Internet (Wifi) Package Price Increases

[bluemarble]

Not meaning to cause contention here, but I've noticed Cunard have raised the prices of their internet packages.

 

For the Essential plan, the price used to be $15 per day if purchased for all the remaining days of the voyage. That's increasing to $18 per day.

When purchased 24 hours at a time, the Essential plan was $20 per day. That's increasing to $24 per day.

 

For the Premium plan, the price used to be $20 per day if purchased for the all the remaining days of the voyage. That's increasing to $24 per day.

When purchased 24 hours at a time, the Premium plan was $30 per day. That's increasing to $36 per day.

 

What I'm not seeing is any change to the complimentary internet credits for Gold, Platinum and Diamond Cunard World Club members. Those credits still appear to be $45 for Gold, $80 for Platinum and $135 for Diamond members. Unfortunately that would mean those credits won't go quite as far as they used to.

 

For example, Diamond members used to be able to purchase the Essential plan for the last 9 nights of their voyage (9 days x $15 per day = $135). Now the $135 credit will only get Diamond members the Essential plan for the last 7 nights for free (7 days x $18 = $126).

 

As another example, when paying for individual 24 hour blocks of time, Platinum members used to be able get 4 days of the Essential plan (4 days x $20 = $80). Now the $80 credit will only get Platinum members 3 days of the Essential plan for free when buying 24 hours at a time (3 days x $24 = $72).

[Victoria2]

All a bit of a bummer for many and all the more reason to invest in more/new technology to ensure those who find the connections ''c..p'', have little to complain about.

[ballroom-cruisers]

While we all end up sending our pictures and videos to friends and family - perhaps it wouldn't be a bad thing if we spend more time enjoying the voyage and less time telling our contacts how much we are enjoying the voyage!  I can remember the days when we made our last phone calls, and said "See you in two weeks" to our family, and then never communicated at all till the ship docked on the return sector of the voyage.

[TheOldBear]

We made the mistake of buying the 'full voyage' internet package this past fall. Amongst  other failings, only one passenger's World Club credit is applied to the 'full voyage' price. The other passenger's credit is unused.

 

Pricing is likely to change a few times before our next planned [October 2024] sailing, but as it stands now, we would buy a few non consecutive days, keeping an eye on the WC wifi balance.

[ballroom-cruisers]

27 minutes ago, TheOldBear said:

We made the mistake of buying the 'full voyage' internet package this past fall. Amongst  other failings, only one passenger's World Club credit is applied to the 'full voyage' price. The other passenger's credit is unused.

 

Pricing is likely to change a few times before our next planned [October 2024] sailing, but as it stands now, we would buy a few non consecutive days, keeping an eye on the WC wifi balance.

 

I have in the past used the full voyage internet package, and my wife also - and we both had full connectivity the whole voyage. Both used the CWC benefit.

[D&N]

Has anyone established if there is a noticeable difference between Essential and Premium?

 

We uploaded a few compressed photos with messages to various social media accounts each day and backed up all our photos and a couple of videos to cloud storage. I also used it to check online banking and have a quick look at news sites, and researched a few of the wines on specialist sites.

 

We took Premium for the duration but wasn't sure we really needed it.

[alibabacruisers]

I am trying to remember how the internet worked on the last Cunard cruise we were back in 2019.  I thought that we were given so many minutes? and as you used them the minutes were deducted from the total you had?  Is that correct?

 

It seems that this new plan is pretty sad.  I get on the computer to check emails, monitor things, all for about half an hour to an hour per day.  It seems that now, even though I would use it for an hour a day, I would be charged for the whole day!?

 

Please help me understand this.  Thanks

[bluemarble]

1 hour ago, TheOldBear said:

We made the mistake of buying the 'full voyage' internet package this past fall. Amongst  other failings, only one passenger's World Club credit is applied to the 'full voyage' price. The other passenger's credit is unused.

 

Pricing is likely to change a few times before our next planned [October 2024] sailing, but as it stands now, we would buy a few non consecutive days, keeping an eye on the WC wifi balance.

 

48 minutes ago, ballroom-cruisers said:

 

I have in the past used the full voyage internet package, and my wife also - and we both had full connectivity the whole voyage. Both used the CWC benefit.

 

@TheOldBear can confirm, but perhaps what he is saying is that one of them may have purchased a 'full voyage' package which exceeded the value of that individual's CWC credit hoping the other's credit would kick in to cover the excess. Unfortunately it does not work that way.

