Holland Internet packages?

[jcruiser72]

My wife and I have cruised on Princess, Celebrity, are Diamond on Royal Caribbean but we saw this itinerary on Holland, 11 day Panama Canal on Zuiterdam and grabbed a Signature Suite at what seemed to be a great price.

 

 

The problem is (my bad) I did some research after booking (and making final payment), where I had assumed the wifi package (iPad/iPhone) would be pretty much the same as on the other cruise lines. Yea, I know what they say about "assume", in spades.

 

 

 

Various searches are showing that the wifi package on Zuiterdam is obscenely expensive, and goes in increments of 250 or 500 minutes. Really?? On the other cruise lines, its under $20/day for TWO devices. Is Holland really that far behind the technology curve? This might be both our first and LAST cruise with Holland!

[RJ2002]

Here is my post from a recent thread:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=56714022&postcount=16

 

The Prinsendam had transitioned from the per-minute packages.

[knittinggirl]

Nieuw amsterdam was still by the minute in May. I tested it by loading something from their complimentary sites, and didn’t bother. I did buy 500 minutes on the noordam last fall. During the South Pacific crossing, ship WiFi was the only thing that worked. Crew aren’t happy when we make an appointment, and they can’t do any work for us when they say the computer is down. My response to that is to tell them I won’t be buying their WiFi. I’m going to try GlocalMe for port days. For several sea days in a row, I’ll have to spring for their WiFi. On Royal Caribbean’s liberty, their WiFi was down until day 5. Our concierge on liberty told me that they have one system for the crew official business, and one for the passengers.

 

Heard both the nieuw Amsterdam and emerald princess tell me their system was down.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[POA1]

All the ships are going to be on "Daily" plans by Fall. I called Ships' Services to check. Not exactly sure what date Fall means, but I'd image by the end of September.

 

 

 

It's a single device logged in at one time plan though.

[jcruiser72]

This Zuiterdam Cruise departs Nov 3. I called Holland guest services and they confirmed they have daily unlimited packages now, apparently priced per cabin, not per person, and actually cheaper than RCL.

[Turtles06]

OP: I am on the Zuiderdam at this very minute (on the Viking Passage), and the internet packages are not being sold by minutes, but at a fixed rate for the whole cruise. There are three packages; the cheapest just gives you access to social media. The middle pkg, called Surf, lets you do everything but stream. The price for that on our 20-night cruise was $199. (You can share a pkg with others, but only one device can be connected at a time.) It’s what we bought and what is enabling me to post this now from Norway. :D

 

There’s a more expensive package that lets you stream as well.

 

I hope that’s helpful. Enjoy the Canal! (And read The Path Between the Seas.)

[TAD2005]

The premium internet package on HAL allows Skype calls and other high bandwidth use. I had it on the Westerdam, and it was pretty decent. No problems with Skype audio and video calls, or using a VPN. The Skype quality was very good.

[jcruiser72]

Hmm, the HAL agent I talked with yesterday told me it was the same price for 1 or 2 people. I repeated that back to her to make sure I had heard currently, and she verified it. (???)

[POA1]

Hmm, the HAL agent I talked with yesterday told me it was the same price for 1 or 2 people. I repeated that back to her to make sure I had heard currently, and she verified it. (???)

Did you ask about simultaneous users? If both people are going to use the internet at the same time, you'd need support for two concurrent logins per account. It could be using the same user/pass combo if the authentication server bonds to the MAC address of the device. Otherwise, you'd need two user IDs

 

A one device package can be shared amongst several people, but only one device at a time. (You can also spoof the MAC addresses and achieve simultaneous logins, but that's not really a novice solution.)

[Crew News]

Hmm, the HAL agent I talked with yesterday told me it was the same price for 1 or 2 people. I repeated that back to her to make sure I had heard currently, and she verified it. (???)

 

Internet charges are billed to your stateroom account no matter how many passengers are in the stateroom. Anyone who knows your login and password can access the account from anywhere on the ship but only one login at a time is permitted.

[Turtles06]

Hmm, the HAL agent I talked with yesterday told me it was the same price for 1 or 2 people. I repeated that back to her to make sure I had heard currently, and she verified it. (???)

