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Big Foot
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Hello,

I noticed this on the P&O website the other day ....

 

The Browse Package - browse as you would usually (with the exception of video streaming), plus email and social networks. £10 per 24 hours with a full Cruise Plan. £12.50 for a single 24 hour period. (web browsing, email, internet messaging, social media).

Additional savings can be made on The Browse Package when purchased pre cruise – see ‘How to purchase Satellite Internet’ below for further details.

How to purchase Satellite Internet

 

When you buy The Browse Package before you sail, you can save up to 15%*. You are able to purchase pre cruise on a single 24 hour period basis and as a full Cruise Plan. Multiple purchases of the single 24 hour option can be made should you require a shorter duration than your full cruise.

  • Daily Internet Browse Package - £10 per 24 hours
  • Full Cruise Plan Browse Package - From £28 for a 3 day duration up to £246 for a 30 day duration.

https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/life-on-board/access_internet?_ga=2.129769740.1823682135.1496956320-1446904689.1422135524

 

I've just enquired re my 12 night cruise in September on board Ventura & have been advised that the cost of The Browse Package if purchased in advance is £108.

Yes I know there are the usual arguments re the cost of / paying for the use of the internet etc, however, personally, I don't think £108 for 12 nights if purchased in advance is that bad. Not when I consider I used to pay £62.50 for 250 minutes.

I just thought I'd share in case it helps to save someone a few pennies to spend elsewhere :D

Joan

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Good to know they are now offering discount if you book before you go, but I will stick to buying occasionally over the cruise. I think the changes have come are due to the roaming charge changes to peoples mobile phone packages that come into effect from today and maybe people will not have to use the ships internet signal as much as present.

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On Celebrity we both get 60 mins free time and, as you only get charged when on line, we find that we rarely use the full allowance anyway.

You will also find on P&O that the speed is so poor that even web browsing will lull you to sleep and the You Tube streaming was very poor and jerky. We used it on 2 days to check e mails which was £25 in total, with our limited use I would much prefer to buy minutes which were only charged when on line, but I guess this would not give them as good a return as the per day offer.

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On Celebrity we both get 60 mins free time and, as you only get charged when on line, we find that we rarely use the full allowance anyway.

You will also find on P&O that the speed is so poor that even web browsing will lull you to sleep and the You Tube streaming was very poor and jerky. We used it on 2 days to check e mails which was £25 in total, with our limited use I would much prefer to buy minutes which were only charged when on line, but I guess this would not give them as good a return as the per day offer.

We get 90 minutes on Celebrity and found the service so poor that minutes are being 'burnt' just trying to log in, never mind accessing the web. So much for 'Xcelerate' high speed internet.
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You get 250 minutes on Princess.

 

I think all P&O ships are now on the high speed internet, that's how they can offer video calling/facetime/streaming.

Azura certainly isn't, and from other comments I doubt any of the other ships are. From a conversation with the IT rep on Azura I doubt I will be holding my breath waiting for P&O to install high speed internet, and the only streaming they offer is You Tube or facetime, both of which need low bandwidth, which is why they are available.

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I was wondering....my phone (iphone 6s on 3 network) now has wi-fi calling by default if no phone signal is available...would calls be possible?

 

I am sort of guessing NO but if anyone could enlighten me that would be great.....I was going to call customer services and ask but if someone here knows that would be so helpful with my decision making for Azura in July:).

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Hi,on the Aurora this year Dubai to Singapore segment,people were buying packages but couldnt get any access at all.Refunds were refused.Good deal yeah,cheers,Brian.

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Hi,on the Aurora this year Dubai to Singapore segment,people were buying packages but couldnt get any access at all.Refunds were refused.Good deal yeah,cheers,Brian.

That's why variable use minutes packages would be so much fairer, at least then if it's slow or not working you can just switch off until it's up and running smoothly.

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On Ventura earlier this year I had the £10 per day package for the whole cruise and yes I received the Peninsular discount but at that time it wasn't known (well not to me) that you could purchase this beforehand. I'm awaiting a call next week regarding purchasing this for our next cruise and will be asking if we get a pre-cruise discount AND Peninsular discount.

 

Regarding making calls via WiFi barriead, I have a BT app on my Android phone which allowed me to make calls whilst in the middle of the Atlantic, via the ship WiFi, so it may well be possible.

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On Ventura earlier this year I had the £10 per day package for the whole cruise and yes I received the Peninsular discount but at that time it wasn't known (well not to me) that you could purchase this beforehand. I'm awaiting a call next week regarding purchasing this for our next cruise and will be asking if we get a pre-cruise discount AND Peninsular discount.

 

Regarding making calls via WiFi barriead, I have a BT app on my Android phone which allowed me to make calls whilst in the middle of the Atlantic, via the ship WiFi, so it may well be possible.

