Internet

[watsonbeau]

Recently onboard so used up my free quota and bought a couple of days at $24 - just the basic - which is $18/day if you buy for whole voyage. However this was only a short cruise and had data roaming ashore anyway so didn’t need more.

 

On a longer cruise - say 30 days, my free internet would probably last me 8 days as would share mine/husband. Am I correct that I could then use the $18 option for cruise and they would then only charge me for 22 days - and not 30 days - might seem obvious but haven’t required to do this previously. Thanks in advance.

Edited October 1 by watsonbeau

[bluemarble]

That's correct. When you purchase a full voyage internet plan on board, you only pay for the remaining days of your voyage at the time of purchase.

 

One detail I am not sure about though are the discounts Cunard offer for full voyage internet plans on voyages of 16 nights or more. This is not all that important for your specific question, but I'll mention it anyway since you mentioned a hypothetical purchase with 22 nights remaining on a 30-night voyage.

 

The prices I'm seeing in My Cunard for a 16-night voyage I have booked are $17.65 per day for the full voyage Essential Plan (rather than $18 per day) and $23.50 per day for the full voyage Premium Plan (rather than $24 per day). That's essentially a 2% discount for a 16-night voyage.

 

The prices I'm seeing in My Cunard for a 26-night voyage I have booked are $17.10 per day for the full voyage Essential Plan and $22.80 per day for the full voyage Premium Plan. That's a 5% discount for a 26-night voyage.

 

I do not know if the discounted prices for longer voyages apply to the full voyage plans when purchased on board. Cunard do state "Once you board your ship, you can use your credits to purchase internet by the day or for your entire voyage, according to the prices shown here." so it would appear those discounted prices ought to apply on board.

 

But the other detail I can't answer is if those discounted prices for longer voyages increase as the remaining days in the voyage drop below the various thresholds where the discounts apply. In other words, with 14 days left on a 30-night voyage, would you still pay the discounted price per day which applies to a 30-night voyage or would you pay the standard rate of $18 per day for the Essential Plan which applies to a 14-night voyage?

Edited October 1 by bluemarble

[watsonbeau]

Thank you. That's very helpful. ☀️

[TheOldBear]

If you both have world club internet credit - when you buy a 'whole cruise' package [for a single device at a time] only one passenger's credit is applied. The other credit is not applied.

[Host Hattie]

We are able to share our Internet via Bluetooth so I bought 24 hour packages for the first few sea days. Once the full voyage price dropped below $135 Mr HH bought it using his allowance. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

7 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

We are able to share our Internet via Bluetooth so I bought 24 hour packages for the first few sea days. Once the full voyage price dropped below $135 Mr HH bought it using his allowance. 

 

Depending on the itinerary (and how much OBC I have), I will skip having internet for the first few days and when it gets near $135, I use my WC benefit to buy it for the rest of the cruise. 

[Winifred 22]

Yes me too. I never get it the first day unless my cruise is shorter then my allowance. 

[artvlay]

On 10/1/2024 at 7:51 PM, TheOldBear said:

If you both have world club internet credit - when you buy a 'whole cruise' package [for a single device at a time] only one passenger's credit is applied. The other credit is not applied.

When you apply the one credit must you do it on the first day? Can it be on say the second day and then for the rest of the cruise?

[bluemarble]

23 minutes ago, artvlay said:

When you apply the one credit must you do it on the first day? Can it be on say the second day and then for the rest of the cruise?

 

You can apply your Cunard World Club benefit on any day. The credit will be applied beginning on whatever day you make your first purchase of an internet plan. If you choose to start with the purchase of a 24 hour block of time rather than a full voyage plan, the credit will continue to be applied on subsequent purchases of internet plans until the credit runs out.

[Queenvee]

I've been in the same situation as the OP on longer voyages where the $135 won't cover the entire cruise, so based on the excellent advice from CC posters, I use it $24 at a time to buy a 24 hour block.  Since it runs 24 hours from the exact moment of purchase, I can buy it at 3:00 pm on Wednesday and it doesn't expire until 2:59 on Thursday so in my mind, I'm getting "two days" of usage for a single $25 purchase.  This approach enables me to stretch my Diamond level Internet credit to cover the majority - if not all - of my 3 week cruises.  Just wanted to pass this great CC tip along!

[Bell Boy]

1 hour ago, Queenvee said:

I've been in the same situation as the OP on longer voyages where the $135 won't cover the entire cruise, so based on the excellent advice from CC posters, I use it $24 at a time to buy a 24 hour block.  Since it runs 24 hours from the exact moment of purchase, I can buy it at 3:00 pm on Wednesday and it doesn't expire until 2:59 on Thursday so in my mind, I'm getting "two days" of usage for a single $25 purchase.  This approach enables me to stretch my Diamond level Internet credit to cover the majority - if not all - of my 3 week cruises.  Just wanted to pass this great CC tip along!

Exactly, most sensible seasoned Cunarders do this . 

[artvlay]

Is the 24hr price on the ship $24?

[bluemarble]

8 minutes ago, artvlay said:

Is the 24hr price on the ship $24?

 

Yes, the on board price for 24 hours of the "Essential" plan is $24. The on board price for 24 hours of the "Premium" plan is $36.

[artvlay]

7 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

 

Yes, the on board price for 24 hours of the "Essential" plan is $24. The on board price for 24 hours of the "Premium" plan is $36.

What is the difference of the two plans?

[bluemarble]

The main difference between the Essential and Premium plans is that the Premium plan allows streaming. I'm not entirely clear about the streaming restrictions with the Essential plan though. For example, they block access to YouTube videos with the Essential plan but not sites with live streaming webcams showing ships in ports that I've tried.

Edited October 3 by bluemarble

[Winifred 22]

2 hours ago, artvlay said:

Is the 24hr price on the ship $24?

Yes it’s only $18 a day when you purchase a whole voyage plan.

[3rdGenCunarder]

7 hours ago, bluemarble said:

The main difference between the Essential and Premium plans is that the Premium plan allows streaming. I'm not entirely clear about the streaming restrictions with the Essential plan though. For example, they block access to YouTube videos with the Essential plan but not sites with live streaming webcams showing ships in ports that I've tried.

 

Is there a difference in what/how much you can download? Last winter on HAL I had to upgrade from their basic plan to the next level (I forget what they call them) in order to download the pro photos from a snorkel trip. 

[bluemarble]

20 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

Is there a difference in what/how much you can download? Last winter on HAL I had to upgrade from their basic plan to the next level (I forget what they call them) in order to download the pro photos from a snorkel trip. 

 

When the current Essential and Premium internet plans (based on days rather than minutes) were first introduced back in early 2022, there was wording stating each plan "allows for a daily volume of 500MB of superior performance." I interpreted that to mean performance would be throttled once your data usage exceeded 500MB per day. I don't know if that was actually implemented. As far as I know, that wording no longer appears in any of the internet plan descriptions any more. I have not seen any wording recently having to do with data limits on either of the internet plans.