Best time to get internet on the ship?

[lidolovers]

Going on Allure in December and I was told by someone I can prebuy the surf and stream package now online. It seems pretty expensive though. Around 20$ a day. Someone I talked to said they bought it on-board the second day and it was much cheaper. Anyone have experience with that ?  

 

I will likely bring my travel router but I see there are deals on multiple device packages too 

 

Thanks !

 

[Clarea]

Pre-cruise prices are usually less than onboard prices, but either can chaneg at any time.

[Barklee]

Royal currently has Surf and Stream for my December Oasis cruise for $13.19/day (40% OFF).  That's the cheapest I've seen it. I'm not sure if its a Labor Day sale or not.  They'll probably have good deals around Black Friday and Cyber Monday too..

[kochleffel]

Occasionally (rarely) there are specials on the internet packages. I'd suggest that you check again on Black Friday (or Thanksgiving Day, or even the day before that).

[soremekun]

@twangster has a "hack" for Diamond (and above) members if they purchase on day 2.  Maybe he'll stop by here to describe it. 

Edited September 3, 2019 by soremekun

[Merion_Mom]

If you were thinking about buying the Deluxe Beverage Package, there is often a combination of Deluxe + VOOM that is a good deal.  Not always, but often.  🙂

[Biker19]

5 hours ago, lidolovers said:

Someone I talked to said they bought it on-board the second day and it was much cheaper.

The on board price drops in price everyday by the daily rate - pro-rated for the number of days left.

[lidolovers]

The package for me is $20.47 per day now on the website so I guess I’ll just keep watching it on Black Friday etc. I have not seen a sale yet and that seems expensive. 

Thanks!

 

[Biker19]

30 minutes ago, lidolovers said:

The package for me is $20.47 per day now on the website so I guess I’ll just keep watching it on Black Friday etc. I have not seen a sale yet and that seems expensive. 

That does not sound like a single device Stream VOOM only in USD, which is usually $15-16.

Edited September 3, 2019 by Biker19

[Robin Gail]

I am on the Allure on November 3rd.  I just paid $167.00 for 3 devices Stream VOOM online.  I didn't think

that was bad.  It was $205.00 before that.  I waited and finally bought it at $167.00.  I was afraid it wouldn't

go lower than that.  

[lidolovers]

My price is in Canadian dollars so it is a bit more than US.  I saw someone post that on the boat they were advertising last week $9.99 US for 4 devices per day on their daily newsletter.  That seems really good.

[Biker19]

17 minutes ago, lidolovers said:

I saw someone post that on the boat they were advertising last week $9.99 US for 4 devices per day on their daily newsletter.  That seems really good.

I assume that was $10 per device or $40/day, which for Surf is slightly less than normal on board price - that package can be had for about $30/day pre-cruise.

[dswallow]

The onboard price of VOOM SURF+STREAM is $19.99/day for 1 device, $18.99/day for each of 2 devices, $17.99/day for each of 3 devices and $16.99/day for each of 4 devices. You must buy it for all the remaining days of the sailing.

 

The a la carte onboard price for a single 24-hour period of VOOM SURF+STREAM for 1 device is $29.99. You can buy individual 24-hour periods anytime.

 

The onboard price of VOOM SURF is $15.99/day for 1 device, $14.99/day for each of 2 devices, $13.99/day for each of 3 devices or $12.99/day for each of 4 devices. You must buy it for all the remaining days of the sailing.

 

The a la carte onboard price for a single 24-hour period of VOOM SURF for 1 device is $22.99. You can buy individual 24-hour periods anytime.

 

Sometimes there will be special deals onboard, usually something like "half price" for a 24-hour period. You can sometimes find the Cruise Compass for sailings on a ship mentions any such deals to get a feel for if they may likely happen onboard.

 

If you are a Crown & Anchor member there can be some modest discounts off purchase of VOOM onboard. You may even find it can be ever so slightly cheaper buying the package onboard if you qualify for these discounts, and/or if you wait a couple days to buy a package. In other words, the differences are very small.

 

If you know up front you want to have internet access, buy it in advance.

 

The real deals are when you want multiple devices; when you buy a multiple device package, the discount is usually really good. You'll generally get one code and can use it to keep that many devices connected simultaneously. If each individual buys a 1-device package, you'll pay more than if you had 2 people needing internet so one of them buys a 2-device package and the 2 people each use it to connect a device.

 

While I have never really seen it officially stated, I do seem to see that prices onboard can run about $2 cheaper per day on ships that don't have the faster O3b internet connectivity. But in any event, it's still almost always cheaper to buy in advance.

 

As mentioned, too, the combo of VOOM SURF+STREAM along with the Deluxe Beverage Package or the Soda Package can represent an ever so slightly better deal on the internet portion than you'd find separately. But even then, it is often if not always cheaper if 2 people were each wanting internet service to buy a 2-device package and the regular beverage packages instead of the combo package.

