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NCL onboard internet prices jumped 20-55%

Demonyte

By Demonyte,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Shawnino

Shawnino

Posted
Posted (edited)
NCL sometimes offers bonus minutes if you book an internet package on first day of sailing. But of course, no one ever comes here to complain about these freebies.

 

How is that a "freebie"?

C'mon, Son.

Edited by Shawnino
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NLH Arizona

NLH Arizona

Posted
Posted

As long as passengers purchase the internet packages, NCL will continue to raise the prices until they reach that dollar amount where their customers say no or they are not making their goals and then they will bring the prices back down. My suggestion, don't purchase the internet on the ships, use it when you are in port and if enough do this, the prices will come down.

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Shawnino

Shawnino

Posted
Posted
Am I the only one that does not understand why people need the internet on a 7 day cruise for anything other than business reasons? It is 7 days....you people can not break your dependence for 7 days to enjoy your vacation? Unplug people....I promise you will survive....

 

6&8

 

Checking in on elderly relatives?

Checking in on brats you left home?

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Loucat

Loucat

Posted
Posted
How is that a "freebie"?

C'mon, Son.

I sure am not happy to hear about yet another NCL increase in cost.

 

First day of boarding Internet prices are slightly lower but in no way a freebie.

 

I teach online and my classes do not stop because I cruise.

 

I eat up many minutes plus use Internet cafe's in port.

 

It is amazing in a good Internet cafe with high speed connections! Costs are $2.00-$5.00 per hour. I can do more in that time than it takes me on an NCL ship.

 

The one place I had a BIG problem was Honduras. I do not speak Spanish and the cafe closest to the port was only in Spanish. My ISP shut down all of my email addresses as they thought it was hacked.

 

Research Internet cafe's in your ports and ask crew where they go. You can save alot of $$.

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

Posted
Posted
It is 7 days....what did people do 10 years ago? Unplug people...

 

6&8

 

Even 10 years ago there wasn't the assumption that you could always be reached the way it is now.

 

Any responsible business owner does not shut down and put their phone in the safe for 7 days when a major client may need 2 minutes of your time. It's a sad but true reality.

 

I'm not willing to risk my business over a few dollars for internet. Does it annoy me that it keeps going up in price? of course!

 

My expectation is that I buy it as an insurance policy and that I never need it.

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perditax

perditax

Posted
Posted (edited)

Re: "blah blah blah why can't you live without Internet for 8 days?"

 

I know that the Internet has made it seem very important to share your opinion and judgements with the whole world, but honestly, lots of people need to just take a seat. For example, I have no idea how people can spend their cruises hitting the booze from breakfast till bedtime. Seems like a waste to me, resulting in dulled senses and mild brain and liver damage. But you don't see me sticking my nose into every beverage package thread and spouting off this *utterly subjective and narrow minded* opinion just so I can feel vaguely superior to strangers online.

Edited by perditax
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DGP1111

DGP1111

Posted
Posted
Am I the only one that does not understand why people need the internet on a 7 day cruise for anything other than business reasons? It is 7 days....you people can not break your dependence for 7 days to enjoy your vacation? Unplug people....I promise you will survive....

 

It is 7 days....what did people do 10 years ago? Unplug people...

 

No, you are probably not the only one who doesn't understand. ;)

 

I am the one who, earlier, used the word Need when referring to onboard internet access. And, yes, it was a true need . . . which (as also offered earlier in a response to you by another) was totally due to health conditions of immediate family.

 

What did people do 10 years ago?? Well, I can't speak for all the others, but for me it would mean cancelling the cruise . . . and I did cancel multiple sailings (some a mere one day in advance) because I was needed at home. Cruise insurance helped with some, but not all.

 

My vacation time is very important to me, and I will always make the most of it that is possible . . . and I normally have a total blast throughout. But my family is more important, at least to me.

Luckily, I can afford whatever NCL chooses to charge me for 'connection' while on these trips, so I suck it up and pay whatever is required.

 

I can 'unplug' from most things (and enjoyably DO :)), but some details require potential reaction. I also research flight numbers and times from all ports in case a trip home is necessary. Fortunately, that never became the case.

