Wi fi question

[Caracarn2]

We will be going on our first cruise ever with Carnival on the Spirit.   I see there are 3 different wi-fi packages.   If I just want to use a tablet that does not even have cellular available, is only wi-fi and just want to play mobile games like Hay Day and such will the Social package work?   Not clear what is exactly sent by these types of games.  Nothing with graphics, not hi-res stuff so I do not need streaming etc.   When I have used my phone as a hot spot for example to allow my tablet to connect after a whole day of poking at it (will not do that on the cruise but like to wind down at night and I also get up hours before my wife so this is how I typically pass the time on vacation until she wakes up) I only used .02 GB of data so it seems very low bandwidth.  So what package works for that?

 

If I want to use my laptop and just keep up on clearing out work e-mail etc. I assume that needs at least the middle package to get e-mail like gmail?  

[guxu]

Social package will not work. Actually my mobile games did not work even with the highest package. I do not know it was because the speed was so slow or they blocked certain sites/ports. I was on Mardi Gras.

Edited September 8, 2022 by guxu

[Caracarn2]

Hmm.  Perhaps calling Carnival and asking might be my only option then.   Would hate to pay for a plan and then not be able to use it for the main purpose I had it for as I would imagine no refunds are given if we then decide to not use it for the remainder.  If someone did get it to work would love to hear.

[Caracarn2]

FYI, I called Carnival and they had to transfer me to another department but after explaining my question and then being on hold for 10 minutes for them to mull over the answer they assured me the middle plan would work for simple mobile game data and would only need to bump up if for speed.  Also said if not doing what we want we go down to a desk and just get refunded for the unused days, so we will try one middle plan between the two of us and that should give us the middling amount of connection to the world we'd need.

[mz-s]

If the game is already installed onto your tablet I am not sure why it needs wifi at all.

[shof515]

5 minutes ago, mz-s said:

If the game is already installed onto your tablet I am not sure why it needs wifi at all.

from what i noticed over the years, almost all free games on the cell phone/tablet have ads. When you open the game, they check the internet connection. if the app can not load an ad, the game will not load.Also some games check internet connection for various reasons like to get the high score, update to the latest version, etc

 

its kind of hard to find a truly offline game these days

[mz-s]

4 minutes ago, shof515 said:

from what i noticed over the years, almost all free games on the cell phone/tablet have ads. When you open the game, they check the internet connection. if the app can not load an ad, the game will not load.Also some games check internet connection for various reasons like to get the high score, update to the latest version, etc

 

its kind of hard to find a truly offline game these days

 

That makes sense and that is a shame.

[Caracarn2]

Yes, they are games like Hay Day, Transit Tycoon etc.   They need wifi to even load and function.   Not because of ads but because they operate that way.

[Ellaleah]

If I want to purchase Wi-Fi for only the last to days of our cruise, do I need to wait till then to buy it?

[Honolulu Blue]

9 hours ago, Ellaleah said:

If I want to purchase Wi-Fi for only the last to days of our cruise, do I need to wait till then to buy it?

Yes.

[guxu]

I do not think you can buy wifi for certain days. You have to buy the whole cruise. I could be wrong.

 

BTW, even with the highest plan, we got 1 or 2 MB/s speed, in good days. We went to internet support (photo department) and was told it was normal with satellite internet. 

[psikic]

An email was just sent out this morning (9/9) saying WiFi package prices will be going up on October 1, and pre-ordering Wifi now will save 31% as opposed to booking onboard (this used to be 15%).  That means you should expect about a 16% increase in the WiFi on-board package prices if that math works right.

[groundloop]

1 hour ago, guxu said:

I do not think you can buy wifi for certain days. You have to buy the whole cruise. I could be wrong.

 

BTW, even with the highest plan, we got 1 or 2 MB/s speed, in good days. We went to internet support (photo department) and was told it was normal with satellite internet. 

 

Yes, you can purchase it one day at a time.  My son is super cheap and only purchases wifi on sea days since he'll use his phone service while in port.  You make the purchase from the Carnival Hub App.

 

And the wifi generally sucks.  Carnival claims you can use streaming services with "premium" but service is rarely good enough to stream anything without getting so frustrated you'll want to throw your laptop overboard.

Edited September 9, 2022 by groundloop

[mz-s]

2 minutes ago, psikic said:

An email was just sent out this morning (9/9) saying WiFi package prices will be going up on October 1, and pre-ordering Wifi now will save 31% as opposed to booking onboard (this used to be 15%).  That means you should expect about a 16% increase in the WiFi on-board package prices if that math works right.

 

Wow they just increased prices a few months ago. Hiking it again already. People really want it these days I guess.

[Caracarn2]

Was popping back to raise what is above, that just got an e-mail so be aware if you wait to get it onboard then you are supposedly now going to pay 31% more rather than 15%.   I was told you can cancel any days once on board, but for the poster wanting it at the end, I guess you'll have to decide if this changes your math.   As said we are just getting one plan to share and this seems to make even more sense to do now given the price hike we can avoid.