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Soda package price increase in 2019


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Checked my bookings and I see beginning with the 2019 sailings I have booked, the soda package is priced at $9.99 (2018 cruises still have it for $8.50).

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This was from Mariner of the Seas in March 2019.

Not sure if it's fleetwide or which sailings are actually affected.

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On 6/1/2018 at 4:57 PM, twangster said:

14 nights @ $19.99 - $280 for internet.  Yikes!

There goes the live blogs...

You can't back out now! You are booked on every single ship!  We will have to start making BOT @twangster donations for your VOOM! Heck, all the money we are spending booking cruises this weekend it's the least we can do!!  We'll hold an @twangster fundraiser!!?

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1 hour ago, Boston Babe said:

You can't back out now! You are booked on every single ship!  We will have to start making BOT @twangster donations for your VOOM! Heck, all the money we are spending booking cruises this weekend it's the least we can do!!  We'll hold an @twangster fundraiser!!?

 

1 hour ago, hayley_bopp said:

Quick! Someone start a crowdfunding page: @twangster on a cruise with no live blogging doesn't bear thinking about!

He needs a @twangsterbot Patreon account ASAP especially since some of those 2019 cruises are more exotic ones!!

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On 6/1/2018 at 3:57 PM, twangster said:

And Voom at $17.99 to $19.99 for many of my 2019 sailings!

(pictures)

14 nights @ $19.99 - $280 for internet.  Yikes!

There goes the live blogs...

I work in the offshore construction industry, and we have several large vessels (saturation diving boats, utility boats, and pipe-lay barges).  In today's world, we need to maintain internet access for email, business programs and phones.  So, for us to have approximately 1.5MB - not gigs, but megs, costs us around 15,000 per month.  Each additional megabyte is around another 5k on top of that per month.  Now, our boats will have about 300 personnel for a job (sometimes more).   Half are on duty at any one time, working 12 hour shifts.  that means we may have, say, 75 people trying to use up that 1.5 megs using facebook, emailing, streaming, etc.  It just doesn't work.  When you add the phones and critical business systems on that 1.5 megs, the usable internet for the off-duty personnel has about 300K to play with, which means that each person is getting basically no connection. 

Now, scale this up for a cruise ship.  You will have hundreds of people trying to play candy crush, social media, or stream music.  In order to allow for this many people to have decent access over a sat connection, it would cost hundreds of thousands per month.

The lesson i suppose, is that we should just unplug from the outside world for a week...isn't that what vacation is for?

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16 minutes ago, georgeh said:

The lesson i suppose, is that we should just unplug from the outside world for a week...isn't that what vacation is for?

Yes and no.  Have you gone through one of @twangster's live blogs?  It's a learning experience!  Not just his, but every one of them.  If people did not take the time to live blog, we all lose out.  Just like we all learn and gain valuable info for our own sailings when people take time out of their vacation to do so.  Not everyone wants to do it and that's fine, but the ones that do, many thanks!

Sorry, that was off topic from the soda package.  

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Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Yes and no.  Have you gone through one of @twangster's live blogs?  It's a learning experience!  Not just his, but every one of them.  If people did not take the time to live blog, we all lose out.  Just like we all learn and gain valuable info for our own sailings when people take time out of their vacation to do so.  Not everyone wants to do it and that's fine, but the ones that do, many thanks!

Sorry, that was off topic from the soda package.  

while live blogs are cool, you can always post when you get home.  imho.

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2 minutes ago, georgeh said:

Now, scale this up for a cruise ship.  You will have hundreds of people trying to play candy crush, social media, or stream music.  In order to allow for this many people to have decent access over a sat connection, it would cost hundreds of thousands per month.

The lesson i suppose, is that we should just unplug from the outside world for a week...isn't that what vacation is for?

Satellite rates are without doubt, much higher than domestic rates, but they aren't increasing.  With increasing satellite providers leveraging low earth orbiting constellations rates are actually coming down.  Yet Voom has increased 40% in one year, while other cruise lines using the same provider are rolling out much less expensive internet options. 

Each of us vacation differently.  The purpose of a cruise is not to disconnect from the world.  I suppose if someone cruises once every few years they can pursue that option.  For someone who cruises once every few weeks or months a cruise isn't about disconnecting from the world, rather living for brief periods of time on a ship. 

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Just now, twangster said:

Satellite rates are without doubt, much higher than domestic rates, but they aren't increasing.  With increasing satellite providers leveraging low earth orbiting constellations rates are actually coming down.  Yet Voom has increased 40% in one year, while other cruise lines using the same provider are rolling out much less expensive internet options. 