 

Thanks for info prefdavid, I have just seen this:

Pay As You Go - a flexible alternative to a 24 hour package. 65p per minute (To help keep an eye on costs, we’ll automatically log you out after 30 minutes)..

on the P&O internet info page, is this fairly new?...but it aint for me thats for sure.:)

 

I have now emailed P&O asking for the price of "Full cruise internet browse package" when booked pre cruise and also if you get peninsula discount on top (I would be very surprised if they say no), I have just tried calling them to ask...but they were "closed" until tomorrow.:)

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Hi all, have now contacted P&O by phone and the cost for the browse package was £117.00 for my 13 day cruise on Azura if I booked pre cruise...which I have now done. Peninsula discount was not applicable according to the c/s rep which was a surprise, would have saved me another £5.85 (117x5%=5.85:p) as I am only Pacific (Atlantic after Azura Cruise:))...but I booked anyway, lets hope my Cabin on D Deck has a good signal.:D

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Certainly on Ventura the speed was a lot faster than the previous speed before the update, but not as fast as at home, just about acceptable for checking emails and news etc., a definite improvement, but then we like the fact that people are not constantly on their phones, absolutely hate having to listen to peoples conversations.

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If you buy a package can it be used by different devices or is it just registered to one?

 

Rick.

You can use different devices, but only one at a time, if I remember you just log in the cabin number. My son and I shared the allowance.

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Just a thought, but unless you run your own business and / or are unable to tear yourself away from work when on holiday - or simply cannot survive a sea day without connectivity, I do wonder why anybody would fork out on these exploitative packages / fees in this day and age when access is so easy and cheap via a smart phone.

 

On a recent 16 night cruise, I used my smart phone to access all personal emails (circa 20 a day) each time we were in port, internet access, plus regular text messages to several family members. Total cost for the 16 days around £20. That's £20 above my normal monthly tariff of just £7.50 (GiffGaff).

 

And, from today, that cost will be next to nothing due to the new European data roaming etc legislation, which will allow such activity within your existing call plan.

 

So unless you are a business user or simply cannot be divorced from the internet when at sea, I fail to see why anybody would patronise these rip off prices, certainly if within Europe. Clearly I am missing something and will no doubt be corrected!

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Hi Selbourne, you are right of course about smart phones being very useful...I do find however they are restrictive because my eyesight is not that good, it is far easier for me to use my ipad or laptop when trying to browse and read stuff, we do use the ipad and laptop frequently at home and given the price drop are prepared (I would not say happy) to pay the (still premium) prices that P&O are now at.....would far prefer it being free of course.:D:D

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  • 2 months later...

Hello All,

 

Just a quick update on the internet package.

 

I called P&O this morning to purchase 'The Browse Package' for the duration of our upcoming 12 night cruise.

 

I can confirm that the cost was £10 per day LESS my loyalty discount (I'm currently in the Mediterranean tier so I get 10%) so the package cost me £108.

 

Joan

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Hi Big Foot, that is good to know, when I pre booked a while back for Azura I asked specifically if discount was applied to the price as well and was told no, its not applicable by the c/s girl, so either she got it wrong or they have now changed to allowing it...hopefully the latter.:)

 

It did not really matter anyway as when I got on board I could get no usable signal in my room on D Deck, I could only get a usable signal right by my Cabin Door and then outside in the corridor, this of course was not good and fair crack to the guy in the Library who could tell I had no used data and I got a full refund within about 10 days.:)

 

I am on the Aurora in December and will now wait until I am on board before deciding whether to use the internet on there....I have heard its good on there though on C Deck so fingers crossed.

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There can be issues with satellite-based communications. Most of the satellites are in equatorial orbits, which means that cruises in northern waters will often struggle to see a satellite above the horizon. This is especially true in the fjords - those high mountains walls are really good satellite blockers! And of course in Iceland you can be near or even over the arctic circle in which case satellite communications will be very poor.

 

As regards the Browse package - does this include posting, or just reading? (for social media). I usually blog from a cruise, to a Wordpress site, and I discovered that Wordpress sites aren't included in the "Browse' package (for posting).

 

 

In the end I took my smart phone and my iPad, and used my high data allowance on the iPhone to connect to a cellular network at my standard data rate (no roaming charges in the EU), and tethered the iPad to the iPhone. I was able to post blog updates, and browse, using that method on most port days. This didn't work in Iceland - Iceland is not a member of the EU. But I was able to do what I wanted without buying any of P&O's packages.

 

 

(Even at sea I was sometimes able to get connectivity, as long as we were close to land. We had a sea day sailing down the Minch and every now and then as we sailed past one of the villages and towns in the Hebrides there'd be a signal for the phone...)

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Hello All,

 

Just a quick update on the internet package.

 

I called P&O this morning to purchase 'The Browse Package' for the duration of our upcoming 12 night cruise.

 

I can confirm that the cost was £10 per day LESS my loyalty discount (I'm currently in the Mediterranean tier so I get 10%) so the package cost me £108.

 

Joan[/quote

 

Hi Bigfoot

 

I also have 12 day cruise shortly, P and O tell me cost is £108 but def. no loyalty discount if booked prior to boarding. Mediterranean discount is eight and half percent not ten percent.

 

So will wait until on board and then discount will apply.

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Hello All,

 

Just a quick update on the internet package.

 

I called P&O this morning to purchase 'The Browse Package' for the duration of our upcoming 12 night cruise.

 

I can confirm that the cost was £10 per day LESS my loyalty discount (I'm currently in the Mediterranean tier so I get 10%) so the package cost me £108.

 

Joan[/quote

 

Hi Bigfoot

 

I also have 12 day cruise shortly, P and O tell me cost is £108 but def. no loyalty discount if booked prior to boarding. Mediterranean discount is eight and half percent not ten percent.

 

So will wait until on board and then discount will apply.

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