 

As Diamond members, on our recent 13-night Caribbean cruise our strategy was for me to purchase 24 hour Essential plans to cover the first 3 sea days (3 x $20 = $60 leaving $75 credit remining for me). Then with 9 days remaining, my wife purchased the full voyage Essential package (9 x $15 = $135) using up her entire credit. Then with 5 days remaining, I also purchased the full voyage Essential package (5 x $15 = $75) using up my remaining credit so that we could both use the internet at the same time those last 5 days.

 

Now with the internet package price increases I will need to redo the math for our next voyage to optimize the use of our CWC credits.

Edited January 22, 2023 by bluemarble

[Victoria2]

We purchased one basic package in August for our ten night trip which was sufficient for us. As long as you're not both wanting the connection at the same time, you can both utilise the same deal.

 

 

[bluemarble]

5 minutes ago, alibabacruisers said:

I am trying to remember how the internet worked on the last Cunard cruise we were back in 2019.  I thought that we were given so many minutes? and as you used them the minutes were deducted from the total you had?  Is that correct?

 

It seems that this new plan is pretty sad.  I get on the computer to check emails, monitor things, all for about half an hour to an hour per day.  It seems that now, even though I would use it for an hour a day, I would be charged for the whole day!?

 

Please help me understand this.  Thanks

 

You are correct. The old internet pricing was based on total minutes used which could be spread out across the entire voyage. Here is the old pricing and the corresponding credits for each CWC level.

 

30 minutes = $15

120 minutes (Gold package) = $45 

240 minutes (Platinum package) = $80

480 minutes (Diamond package) = $135

960 minutes = $220

1,920 minutes = $330

 

Now the pricing is based on entire days. That works out well for those who use the internet a lot and not so well for those who only use the internet for a few minutes a day.

 

Note if you use the internet for an hour a day on a 7-night voyage, you will come out ahead with the new full voyage package at the Essential plan level. Under the old system you would have purchased the 480 minute plan for $135 to allow an hour usage each day for 7 days. Under the new plan and new pricing, you would purchase the Essential plan for 7 days at $18 per day = $126 and have no restriction on how long you can be on the internet each day.

[alibabacruisers]

Thank you bluemarble for the confirmation and explanation.

 

I have an upcoming cruise for 34 nights.  If I purchase, say 10 nights, does the new plan dictate which days or does it calculate only on the days you use it?  Like if I choose to try and use it only every 3rd day?

[ballroom-cruisers]

If you buy a 24 hour package it becomes active at that point and expires 24 hours later - I don't think you can buy a 24 hour package in advance.

[naturelovergirl]

Thank you @bluemarble

We require internet due to the necessity of our business and our family. We don’t have the luxury of going off the grid when we travel.

This allows us to know what to expect this summer.

[alibabacruisers]

If I buy 10 days of the Essential package, can I use it on any 10 days I choose?

[TheOldBear]

53 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

 

You are correct. The old internet pricing was based on total minutes used which could be spread out across the entire voyage. Here is the old pricing and the corresponding credits for each CWC level.

 

30 minutes = $15

120 minutes (Gold package) = $45 

240 minutes (Platinum package) = $80

480 minutes (Diamond package) = $135

960 minutes = $220

1,920 minutes = $330

 

Now the pricing is based on entire days. That works out well for those who use the internet a lot and not so well for those who only use the internet for a few minutes a day.

 

Note if you use the internet for an hour a day on a 7-night voyage, you will come out ahead with the new full voyage package at the Essential plan level. Under the old system you would have purchased the 480 minute plan for $135 to allow an hour usage each day for 7 days. Under the new plan and new pricing, you would purchase the Essential plan for 7 days at $18 per day = $126 and have no restriction on how long you can be on the internet each day.

Also, under the old system you would get a fresh allocation for each segment of a voyage that was also sold as an individual sailing - fresh wifi credit for eastbound TA, Southampton to Hamburg, Hamburg to Southampton and the westbound crossing [and the credits carried over until disembarkation in Brooklyn]

[bluemarble]

Just now, alibabacruisers said:

Thank you bluemarble for the confirmation and explanation.

 

I have an upcoming cruise for 34 nights.  If I purchase, say 10 nights, does the new plan dictate which days or does it calculate only on the days you use it?  Like if I choose to try and use it only every 3rd day?

