Princess Internet Ripoff

[Hanah481]

We just got off the Caribbean Princess on March 16th. We tried to print our boarding passes on March 15th. We were flying on U.S. Air. I tried for 10 minutes to get on the web site and I could not. It is the slowest connection EVER.... It cost me over $20.00 just to try and get on the site. I was never able to get on.... The guy that works in the internet cafe is VERY rude. 75 cents per minute is the biggest ripoff ever....

[Pam in CA]

The Internet attendant shouldn't have been rude but it's well-known that the connection is via satellite and can be flakey. Printing out boarding passes isn't a critical need so I wouldn't have spent so much time.

[riggrnr]

Why were you printing off boarding passes if you were almost at the end of the cruise? Were you going on another one??? You know a b2b.

[fti]

Unless you were trying to check in 23 hours 59 minutes before departure in order to have a better chance of an elite upgrade, I too wonder why you needed to check in online. Fortunately you knew the cost per minute before you logged on (if you didn't, then the cost really wasn't important to you in the first place).

[firefly333]

We just got off the Caribbean Princess on March 16th. We tried to print our boarding passes on March 15th. We were flying on U.S. Air. I tried for 10 minutes to get on the web site and I could not. It is the slowest connection EVER.... It cost me over $20.00 just to try and get on the site. I was never able to get on.... The guy that works in the internet cafe is VERY rude. 75 cents per minute is the biggest ripoff ever....

 

We were on the CB end of January and same thing happend. No one could print off their boarding passes and paid for internet time the last night aboard and were all upset. Luckily I didnt even try. I was with a group so heard plenty of complaints from those who did. They were eventually told the printer was broken. Strange the guy couldnt have said the printer was broken and put up a sign in the first place?

[karen_g]

Why were you printing off boarding passes if you were almost at the end of the cruise? Were you going on another one??? You know a b2b.

 

I'm pretty sure the OP was referring to Airline boarding passes.

[firefly333]

Why were you printing off boarding passes if you were almost at the end of the cruise? Were you going on another one??? You know a b2b.

 

I might have misunderstood what the OP meant. We were trying to print off the boarding pass for our flights out of Ft. Lauderdale. Many try to print them out the last night of the cruise.

[ldoc31]

The Internet attendant shouldn't have been rude but it's well-known that the connection is via satellite and can be flakey. Printing out boarding passes isn't a critical need so I wouldn't have spent so much time.

 

I think they are critical for boarding the flight home.

[cruzin2paradise]

I think they are critical for boarding the flight home.

 

 

Yes, but it can be done at the airport. To the OP, sorry for your misfortune, I understand how frustrating computers can be. But I have never attempted to print anything from the cruise - not worth the money.

[JanMD]

Yes, I do have to agree with you the attendant is very rude- and I have no idea why he is getting paid for playing on the computer like he does. I am one of them that was getting free internet- this guy is not social person and he didn't control the teenagers that were roaming and being so loud- he did nothing. I guess- he knew they were getting free internet.

[charlsee]

I had to print the flight boarding passes for my parents the last night we were on the Grand in January. My parents, in their 80's, are not computer savy, so I wanted to be sure they had their passes before getting off the ship (we live locally near the port of Galveston so we were not flying with them). The computers were slow, but the internet cafe attendent was very helpful. This may not seem like a big deal to those of us who use computers all the time, but for my elderly parents it was a big deal to have the passes in hand for boarding, and not have to figure it out for themselves at the airport.

[Colo Cruiser]

Did you ask for a credit to your shipboard account???

[Coral]

At times, the internet is almost unusable. I understand what you mean.

 

I usually do not print off boarding passes but on my last Princess cruise - there were tons of ships in port (the next cruise was Christmas cruises) so it probably was the busiest day at Pier Everglades that year (was unable to get a taxi to the airport). My flight was moved up in time and I was connecting through Denver which had been closed for a few days due to blizzard conditions. I definitely wanted to print my boarding pass early just because I knew there were literally thousands who were trying to fly that day (weekend before Christmas) through Denver who were on stand by and had been stranded earlier in the week. I didn't want to chance waiting until getting to the airport to get the boarding pass.

 

If Princess is going to charge .75/minute - they should make sure it works well.

[readytogo2]

Wasn't it possible to print the boarding passes at home, before you left?..I know, we spend a lot of time on the computer at home, but on our vacation, Id rather be doing things I can't do at home

[Coral]

Wasn't it possible to print the boarding passes at home, before you left?..I know, we spend a lot of time on the computer at home, but on our vacation, Id rather be doing things I can't do at home

 

Generally - you can only do this 24 hours before your flight. So no, one can't do this a week in advance.

[readytogo2]

Generally - you can only do this 24 hours before your flight. So no, one can't do this a week in advance.

I didn't know that was the only way...I remember going to a kiosk and typing in my name and putting in the charge card that I used. Not sure I would depend on the Cruise ship's computers for something the crucial

[Coral]

I didn't know that was the only way...I remember going to a kiosk and typing in my name and putting in the charge card that I used. Not sure I would depend on the Cruise ship's computers for something the crucial

 

I think the main thing is that if you don't do it on the ship, you will have to face lines at the airport. The line to do this in Miami in January was an hour (I didn't do this on the ship on my January cruise and wished I did).

[Charles4515]

I didn't know that was the only way...I remember going to a kiosk and typing in my name and putting in the charge card that I used. Not sure I would depend on the Cruise ship's computers for something the crucial

 

You can get your boarding passes at the kiosks at the airport. It is not required to print them on the ship. And since most of us have checked bags you are still going to have to use the kiosk to print your luggage tag. In my opinion you are only saving time printing them before you get to the airport if you only have carry on luggage.

[readytogo2]

I think the main thing is that if you don't do it on the ship, you will have to face lines at the airport. The line to do this in Miami in January was an hour (I didn't do this on the ship on my January cruise and wished I did).

I can see your point, bad enough we have so many lines of one kind or another during the cruise

[chasetf]

You can get your boarding passes at the kiosks at the airport. It is not required to print them on the ship. And since most of us have checked bags you are still going to have to use the kiosk to print your luggage tag. In my opinion you are only saving time printing them before you get to the airport if you only have carry on luggage.

My bet is the OP was attempting to print out Southwest Airline boarding passes. Those you can only print 24 hrs prior to you flight. The reason he wanted to print it out the night before was so he could be in group A and board with the first group. Southwest has open seating and boards in three groups.

 

Sounds like it became pretty expensive just for him to get to the head of the line. ;)

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Wasn't it possible to print the boarding passes at home, before you left?..I know, we spend a lot of time on the computer at home, but on our vacation, Id rather be doing things I can't do at home

 

You can only print the 24 hours before the flight on all the airlines I have used.

[Coral]

You can get your boarding passes at the kiosks at the airport. It is not required to print them on the ship. And since most of us have checked bags you are still going to have to use the kiosk to print your luggage tag. In my opinion you are only saving time printing them before you get to the airport if you only have carry on luggage.

 

I really think it depends. I rarely fly NW but flew them in January. They did not have any "in person" check-in except for international flights. The bell captains were not outside. They forced everyone to use kiosks and there was an hour wait to use the kiosks. It was that crazy on a Saturday in mid-January.

 

So yes, one can save a lot of time printing them onboard.

 

I assume there are times where there are no lines also but that is not my experience in January.

[TexasMom2]

We did this on the Jewel of the Seas in December (Ft. Lauderdale) - it was great. We were able to move from the back of the plane to the front, as open elite seats are released at the 24-hour mark. In Houston, there are separate counters just for luggage check-in with pre-printed boarding passes, very fast. It was worth the 4 minutes ($2) to me. I realized afterwards it may have been even cheaper if I had not logged into my OnePass account first.

 

I would do it just to improve bad seats.

[sanjosebarbie]

The cool thing about this is that you can check in on Southwest and then still wait to print your boarding passes at the kiosk at the airport (I don't know if that's true with other lines, but if you already have a reserved seat, it doesn't matter as much). It's a win-win. You get your group A status for seating and you don't have to spend a zillion bucks on the internet printing a boarding pass. I'm sorry that the OP had to go through this. I actually had this same problem during my last hotel stay, and they have NO excuse to have crappy slow service since they weren't in the middle of the ocean. I think it's just something that not all "hotels" have caught up on, and I think the technology just may not be there yet for cruise ships to have fast internet like you can at home. I agree it would be nice.

 

As to attendant rudeness, I hope you noted that on your cruise survey. There is no excuse for that...especially since Princess relies on its reputation for good service.

[Charles4515]

My bet is the OP was attempting to print out Southwest Airline boarding passes. Those you can only print 24 hrs prior to you flight. The reason he wanted to print it out the night before was so he could be in group A and board with the first group. Southwest has open seating and boards in three groups.

 

Sounds like it became pretty expensive just for him to get to the head of the line. ;)

 

But you don't have to print them out, only check in. I flew Southwest to Orlando about a year ago, checked in online at the ship internet cafe and got group A and printed out my group A boarding pass at the kiosk at the airport.

 

It can be kind of a joke though. They have the three groups but those with children or other issues get priority boarding. So half the plane was in that group that boarded before group A on my flight.....