Premium internet service during Alaskan cruise

[GrandmaOhio]

Can I purchase the premium internet service once we’re aboard?  We have some internet service included with the Have It All package but I’m worried about being able to connect for proctored Covid tests.  Will it make a difference in Vancouver for ATT?

 

Any advice appreciated!

[Gray Lady]

I was told by a HAL representative in the phone that you could easily upgrade for $40:for a week (nothing said about daily up charge) and that would easily handle video calls. He said we needed to do it once we were on-board. Hope that helps some.

[Crazy For Cats]

11 minutes ago, GrandmaOhio said:

Can I purchase the premium internet service once we’re aboard?  We have some internet service included with the Have It All package but I’m worried about being able to connect for proctored Covid tests.  Will it make a difference in Vancouver for ATT?

 

Any advice appreciated!

I wouldn’t recommend buying the premium internet on an Alaska cruise.  The farther north you go the more spotty internet becomes. Last summer the internet was horrible and barely worked.  The satellite signal was so bad that the live tv was not available for large portions of the cruise.

[SharonN]

13 minutes ago, GrandmaOhio said:

Can I purchase the premium internet service once we’re aboard?  We have some internet service included with the Have It All package but I’m worried about being able to connect for proctored Covid tests.  Will it make a difference in Vancouver for ATT?

 

Any advice appreciated!

We're currently on the Nieuw Amsterdam and it was $40 to upgrade from the included Surf Package to the Premium one but since we're 5* we got the $30 discount on it so it was only $10. Good deal. And it's working pretty well as I've been able to upload photos from the first few days without any issues. 

[Benny42]

I was on the Nieuw Amsterdam the week of May 22.  I did not see any speed improvement after purchasing the upgrade.  I do not see any value in purchasing  the upgrade.  (browsing speed was not improved).   Lightroom mobile photo sync did not work with or without the upgrade. 

[IPB4IGO]

On one cruise, I upgraded twice, trying each of the three levels of service. I don't recall any difference in speed, only differences in what sites were blocked.

Last month we cruised up to Alaska, then back down a week later. In general, the Premium Internet service was good. For some reason it was much better northbound than southbound in the same locations. In both cases, the ships were operating at around 40% capacity.

On previous cruises, I used my phone or laptop as hotspots so we could connect multiple devices at the same time, but this time I paid $30 on each 7-day cruise to upgrade our service from one device to four. That way my wife and I could be connected with our laptops and tablets wherever we were in the ship.

On these cruises, both my VPN and AT&T Wi-Fi calling worked with the ship's Internet. On a previous cruise in January, neither worked.

[BroncoBobblehead]

Just so I''m clear in following this along - you said it was $40 (or $10 with a discount) for the WEEK? I thought it was $40/day for multiple device access and $30/day for one device. I'm just wondering if upgrading (if one already has the "have it all" access) is daily or weekly?

[Benny42]

Upgrade for me was was $40 for one device at a time for the week if you already "have it all".

[Mom39]

I wonder if the ship makes a difference.  I'll need to connect VPN while sailing from Scotland to Denmark next month. I hope I have good service on one of the newer ships.

[kentuckycruiser]

We were on the Koningsdam last week and 12 of us did the proctored test. We bought the premium internet for 24 hours at $29.99. We purchased on Friday a.m. and took the tests that afternoon while cruising the inside passage and we got off the ship on Saturday. There were zero issues for any of us doing the tests in 3 different cabins.

Four of us did the Emed proctored test which needed no appt.

Eight of us had FlowFlex tests purchased for $12 at the safeway in Ketchikan. We booked appts the day before with Azova for $20 per test and they proctored it. All super easy.

Verifly took longer than 6 weeks ago, probably 4-5 hours to approve. No need to pay for the expediated service on Verifly if doing it the day before.

Edited June 8, 2022 by kentuckycruiser

[SharonN]

2 hours ago, BroncoBobblehead said:

Just so I''m clear in following this along - you said it was $40 (or $10 with a discount) for the WEEK? I thought it was $40/day for multiple device access and $30/day for one device. I'm just wondering if upgrading (if one already has the "have it all" access) is daily or weekly?

We had the Surf Package included with the Have it All package and it was $40 to upgrade for the 7 days but we got a $30 discount because we are 5 * so only cost us $10 to upgrade for the entire week. I was surprised it was so low but obviously ok with that price. The upgrade allows us to watch a daily podcast on YouTube which the Surf Package doesn't support. I'm not sure I could upload all of my photos and videos to the site I use for our blog without upgrading either. 

[quack2]

There is wonderful live podcast of Alaska going on outside your stateroom 24/7.  No charge.

[IPB4IGO]

3 hours ago, BroncoBobblehead said:

Just so I''m clear in following this along - you said it was $40 (or $10 with a discount) for the WEEK? I thought it was $40/day for multiple device access and $30/day for one device. I'm just wondering if upgrading (if one already has the "have it all" access) is daily or weekly?

