Zuiderdam Internet charges no more $99

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Well, that's really great!!! NOT!!!!

 

Just mere months ago, HAL Mariners Society created a Five Star level and one of the benefits they provided for this group of very high day Mariners is a 50% discount off a 100 MINUTE INTERNET PACKAGE. Before it has barely begun they just took it away.

 

Now that's appreciation to their high day Mariners. :D :Sigh: (all sarcasm intended).

 

First we watched as they took benefits from suite guests and provided them to Three and Four Star Mariners. Now, as Five Star Mariners, we watch them take benefit away before it barely even began.

 

 

I think this is a case of the Right Hand Not Knowing What the Left Hand is Doing :D But I suspect that once MTN figures out for sure the pricing for the Holland America Ships or actually all the ships sailing (Up till now all cruise lines had the same internet pricing all thru MTN) Once they get it figured out HAL will make this BIG Announcement that they have Enhanced ;) the Five Star Benefits and that they will be offering XX% off the Unlimited Internet Plan for 5 Star Mariners. Unfortunately until they get their act together you have probably lost this benefit :( Unless you can talk an Internet Manager into giving you a discount ;)

[sail7seas]

The extra $$ here or there is not going to ruin my cruise and if we want Internet, we obviously will pay for it.

 

However, I think my point is clear.

One month they give a benefit and before most have a chance to use it, they take it away. Not a nice way to treat your (presumably) best customers. Bad business IMO

 

[MasterNotCommander]

The problem is that the satellite Internet is incredibly expensive, it's slowly coming down in price, but the technicalities make it hard to create a fast and value for money service. Onboard, the equipment (gyro stabilised satellite dash etc) is also expensive.

 

I suspect the negotiations are between Carnival Corp and MTN considering similar trials on Carnival ships.

[lovetocruise2020]

The extra $$ here or there is not going to ruin my cruise and if we want Internet, we obviously will pay for it.

 

However, I think my point is clear.

One month they give a benefit and before most have a chance to use it, they take it away. Not a nice way to treat your (presumably) best customers. Bad business IMO

 

 

This makes me livid.

[pepsigirl64]

Teri, I hope they realize what a HUGE mistake they have made this voyage to be able to correct for yours, I am waiting to hear what happens for you. Hopefully if the cost is not crazy you can let us know. I board for 11 days when the Zuiderdam arrives in San Diego.

I honestly cannot see that very many would purchase either of these packages unless like mentioned they had to for work. I am not so sure it would not be cheaper to go with my Mobile carriers plan and must use my phone for short segments of time. But I will say that if they keep the $249 price for your 18 day that might not be a bad deal. That is only $13.83 per day and if unlimited not a bad deal but if they try to charge you $400+ for 18 days then that would be wrong.

I actually thought the $99.99 price was too low especially for a 10 day cruise and could see this for maybe a 7 day cruise and of course that $60 price is just insane. I am hoping for a happy medium between the two. :o

:eek: Aaaccckkk, $400 I shudder at the thought. I am pondering the idea of doing a report on here if I have alot of minutes to use, I thought it would be fun. I enjoy reading blogs of vacations, so I am hoping someone might want to read about mine. If I do, the price will be the first thing mentioned!! :rolleyes:

[LAFFNVEGAS]

:eek: Aaaccckkk, $400 I shudder at the thought. I am pondering the idea of doing a report on here if I have alot of minutes to use, I thought it would be fun. I enjoy reading blogs of vacations, so I am hoping someone might want to read about mine. If I do, the price will be the first thing mentioned!! :rolleyes:

 

Teri, I will be interested in reading your review, especially since I will be boarding as you disembark :) I am really hoping for you and me they lower those prices.

[localady]

It will not make me happy if I have to pay for the internet per day or cruise with no per minute option.

Many cruisers just want the ability to check email from home and send small messages via the internet periodically during the entire cruise. I usually use much less that 100 minutes for the entire cruise. (although it depends on how well MTN is working :rolleyes:)

If there were only to be unlimited packages, this will be a huge increase in cost for us. :rolleyes: We check our messages quickly throughout the cruise and it wouldn't cost us anywhere near $249 even at .75 cents per minute. :eek:

 

I think many of us would stop using the internet service if a daily (60$) or weekly cost (249$) were offered with no per minute options.

