How does Princess get away with boasting "Best WiFi at Sea"?

[kevinyork]

We were on Sky Oct 21 round the British Isles. We had the Plus package and the WiFi was amazing.  Could do anything that we could do at home.

 

Then back on her again in June 22 from U.K. to Norway and it was appalling. Pretty much unusable for anything even when close to the U.K.  We complained and they refunded us the price the internet package would have cost.  The internet manager did let slip they had changed suppliers a few months before and that’s when things turned bad.  

[Incognito1]

On 2/26/2023 at 8:14 AM, CapnCrews said:

Musk will never get a penny of my hard earned, American money.  

I don't think he needs your penny.

[Incognito1]

We're getting ready for our April TA.  Did not book a package.  Internet should be under Onboard Services, right?  I don't see the Internet option, only the upgrade to Plus which is more than the cost of our cruise.  Since we might have half a dozen drinks between the two of us, it's definitely not worth it.  Can someone point me to the Internet packages? Platinum so should be some sort of benefit?

 

ETA: Thank you.  Didn't even think of the app.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Incognito1

[MissP22]

On 2/26/2023 at 11:31 PM, cr8tiv1 said:

I wonder how the bean counters sleep at night?  

 

How does the staff know who paid what when?  Poor bar keeper.  Poor coffee barista.  Poor Internet Manager.  Poor Customer Service Agent.  This is truly a nightmare.  Make sure you bring your printed sales receipts with you.  

 

As long as they enter the cabin number the billing is handled by the computer. 

It's aware of which package you've paid for.

There are no more paper receipts. 

[ecs66]

Princess wifi always has been dreadful -- a joke, really.

 

Our TA sailed on a different line recently which had just installed Starlink.  She said it was as fast as her wifi at home.  She THINKS Princess is considering Starlink, too, but is not sure.  We don't sail next until Feb. '24; maybe it will be better by then.

[mowogo]

49 minutes ago, ecs66 said:

Princess wifi always has been dreadful -- a joke, really.

 

Our TA sailed on a different line recently which had just installed Starlink.  She said it was as fast as her wifi at home.  She THINKS Princess is considering Starlink, too, but is not sure.  We don't sail next until Feb. '24; maybe it will be better by then.

Carnival Corporation has announced they are rolling out Starlink.

[ecs66]

57 minutes ago, mowogo said:

Carnival Corporation has announced they are rolling out Starlink.

Great!!!  Good news.  Thank you.

[MissP22]

13 hours ago, mowogo said:

Carnival Corporation has announced they are rolling out Starlink.

If they don't,  they'll be about the only cruise line without it..... and probably still advertising the best internet at sea. 😄

 

[BamaVol]

Day 4 on the Caribbean and we’ve had no issues. Mostly email, text and Google. The speed doesn’t show as much, but everything works. Just a little slower than home. 
 

The lag on phone calls is annoying though. 
 

Edited March 5, 2023 by BamaVol

[Steelers36]

5 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

Day 4 on the Caribbean and we’ve had no issues. Mostly email, text and Google. The speed doesn’t show as much, but everything works. Just a little slower than home. 
 

The lag on phone calls is annoying though. 
 

 

 

The Caribbean sector has always been pretty good with internet as it lies within the prime band for the good satellites.

[MissP22]

12 hours ago, BamaVol said:

Day 4 on the Caribbean and we’ve had no issues. Mostly email, text and Google. The speed doesn’t show as much, but everything works. Just a little slower than home. 
 

The lag on phone calls is annoying though. 
 

I've only been able to get around 2.5 Mbs at 4 am in the morning. As soon as everyone is awake it drops to 350 Kbs or lower.

[kb4683]

@BamaVol

What app are you using for your speed test?

 

Thanks

[MissP22]

12 hours ago, kb4683 said:

@BamaVol

What app are you using for your speed test?

 

Thanks

fast.com

[Roberto256]

On 2/26/2023 at 8:35 AM, mowogo said:

With that said, Best wifi at sea is returning with the upcoming conversion to Starlink.  

 

When Princess announced the best internet at sea ... it was simply not possible, as they were using the same provider as Royal Caribbean.

How can princess have the best internet at sea with Starlink, if other cruiselines are using the same?

 

It's advertisting, not a fact.  Like "Best Buy"...

[BamaVol]

12 hours ago, kb4683 said:

@BamaVol

What app are you using for your speed test?

 

Thanks

Speed Test Master. 

[kb4683]

17 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

Speed Test Master. 

Thank you!

 

[BamaVol]

Docked in Cartagena thus morning. A bit slow but usable. 