We had prepurchased the Premium plan for each cruise. It was $109.99.  After boarding each 7-day cruise, we paid $30 to increase our plan from one device to four devices for the week. The system offered that upgrade when more than one device tried to use the same account simultaneously.

 

I just checked my statements, and the charge shows up as "Internet Cafe       $30".  We are not 4-star Mariners, so I am unaware of any discount that was applied.

 

Sorry if I was unclear originally.

[BroncoBobblehead]

16 minutes ago, quack2 said:

There is wonderful live podcast of Alaska going on outside your stateroom 24/7.  No charge.

I appreciate what you're saying - but some of us need to be connected to the 'net in order to properly afford to take cruises periodically, lol. 

[haolenate]

Thanks for this thread, I'm just off the Carnival Splendor and it made me feel like I was reliving the 1990s, trying to dial in to AOL and hearing the dreaded busy signal, or when my mom would constantly pick up the phone when I was online.   It was just beyond aweful.

 

After talking with friends that work at other cruiselines, it seems that the cruise lines need to adjust the angle of the receiver - I live in Juneau AK of all places - and all of our dishes face the HORIZON.   

 

So that explanation made sense as the wifi only really worked around Vancouver Island (southern) and barely at all during our Southeast portion.

[crystalspin]

2 hours ago, haolenate said:

Thanks for this thread, I'm just off the Carnival Splendor and it made me feel like I was reliving the 1990s,...

There is a thread (I haven't read) on the Carnival CC board, titled CARNIVAL IMPROVING INTERNET (or something like that). Sounds like none-too-soon!

[crystalspin]

Not in Alaska, but my DH was able to use internet on the Premium (bought before the cruise, before HIA was a thing) on the north side of Normandy for a VOIP call-in meeting. There was a bit of a lag in the voice transmission, but it never dropped out.

 

I would use the same account when he wasn't doing business, and it was a bit like dialup! but maybe not 1990. And we did continue to Copenhagen.

[Tippy-Canoe]

On 6/8/2022 at 1:20 PM, Crazy For Cats said:

I wouldn’t recommend buying the premium internet on an Alaska cruise.  The farther north you go the more spotty internet becomes. Last summer the internet was horrible and barely worked.  The satellite signal was so bad that the live tv was not available for large portions of the cruise.

We had the same experience as Crazy for Cats, no live TV for 2 days or internet and we had the premium internet plan .   This occurred on our passage North early May 2023.  My first call to guest services said that there was a problem with the antenna and would be fixed in a few hours ( maybe they were still on island time 😁).   The ship was at max 40% capacity but we did notice that a lot of the crew were new hires.  I would speculate that this experience was not the norm or we would see a lot more written about it in this forum.  

[YourWorldWithBill]

We are on the Noordam Sept 4. This is our first on HAL after Viking, where internet was included. Is there any advantage to purchasing the internet package before boarding, or is it better to wait until on the ship? Do we need to pay for two to access?

[crystalspin]

1 hour ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Is there any advantage to purchasing the internet package before boarding, or is it better to wait until on the ship? Do we need to pay for two to access?

There is no advantage to waiting, and if you want to get the Premium package for only a little more than the middle Surf level (someone stated about $2/day!) you have to do that before sailing. 

 

Oh, I suppose one advantage might be spending OBC which is not allowed before embarcation.

 

ETA: Welcome to Cruise Critic! I see you found your Roll Call. You should love the Noordam; my favorite ship so far is her sister the Zuiderdam.

 

ETAA: Two (or more) people can use the same account, but not at the same time. It will I believe kick the first one off if the second logs on. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by crystalspin

[IPB4IGO]

4 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

 Do we need to pay for two to access?

When the second device on your account tries to use the Internet the user will be given the option of booting off the first device or upgrading to a four-device plan. On our most recent two 7-day cruises, the four-device upgrade with $30 for the entire cruise.

[Ottawa traveller]

I am currently on the Zuiderdam on the 7-day Alaska cruise out of Vancouver.  I have the premium plan. I could post both text and pictures to my blog site only while in the inside passage - in both directions. Further north, I could get internet at slower speeds, including some videos but I could not post pictures. TV was not available at some times. The issue is the location of satellites. I have been told that the satellite companies don't focus a lot of bandwidth on areas with little traffic.  We are currently sailing the inside passage on the return journey, and I was able to post 4 days' worth of blogposts in a relatively short period of time.

[YourWorldWithBill]

13 hours ago, IPB4IGO said:

When the second device on your account tries to use the Internet the user will be given the option of booting off the first device or upgrading to a four-device plan. On our most recent two 7-day cruises, the four-device upgrade with $30 for the entire cruise.

Thanks for the note. Did you do the four-device upgrade once onboard, or before embarkation?

[DCThunder]

HAL needs to talk to SpaceX ASAP and get Starlink on the ships.  I believe I've read somewhere that Royal Caribbean is already getting it installed on at least one ship.

[IPB4IGO]

6 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Thanks for the note. Did you do the four-device upgrade once onboard, or before embarkation?

In my experience, the option is available only once you are aboard and try to use a second device.