 

And, as always, if prices go down after you buy anything on the Cruise Planner, you can always, without penalty, cancel what you bought previously for a full refund and buy it again at the lower price. You can even do this onboard, at least on the first day, though they'll issue the refund as "refundable onboard credit" instead of back to the original form of payment if you cancel it onboard.

 

[twangster]

On 9/3/2019 at 2:34 AM, soremekun said:

@twangster has a "hack" for Diamond (and above) members if they purchase on day 2.  Maybe he'll stop by here to describe it. 

 

I will often wait a day or 2 into the cruise and buy Voom on board using the C&A discount.  This approach assumes a few things.

 

My cell phone works in the US, Canada and Mexico as part of my home rate area.  If an itinerary has a quick overnight before arriving in a port of call in the US, Canada or Mexico I can wait a few days then buy Voom on board cheaper than buying it.

 

Ovation to Hawaii starts in Vancouver.  It sails to Seattle as a port of call, then leaves for Hawaii.  My phone will work until around 6pm on day 1.  Day 2 we are Seattle where my phone works.  Day 3 we are at sea.  By waiting for day 3 there are 7 days left.

 

7 x $19.99 = $139.93 minus C&A discount.  I'm now D+ so $139.93 - $45.98 = $93.95.

 

Assuming a cruise planner price of $13.99, 10 x $13.99 = $139.99.

 

My approach saves $46 but I won't have internet at night when the ship is at sea until day 3 when I buy Voom.  

 

I do the same when Key West is a port of call on day 2.  I wait to buy Voom on day 3 and "survive" disconnected nights 1 & 2.  

[lidolovers]

Thanks for the tips. I’ll keep my eyes out for any sales. I will just be using one device mostly but if I need another I have a travel router anyway. 

Edited September 6, 2019 by lidolovers

[boscobeans]

I nailed it for $8.00 a day tied in with the Deluxe beverage package for $48.

 

Total for both on 12 night Grandeur including gratuities =  $771.79

 

[brillohead]

I purchase a four-device package and split it with other people from my roll call, so we all end up getting Voom Surf+Stream for around $7/day per person. 

 

We set a place to meet up on the ship ahead of time, and they give me cash (or Paypal) for their portion, and I give them the Username and PIN (I use something generic that would be easy for everyone to remember, not something that only had meaning to me).  

[brillohead]

On 9/5/2019 at 9:25 PM, lidolovers said:

Thanks for the tips. I’ll keep my eyes out for any sales. I will just be using one device mostly but if I need another I have a travel router anyway. 

Instead of dealing with the travel router, why don't you just log off the first device and log on the second device?  (This assumes you don't have a need for both devices to be connected at the same time.)

Your Voom package isn't tied down to any one device -- you can just have any one device connected at any given time.  

For example, I'm on Majesty right now, and I went to "logoff.com" on my phone to disconnect myself from the wifi (and turned off my wifi so it didn't log back on automatically), then I signed in with the username and PIN on my laptop.  When I go to bed, I'll reverse the process, and log back on with my phone.  

[TheCount]

On 9/5/2019 at 8:41 AM, twangster said:

 

I will often wait a day or 2 into the cruise and buy Voom on board using the C&A discount.  This approach assumes a few things.

 

My cell phone works in the US, Canada and Mexico as part of my home rate area.  If an itinerary has a quick overnight before arriving in a port of call in the US, Canada or Mexico I can wait a few days then buy Voom on board cheaper than buying it.

 

Ovation to Hawaii starts in Vancouver.  It sails to Seattle as a port of call, then leaves for Hawaii.  My phone will work until around 6pm on day 1.  Day 2 we are Seattle where my phone works.  Day 3 we are at sea.  By waiting for day 3 there are 7 days left.

 

7 x $19.99 = $139.93 minus C&A discount.  I'm now D+ so $139.93 - $45.98 = $93.95.

 

Assuming a cruise planner price of $13.99, 10 x $13.99 = $139.99.

 

My approach saves $46 but I won't have internet at night when the ship is at sea until day 3 when I buy Voom.  

 

I do the same when Key West is a port of call on day 2.  I wait to buy Voom on day 3 and "survive" disconnected nights 1 & 2.  

 

We are D+ as well, and seems like for us, waiting until day 2 or3 to purchase with the C&A D+ discount end up being the lowest per day cost. Spouse and I with C&A likely to use her free 24 hr period, then buy in on a day 2 or 3 once we do the calculation.  Day 1, is in home port, so cell phones work until departing into the evening along the Fl coast.

 

[twangster]

24 minutes ago, lidolovers said:

funny. It says there is a 25 percent off sale on the internet today for my cruise. However the price is 21.93 today, a few days ago it was 20.47 with no sale on. It says price shown is the actually price too.  What the. 

 

Seems like a bit of a fraud RC?  

