Which perk has more value: 3 specialty dining or 250 mins wi-fi?

[LGinPA]

On a 10-day Mediterranean cruise with a group, our son is in a studio and has a choice of 2 affinity group perks.  He's taking the beverage pkg as one, but needs to decide on either the 250 mins of wi-fi or 3-nights specialty dining.  I have not been able to determine the $ value of the 250 wi-fi minutes, nor determine if it's "premium wi-fi" or not.  I know he'll want wi-fi and that's what's currently on his booking.    

 

Which do you think is a better value, which would you choose and why? Thanks! 

[European_CruiseGirl]

If it doesn't say "premium wifi with streaming" it is not. I cannot give you an exact value for 250mins of wifi but 100min is around $55 and unlimited wifi (not premium with streaming) is around $230 on my cruise. So 250min is somewhere in between. 

 

Your son can purchase a three meal speciality dining package for a cost of around $150. So most likely those two perks have quite a similar value. 

 

Now the question in my mind is as follows: would your son want to go to three speciality restaurants also? You already told he wants the wifi anyway. If he does want to go to speciality restaurants too then he could take either one of the perks and in the end he would pay approx the same total amount for the cruise taking into consideration all the add ons that he would buy either before the cruise or while cruising. However if the speciality dining would be just a nice add on but he could just as well also skip it then he should definitely take the wifi. 

 

Btw there are usually possibilities to upgrade the standard wifi package (in his case 250mins) to an unlimited wifi package or an unlimited streaming package if he wants to take the wifi as the perk and would want to upgrade. He should just be prepared that wifi is spotty at times (oftentimes) on a cruiseship.

Edited January 12, 2023 by European_CruiseGirl

[Oceansaway17]

heck that is easy for me, I do not do Wi-Fi as I am on vacation so I like the dining.

I think the tv will have important news on and the rest of my favorite web sites can wait until I get home.  I know some folks need to work or pay bills, but I remember cruising before the internet and things were fine. 

[fredflint]

So as always it depends is he going to eat alone for those 3 dinners, can he use 2 dinners at one sitting to have a guest then pay for one for the third.  The by the minute internet is the slowest and most restricted.  You can share your internet  package with him and just not use it at the same time.

 

So if he has someone to go to dining with that also has it free it is a much better value.  If he has no real use for the  dining but will use the internet you could see about using the value of the 250 to be applied to the unlimited plan.

[wally4ever]

Per-Minute wi-fi is $0.99, so 250 minutes would be $247.50.  I don't know if it's possible to buy a minutes package though.  A three-meal dining package is $166.80 (plus the 20% gratuity bringing it to $200.16)

 

So if he really wants both, he'd be better off doing the Wi-Fi.  Additionally, if he's likely to use more than 250 minutes anyway, he'd probably still want the wi-fi with an unlimited upgrade.

[LGinPA]

Thanks everyone. 

 

@European_CruiseGirl Yes, I know he'll want the a 3-meal specialty since he’ll dine with us and the others in our group who will be getting a 3-meal specialty as a group perk. We get more perks than him since he's a single in a studio. 

 

And as @wally4ever mentioned the 3-meal special meal cost $166 to add on, and the 250m wi-fi comes in at around $250 value.  So really keeping the wi-fi perk and adding on the dining makes sense. 

 

 Thanks for the tip on the on-board upgrade.

 

Again, you've all been most helpful thank you! 

 

[fredflint]

The Wifi cost is skewed he is better off sharing your package or getting an unlimited plan see the cost of that vs the 3 dining and I bet the 3 dining is more. 

[BirdTravels]

21 hours ago, LGinPA said:

On a 10-day Mediterranean cruise with a group, our son is in a studio and has a choice of 2 affinity group perks.  He's taking the beverage pkg as one, but needs to decide on either the 250 mins of wi-fi or 3-nights specialty dining.  I have not been able to determine the $ value of the 250 wi-fi minutes, nor determine if it's "premium wi-fi" or not.  I know he'll want wi-fi and that's what's currently on his booking.    

 

Which do you think is a better value, which would you choose and why? Thanks! 

Take the dining. 

 

You upgrade your package to unlimited and share with DS. There is no limit to the number of devices, just that only one can be logged on at a time. We normally share a single account across 6 devices (2 personal phones, 2 work phones, an iPad, and a laptop). We are not online a whole lot... logon to each device once a day, download email, send annoying beach photos to colleagues stuck at work...

Edited January 13, 2023 by BirdTravels

[LGinPA]

21 minutes ago, fredflint said:

The Wifi cost is skewed he is better off sharing your package or getting an unlimited plan see the cost of that vs the 3 dining and I bet the 3 dining is more. 

 

I see that since unlimited Premium wi-fi for this 10-day cruise is only $295 (now, pre-cruise price). And maybe it would be less onboard?  Hmm, let me consider that. 

[LGinPA]

4 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Take the dining. 

