Love the new Internet Plans!

[Fb_cruiser]

Toni and I are on our way to Alaska on the Westerdam (great experience as usual), and were very pleasantly surprised with the internet options available.

 

Social ($5 for 24 hours, $25 for the voyage)

Access the most popular social media websites and applications (Apps). This plan includes: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linked In, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. Does not include access to other websites or Apps.

 

Enhanced ($16 for 24 hours, $60 for the voyage)

Surf your favorite sites, including e-mail, news, sports, weather, banking and finance. Note: Does not support videoconferencing applications (e.g. Skype) or music streaming (e.g. Spotify).

 

Premiere ($25 for 24 hours, $99 for the voyage)

Surf your favorite sites, including e-mail, news, sports, weather, banking, finance and videoconferencing (i.e. Skype) and use your favorite Apps at our fastest shipboard speed.

 

For us it was a no-brainer. We went with the $99 Premier Plan. The only downside, is that you can only login on one device at a time. However, we also signed up for the $25 Social plan. Toni stays logged in to that on her phone, and it gives us the ability to use WhatsApp to call and text each other on the ship. Also, it gives us the ability to stay in touch with anyone back home that has the WhatsApp app.

 

Love it!

 

Frank

[ss70chev]

Great news! We are headed out on the Westerdam for the week of Thanksgiving. I am happy to see the new internet prices.

 

This will be our first time on the Westerdam, second with HAL. I would love to hear more about the ship.

[Fouremco]

OP, by 24 hours do they mean a one-day period (24 consecutive hours) or a total of 24 any time hours? I suspect the former but want to be sure.

[kazu]

Westerdam is one of the ships with the unlimited option and we really enjoyed it on our Panama cruise. Love the unlimited option.

 

Glad you had a great cruise on the Westerdam :)

[Lizzie68]

The Westerdam had excellent plans on the repositioning cruise in April, and if I recall, it was around $246 for the whole voyage for the premier plan. However other CC members have been reporting the same old plans on other HAL ships, but hopefully the rest of the fleet will follow suit in time.

[blizzardboy]

Does it still take 3 minutes to load a page? I figured I lost 25% of my 100 minute plan in the past waiting on the computer due to the super slow speed. Memories of dial-up service resurfaced!

[kazu]

Does it still take 3 minutes to load a page? I figured I lost 25% of my 100 minute plan in the past waiting on the computer due to the super slow speed. Memories of dial-up service resurfaced!

 

It didn't for me - but with an unlimited plan the one good thing is that you don't have to worry about counting minutes when that stuff happens ;)

[Cruizer Bill]

Does it still take 3 minutes to load a page? I figured I lost 25% of my 100 minute plan in the past waiting on the computer due to the super slow speed. Memories of dial-up service resurfaced!

 

My question exactly. Is the internet any faster? Have they improved the technology? We have been waiting for that to happen, eventually it will.

[kazu]

My question exactly. Is the internet any faster? Have they improved the technology? We have been waiting for that to happen, eventually it will.

 

I found internet on my recent Westerdam cruise as well as my most recent P'dam cruise to be decent. I would say it was faster but I didn't measure it. Not as fast as at home of course, but it certainly didn't take "forever" to get things done or upload.

 

Since Skype can be used in the premier plan that normally requires decent band width I believe and capability.

[blizzardboy]

We were last aboard the Zuiderdam January, 2014 so hopefully things have improved. We'll be on the Oosterdam this January. I hope upgrades don't wait on dry-dock as the Oo'dam doesn't go in until Nov or Dec 2016 if remember correctly.

[cruz chic]

I try to use the Internet early in the morning or a little later at night. I usually don't have too many problems. If you use it at peak times it's likely going to be slower. I hope the unlimted is on the eurodam by October.

[retiredkid]

Westerdam is one of the ships with the unlimited option and we really enjoyed it on our Panama cruise. Love the unlimited option.

 

Kazu, can you remember how much the unlimited was for your Panama cruise? I will be doing a 19 day in April. Hopefully, the plans will come to the NA by then.

TIA

[Krazy Kruizers]

I like the sounds of those plans.

[retiredkid]

they certainly sound reasonable, IMHO.

[mame42]

Anyone been on the Rotterdam lately? My mind boggles at the prospect of paying for 89 days of internet!