[CruiseTee]

We just returned from Zuiderdam and had the $99 special. Thought it was a fantastic deal, especially since the WiFi on this ship seems much slower than other HAL ships. They are definitely testing the waters on this one. The cruise before us, it was $199 for the length of the cruise. My husband spoke to someone and they said at $199, very few people had purchased the package, but a lot more folks opted for the $99. I'm shocked to hear it went all the way up to $249 this cruise.

 

We had a fantastic time on the Z! I'll try and post a comprehensive review once I get my laundry done!!

 

CruiseTee

[sail7seas]

:eek: Aaaccckkk, $400 I shudder at the thought. I am pondering the idea of doing a report on here if I have alot of minutes to use, I thought it would be fun. I enjoy reading blogs of vacations, so I am hoping someone might want to read about mine. If I do, the price will be the first thing mentioned!! :rolleyes:

 

 

I hope the price makes it possible for you to share your vacation with us. :) Thank you for considering it.

 

I know I'd enjoy reading it. :)

 

[NickCDN]

Good thing they changed the $99 option. The internet was so slow it was essentially unusable last week.

[igraf]

You could just call the folks on a telephone from a port. On our last cruise we altered our cell phone planes to include free calls from Canada to the USA for less than $20 for that month. Or try PennyTalk (we use this for calling to and from Europe).

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

:confused: UGH, we are leaving next week on the Zuiderdam for 18 days, I wonder what the price will be for that one. This is the first time that we are taking a laptop and interested in the purchase. It is along time to be away from home without any contact for the DH's elderly parents. I was thinking it would be around $200. I am not sure about trying to find it at the ports, so will probably just have to bite the bullet and pay the price.

[igraf]

You don't need to be online to write the blog, so why pay for internet time while you are editing? Just get it all written up and then do a quick upload at a wifi point in port. Likewise with sending and receiving email.

 

igraf

 

 

 

:eek: Aaaccckkk, $400 I shudder at the thought. I am pondering the idea of doing a report on here if I have alot of minutes to use, I thought it would be fun. I enjoy reading blogs of vacations, so I am hoping someone might want to read about mine. If I do, the price will be the first thing mentioned!! :rolleyes:

[LAFFNVEGAS]

You don't need to be online to write the blog, so why pay for internet time while you are editing? Just get it all written up and then do a quick upload at a wifi point in port. Likewise with sending and receiving email.

 

igraf

 

On the OLD way none of us were on line while we wrote our blog, it is the NEW Internet Plan that is unlimited. Currently this sailing on the Zuiderdam has two options ONLY. Buy for one day unlimited for $60.00 or buy for the full 11 days for $249.00. No by the minute option. So with this plan it makes no difference if you write it off line or not. The pricing that pepsigirl is using is that I calculated the cost for her 18 day based on what they are currently charging for 11 days.

[mamaofami]

That pricing is ridiculous. Guess I'll follow the crew and find free internet in the ports.:mad:

[cruz chic]

You don't need to be online to write the blog, so why pay for internet time while you are editing? Just get it all written up and then do a quick upload at a wifi point in port. Likewise with sending and receiving email.

 

igraf

If that works for you then great. I don't want to be spending my vacation looking for free or cheap internet. If I find it by accident that is fine. When I was in St.Lucia in February I found internet at the pier for something like $6. I couldn't beleive how many people were too cheap to pay it once they found out it wasn't free. I do a write up of my daily activities on the ship for both my mom and sister. They enjoy it and I'm happy to pay $100 for internet on the ship. My mom doesn't hear well and I'm not going to try to communicate thru my cell phone. I have a cheapie plan so I'm sure it would cost me plenty to call from some place like Mexico. HAL needs to offer options if they want people to bite. I just want to say how much I appreciate people doing a live from thread.

[igraf]

It is very easy to find internet access points in your ports well before you leave on vacations so you don;t waste your vacation time in port looking for a place. I really making the point that one doe snot have be online will reading and writing, just for sending and receiving.

