Platinum Internet Credit for Premium/Surf/Social Packages?

[MarkBearSF]

I just booked a 10 day Mexican cruise on the Grand Princess for September. As Platinum members, we're supposed to receive 250 minutes Internet time, but looking at the packages offered, they are based upon services and speed (Premium, Surf, Social) rather than connect time.

Does anyone know how Princess maps the time-based credit to the service-based plans now offered?

[jpom18]

Was on the grand to mexico in October.  When I signed into the princess system I was given a choice between using the 250 minutes or getting a discount on the unlimited packages for a single device (meaning one device at a time, you can switch devices at will).  I elected to purchase the premium package for the entire cruise, I believe it cost me roughly $140 for the 10 days which is about half the standard cost ($14/day vs. $30/day).  The Surf and Social plans were less but I don't recall the cost.

 

FYI while the internet was unlimited and it was great not to have to worry about disconnecting when done I didn't find the speed or connection any better, faster, or more reliable then it has been in the past.

Edited November 18, 2018 by jpom18

[caribill]

5 hours ago, jpom18 said:

Was on the grand to mexico in October.  When I signed into the princess system I was given a choice between using the 250 minutes or getting a discount on the unlimited packages for a single device (meaning one device at a time, you can switch devices at will).  I elected to purchase the premium package for the entire cruise, I believe it cost me roughly $140 for the 10 days which is about half the standard cost ($14/day vs. $30/day).  The Surf and Social plans were less but I don't recall the cost.

 

For an upcoming cruise I will be on, the pre-cruise price for the premium package is $13.33/day. So if you were being charged $14/day, you are paying more than a non-Platinum passenger would pay pre-cruise.

[mikjr]

22 hours ago, jpom18 said:

 

22 hours ago, jpom18 said:

 I elected to purchase the premium package for the entire cruise, I believe it cost me roughly $140 for the 10 days which is about half the standard cost ($14/day vs. $30/day).  The Surf and Social plans were less but I don't recall the cost.

 

Just curious how you can need or use more than 250 minutes of internet time in ten days?   We were on a 15 day to Hawaii, which entailed 10 days at sea, and I was scrambling to use all 250 minutes by the last day.    Based on the 10 days at sea, that's almost 1/2 per day...   

[jpom18]

19 hours ago, caribill said:

For an upcoming cruise I will be on, the pre-cruise price for the premium package is $13.33/day. So if you were being charged $14/day, you are paying more than a non-Platinum passenger would pay pre-cruise.

Interesting, I honestly don't remember what the precruise cost of internet was for mine, I do remember princess person saying that I would be better off waiting until i got onboard to exchange the platinum minutes for a discount, maybe that's not the case.  I just doubled checked my portfolio print out and sure enough there is a $143 charge for internet on there.  Just out of curiosity is your cruise on the grand as well, i believe that some ships have different internet pricing, part of the transition that princess appears to be undergoing, unfortunately princess doesn't always seem to know what's going on during these transitions.

 

 

2 hours ago, mikjr said:

Just curious how you can need or use more than 250 minutes of internet time in ten days?   We were on a 15 day to Hawaii, which entailed 10 days at sea, and I was scrambling to use all 250 minutes by the last day.    Based on the 10 days at sea, that's almost 1/2 per day...   

Unfortunately I have to stay in contact with the office while I am away, even when I am on a cruise.  I generally do this in my cabin on my laptop, this means that I don't generally get to do it in port where I might have wi-fi as I am not going to carry my laptop around in port.  I seldom even carry my phone in port and if I do I can check email and that but anything more tends to be a PITA on a phone or tablet.  So this plus my personal usage usually amounts to about an hour or 2 per day (at sea or in port).  On a 10 day cruise 250 minutes only works out to 25 minutes per day so I normally have to purchase additional time anyways.  This time instead of additional time I just bought the unlimited package.  I have to admit that it was nice not to constantly watch the timer, and not to have to worry about making sure to disconnect from the internet when done.  I have also had multiple cruises where the system either did not or I forgot to disconnect and left the internet running then I have to go down to the desk and BEG (and they have made me beg) for at least some minutes back.

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2018 by jpom18

[mikjr]

9 minutes ago, jpom18 said:

Interesting, I honestly don't remember what the precruise cost of internet was for mine, I do remember princess person saying that I would be better off waiting until i got onboard to exchange the platinum minutes for a discount, maybe that's not the case.  I just doubled checked my portfolio print out and sure enough there is a $143 charge for internet on there.  Just out of curiosity is your cruise on the grand as well, i believe that some ships have different internet pricing, part of the transition that princess appears to be undergoing, unfortunately princess doesn't always seem to know what's going on during these transitions.

 

 

Unfortunately I have to stay in contact with the office while I am away, even when I am on a cruise.  I generally do this in my cabin on my laptop, this means that I don't generally get to do it in port where I might have wi-fi as I am not going to carry my laptop around in port.  I seldom even carry my phone in port and if I do I can check email and that but anything more tends to be a PITA on a phone or tablet.  So this plus my personal usage usually amounts to about an hour or 2 per day (at sea or in port).  On a 10 day cruise 250 minutes only works out to 25 minutes per day so I normally have to purchase additional time anyways.  This time instead of additional time I just bought the unlimited package.  I have to admit that it was nice not to constantly watch the timer, and not to have to worry about making sure to disconnect from the internet when done.  I have also had multiple cruises where the system either did not or I forgot to disconnect and left the internet running then I have to go down to the desk and BEG (and they have made me beg) for at least some minutes back.

 

 

 

Ahh... I figured it was something like that.   The unlimited sounds like a great deal!!

 

[geoherb]

We enjoyed the unlimited internet that we received on the Regal in the spring. DH even did a webinar for a couple of hours one morning to get credits for his professional license. It was nice not to have to worry about signing in and out to keep up a live thread, check my emails, download our hometown newspaper, and check Facebook. But when we went back to having the 250 minutes on our 15-day trans-Atlantic cruise on the Royal in September, I somehow managed to have minutes leftover at the end of the cruise even doing all of the above activities.

[caribill]

1 hour ago, jpom18 said:

Just out of curiosity is your cruise on the grand as well? I believe that some ships have different internet pricing, part of the transition that princess appears to be undergoing, unfortunately princess doesn't always seem to know what's going on during these transitions.

 

 

The Emerald Princess