[quanta88]

I wonder how these plans work from a technical standpoint. Why would unlimited surfing Facebook/Twitter/Etc. be cheaper than surfing any ordinary site? A byte is a byte.

 

Maybe the ship is using some sort of intelligent data caching of these select Social sites? Otherwise it seems to be an arbitrary price segmentation.

 

That said, I think Enhanced is the best deal here. From what it looks like, you get plain ol' Internet surfing without video/audio streaming.

 

Streaming over satellite barely works anyway, and you can always use WiFi in ports to phone home.

[avian777]

HAL's new I-net plans appear to be working very well - so well, in fact, that our recent cruise on the Westerdam seemed very much like being at home with lots of people bent over their smart 'phones and tablets virtually everywhere we went on the ship. As a Carnival Corporation shareholder, I am especially pleased to see HAL capitalizing on this new revenue source.

[Lizzie68]

Kazu, can you remember how much the unlimited was for your Panama cruise? I will be doing a 19 day in April. Hopefully, the plans will come to the NA by then.

TIA

 

Not Kazu but was on the same cruise. $246, as I recall. At first they said "full voyage" then said they meant to San Diego. Many of us were staying on till Vancouver and argued our case so were not charged the extra amount from SD to Van. It worked very well.

[retiredkid]

thanks, Lizzie68! Sounds pretty good to me for almost three weeks! Will make sure I have it for MY full voyage. Thanks again.

Edited August 30, 2015 by retiredkid

[madera1]

Oh those plans sound very reasonable. Are you able to connect anywhere on the ship via the wifi?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Lizzie68]

Oh those plans sound very reasonable. Are you able to connect anywhere on the ship via the wifi?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Yes. Some spots are better than others, of course, but I never had any problems with my tablet. I did see someone sitting in the elevator lobby who said they got better connection there, however.

[Boytjie]

OP, by 24 hours do they mean a one-day period (24 consecutive hours) or a total of 24 any time hours? I suspect the former but want to be sure.

 

It is $5 per day.

[Baatman]

Toni and I are on our way to Alaska on the Westerdam (great experience as usual), and were very pleasantly surprised with the internet options available.

 

Social ($5 for 24 hours, $25 for the voyage)

Access the most popular social media websites and applications (Apps). This plan includes: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linked In, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. Does not include access to other websites or Apps.

 

Enhanced ($16 for 24 hours, $60 for the voyage)

Surf your favorite sites, including e-mail, news, sports, weather, banking and finance. Note: Does not support videoconferencing applications (e.g. Skype) or music streaming (e.g. Spotify).

 

Premiere ($25 for 24 hours, $99 for the voyage)

Surf your favorite sites, including e-mail, news, sports, weather, banking, finance and videoconferencing (i.e. Skype) and use your favorite Apps at our fastest shipboard speed.

 

For us it was a no-brainer. We went with the $99 Premier Plan. The only downside, is that you can only login on one device at a time. However, we also signed up for the $25 Social plan. Toni stays logged in to that on her phone, and it gives us the ability to use WhatsApp to call and text each other on the ship. Also, it gives us the ability to stay in touch with anyone back home that has the WhatsApp app.

 

Love it!

 

Frank

 

I had not heard about this. Sounds like there is a decent plan for everyone.

[Fouremco]

It is $5 per day.

Thanks for the clarification.

[POA1]

My question exactly. Is the internet any faster? Have they improved the technology? We have been waiting for that to happen, eventually it will.

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam three weeks last year - middle of November, week off for Thanksgiving, then 2 weeks at the beginning of December. Just by dumb luck, our trips spanned the upgrade to the infrastructure. (The pricing, however, was still by the minute.)

 

The increase in speed was noticeable, almost dramatic. I run speed tests to various spots in the USA so I can determine how much work I can get done, and how much pain I'll have to endure while doing said work.

 

Here is the quote from my Live From:

 

 

Out internet speeds are screaming (in a good way) compared to last week. I got:<br />

<br />

Download Speed: 3872 kbps (484 KB/sec transfer rate)<br />

Upload Speed: 411 kbps (51.4 KB/sec transfer rate)<br />

<br />

from the ship to New York earlier, while at sea. That's almost triple the speed of two weeks ago. <br/>

 

Since our room was basically in the same place on the ship and the itinerary was the same, I'm pretty confident that the "experimental results" should be good.