WiFi included but it’s not really

[Traderboy]

I was pleased to have a package with WiFi included. 
 Unfortunately this is another trick to take your money. 
While it does include a basic access to the Internet you find that you cannot even send a single photo to your loved ones. 
In order to share even simple photos  you have to pay another 91 dollars for 12 days.

I can understand why they might want to prohibit streaming videos or online video chats. However the banning of sharing a few photos is just a way for Celebrity to make money.

What do others think?

[zitsky]

$91 a day or $91 TOTAL for 12 days?  I'm going to pay $5 for a bottle of wine but you can bring me the $60 bottle.

[d9704011]

3 minutes ago, Traderboy said:

I was pleased to have a package with WiFi included. 
 Unfortunately this is another trick to take your money. 
While it does include a basic access to the Internet you find that you cannot even send a single photo to your loved ones. 
In order to share even simple photos  you have to pay another 91 dollars for 12 days.

I can understand why they might want to prohibit streaming videos or online video chats. However the banning of sharing a few photos is just a way for Celebrity to make money.

What do others think?

I think you're exaggerating the problem.  I have been on Celebrity with basic wifi and had no problem sending a few photos.

[NMTraveller]

I upgraded the Wi-Fi and I was only getting 3 to 5 Mb/s speeds.

[upwarduk]

1 minute ago, d9704011 said:

I think you're exaggerating the problem.  I have been on Celebrity with basic wifi and had no problem sending a few photos.

If you are mid Atlantic you have little chance of ant Wi- Fi signal.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

5 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I upgraded the Wi-Fi and I was only getting 3 to 5 Mb/s speeds.

That was the speed I was getting 12 years ago at home than we upgrade to 20 mbs 🤣

[Ex-Airbalancer]

10 minutes ago, zitsky said:

$91 a day or $91 TOTAL for 12 days?  I'm going to pay $5 for a bottle of wine but you can bring me the $60 bottle.

They wrote 

91 dollars for 12 days.

pretty clear it is $91 for 12 😉😁

[zitsky]

9 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

They wrote 

91 dollars for 12 days.

pretty clear it is $91 for 12 😉😁

 

Do I *think* it's for 12 days?  Yes.

 

Do I *know* it's for 12 days?  No.

 

Every other post here is "Celebrity is ripping me off!"   So I do NOT assume what prices should be.

 

If someone is paying only $91 to upgrade to Streaming for 12 days, then they need to find the nearest Celebrity employee and say THANK YOU!!!

Edited March 23 by zitsky

[Ken the cruiser]

I know we had to upgrade to the premium Wi-Fi package when cruising started back up on our initial cruises on the Edge, Apex, Constellation, and Reflection so I could post to my Cruise Critic Live From threads, and my DW could log onto the multi-layered website she frequents when on a cruise. We continued to do this through our transpacific cruise on the Eclipse last Spring.

 

Is this still the case or can folks using the Basic Wi-Fi package easily log onto CC now and post text and photos to existing threads?

[NMTraveller]

20 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

That was the speed I was getting 12 years ago at home than we upgrade to 20 mbs 🤣

I know.  Maybe they had me on a dialup connection 🤣

[Lena11033]

What do I think?

 

The website is clear that basic wifi doesn't include streaming or large uploads.

 

 

[keesar]

44 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

I think you're exaggerating the problem.  I have been on Celebrity with basic wifi and had no problem sending a few photos.

Consider yourself fortunate.  I was in the Caribbean and no photos could be sent on the Basic Plan.  I had to use my Premium minutes.

[hcat]

I had the Basic Wifi and did a very long " Live from"  ASCENT review, posting many photos, several at a time,  from my Samsung cell phone gallery. I  only sent a few e mails but they did include photos.

 

  Maybe ASCENT is more up to date..???  Also had no issues on BEYOND .

 

 

Edited March 23 by hcat

[Traderboy]

I was on Celebrity Millenium and i certainly could not send any photos at all.

 

In order to send any photo at all I would have had to pay 91 dollars for 12 days. 

