What Happens If You Don T Put Your Phone On Airplane Mode On A Cruise
If you dont put your phone on airplane mode on a cruise, it will continue to try to connect to cellular networks, even though you are far out to sea. This can result in high roaming charges depending on your network in addition to a significant drain on your battery. Nothing wears out a phone batter faster than not having any bars.
Some cruise lines will let you connect your cell phone to their networks as well and even offer packages for this, but its usually very expensive and I dont typically recommend it.
The Next Best Thing To Disconnecting
As much as I would have loved to have completely disconnected during our familys cruise, it just wasnt possible. Im grateful that there is an option to connect onboard. I found reception to be better at the ports.
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It was also fun to post a few things on Facebook and Instagram and have people comment on their experience with Disney Cruise Line. They gave me suggestions on what to eat and activities to do on the ship. Sometimes connecting at sea isnt so bad, mateys.
Would I love it even more if the internet on Disney Cruise Line was free? Absolutely! While a little pricey, it was worth it for my needs.
Great news, fellow Avengers fans! Now Disney Cruise Line is offering Avengers Day at Sea cruises! Sherry, Melodious SheBuysTravel shares all the details with you. Bon voyage!
Disney Cruise Internet Plan Purchase Process
You can initiate the purchase process by launching the Disney Cruise Navigator App, selecting the MORE tab, and clicking on the Connect to Internet option. Alternatively, you can visit onboardicafe.com when connected to DCL-GUEST. Please note, the link only works when connected to the ships WiFi network.
Below is a video showing the process of signing up and purchasing a Disney Cruise Line internet plan.
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Find The Best Disney Cruise
Why should I book a Disney cruise?
If you’re looking for an unforgettable vacation, Disney cruises are a perfect choice. Disney is one of the best cruise lines in the industry, with a successful history of providing excellent service and luxurious experiences. The Disney cruise vacations take you to some of the world’s most beautiful and fascinating destinations. Theyre sure to have features to please everyone in your group.
How to find the best Disney cruise deals?
There are many different Disney cruise deals to choose from depending on your destination and the experiences you would most like to enjoy. These deals let you include additional features for a lower price to make your vacation even more comfortable. You can find the best deals by searching for your destinations, and filtering by your desired cruise lines. This way only the companies you wish to travel with will appear. You can also sort your results by price and length of time.
How to choose your cruise with Disney?
If you want to book aDisney cruise there are plenty of amazing Disney cruise deals available. Add your destination, cruise vacation, and number of travelers. Then you can sort your results by price, duration, and departure date. You can also filter by cruise line, cruise ship and cabin type. Youll find different amenities to suit your vacation needs on each Disney cruise. For example, youth programs, fitness facilities, and spa facilities.
When is the best time to book a Disney cruise?
Disney Cruise Wifi Cost
As of November 2019, wifi on the pay-as-you-go package is 25 cents per megabyte. If you are not certain how much wifi you will use, this could be a good starter. You have the option of purchasing a package at any time.
A small data package of 100MB is available for $19. This would be the optimal choice for someone that still wants to stay connected by checking email every so often.
The medium package provides 300MB for $39. If you plan on posting your vacation photos to Facebook or Instagram, this plan may be for you.
If you need to do more data-intensive work, the 1000MB plan at $89 would be your best choice. Data can be shared, so if there are several of you that want to stay connected, this plan may be sufficient.
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Disney Cruise Premium Surf
This is $30 per person per day
Experience faster connection speeds and access to music platforms such as Pandora, Spotify and Apple Music plus, all the benefits of the Basic Surf plan. With this plan, you can:
- Enjoy faster connection speeds
- Make video phone calls on platforms FaceTime, Zoom and more
- Listen to your favorite music streaming platforms like Pandora, Spotify and Apple Music
- View short-form on platforms like YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok
- Surf the web, read the news, check the weather and visit your other favorite websites
- Send and receive emails
The Premium Surf plan does not support long-form video streaming platforms such as Netfilx and Hulu.
Guests will be able to select the number of devices that they wish to add to the package.
You can choose if you have a one day package or a multi day package.
There dont appear to be discounts for multi day packages.
However, there are discounts for multiple devices in one stateroom.
For instance the Stay Connected Plan Prices:
This is for a 7 day cruise.
Cell Phone Usage On A Disney Cruise
You can direct dial, receive phone calls, or text anywhere in the world right from your stateroom. Ship-to-shore rates apply and will be posted in your stateroom.
Cell phone service is also available through most major providers The ship must be 12 miles out to sea before you can access cell service. NOTE THAT SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE STATEROOMS. Common areas will not have cell access.
Disney recommends that you contact your cell provider prior to sailing. They can advise what is needed to arrange for access. Pricing varies depending on your wireless provider and international roaming fees will be billed to your account.
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A Word Of Caution About Cruise Line Wi
Certain apps, a variety of service options, port of call, and destinations along your cruise can all impact the internet service on a ship.
If these services and having access to friends, coworkers, work, or even social media feeds are important to you, do your research before embarking as not all cruise lines have given their online services the same consideration.
More Disney Cruise Wi
- Take a Walk: Its easy to find free Wi-Fi when youre in port. Usually just going a few blocks can get you to a store or restaurant thats looking to attract customers looking for Wi-Fi.
- Your Data Plan: When youre in port or even near land, within a reasonable distance, you should switch over from Wi-Fi to your phones data plan. The only thing about this is that roaming rates will apply if youre outside the range of your carriers limits.
- Maximize Speed: The internet on Disney Cruises is, like the internet on any cruise, notoriously slow. So, if youre planning to check emails or do anything that youd like to see load quickly, you should wait until off-peak times. That may be 1am or before 10am, but if its your priority, give it a try.
- Push Notifications: Like with iMessage, you can recieve free push notifications. So, if you have push notifications set up, you can receive them without incurring charges.
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My #1 Hack To Get Free Wi
Its not really free Wi-Fi, so let me clarify. What you can do is use iMessage on an Apple device to send and receive BLUE messages. Those are only the messages that go between two Apple products. This is reported to be because iMessage is a backdoor that Apple uses that acts as push notifications on both ends, keeping Disney from being able to charge for the Wi-Fi usage.
In order to use this method, simply put your iPhone in airplane mode and turn on the Wi-Fi. When you send messages to another iPhone, you should not be charged for internet usage.
Price: Starting At $15 Per Day
Cunard recently upgraded the hardware, software and access points across its fleet to improve Wi-Fi service for guests and crew. The newly upgraded plans can be purchased on board by logging onto the ships Wi-Fi and going to the My Voyage app.
The Essential Internet plan is priced at $20 per day when bought on a day-by-day basis, or $15 per day for the entire voyage. This option allows you to browse the internet, send and receive emails, stream music and stay connected on social media platforms via text and photos.
The Premium Internet plan includes video streaming and a three times faster connection speed than the Essential plan. The cost for this option is $30 per day, or $20 per day for the whole voyage.
The pricing for either plan is for one device at a time, and these plans can be purchased at any time during your sailing. If you want to connect to the internet using two devices at once, you can purchase an additional plan with a 10% discount.
Cunard World Club Members may be eligible to receive credit toward internet on the ships: $45 per person for Gold members $80 per person for Platinum members and $135 per person for Diamond members.
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Norwegian Cruise Lines Wifi Packages
Norwegians services onboard are offered in internet cafes onboard, with some stateroom access on certain ships. Laptop rentals, email access, and other items for this coverage can be found on their website, but for those needed streaming services or more robust coverage for work, you must take a hard look at this one before booking.
Unlimited Wi-Fi Package 1 device is $25.50/day when purchased prior to your cruise. This allows you to browse websites, use social media apps , and access email .
Unlimited Premium Wi-Fi Package 1 device is 34.99/day when purchased prior to your cruise. This allows access to streaming sites, like YouTube, Netflix, etc. as well as if you need to use a VPN to access your email.
Unlimited Social Media Wi-Fi 1 device 12.50/day when purchased prior to your cruise allows access to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, but not TikTok.
Norwegian also has an option where you can purchase 250 minutes of internet for use any time during your cruise for the price of $105.00 if purchased in advance of your cruise. If you want to purchase it onboard, it will be $125 plus a $3.95 activation fee. It can be used only on one device at at time.
NCL offers different perks on different cruises, so many bookings come with some complimentary minutes of internet and its easy to upgrade your package once on board.
What Types Of Wi
Larger mainstream cruise lines typically have several plans available for purchase, with the cheaper plans only supporting email and texting and the pricier plans allowing streaming and Wi-Fi calling. Most upscale and luxury cruise lines offer a complimentary basic Wi-Fi plan that you can upgrade if you need a faster connection.
Before purchasing a plan, consider how much time youll be online, how many devices you need to connect and how much speed youll need. If all you want to do is check emails or send texts, you may not need to spend additional money on an upgraded plan at all. Most cruise lines, but not all of them, let you use a one-device plan across multiple devices as long as youre only logged in to one at a time.
