What the cost for Internet on Princess

Does anyone know what it costs for using the internet cafe on Princess?
Also, is there an additional cost if you bring your laptop and use the WiFi
wireless?

Thanks,
Wayne

Cost for Internet access from their kiosks ranges from about
40 cents to 75 cents a minute depending on the plan.
Wireless connection should be a straight 50 cents a minute,
with no plans available.

For details on plans, the information at Cruise Critic
"Connecting @ Sea "....
http://www.cruisecritic.com/features/articles.cfm?ID=45
seems pretty current for Princess.

A few additional comments though....

I was aboard both the Dawn Princess and Golden Princess in December.

On the Dawn Princess I was able to get a staff member to open
the cabinet to allow me to send a file from my USB thumb drive.
I could connect with my laptop using the same Internet Plan.
I had access to the kiosks on the day of disembarkation and was
able to print an airline boarding pass.

On the Golden Princess I was not allowed to connect any
external memory device to the kiosk. They were strict about
no access to the the ports. I talked to the staff, the manager,
an officer and the purser's desk to get the rules bent. They
were polite enough but they didn't budge. Also, wireless access
required a completely different account and is minute by minute
at 50 cents a minute I think. Also, the accounts were wiped out
and the computer were inaccessible as of midnight the night
before disembarkation. So... no printed of airline boarding passes
at the last minute. I had bought a package and had over 100 minutes
left, which I could have used on the last day. I was able to get
a partial refund on my package form the purser's desk without
too much hassle.

There are flash memory card readers connected to the computers
on the Golden. I don't remember what media they accepted, but
I don't think they accepted my xD cards. In any case, staff
explained that you couldn't read or write to the card as though
they were hard drives (like I can usually do on my laptop.) They
have a program to help extract jpg or other picture files for sending
via e-mail, I think. Dunno. I gave up on the kiosks for all but
simple e-mail and light browsing.

Internet speeds range from slow to non-existent. If you can't
get a page to load in under a minute, log off. Come back later.
I think the first minute may be free on the kiosks. That's the way
it was on the Golden, anyway. That's time enough to see if the
connection is working.

Browsing Princess.com was free.... when I was logged out
from my account.

**Warning** Be careful of the packages. On the Dawn Princess
there was a disclaimer that if you used all of your time on a package
the charges would continue to accumulate. I'm not sure if the package
would renew or if the charges would be at the higher 75 cents per minute.
My math tells me that's about a mistake that could cost about a $1,000 a
day.
(75 cents x 60 minutes x 24 hours).

Be sure to log out.

We often use a Sprint Card when at a domestic port.

Best deals for Internet are at port. I think I paid a $1 for an
hour of access in Puerto Vallarta. No problem loading files
from thumb drives. For the best deals, ask the crew where
to go for Internet at port.

Mike

Michael Akana, MCC, LCS
www.mythictravel.com


Wayne wrote:
Does anyone know what it costs for using the internet cafe on Princess?
Also, is there an additional cost if you bring your laptop and use the WiFi
wireless?

Thanks,
Wayne

(Michael*Akana) wrote:

much snipped

"Warning** Be careful of the packages. On the
Dawn Princess there was a disclaimer that if
you used all of your time on a package the
charges would continue to accumulate. * I'm
not sure if the package would renew or if the
charges would be at the higher 75 cents per
minute. My math tells me that's about a
mistake that could cost about a $1,000 a day.
(75 cents x 60 minutes x 24 hours).

We were on the Star Princess this past summer. One day as we were
sending an e-mail home to our son, someone else was having a real
problem. The computer they were on froze. They could not even get it to
log off! My advice was to go immediately to the purser's desk and make
sure they were not going to be charged that 75¢ a minute for the rest
of the cruise. I later told someone else that story, and the same thing
had happened to them. They said they also immediately went to the
purser's office. So beware, that outrageous charge really could happen.

"Jeff Gersten" wrote in message
...
(Michael Akana) wrote:
We were on the Star Princess this past summer. One day as we were
sending an e-mail home to our son, someone else was having a real
problem. The computer they were on froze. They could not even get it to
log off! My advice was to go immediately to the purser's desk and make
sure they were not going to be charged that 75¢ a minute for the rest
of the cruise. I later told someone else that story, and the same thing
had happened to them. They said they also immediately went to the
purser's office. So beware, that outrageous charge really could happen.