 

PennyTalk does not require any sort of plan. What you do is call a toll free access number from where you are and enter a code. The price is ridiculously low (a few cents per minute) if you use a landline phone. We have been using this for years. Check it out.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

 

 

If that works for you then great. I don't want to be spending my vacation looking for free or cheap internet. If I find it by accident that is fine. When I was in St.Lucia in February I found internet at the pier for something like $6. I couldn't beleive how many people were too cheap to pay it once they found out it wasn't free. I do a write up of my daily activities on the ship for both my mom and sister. They enjoy it and I'm happy to pay $100 for internet on the ship. My mom doesn't hear well and I'm not going to try to communicate thru my cell phone. I have a cheapie plan so I'm sure it would cost me plenty to call from some place like Mexico. HAL needs to offer options if they want people to bite. I just want to say how much I appreciate people doing a live from thread.

[MrBill64]

I was on the the Z for the $99 deal last week and thought for the most part the internet to be quite good. Of course I was only using my smartphone to check email and do a bit of web surfing but some of the apps I used worked extremely well. For example I was able to stream my Sirius/Xm app to listen to live sports and music channels with very few glitches. I have Slingbox and was able to watch a few innings of my Mets on my balcony with only a few freeze ups. Also using my Skype app we were able to voice call my son's cell phone and talk to him without any issues. This is a great/cheap way to make calls back to the US while overseas as long as you have access to the internet.

 

Also the last day of our cruise they offered a $9 unlimited plan for 24hrs. I did notice the internet the last day was much slower. JMHO.

 

Bill

[Bob at Sea]

This sounds like an stupid idea to charge that much. There is wifi in lots of ports that is free, I can wait till we are in one of them. :eek::mad::(:confused:

[cruz chic]

It is very easy to find internet access points in your ports well before you leave on vacations so you don;t waste your vacation time in port looking for a place. I really making the point that one doe snot have be online will reading and writing, just for sending and receiving.

 

PennyTalk does not require any sort of plan. What you do is call a toll free access number from where you are and enter a code. The price is ridiculously low (a few cents per minute) if you use a landline phone. We have been using this for years. Check it out.

 

igraf

 

I'm going to look into this penny talk. Thx.

[lovetocruise2020]

I was on the the Z for the $99 deal last week and thought for the most part the internet to be quite good. Of course I was only using my smartphone to check email and do a bit of web surfing but some of the apps I used worked extremely well. For example I was able to stream my Sirius/Xm app to listen to live sports and music channels with very few glitches. I have Slingbox and was able to watch a few innings of my Mets on my balcony with only a few freeze ups. Also using my Skype app we were able to voice call my son's cell phone and talk to him without any issues. This is a great/cheap way to make calls back to the US while overseas as long as you have access to the internet.

 

Also the last day of our cruise they offered a $9 unlimited plan for 24hrs. I did notice the internet the last day was much slower. JMHO.

 

Bill

 

Fantastic!! $9 for the last day! Woot! Hoping for this for us!

[phinu]

I am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Aruba, our first stop. On the Zuiderdam currently the only pricing for internet is $59.00 for 24 hours of unlimited time or $249.00 for the whole cruise. No person needs unlimited on a cruise. I just did an online chat with Holland America with someone names Nikki. The answer basically was that's our price too bad. I see you found another way of using the internet. Will have a detailed review when the cruise is over. The ship and crew are great and it just is awful that there is no simple way to keep in touch with family.

[3rdGenCunarder]

So the only internet options on Zuiderdam are is a one-day unlimited package or a full-week unlimited package?

 

I don't like that. I do like to make a quick email check every day or two. And I check in online if I have a flight after a cruise. But I can go a whole week or more using less than 8 hours.

[Minoushka]

Find free wifi in different ports or have a coofee somewhere and get the wifi

That is why I take my ipad with me . Besides connections are soooooooo sloooooooow you are better off on land

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sorry to hear about another change on HAL.

Wonder what is being done for the 5 star mariners who entitled to getting 100 miniutes at 1/2 price?

[jtl513]

By doing as much as possible off-line, I typically use about 10 minutes per day ... so if this spreads to all ships I won't be buying ANY internet time from HAL from then on! :cool: