Using the Internet, Cheaply

[cruz chic]

We are Elite on Princess. So lets take your comment that we get 150 min on just a 7 day cruise (we tend to take much longer cruises) and both DW and I are Elite. That means we get 300 free minutes (5 hours for the mathematically challenged) which I believe is "hundreds" or minutes. When we do longer Princess cruises (most of our cruises on this line are over 14 days) they give us even "hundreds" of additional minutes :) We would not have to debate this terminology on HAL since Zero is Zero...and that is what HAL gives even their 4 Star Mariners.....

 

I should add (if anyone cares) that at one time Princess gave all their Platinum (about 5 + cruises) and above free unlimited internet. But this turned out to be a problem since some passengers (it seemed to be primarily older passengers) would just sit in the internet room (and this was before WiFi was popular) all day and browse the web. We talked to a couple of these folks (keep in mind this was about 10 years ago) who told us they did not have the internet at home and found it was fun. Princess quickly realized that "unlimited" was not a very good idea, so they scaled back to "hundreds" of minutes.

 

Hank

 

You may do longer cruises but not everyone does so I felt the need to clarify. Also, I'm speaking of per person internet, not a couple or family. I find people do like to post things that may be accurate for them and think it applies to everyone. I would rather post something that paints more of an accurate picture.

[Mar56]

Is there a quick way to e-mail pictures from aboard ship or must you wait until you reach a land connection? Normally, it takes so long through the ships' connection. How do the bloggers do this?

 

I have photogene on my iPad. I load all my photos for the day onto my ipad every night, as backup. Then i use photogene to email a photo to the kids. I can only send one at a time but the interface is great.

[Hlitner]

You may do longer cruises but not everyone does so I felt the need to clarify. Also, I'm speaking of per person internet, not a couple or family. I find people do like to post things that may be accurate for them and think it applies to everyone. I would rather post something that paints more of an accurate picture.

 

Sometimes it seems that HAL cheerleaders never give up. A majority of cruisers are couples, and most couples have the same status in the various cruise clubs. So even for those couples who take short cruises they would have 300 free internet minutes per cabin. Now I do not know about you, but 5 hours of free internet on a week cruise is pretty nice. On HAL we would have to pay over $120 for those same minutes.

 

Hank

[cruz chic]

Hal cheerleaders? How is clarifying your post being a Hal cheerleader? I guess it just the point of correctly stating perks that bothers you. You've made it perfectly clear that you think Hal is substandard in every way. I just don't understand why you would sail with them when every line is so much better. I'm plenty critical of Hal. It just seems to be convenient to call anyone that doesn't share your opinion a cheerleader.

Edited December 30, 2013 by cruz chic

[Hlitner]

Hal cheerleaders? How is clarifying your post being a Hal cheerleader? I guess it just the point of correctly stating perks that bothers you. You've made it perfectly clear that you think Hal is substandard in every way. I just don't understand why you would sail with them when every line is so much better. I'm plenty critical of Hal. It just seems to be convenient to call anyone that doesn't share your opinion a cheerleader.

 

Hmmm. If I thought what you said was true (substandard in every way) we would not be cruising on HAL. As it is, we have cut-back to only a single HAL cruise in 2014 (38 days) and will fill out our cruise year with Princess and Celebrity. We have not cruised on Princess in over 4 years...having replaced it with a series of longer HAL cruises. But now, we feel an urge to see if their cut-backs have been as severe as to what we have experienced on HAL. As to the internet thing, it is not about an "opinion" but simply just the facts. Now if an HAL fan wants to argue that 300 free internet minutes on a 7 day cruise is no big deal,, I sure wish HAL would give us even 1/3 of that time. So here is the internet scoreboard for upcoming cruises (total free minutes for our cabin) - Princess - over 500 min (its a 26 day cruise)..... Celebrity - 400 min.....HAL.....ZERO! And to put things in perspective we have more cruise days on HAL then the other two.

 

Hank

P.S. My detailed internet posting was simply in response to a question. We did not start this thread.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Hlitner

[smokinmike]

I'll go with Hank.

[Aussie Nana]

Me too trying to catch it.............

[iancal]

I am at a loss to understand how stating the facts and pointing out the differences perks can be interpreted as HAL bashing.

 

Perhaps HAL`s marketing folks believe that giving out those medals is such a sought after bonus to the program that they can cut down in other areas like the provision of free internet minutes.

Edited December 30, 2013 by iancal

[cruz chic]

Might help to look at prior posts before making judgements. Who mentioned bashing?

Edited December 30, 2013 by cruz chic

[take us away]

Back to the topic at hand....

 

We do the pre-write updates and add to the email, have prepared address lists, our system does not allow offline work so we copy and paste emails into a Word document to read at our leisure. We did 132 days on the Prinsedam this year and we left a few minutes of internet time on our account from our 250-minute package.

 

We ask the crew (our dinner steward was great for this) if we know we need to spend extra time on the web and they always know where there is free WiFi or at least cheap WiFi. Oftentimes if there is free WiFi in the terminal, we can either sit in our cabin or out on deck and access the system which is great for things like Kaspersky updates or uploading photos. Early is always best as once the crew starts emailing and Skype'ing with their family and friends, the system gets really slow.

[silvercruiser]

Whether you get internet minutes free or pay for them, you seem to always get extra minutes if you sign up the first day of the cruise. The Princess free minutes are per person and the Platinum level begins after only 5 cruises or 50 days, whichever comes first.

100 minutes becomes 110 minutes

250 minutes becomes 270

500 minutes becomes 530

 

HAL..............................PRINCESS (Platinum level or higher)

$50 buys 100 minutes..........150 FREE minutes on cruise 7 days or less

$100 buys 250 minutes...........FREE on cruise 8-20 days

$175 buys 500 minutes...........FREE on cruise 21 days or more

 

There's a 1000 minute package on HAL

and I think it's $250, but not sure.

[/i]

Edited December 30, 2013 by silvercruiser
easier to understand

[TiogaCruiser]

In addition to what others have suggested, I limit the size of emails I will accept on a cruise.

 

I set up a separate email and only use that acct and am very choosey with whom I share it. For photos I use photoshop to decrease pixel density to 72dpi and set up the emails so they are in my outbox (outlook) prior to giving my machine Internet privileges. On my windows 8 machine I use a local account (not associated with my windows liveid) and turn off automatic updates.

[estebofarr]

Hi -

 

Lately, I have been composing all my messages off line on my tablet and then going out into the hall, standing under a router antenna, logging on to my account, and sending them all in a microburst. Probably only uses about a minute of internet time!

 

ZU

 

How does one recognize a router antenna in the hall?

[hrhdhd]

Who gives free internet and at what level?

 

On my second cruise with Azamara, I was entitled to 85 free Internet minutes as an Adventurer in Le Club Voyage, their loyalty program. The next higher number of minutes is 150, after earning 4 credits.

 

Program info: http://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/club-azamara/le-club-voyage/membership-benefits