 

You upgrade your package to unlimited and share with DS. There is no limit to the number of devices, just that only one can be logged on at a time. We normally share a single account across 6 devices (2 personal phones, 2 work phones, an iPad, and a laptop). 

 

OK, well, I see your point since the dining is a sure thing, it will be used.  And while I know the wi-fi will be used, I don't know how much on a cruise. 

 

Wow, that's a lot of wi-fi sharing.  It would need to be shared with the 3 of us, me, DH, DS. OK, now I'm liking this idea! lol

 

So, since I have the 250m in my cabin as a perk, it is a sure bet that they'll offer the premium upgrade onboard for less than the current cost of $295? 

[schmoopie17]

The 250 WIFI minutes is practically useless if you're doing a Transatlantic cruise. We did spend more than half of the cruise in the Mediterranean, as well. For most days we could barely access anything...including Cruise Critic which supposedly doesn't count against your 250 minute allotment. The guy at the Internet Help Desk on the Escape couldn't even get us into Cruise Critic.

 

When we did try to get into the internet, we ate up the majority of our minutes attempting to connect. So...I'd say the Dining Package has much more value by a long shot.

Edited January 13, 2023 by schmoopie17

[eileeshb]

The use of WiFi will depend on how much roaming data he’ll have when on land. When I did my Mediterranean cruise I spent more time off the ship than on it so bear that in mind too. The only reason I upgraded my WiFi on that cruise was that we had a sea day (covid related) which happened to coincide with a rugby match I wanted to see and I needed vpn streaming to see it. 
 

check on the WiFi perk in your cabin, is it minutes just for passenger 1 or 1 and 2, If it’s for each just give him one of your accounts to use while you & DH share the other. 

[MoCruiseFan]

On 1/12/2023 at 12:33 PM, LGinPA said:

On a 10-day Mediterranean cruise with a group, our son is in a studio and has a choice of 2 affinity group perks.  He's taking the beverage pkg as one, but needs to decide on either the 250 mins of wi-fi or 3-nights specialty dining.  I have not been able to determine the $ value of the 250 wi-fi minutes, nor determine if it's "premium wi-fi" or not.  I know he'll want wi-fi and that's what's currently on his booking.    

 

Which do you think is a better value, which would you choose and why? Thanks! 

 

Id take the dining.  I cruise in part to get away from being plugged in.  I leave the internet behind.  If there is an absolute emergency that cannot wait until I am back home I have this really cool device called a cell phone that I can connect with.

[LGinPA]

16 hours ago, eileeshb said:

The use of WiFi will depend on how much roaming data he’ll have when on land. When I did my Mediterranean cruise I spent more time off the ship than on it so bear that in mind too. The only reason I upgraded my WiFi on that cruise was that we had a sea day (covid related) which happened to coincide with a rugby match I wanted to see and I needed vpn streaming to see it. 
 

check on the WiFi perk in your cabin, is it minutes just for passenger 1 or 1 and 2, If it’s for each just give him one of your accounts to use while you & DH share the other. 

 

Good points. We will be off the ship, a lot. So we'd only use the onboard wi-fi briefly each night to check email. 

I checked on My NCL Summary and the perk is only for me, so only 1 account. 

 

So if he gets the 3-meal dining perk and drops the wi-fi he can share ours. I'd likely upgrade to unlimited since I don't think 250 minutes will cut it for 10 days/3 people.

[complawyer]

it really depends on what is more important to you. as soon as my wife gets on board, she rushes to the internet cafe to upgrade her minutes. i never have any need to or intention of using any wifi time, so for me any amount of minutes is irrelevant. personally i'd go with the dinners, your son, however might want to keep up with the world so he'd probably want the wifi upgrade. also consider this, depending on his age, he might find other kids his age and start hanging with t hem. if he's a teen, the entourage would be great for him. when my  grandson was between 13-18 we signed him up, and only saw him occasionally. as long as he periodically checked in, it was fine 

[PTC DAWG]

Dining for me, internet=ZERO value. 

[eileeshb]

2 hours ago, complawyer said:

it really depends on what is more important to you. as soon as my wife gets on board, she rushes to the internet cafe to upgrade her minutes. i never have any need to or intention of using any wifi time, so for me any amount of minutes is irrelevant. personally i'd go with the dinners, your son, however might want to keep up with the world so he'd probably want the wifi upgrade. also consider this, depending on his age, he might find other kids his age and start hanging with t hem. if he's a teen, the entourage would be great for him. when my  grandson was between 13-18 we signed him up, and only saw him occasionally. as long as he periodically checked in, it was fine 

He’s in a studio which means he has to be over 18. 

[LGinPA]

43 minutes ago, eileeshb said:

He’s in a studio which means he has to be over 18

 

Yes, he is. And he's given 2 perks, and opted for the alcohol package. He's decided to go with the 3-meal specialty as his 2nd perk. And we'll get one unlimited wi-fi package and share among the 3 of us. 

 

Thanks to ALL for your help! 

Linda G

[complawyer]

wise and very sound choice!!!!!