Onboard Internet Experiences

If you have purchased a wifi package while on board which one did you get and how was the connection? Do you think it was worth the money?

I am looking at the social media one to stay connected to family as it includes messenger so I think it'll suffice. Is the premium plan really that much faster?

I haven't sailed yet, but I'm planning to do the social media one. I will check my email in port at night, twice - even for the international overages it won't be $16/day.

I bought all three plans this past cruise in March as my wife and I used the Social plan for texting, my oldest daughter the Value plan and my youngest daughter the Premium plan as she had a video feed to keep up with.

Social: Worked for texting, but nothing else. Literally nothing else. Pretty much opens nothing. It will populate a Facebook page after 10 minutes.

Value: Worked ok for things like Facebook, still opened slow, no streaming of anything. Messenger worked, but required some patience.

Premium: Was still a very slow connection with lots of buffering, but videos can be downloaded and apps like Facebook worked rather well.

I haven't sailed yet, but I'm planning to do the social media one. I will check my email in port at night, twice - even for the international overages it won't be $16/day.

I hope you'll let us know how you like that package!

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I bought the value for one night on the Glory in April and it was so slow I had to use it in the middle of the night to get the assignment I needed to do completed. May have been bad luck, but definitely not worth the $16 to me and I would not have paid it if I didn't need it.

I bought the social package on our recent Glory cruise. It was perfect for me since I could use FB, FB messenger, and twitter. I thought the speed was just fine. I did turn on my phone when we were in San Juan but other than that, I kept my phone off.

My husband, daughter, son in law, and I all bought the $5/cruise Hub access so we could stay in touch with each other while on the cruise. It was perfect! I loved the Hub app.

I got the social media package last month on the Elation and it worked great. You can use Messenger to keep in touch with folks back home. And I had absolutely no issues with speed. It worked just as well as it does on land.

One of the best parts of the cruise was no phone! I'd advise against anything other than the $5 Hub access to keep up with those friends/family that are on the ship with you.

One of the best parts of the cruise was no phone! I'd advise against anything other than the $5 Hub access to keep up with those friends/family that are on the ship with you.

Normally I would agree but I'm leaving my 2yr. old with grandparents for a 4 day cruise. I have to check on him.

Normally I would agree but I'm leaving my 2yr. old with grandparents for a 4 day cruise. I have to check on him.

True, and we'll be leaving our 4 year old behind next February and maybe this will help me decide at that time what we'll do, but when you check on your child....then what? It's not as if you can go back. I'm not trying to be snarky, legit asking and maybe it's piece of mind but what if they're simply just being a handful...now that's on your mind during the trip.

True, and we'll be leaving our 4 year old behind next February and maybe this will help me decide at that time what we'll do, but when you check on your child....then what? It's not as if you can go back. I'm not trying to be snarky, legit asking and maybe it's piece of mind but what if they're simply just being a handful...now that's on your mind during the trip.

LOL valid point! It'll be the first time I leave him though so I guess peace of mind! It'll be our 10yr anniversary cruise and by that point it'll be 2yrs 7 months since our last cruise. We already need it lol. We are splitting the time between 2 sets of grandparents so even if he is a handful I won't feel too guilty. ;);p

Good thread. I will probably be getting the premium tier. Unfortunately, I am one of those that have to work through vacations so access to email and connectivity are a must for me.

I've used the SM package every cruise since it was offered and have had zero issues. I love it. Especially since we sail in the winter months and I can be a braggart posting pics of the tropical weather I'm enjoying :P

We always do the Value package, that way we can check e-mails every day, our way to stay in touch with our son who doesn't usually travel with us due to work. He wants to hear daily what we did, and we just like chatting with him for a few. We also seem to get important e-mails every time we go out of town, that need to be answered quickly.

As far as speed..... it can be decent in the mornings, but then like molasses in evenings. We seem to always have to reboot the laptop at least once while on as it will lock up. I think it all depends on how many people are online on the ship.

And yes....we take our laptop, but its mostly to download photos and videos daily, to see what we got. No work at all.

robin

So on the social package you can send texts? I have an iphone as was wondering which package I needed to send texts (to another iphone back home)?

We have purchased the value plan a bunch of times and find it much better than the old system they had.

Not as fast as we have at home but it works ok. Usually do it thru my smart phone find it easier to check email that way.

So on the social package you can send texts? I have an iphone as was wondering which package I needed to send texts (to another iphone back home)?

No texts on the social package or on your iphone since your phone is off but you can use WhatsApp to send texts if you get the free WhatsApp app. Also I used Facebook Messenger to stay in touch but that only works if the person you want to get in touch with has FB.

I got the social media package last month on the Elation and it worked great. You can use Messenger to keep in touch with folks back home. And I had absolutely no issues with speed. It worked just as well as it does on land.

I assume you do not live where there is cable or broadband. The ship peaks out at 2Mb, most land based broadbands run from 60Mb to a gig. Your iPhone runs much faster than the ship with 4G or LITE.

We had the social package on Vista. Yes, a tad slow but manageable. I like to have an open line of communication, plus being able to post pics during our cruise was a plus.

If you have purchased a wifi package while on board which one did you get and how was the connection? Do you think it was worth the money?

 

I am looking at the social media one to stay connected to family as it includes messenger so I think it'll suffice. Is the premium plan really that much faster?

 

I had the Social plan on the Vista and I had good to excellent reception except in the elevators (dropped to zero when the doors close). Yes, it was worth it to me and I plan to purchase it again in the future. Speed was plenty fine for accessing FB and sending picture texts via Whatsapp.

On our last cruise my wife bought the social media plan and I bought the Value plan so I could get my email. We were both happy with the choices. One member bought the Value plan since he had to work and was able to get his work done except on the last day when the Internet was extremely slow. He purchased a day of the Premium that day and it was exactly the same performance. Carnival refunded his money on the one day Premium. I'm not sure I really got value for my money have the Value plan but the peace of mind knowing if something went wrong at work I would be able to address it then instead of having things dropped on me the morning I got back was well worth it.

My husband, daughter, son in law, and I all bought the $5/cruise Hub access so we could stay in touch with each other while on the cruise. It was perfect! I loved the Hub app.

When you used the Hub to chat, how did that work? do you have to link your shoes or just know the phone numbers?

One of the best parts of the cruise was no phone! I'd advise against anything other than the $5 Hub access to keep up with those friends/family that are on the ship with you.

This thread is probably for people who want to use internet on the cruise.

When you used the Hub to chat, how did that work? do you have to link your shoes or just know the phone numbers?

the hub app will give you an ID number and it will automatically link you with anyone you are sailing with. If you meet other people on board ship that you want to chat with you can add them by adding their ID number.

Download HUB app to your iPhone or android device before you cruise so you can set up the countdown timer (fun!) and your picture then when you get on board you can use the "I'm on board!" link to set purchase the chat feature. HUB Chat is only for onboard ship with other people who have also enabled the chat feature.

You do not have to purchase any internet wifi package to use HUB app or its chat feature. Chat is 5 bucks per device per cruise. The rest of the HUB app features are free to use whether you get chat or not.

As for OP, the social package does what it says - lets you access the most popular social websites andapplications. Includes: Facebook, Twitter,Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, FacebookMessenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat and top airlinewebsites. Does not include access to otherwebsites or apps.

Value plan does let you get to most of the internet but, as mentioned already, it's pretty slow - almost always slower than a good 4g cell connection at home. But you can read email and it was enough to let us play our games we like - clash of clans, evony, etc...

we never tried premium and the speedtest results I've seen posted here don't look favorable enough for me to ever try it.