On our last cruise the same thing happened to me on the Diamond Princess &
on the final day there was a charge for $450. They did remove it but it took
2 trips to the service desk but I had to stand on line for 15 minutes then
go back & get my credi card only to have to stand ther for another 15
minutes.

I just don't get it. I know that when I travel that I'm not home. I don't
have every single posession with me. I can do without seeing my pets,
playing video/computer games, or watching movies w/ a 600W sound system. I
don't have the local shops, places to hike, museums, or anything else from
home.

I can also do without email and phone service for a week. If ever I got to
the point where the world couldn't go on without me for a single week, it
would be time to reaccess my priorities.

Are cruise ships getting full of those ****ing cyborgs yelling at full
volume into bluetooth headsets? I might never want to go on another cruise
if there is wall to wall loudmouthed one sided conversations.

"AZ Nomad" wrote

I can also do without email and phone service for a week. If ever I got
to
the point where the world couldn't go on without me for a single week, it
would be time to reaccess my priorities.

The other side of the coin is that people who can keep in touch with work,
etc for a few hours during the week may be able to go on more cruises.
Working 10 - 15 even 20 hours might be considered a small porice to pay if
you can do it on a cruise.

Are cruise ships getting full of those ****ing cyborgs yelling at full
volume into bluetooth headsets?

What is worse? People talking on cell phones or people using obscenities in
the course of a normal conversation with strangers? Both are pretty
obnoxious.


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com


May 12, 2008 - 5 nt New Orleans http://www.cruisemaster.com/fantasy.htm
October 26, 2008 Sleazy 5 http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy5.htm
Feb. 8, 2009 Solstice Valentine http://www.cruisemaster.com/solstice.htm

On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:15:22 -0600, George Leppla wrote:

"AZ Nomad" wrote

I can also do without email and phone service for a week. If ever I got
to
the point where the world couldn't go on without me for a single week, it
would be time to reaccess my priorities.

The other side of the coin is that people who can keep in touch with work,
etc for a few hours during the week may be able to go on more cruises.
Working 10 - 15 even 20 hours might be considered a small porice to pay if
you can do it on a cruise.

If ever I had to conduct such business, I'd do it off the ship.



Are cruise ships getting full of those ****ing cyborgs yelling at full
volume into bluetooth headsets?

What is worse? People talking on cell phones or people using obscenities in
the course of a normal conversation with strangers? Both are pretty
obnoxious.
cry me a ****ing river.

"AZ Nomad" wrote

What is worse? People talking on cell phones or people using obscenities
in
the course of a normal conversation with strangers? Both are pretty
obnoxious.

cry me a ****ing river.


Thank you for proving my point.


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com


May 12, 2008 - 5 nt New Orleans http://www.cruisemaster.com/fantasy.htm
October 26, 2008 Sleazy 5 http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy5.htm
Feb. 8, 2009 Solstice Valentine http://www.cruisemaster.com/solstice.htm

Wayne wrote:
Does anyone know what it costs for using the internet cafe on Princess?
Also, is there an additional cost if you bring your laptop and use the WiFi
wireless?

We just got off the Emerald Princess on tuesday and only used the
internet cafe on monday to check-in for our flight home. I don't know
what the cost is, but the speed was so slow it was painful.

sue

sue mullen wrote:


Wayne wrote:

Does anyone know what it costs for using the internet cafe on
Princess? Also, is there an additional cost if you bring your laptop
and use the WiFi wireless?


We just got off the Emerald Princess on tuesday and only used the
internet cafe on monday to check-in for our flight home. I don't know
what the cost is, but the speed was so slow it was painful.

sue
Dear Sue,
The speeds available from any shipboard
internet connection will often be considerably
slower than dial-up, [available bandwidth split
among present users] with the added delay because
of the satellite link.
This delay is very noticeable if you are
doing something interactive like filling out a
form; i.e. a boarding pass.
Depending on how the ship has implemented
their services, you may get higher speed up- and
down-loads when few others are using their services.
Cheers,
John in LALALand (On the Left Coast)