Some on this board  think that is a price worth paying. Not me!

[Ken the cruiser]

12 minutes ago, hcat said:

I had the Basic Wifi and did a very long " Live from"  ASCENT review, posting many photos, several at a time,  from my Samsung cell phone gallery. I  only sent a few e mails but they did include photos.

 

  Maybe ASCENT is more up to date..???  Also had no issues on BEYOND .

 

That is great news to hear! Thanks! 😁

[Mike981]

46 minutes ago, Lena11033 said:

What do I think?

 

The website is clear that basic wifi doesn't include streaming or large uploads.

 

 

 

Agree

[cruisestitch]

1 hour ago, Traderboy said:

I was pleased to have a package with WiFi included. 
 Unfortunately this is another trick to take your money. 
While it does include a basic access to the Internet you find that you cannot even send a single photo to your loved ones. 
In order to share even simple photos  you have to pay another 91 dollars for 12 days.

I can understand why they might want to prohibit streaming videos or online video chats. However the banning of sharing a few photos is just a way for Celebrity to make money.

What do others think?

What do I think? I think they made the limitations of the products that they were selling clear.  There was no trickery involved.

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, upwarduk said:

If you are mid Atlantic you have little chance of ant Wi- Fi signal.

With Starlink mid ocean always gas a signal but little bandwidth.

To the OP, I have always been able to send photos using the basic wifi package even at North Cape Norway or Elephant Island Antarctica.   Super fast, nope.  Did it work?  Yes.

If you find the wifi not acceptable then don't purchase.  Have places in Arizona where there is no signal of any type and no Starlink.

[paulh84]

To be fair they do spell out the limitations clearly.....

 

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/things-to-do-onboard/onboard-packages/internet-and-phone-packages

 

There is an error there but it's not pertaining to the limitations. It should state Basic WiFi is not available pre-cruise. 

Edited March 23 by paulh84

[Traderboy]

The point is that a simple photo is not a large upload.   

The data involved in downloading say the BBC website (including lots of pictures)  far exceeds what I am talking about.  This is allowed on the basic WiFi package.

 

In my opinion they do it on purpose  - to make money for Celebrity.  Not because they cannot handle the data uploads.

 

[d9704011]

1 hour ago, upwarduk said:

If you are mid Atlantic you have little chance of ant Wi- Fi signal.

Maybe; OP didn't mention anything about location other than his/her generic Celebrity wifi problem.  In fact, OP didn't even mention having been on a cruise.

Edited March 23 by d9704011

[DaKahuna]

8 minutes ago, Traderboy said:

In my opinion they do it on purpose  - to make money for Celebrity.  Not because they cannot handle the data uploads.

 

 

You are entitled to your opinion but that does not necessarily mean that the opinioon of those that disagree with you should be discounted.  It is well known that Celebrity throttles both Basic and Premium Wi-Fi on their ships.  

 

[paulh84]

14 minutes ago, Traderboy said:

The point is that a simple photo is not a large upload.   

The data involved in downloading say the BBC website (including lots of pictures)  far exceeds what I am talking about.  This is allowed on the basic WiFi package.

 

In my opinion they do it on purpose  - to make money for Celebrity.  Not because they cannot handle the data uploads.

 

This is totally normal. It's because the bandwidth is geared to prioritize downloads over uploads. That is why the download speed is much faster than upload speed. People spend far more time downloading (ie your website viewing) than they do uploading. To make it more palatable for people to browse and use apps, they pull back the upload speed. 

[patty1955]

I just paid $32 to upgrade one person to Premium Wifi for an 11 day cruise. You have to watch for sales.

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

I upgraded the Wi-Fi and I was only getting 3 to 5 Mb/s speeds.

 

When starlink was first deployed on X, you could hit 40mbps but they throttled it down.  X wifi seems to be capped at 1mbps for basic and 5mbps for premium.  Last fall, was getting 60mbps with Carnival.  As slow as X is, it is literally revolutionary to what they had in the past which became unusable during peak times such as just before lunch or dinner services start