 

 

Prices have increased over the least week.  Milk cost more. eggs cost more, beer costs more.  Voom costs more.  It happens.  Fraud?  I don't think so.  Stuff costs more with each passing year.  

 

You should have bought last week and locked in the price.  You can always cancel at any time.  

 

Edited September 17, 2019 by twangster

[dswallow]

Even though there's no sale going on, individual sailing prices can still be at sale prices, rather than at full onboard prices. And as mentioned full onboard prices are changing/have changed, so that'll affect the sale price, too. Finally, the percent-off banner is often wrong the first day of an official sale, and I've seen it even become some strange, also wrong, different number inbetween sales.

 

There's no question RCCL's web site is a complete and utter mess. But if you actually try reverse calculating the onboard pricing based on a few guesses at the percent off it may actually be, you do often come into the correct onboard price ballpark.

 

I do agree that RCCL needs a serious fraud lawsuit to get them motivated to fix this stuff. They should truly be embarrassed by the current behavior.

 

BTW, the next official Cruise Planner sale runs from 9/18/2019 to 9/25/2019, so expect to see prices start adjusting tomorrow, and by the next day banners to mostly catch up. 🙂

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Promotions/Snapshot_of_CruisePlanner_Offers.pdf

Edited September 17, 2019 by dswallow

[brillohead]

The onboard price of anything (Voom, drink package, etc.) can be different from one% week to the next, so it makes sense that the "percentage off" sale price can be different from one week to the next.  

If something is $100 onboard and 20% off for a net of $80 this week, that's accurate. And if the onboard price the next week is $120 and 30% off for a net of $84, that's just as accurate.

Unless you know what the onboard price is each week on each ship, you have no way of knowing what the "percent off" price is going to be.

Instead of throwing around accusations of fraud and deception, just buy it if it's a price you're comfortable with, and leave it if you don't like the price.

 

[cas21]

Just returned from Serenade of the Seas were Surf & Stream speeds on Ookla were 0.2 mbps to 1.0 mbps over six days you complain and it is the same excuse to many people on it . It should be renamed to FRAUD at SEA.  

[dswallow]

20 hours ago, brillohead said:

The onboard price of anything (Voom, drink package, etc.) can be different from one% week to the next, so it makes sense that the "percentage off" sale price can be different from one week to the next.  

If something is $100 onboard and 20% off for a net of $80 this week, that's accurate. And if the onboard price the next week is $120 and 30% off for a net of $84, that's just as accurate.

Unless you know what the onboard price is each week on each ship, you have no way of knowing what the "percent off" price is going to be.

Instead of throwing around accusations of fraud and deception, just buy it if it's a price you're comfortable with, and leave it if you don't like the price.

 

 

%-off prices are shown representing they are for your sailing and are a percent off an "onboard price". There is but one onboard price for your sailing, and you'll see it when you board.

 

Internet pricing though does not vary like drink pricing does. Except for price increases which seem to occur on an annual schedule, they do not go up and down sailing by sailing. There does seem to be a variance by whether the ship offers O3b-based internet, but that's it.

 

There is a legitimate case that RCCL may choose at some time prior to sailing to change the price they plan to seel something for onboard. But that does not go up and down and up and down and up and down on a weekly basis. It doesn't. And it's simple enough to prove by just examining the numbers and identifying the way it works when RCCL advertises a sale.

 

It complicates it when the percent-off numbers are plain wrong, but again, examining the numbers as they are provide during, after and before sales, you again can identify a pattern of failures in their pricing automation, and see that each and every time the numbers end up correctly represented and are consistent.

 

Most recently  a few ships or sailing on a few ships, at least, they've dramatically changed onboard drink pricing of packages with no explanation given. I'm referring to the jump to $82 onboard, and in at least some cases where they actually applied a 50% discount only to the second persons package (in other words, they refused to spread the discount as they do online -- 25% off each person, such that a solo package purchase was a a 25% discount.

 

So yes, without question, as RCCL knowingly keeps a broken system in play (I refer to the percent-off mistakes that are readily documented by looking at how the numbers are presented), it is deceptive. Does it break a law; I don't really know -- someone familiar with exactly what such local or federal laws detail would have to provide an educated opinion, but as a layman, I consider it deceptive to everyone who isn't completely aware of how it really is working.

 

Is it fraudulent? I think it's bordering on it in some ways. That may be a more difficult thing to make a legal case for, but it should be worrying to consumers and to loyal RCCL passengers, and as such should be something RCCL clarifies better than they currently seem to do.

[Biker19]

7 hours ago, dswallow said:

There does seem to be a variance by whether the ship offers O3b-based internet, but that's it.

Not really, Oasis was the only ship I know that didn't sorta stick to the fleet wide "MSRP". Ships do have promos all the time and the price upon boarding may not be the MSRP. I think this is the current MSRP fleet wide.