[christraveller]

Sky Princess sea day in Caribbean today. Very good internet 

 

speed at home is faster, but home is not in the middle of an ocean!

 

 

[mowogo]

3 minutes ago, christraveller said:

Sky Princess sea day in Caribbean today. Very good internet 

 

speed at home is faster, but home is not in the middle of an ocean!

 

 

I've stayed in Timeshare resorts in the US with worse internet than this.

[FLAlaska]

I just got off the Sky and had no issue with the wifi. Was it split fast? No, but it worked just fine. I didn't try using remote desktop to work but I managed to surf internet, check apps, even streamed Netflix and peacock.

Now I am not a blogger nor am I uploading huge files, but I had no complaints

[pompeii]

Anyone who is unhappy with paying for poor or nonexistent internet need only to go to guest services, voice their complaints, bring their device(s) with them to show the staff real time examples of the internet quality, and guest services will remove the internet charges. We have done this on three of the last four cruises we've taken since Covid. Our last cruise was last month, the internet was fine, so no trip to the front desk was necessary. Two of the bad internet experiences were transatlantic cruises.

 

I'm currently on the Enchanted TA and the internet has been abysmal.  We lost it the day after leaving FLL and haven't really gotten it back yet.  We're arriving in our second European port tomorrow, so we're hardly in the middle of the Atlantic any longer.  We kind of have it intermittently but most webpages won't load and emails are hit or miss.  I'm typing this on one of the computers in the Internet Cafe because my personal devises don't work.

 

The front desk is only willing to refund $60 per package.  And since we purchased only one package (4 devices) they will give us only one $60 obc.  If I had purchased a one-device package and my husband another one-device package, we would have each received $60.  I argued that a four-device package is the same cost as two one-device packages (or at least it was when we bought it before the price increase) so we should each receive the obc, but to no avail.  They are sticking to one obc per package.  

 

 

 

[billco]

1 hour ago, pompeii said:

Anyone who is unhappy with paying for poor or nonexistent internet need only to go to guest services, voice their complaints, bring their device(s) with them to show the staff real time examples of the internet quality, and guest services will remove the internet charges. We have done this on three of the last four cruises we've taken since Covid. Our last cruise was last month, the internet was fine, so no trip to the front desk was necessary. Two of the bad internet experiences were transatlantic cruises.

 

I'm currently on the Enchanted TA and the internet has been abysmal.  We lost it the day after leaving FLL and haven't really gotten it back yet.  We're arriving in our second European port tomorrow, so we're hardly in the middle of the Atlantic any longer.  We kind of have it intermittently but most webpages won't load and emails are hit or miss.  I'm typing this on one of the computers in the Internet Cafe because my personal devises don't work.

 

The front desk is only willing to refund $60 per package.  And since we purchased only one package (4 devices) they will give us only one $60 obc.  If I had purchased a one-device package and my husband another one-device package, we would have each received $60.  I argued that a four-device package is the same cost as two one-device packages (or at least it was when we bought it before the price increase) so we should each receive the obc, but to no avail.  They are sticking to one obc per package.  

 

 

 

We tried to have the internet charges removed on our recent B2B cruises on the Discovery Princess. The Internet Manager started to do it until he saw my Internet was part of the Plus Package. Sorry, can’t do it if internet is part of a package. They did refund internet charges on our TA and Western Europe cruises on the Enchanted Princess last year, but not the Iceland/Norway cruises last summer.

Edited March 18, 2023 by billco

[MissP22]

11 minutes ago, billco said:

We tried to have the internet charges removed on our recent B2B cruises on the Discovery Princess. The Internet Manager started to do it until he saw my Internet was part of the Plus Package. Sorry, can’t do it if internet is part of a package. They did refund internet charges on our TA and Western Europe cruises on the Enchanted Princess last year, but not the Iceland/Norway cruises last summer.

Another good reason to forgo the plus package altogether.

[billco]

10 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Another good reason to forgo the plus package altogether.

Not really. I can get along with paying for slow Internet, but not ready to give up the savings I get on drinks.

[PatchesTN101]

We sailed to Antartica this year from Ushuaia, Argentina across the Drake Passage on a Viking Expedition ship and never lost internet capability. We were in very rough seas in the Drake but we could still connect. We could do wifi calling, emails, get on any website we needed to for work or otherwise for the entire time we were in Antartica, over a week. Viking uses Starlink on these ships and it works great! I agree, if Princess is going to make the claim they have the best Wifi at sea, its time to make a change. We have also sailed Princess two years ago to Alaska and the wifi was terrible.