Note that you do not need a cruise ship Wi-Fi plan to access the free services such as ordering food or checking the daily schedule on a cruise lines app.
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New Internet Packages Available Now On The Disney Fantasy
When the Disney Wish set sail last month, we learned that the Premium Surf package on board provided a fairly decent connection starting at $30 per day.
Were happy to report today that similar internet packages are now available aboard the Disney Fantasy as well.
The pricing structure is a little higher for the seven-night voyage on the Fantasy with the Stay Connected package starting from $12 per day, the Basic Surf package starting from $24 per day, and the Premium Surf package starting from $36 per day. The packages on the Wish were priced beginning at $10, $20, and $30 respectively.
When youre choosing the internet package youd like, you have the option of paying for 24 hours at a time or selecting internet for the entire voyage. We should also note that these prices are for one device. As you add additional devices, the cost goes up as you can see in the charts below. Its also important to note that the pricing appears to be different depending on your individual cruise as well as which Disney ship you are sailing on.
Well keep you posted as the new internet packages are rolled out to Disneys other ships.
Starlink On Cruise Ships
Starlink could be a game-changer when it comes to internet on a cruise ship. Operated by SpaceX, this revolutionary satellite internet service that has the potential to bring high-speed internet access to millions of people around the world who currently do not have reliable connectivity. And now its being implemented by cruise lines. By using a network of low Earth orbit satellites, Starlink aims to provide fast and affordable internet to just about anywhere on the planet. On cruise ships sailing all around the world passengers will be able to get online with speeds never dreams of at sea before.
In an effort to improve their reputation for unreliable Wi-Fi, cruise lines are turning to Starlink, a high-speed broadband internet service developed by SpaceX. Hurtigruten Expeditions has already equipped its entire fleet with Starlink, and other cruise companies like Norwegian and Royal Caribbean are also adopting the technology. Even luxury line SeaDream Yacht Club has added Starlink to their ships.
These are the beginning stages of this technology on cruise ships, so stay tuned to see how this effects both price and performance of Wi-Fi at sea.
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Other Ways To Access The Internet On A Disney Cruise
The Wi-Fi packages are great for use on sea days, but when you are in port, there are other options that will allow you to get online, without these plans.
Many service providers offer international plans for around $10 a day, which is a great option for use for port days. You will want to check with your own carrier to see what is provided.
If you are looking for free Wi-Fi on a Disney Cruise port day, there are many cafes that are close to the ship that offer free wifi to their customers. This is a great option if you just want to check your email quickly when you get off the ship.
Occasionally, some phones will randomly work at some ports. For example, on one of our cruises, my phone did not work in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, but it worked a couple of days later on St. Thomas. But my husbands phone did not work in either port, so your mileage may vary.
Pro Tips For Using Cruise Ship Wi
Before booking your cruise, look for promotions and deals that include basic Wi-Fi. If you cant get cruise ship internet included, dont wait to purchase your internet package until youre on board: Its usually less expensive to purchase Wi-Fi packages before sailing. Buying a package for the entire cruise is typically a better deal than the daily rate.
Keep your phone on airplane mode when youre on the ship to avoid roaming charges and other fees. Satellite roaming fees are much higher than you realize.
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To find the strongest Wi-Fi signal on the ship, download a network analyzer like NetSpot.
If you dont need to stay connected while on board, head into port and find a restaurant, bar or a mall with free Wi-Fi. Ask crew members on the ship about the best places for free Wi-Fi in port they often know. Or, use apps like WiFi Map that show you locations of nearby hotspots when youre in port.
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If youre struggling to upload photos on a sea day when everyone is on board and online, wait until folks are off the ship in port to try again. Early morning and late at night when people are sleeping are also good times to find faster connections.
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What Is A Disney Cruise Wave Phone
Disney Cruise Wave Phones are phones that are left in your stateroom that you can use to call other rooms, text other Wave Phones onboard , and contact the Cast Members onboard for things like room service and other needs.
It is similar to a hotel room phone, but it also gives you the functionality of text and its mobile.
You are not tied to the room with the Wave Phone. Additionally, you are provided with two phones at no cost but, for an additional fee, you can request additional Wave Phones for your party.
If you are ready to head to your Disney Cruise and want to surf the internet along with the waves, you have to have this guide to Disney Cruise Internet in your back pocket. Now go get out on the waves and enjoy your cruise!