Things changed for me earlier in 2015, so I'm no longer 'on call' during future sailings.

 

Anyone who passed judgement on my choice to not 'unplug' would immediately be told what they could plug themselves. :)

 

.

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fshagan

fshagan

Posted
Posted

Let's say you want satellite Internet on your 42' Catalina sailboat sailing to the same places your NCL ship goes. Easy enough. You pay about $5,000 for the receiver and then pay about $1.50 a minute for 2 to 4 megabit service. That might be faster than what NCL gives you (most home services are at least ten times that speed).

 

So after the capital outlay, and not considering it in the per minute cost, you would pay about $150 for 100 minutes compared to NCL's $85. You would pay $375 instead of $129 on NCL for 250 minutes.

 

Wait, I forgot the monthly fees. They sometimes include some data, but they are the minimum you would pay. Inmarsat FleetBroadband Airtime has a minimum monthly charge of just over $400 a month but you get 20 MB of data (not GB, MB). If you are just checking email that 20 MB is probably enough for plain text emails.

 

I don't think NCL would allow you to mount your $5,000 receiver to the railing, so you could consider a satellite phone for email (not browsing, though, so you wouldn't be able to fix a client's account, etc.) It is not cheap either, with high monthly fees that far exceed what NCL is charging.

 

As that is the only alternative method, it is the comparative item to compare costs against. There are sailors all over the world who would be delighted to pay NCL's .85 a minute.

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motleyfan

motleyfan

Posted
Posted
I sure am not happy to hear about yet another NCL increase in cost.

 

First day of boarding Internet prices are slightly lower but in no way a freebie.

 

I teach online and my classes do not stop because I cruise.

 

I eat up many minutes plus use Internet cafe's in port.

 

It is amazing in a good Internet cafe with high speed connections! Costs are $2.00-$5.00 per hour. I can do more in that time than it takes me on an NCL ship.

 

The one place I had a BIG problem was Honduras. I do not speak Spanish and the cafe closest to the port was only in Spanish. My ISP shut down all of my email addresses as they thought it was hacked.

 

Research Internet cafe's in your ports and ask crew where they go. You can save alot of $$.

 

So you spend all your time in Port sitting in an internet cafe?

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sparks1093 Great Review Rare

sparks1093

Posted
Posted

While this increase doesn't affect me since I do unplug while on vacation (recognizing of course that not everyone has the same ability for whatever reason, including just because they need to stay connected for their own reasons) it still concerns me because this is another case of NCL raising prices not because of an increase in their own costs but because they have a captive audience that will pay the fee regardless. Yes, I know that every business does this and every business needs to do this to survive but the way NCL has approached it has turned a lot of people off. In any event I doubt that this change will cause NCL to lose much business (other than maybe having fewer people buy the internet package).

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Freckle53

Freckle53

Posted
Posted
Sorry, no...Internet is Internet. If anything, shipboard Internet is INFERIOR due to the extremely slow speeds which does nothing but justify a LOWER price as it is not the same value.

 

You can't compare prices of water, soda, alcohol, crew wages, etc between land and sea and then try to claim that I can't do the same with Internet access.

 

Just for fun, Googled this: http://www.hughesnet.com/plans-and-pricing

 

Price for unlimited SATELLITE Internet access is $49.99 per month....only $7 more than I'm currently paying...and still WAAAAAY lower than the shipboard cost. This raises my $10.03 cost per week to $11.66...hardly what I would consider "much more expensive". Still...nothing more than an extreme mark-up designed to drain money from those who can't or won't disconnect for a few days.

 

Hughenet, or the other big satellite internet company Wild Blue, is not unlimited. Not by far. 5 GB up and down monthly limit with a monthly bonus 50 gb between 2 am and 8 am.

 

Signed, cable company finally extended lines in my rural town in NY last fall and had satellite internet for many years as it was the only option. (No cell signal here either, so satellite was our only option for "high speed" internet.

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abe3

abe3

Posted
Posted (edited)
another sneaky price increase by Norwegian. Is anyone surprised?

 

 

It's not a sneaky price increase if it is published. You don't have to get it if you don't want to.

Edited by abe3
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