAL upgraded the internet to support Zoom/Teams. 

[AFNavigator]

8 hours ago, peanutter said:

Hello!  We were on NS Feb 4-11 and had the HIA package.  In our experience, no, the Wi-Fi calling did not work with the basic package.  We weren't sure if it was "us" or "them," but it just seemed like it was not a strong enough connection.  We upgraded to Premium and sure enough, both phones worked like a charm immediately for calls and texts (and Pandora and Sirius, etc.)  No doubt it was the connection speed, in our case.  FWIW, we also have T-Mobile.  

 

I also think Streamium would have been a cool name 😉

A number of other commenters have posted that HAL's internet speed doesn't change between internet package tiers.  Rather, the amount of content blocked just decreases as you go up in package tiers.  If that's all correct, then the Surf package may block WI-FI calling.

[Crew News]

Just now, CafeBruno said:

 

I upgraded from the basic HIA internet plan to the middle (Premium) plan on our 21 day January Eurodam cruise and our 14 day February N. Statendam cruise, in order to be assured I could do Zoom and Teams calls, as I had to work some on both cruises. The prices in the chart you attached were what I paid - $80 for 17 days on my 21 day cruise, and $50 for the 14 day cruise. And the call/video quality was perfect, no difference from my high speed connection at home. I'm really glad HAL upgraded the internet to support Zoom/Teams. 

Thanks for the validation that the upgrade scheme and prices from Ship Services were accurate.

 

My Premium Plan WiFi calling on the Eurodam last month was very good with a download speed of 107 Mbps (8X faster than the NA last October). 

[terrydtx]

I upgraded my HIA surf to Premium last November on the Koningsdam which worked great for Wi-Fi calls and streaming. We have the Premium early booking HIA package on our August Volendam cruise, is the premium wi-fi going to something less now that HAL has added a third streaming tier of internet?

[REOVA]

We paid $50 last year to upgrade from HIA to Premium (this was before Starlink) on 11 day cruise because we kept getting dropped call/FaceTime with our Grandson. Actually we paid less because of Mariner discount. We still had issues with buffering on some sites mostly due to our cabin location. Being closer to router or booster makes a difference on the ship as well. 

[bajakiter]

Our two April cruises on the Nieuw Statendam both show "Premium Wifi Hia Promo".

Interesting that Hia has different levels of Wifi.

Now if someone could help us out with the Elite beverage Package Hia Promo.

15 drinks each, so 30 drinks, and we don't drink.

It includes specialty coffees but I don't think I can do 15 espressos in a day.

[3rdGenCunarder]

I bought photos on a snorkel trip, and when I got back to the ship, I realized I would need to download them from a link. So I upgraded to Premium in order to do that. The download was slow (half hour), but it worked. A side benefit was internet calling and texting, which I hadn't had before. For the second week of a 2-week cruise, the cost was $40. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 minutes ago, bajakiter said:

Our two April cruises on the Nieuw Statendam both show "Premium Wifi Hia Promo".

Interesting that Hia has different levels of Wifi.

Now if someone could help us out with the Elite beverage Package Hia Promo.

15 drinks each, so 30 drinks, and we don't drink.

It includes specialty coffees but I don't think I can do 15 espressos in a day.

 

The higher levels of internet and beverages probably came with an early booking bonus. I'm not a doctor (and I've never played one on TV), but I don't recommend 15 espressos in a day! But if you want bottled (actually, canned) water to take on an excursion, or a soft drink, that can use up a few of your daily drinks.

[bajakiter]

Thanks, that explains it. I normally limit myself to 2 espressos per day. Okay, sometimes 3.

It does include sparkling water so that is good.

Out first cruise since our last one was cancelled in March 2020 due to covid.

Should be interesting to see the changes. 

[Crew News]

3 hours ago, bajakiter said:

Our two April cruises on the Nieuw Statendam both show "Premium Wifi Hia Promo".

Interesting that Hia has different levels of Wifi.

Now if someone could help us out with the Elite beverage Package Hia Promo.

15 drinks each, so 30 drinks, and we don't drink.

It includes specialty coffees but I don't think I can do 15 espressos in a day.

Your beverage package also includes everything in the Quench Beverage Packages such as fresh juice and smoothies.  Beverage Packages Contents

[bajakiter]

Thanks, Crew News. I can dilute the caffeine in my system with sparkling water!

[HermmyGranger]

Now I'm confused. If you only have the Surf package, you won't be able to text externally? If you can't text, what is the point of the surf package in the first place? What else can you do with it? I don't ever make calls, but I do send lots of photos by text back to my husband so he can live vicariously through me while I'm traveling.

[Crew News]

You can surf the web and send pictures by email with the Surf Plan.

[jinpasco]

Reading all this makes more sense to me now. We had surf and expected to be able to use What's App but after about 5 seconds calls would drop. Looks like one of us will have to pony up more $$ to get Premium on our longer cruises. 

[Toad]

3 hours ago, Crew News said:

You can surf the web and send pictures by email with the Surf Plan.

But no Wi-Fi calling?

[Crew News]

Just now, Toad said:

But no Wi-Fi calling?

Wi-Fi calling comes with the Premium Plan

[Toad]

Well that’s not good, so basically the plan I got when purchasing the cruise, $11 limit on drinks and basic Wi-Fi are not too good😣I spite of the fact I was told I could Wi-Fi call and get my martinis 

Edited March 18 by Toad