 

Again, I am on the Zuiderdam right now. Only one device may be logged on at a time. Two people (or a thousand people) can use the package for one price, but only one device may be logged on at a time. If you neglect to log off and another device tries to log on, that device will show the message that another device is logged on, and ask if you want to disconnect it.

[kwb101]

I'm on the same Zuiderdam cruise as Turtles06. HAL has a real penchant for making easy things difficult.

When we got to our cabin on embarkation day, there was a paper with the three plans. It had prices for only the daily plans (24 hours from signup):

• Social: 200Mb, $14.99/day
  
• Surf: 300Mb, $24.99/day
  
• Premium: 500Mb, $29.99/day
  

However, when you go to buy it on the Navigator site, you also get the option to buy a plan for the duration of this voyage (20 days) at very reduced rates. The page with that information no longer shows up, since I bought the Surf plan for $199.99 ($10/day). It's still exhorting me to upgrade to Premium for another $5/day, prorated for the remaining 17 days.

 

Speed isn't bad and seems to not be prone to large slowdowns, but that's very subjective, since both fast.com and Speedtest are blocked.

 

I have had to regularly and variously log off and on to restart the connection, close and reopen tabs, shutdown the browser, and shutdown and restart my Android tablet. I suppose I can't complain, something like the bumblebee joke: is not that it flies so badly as that it flies at all.

 

Good luck!

[seapointer]

I'm on the same Zuiderdam cruise as Turtles06. HAL has a real penchant for making easy things difficult.

When we got to our cabin on embarkation day, there was a paper with the three plans. It had prices for only the daily plans (24 hours from signup):

• Social: 200Mb, $14.99/day
  
• Surf: 300Mb, $24.99/day
  
• Premium: 500Mb, $29.99/day
  

However, when you go to buy it on the Navigator site, you also get the option to buy a plan for the duration of this voyage (20 days) at very reduced rates. The page with that information no longer shows up, since I bought the Surf plan for $199.99 ($10/day). It's still exhorting me to upgrade to Premium for another $5/day, prorated for the remaining 17 days.

 

Speed isn't bad and seems to not be prone to large slowdowns, but that's very subjective, since both fast.com and Speedtest are blocked.

 

I have had to regularly and variously log off and on to restart the connection, close and reopen tabs, shutdown the browser, and shutdown and restart my Android tablet. I suppose I can't complain, something like the bumblebee joke: is not that it flies so badly as that it flies at all.

 

Good luck!

My experience in July on the Zuiderdam Baltic cruise was with the Surf plan. I found it painfully slow for anything other than emails. Attachments were a major problem to download. This was true with both an Ipad and Iphone.

[POA1]

 

Speed isn't bad and seems to not be prone to large slowdowns, but that's very subjective, since both fast.com and Speedtest are blocked.

 

I have had to regularly and variously log off and on to restart the connection, close and reopen tabs, shutdown the browser, and shutdown and restart my Android tablet. I suppose I can't complain, something like the bumblebee joke: is not that it flies so badly as that it flies at all.

 

Good luck!

 

 

Try:

 

 

https://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

 

 

It's not as popular, so it's often unblocked.

 

Or try:

 

https://testmy.net/

[kwb101]

Try: https://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/e

 

It's not as popular, so it's often unblocked.

 

Or try: https://testmy.net/

 

:( Speakeasy yields a latency error, but testmynet worked...reporting a d/l speed of a blistering 1.3 Mb. FWIW, it's 8pm on board, so there are probably more than a few folks using the connection.

 

Thanks for the links!

 

I should also mention that HAL blocks DuckDuckGo search engine. I'm using Brave as my browser, running on a 12" Samsung Galaxy Tab with Android 5.1.1.

[POA1]

:( Speakeasy yields a latency error, but testmynet worked...reporting a d/l speed of a blistering 1.3 Mb. FWIW, it's 8pm on board, so there are probably more than a few folks using the connection.

 

Thanks for the links!

 

I should also mention that HAL blocks DuckDuckGo search engine. I'm using Brave as my browser, running on a 12" Samsung Galaxy Tab with Android 5.1.1.

 

Thanks for the speed tests. Anything above 512Kbps easily meets my needs. I've learned to work "lean" on 128Kbps if I have to.