 

To elaborate on what @ballroom-cruisers has said, your only two options for purchasing the internet plans are as follows:

 

1) Purchase individual 24-hour segments on the days you need them at the higher price per day (e.g. $24 per day for the Essential package). After each purchase, you have a exactly 24 hours to use the internet from the time of purchase.

 

2) Purchase the full voyage package for all the remaining days of your voyage at the time of purchase for the lower price per day (e.g. $18 per day for the Essential package). You can only purchase 10 days at that lower price when there are 10 days remaining in your voyage.

 

One detail I do not know about is what @TheOldBear mentioned in his latest reply. How does the new plan work for longer voyages which have individual segments (such as a 14-night round trip transatlantic crossing purchased as a single voyage)? Do we get separate CWC internet credits for each segment? When we purchase a full voyage package, do we commit to purchasing it for the full 14 day round trip at the beginning of the voyage or do we purchase separate 7 day packages at the beginning of each segment? The implication I get is that such a voyage now only gets one CWC benefit to cover the whole voyage and the full voyage package needs to be purchased for all segments when purchased at the beginning of the voyage. Is that how it works?

[TheOldBear]

What I saw this past fall [26 night Norway and Northern Lights] was there was only one world club credit, not segment by segment as in the past.

[BklynBoy8]

On our September 14 Day NE/CAN Sailing we purchased the Premium as a Diamond Member.

 

We did use it with much challenge with tech difficulties but got thru the entire sailing.

 

Really found the location was in the Concierge Lounge on 9 right under the rotor. Cabin on 10 midship was really any better with wifi. 

 

Granted with 5-6 ports, we had no problems connecting with the land wifi/telephone provider. 

 

With our upcoming sailing we may use the essential and not to go higher for 6 days and 3 ports of calls.

 

Interesting with the increase of 3 dollars from three months ago.

 

So we will see what decision we will make.

[lissie]

4 hours ago, bluemarble said:

 

One detail I do not know about is what @TheOldBear mentioned in his latest reply. How does the new plan work for longer voyages which have individual segments (such as a 14-night round trip transatlantic crossing purchased as a single voyage)? Do we get separate CWC internet credits for each segment? When we purchase a full voyage package, do we commit to purchasing it for the full 14 day round trip at the beginning of the voyage or do we purchase separate 7 day packages at the beginning of each segment? The implication I get is that such a voyage now only gets one CWC benefit to cover the whole voyage and the full voyage package needs to be purchased for all segments when purchased at the beginning of the voyage. Is that how it works?

We sailed San Francisco-Barcelona in July/August last year. 

 

They treated Florida as a sector end and  upgraded us to gold and gave us a new allowance for wifi usage because of our status. 

 

It was little use to us because there was zero to no internet across the Atlantic - it only picked up when we got to Cadiz.   It got to the point that you checked with the library before you even bothered trying to get a connection! 

 

Each person gets an allowance - so the $45 we got each - gave us 4x 24hours @ the going rate of $20/24 hours. 

[milamber]

It's worth noting that I was able to connect to the Cunard WiFi and them my wife was able to connect to my phone using my hot-spot to connect as well. This only worked from my Samsung phone to hers which is an iPhone. When we tried it the other way around it didn't work. 

[IB2]

13 hours ago, D&N said:

Has anyone established if there is a noticeable difference between Essential and Premium?

 

We uploaded a few compressed photos with messages to various social media accounts each day and backed up all our photos and a couple of videos to cloud storage. I also used it to check online banking and have a quick look at news sites, and researched a few of the wines on specialist sites.

 

We took Premium for the duration but wasn't sure we really needed it.

I took Essential for both of my QM2 TAs last year, and it was fine - good for browsing, Instagram, Facebook, email.  Yes, you couldn't watch videos on YouTube and the like, but that was hardly a handicap during a week on the ship.  Connectivity was good in the public areas of my ship and fine in my cabin - which was on Deck Three.  On the longer decks some passengers said connectivity in their cabins was less good/reliable.

Edited January 23, 2023 by IB2

[Omax4]

Keep in mind the prices could all change when the internet provider is changed to Starlink. Theoretically, Starlink should make internet costs cheaper for cruise lines. However if the cruise lines decide to pass along the savings to us remains to be seen. We also don’t know when it will happen. Just that they announced it. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by Omax4