Regal Princess - Social Media Package

[PAT_GER]

Hi everyone,

 

first I'd like to say thank you for all your support in the last years. I've been a silent reader until now and you guys helped me a lot. Wish we had such an online community here in Germany.

 

I'm looing for my first caribbean cruise and fell in love with Regal Princess ex Fort Lauderdale January 29th. There's just one question left at the moment, before we book. Does anyone now if there's a Social Media WiFi Package like other cruise lines offer (MSC, Carnival,...)? I saw several options, but I did not see any Social Media offer yet.

 

Thank you and best regards from Germany,

Patrick :)

[skynight]

Hi everyone,

 

first I'd like to say thank you for all your support in the last years. I've been a silent reader until now and you guys helped me a lot. Wish we had such an online community here in Germany.

 

I'm looing for my first caribbean cruise and fell in love with Regal Princess ex Fort Lauderdale January 29th. There's just one question left at the moment, before we book. Does anyone now if there's a Social Media WiFi Package like other cruise lines offer (MSC, Carnival,...)? I saw several options, but I did not see any Social Media offer yet.

 

Thank you and best regards from Germany,

Patrick :)

There is a wi-fi internet package. You purchase as many minutes you think you require. You can pre-purchase in the cruise personalizer or purchase on board. There are no unlimited daily use packages.

 

There is cellular at sea, but it is very very expensive. You are charged by the minute. You have to keep your cellular service off to avoid charges for incoming messages.

Edited November 8, 2016 by sknight

[pablo222]

There is no social media package, like some other cruise lines offer.

 

All internet access on princess is pay by the minute.

 

This is usually done by buying a block of minutes in

advance, and then using them down...

[Woobstr112G]

You usually get a better price (more minutes) if you prepay for your internet minutes. There are also (usually) some type of discounted minutes/packages offered when you sign on for the first time to set up your room account.....:):):)

 

Bob

Edited November 8, 2016 by Woobstr112G

[PAT_GER]

Thank you - so I guess I'll have to go with some minutes then. :o

[Woobstr112G]

Thank you - so I guess I'll have to go with some minutes then. :o

 

Have a great cruise. BTW, welcome to Cruise Critic.....:):):)

 

Bob

[IECalCruiser]

Carnival is rolling out/has rolled out three new plan options of Social ($5/day for 8 social media sites), Enhanced ($16/day which adds email and internet access) and Premium ($25/day which adds videoconferencing and music streaming among other features). Hal was also testing and perhaps several other CCL lines. It would be nice if that option was rolled out to Princess but for now you can only buy minutes of access.

 

 

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[Pam in CA]

Unlike the other lines, Princess gives Platinum and Elite passengers a substantial Internet package for free. Just five cruise credits regardless of the length of the cruise will give you 100-250 minutes for free. On my cruises, the majority of the passengers are Platinum or Elite and on a few, almost all are.

[Thrak]

Until I got the free minutes as platinum I simply turned off my phone and stuck my phone in the safe. I didn't connect with my tablet. Once I got the free minutes I only used them to check email occasionally. Cruise Critic is about as close as I come to using any kind of "social media". I can't imagine wanting to pay a bunch extra every day ($25???) to be able to connect with Facebook or whatever. Nope, nope, nope.

[WISH84]

Unlike the other lines, Princess gives Platinum and Elite passengers a substantial Internet package for free. Just five cruise credits regardless of the length of the cruise will give you 100-250 minutes for free. On my cruises, the majority of the passengers are Platinum or Elite and on a few, almost all are.

 

 

Pam, when you are on a cruise with almost everyone at Platinum or Elite, have you found it difficult to use the internet due to sheer volume of people trying to access it?

 

 

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[msmoger]

Carnival is rolling out/has rolled out three new plan options of Social ($5/day for 8 social media sites), Enhanced ($16/day which adds email and internet access) and Premium ($25/day which adds videoconferencing and music streaming among other features). Hal was also testing and perhaps several other CCL lines. It would be nice if that option was rolled out to Princess but for now you can only buy minutes of access.

 

 

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I would think that Princess will need to improve the internet infrastructure on the ships before they start encouraging passengers to increase their usage and the amount of bandwidth they consume. I for one would not be happy if I were paying $25 a day and receiving the service speeds that are currently typical.

[IECalCruiser]

I would think that Princess will need to improve the internet infrastructure on the ships before they start encouraging passengers to increase their usage and the amount of bandwidth they consume. I for one would not be happy if I were paying $25 a day and receiving the service speeds that are currently typical.

During her latest drydock it appears that the Royal had two additional communication antennas added. Hopefully this is for a trial of the Carnival system.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[IECalCruiser]

Unlike the other lines, Princess gives Platinum and Elite passengers a substantial Internet package for free. Just five cruise credits regardless of the length of the cruise will give you 100-250 minutes for free. On my cruises, the majority of the passengers are Platinum or Elite and on a few, almost all are.

Those minutes can be used up pretty quickly and are only available to people with at least 5 cruise credits, Platinum status and on many cruises there are a lot of blue, gold and ruby cards. It would be nice to not need to worry about logging off of the internet. Maybe the Platinum perk would be the free Enhanced package which would be very nice.

 

 

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[Pam in CA]

Pam, when you are on a cruise with almost everyone at Platinum or Elite, have you found it difficult to use the internet due to sheer volume of people trying to access it?

Yup. I usually use it either very early in the morning, during dinner time or very late at night. I also use Chrome which seems to be more stable accessing the WiFi than Safari.

[kunoichi]

Carnival is rolling out/has rolled out three new plan options of Social ($5/day for 8 social media sites), Enhanced ($16/day which adds email and internet access) and Premium ($25/day which adds videoconferencing and music streaming among other features). Hal was also testing and perhaps several other CCL lines. It would be nice if that option was rolled out to Princess but for now you can only buy minutes of access.

 

 

That sounds so much better than minutes. While I would prefer email access for the $16 per day, I would take the $5 per day over the current minutes in a heartbeat! (Though it might depend on the social media sites in question, and whether you can get Gmail access through G+ or not!)

 

 

 

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[caribill]

Carnival is rolling out/has rolled out three new plan options of Social ($5/day for 8 social media sites), Enhanced ($16/day which adds email and internet access) and Premium ($25/day which adds videoconferencing and music streaming among other features). Hal was also testing and perhaps several other CCL lines. It would be nice if that option was rolled out to Princess but for now you can only buy minutes of access.

 

 

There are features of the Carnival plans that should be noted.

 

o Besides the daily rates, you can get a discount for buying a cruise length plan. On a 10 day cruise, it was $40 for social, $90 for enhanced (called value), and $150 for premium.

 

o Only the premium offers higher speeds than you see today on Princess. The enhanced (value) plan allows you to visit various web sites, but not at increased speeds.

 

o The system decides if you are looking at a premium site or not. If you are but did not purchase the premium option, it will not let you look at that site. (I tried to look at a magazine article and was told I had to upgrade to premium to view it. Don't know why.)

 

o However, which ever level you purchase, it is sure nice to have unlimited use. No worry at all about exceeding number of minutes.

 

By the way, Celebrity offers (and now only offers) unlimited high speed internet at a cost between $20 and $25 per day and must be purchased for the entire cruise. For a 15 day cruise, the cost is $309. For a 12 day cruise, it is $282. Those are pre-cruise prices. It costs more if purchased on board. You can purchase just 60 minutes for $25, but all 60 minutes must be used in a single block of time.