[jcruiser72]

Despite the Holland agent I spoke with last week that told me clearly that the price per day was for TWO devices, I confirmed today via my TA and via Fran in Ship Services that the per-day plans are for ONE device. That puts Holland seriously behind the technology curve when compared to Royal, Celebrity, and Princess where the per-day plans are for TWO devices.

I wish I could find out what the ONBOARD pricing is, where they hinted it was cheaper (buying it for the entire cruise - 11 days) than buying it for the whole cruise ahead of time.

I am both surprised and disappointed that they don't provide anything additional with this for somebody who booked in a Signature Suite.

Oh well, we'll try Holland, may be both our first and our last.....

[richwmn]

I don't know where these prices came from, but they seem to correspond with the numbers that have been posted. They were provided to the Roll Call for the Recent Voyage of the Vikings. I was told that they would not sell more than 31 days.

Voyage Length Social Surf Premium

1 14.99 24.99 29.99

2 19.99 29.99 39.99

3 29.99 44.99 39.99

4 39.99 59.99 79.99

5 49.99 74.99 99.99

6 59.99 89.99 119.99

7 69.99 99.99 139.99

8 74.99 109.99 159.99

9 79.99 119.99 169.99

10 84.99 129.99 179.99

11 89.99 139.99 189.99

12 99.99 149.99 199.99

13 99.99 159.99 209.99

14 119.99 169.99 219.99

15 119.99 169.99 234.99

16 124.99 179.99 249.99

17 129.99 179.99 264.99

18 134.99 189.99 279.99

19 139.99 189.99 289.99

20 149.99 199.99 299.99

25 149.99 199.99 299.99

31 179.99 259.99 329.99

[TAD2005]

Anytime you do a speed test on a cruise ship provided internet, your "Ping Rate" is going to be horrible, compared to land based internet. On the ship, you are using a satellite connection, and there is the transit time from the ship, up to the satellite, 23,000 miles in orbit, and another 23,000 miles back down to earth. The LEO satellites (low earth orbit) are also used, but both have latency of between 200 and 600 ms. A typical home internet connection gets between 10 and 40 ms latency. That is part of the reason why ship internet is nowhere near what you get on land.

[Schooner-ca]

Will VPN work. Need to log into Corp network for email and various applications

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[POA1]

Will VPN work. Need to log into Corp network for email and various applications

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Definitely on the upper end package; not sure about the middle tier.

[caribill]

Despite the Holland agent I spoke with last week that told me clearly that the price per day was for TWO devices, I confirmed today via my TA and via Fran in Ship Services that the per-day plans are for ONE device. That puts Holland seriously behind the technology curve when compared to Royal, Celebrity, and Princess where the per-day plans are for TWO devices.

 

The price per day plan on all those cruise lines is only for two devices (at the same time) if two people in the cabin each purchase a package with one device at a time for each package.

 

If only one person purchases a package, then only one device can be used at a time.

[ZN1300]

I just got off the phone with HAL and this is what they told my for our Venice to Miami cruise in Oct-Nov.

 

 

There are 4 packages.

 

100 minutes $55

250 minutes $100

500 minutes $175

1000 minutes $250

 

 

 

That's one device. So you log off and your partner logs in. You want to log off anyway if you're using it by the minute or you will burn through the time with no benefit.

[jcruiser72]

The price per day plan on all those cruise lines is only for two devices (at the same time) if two people in the cabin each purchase a package with one device at a time for each package.

 

If only one person purchases a package, then only one device can be used at a time.

 

That is what the first HAL agent told me, but just yesterday, Fran in Ship Services confirmed clearly that the price is for *ONE* device. If you want to use two devices (ie, me and spouse), you need TWO plans.

 

Clearly behind the technology curve, as my first and likely LAST Holland cruise is coming up.

[jcruiser72]

That is what the first HAL agent told me, but just yesterday, Fran in Ship Services confirmed clearly that the price is for *ONE* device. If you want to use two devices (ie, me and spouse), you need TWO plans.

 

Clearly behind the technology curve, as my first and likely LAST Holland cruise is coming up.

 

Sorry, re-reading what you wrote, that is exactly what you said. My bad.