Each of us vacation differently.  The purpose of a cruise is not to disconnect from the world.  I suppose if someone cruises once every few years they can pursue that option.  For someone who cruises once every few weeks or months a cruise isn't about disconnecting from the world, rather living for brief periods of time on a ship. 

i guess you guys are right...but i'm a programmer, and i welcome the chance to unplug ?

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Just now, georgeh said:

i guess you guys are right...but i'm a programmer, and i welcome the chance to unplug ?

Nothing wrong with that, it's your choice. 

Some people could care less what TV channels are provided on a ship as they don't watch TV.  For other's it is important to them.

I don't drink soda so the price trends of soda packages are interesting to observe but have no impact to me, much like the price of internet packages have no bearing on some cruisers.

With several thousand people on ship you can expect a wide diversity of likes and dislikes.  No one way is right or wrong, to each their own. 

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1 hour ago, georgeh said:

I work in the offshore construction industry, and we have several large vessels (saturation diving boats, utility boats, and pipe-lay barges).  In today's world, we need to maintain internet access for email, business programs and phones.  So, for us to have approximately 1.5MB - not gigs, but megs, costs us around 15,000 per month.  Each additional megabyte is around another 5k on top of that per month.  Now, our boats will have about 300 personnel for a job (sometimes more).   Half are on duty at any one time, working 12 hour shifts.  that means we may have, say, 75 people trying to use up that 1.5 megs using facebook, emailing, streaming, etc.  It just doesn't work.  When you add the phones and critical business systems on that 1.5 megs, the usable internet for the off-duty personnel has about 300K to play with, which means that each person is getting basically no connection. 

Now, scale this up for a cruise ship.  You will have hundreds of people trying to play candy crush, social media, or stream music.  In order to allow for this many people to have decent access over a sat connection, it would cost hundreds of thousands per month.

The lesson i suppose, is that we should just unplug from the outside world for a week...isn't that what vacation is for?

I totally agree unplug 

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25 minutes ago, twangster said:

With several thousand people on ship you can expect a wide diversity of likes and dislikes.  No one way is right or wrong, to each their own. 

 

31 minutes ago, georgeh said:

i guess you guys are right...but i'm a programmer, and i welcome the chance to unplug ?

I work in IT also, on call 24x7x365, so when I go on a cruise I turn my cell phone off and it goes in the safe, my wife on the other hand has to have her Facebook and Candy Crush, so i usually buy 1 Voom and then when we are in port I will turn my cell on to make sure my office hasn't burnt down.

This summer I will have my 11 YO grandson with me, so I will be buying 2 Voom packages, his Mom is already having separation anxiety and bought him a brand new phone to take on the cruise.

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On 6/1/2018 at 4:57 PM, twangster said:

And Voom at $17.99 to $19.99 for many of my 2019 sailings!

14 nights @ $19.99 - $280 for internet.  Yikes!

There goes the live blogs...

At those prices, I don't blame you.  I don't think we'll be bothering with shipboard Internet unless we do something with a lot of sea days again.  We get free data & texting at most of the destinations, so that'll be good enough for us.

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The soda price increase will prob stop me from getting for my teen... waste of money.   I have never gotten the voom before. But we are going on a 12 day next year in Europe.   I'm trying to decide if I will get it for the dropbox if nothing else... all these pics on my phone.   I hate trying to figure out what I have data wise with sprint and how to set up my free data in other countries.   But...if voom and deluxe drink pkgs are battling for purchase, voom may lose lol.  Question...off topic but sorta relevant.   Can you get the drink pkg and voom combo for 1 person in the room,  and only the drink pkg for the other person?   We would definitely not need 2 devices at the same time.   Jane

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19 minutes ago, mom2mybugs said:

...  Question...off topic but sorta relevant.   Can you get the drink pkg and voom combo for 1 person in the room,  and only the drink pkg for the other person?   We would definitely not need 2 devices at the same time.   Jane

Yes, you can do one and one. But you have to call.

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1 hour ago, mom2mybugs said:

I'm trying to decide if I will get it for the dropbox if nothing else...

Get an external memory drive for your phone, that's what I did for my wife, on one end it has a plug for the phone and the other end is USB so you can plug it in to a PC when we get back.

Actually I think I did it more for her iPad instead of her phone, pad doesn't have much storage.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LSBMH1Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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21 hours ago, tiny260 said:

Get an external memory drive for your phone, that's what I did for my wife, on one end it has a plug for the phone and the other end is USB so you can plug it in to a PC when we get back.

Actually I think I did it more for her iPad instead of her phone, pad doesn't have much storage.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LSBMH1Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have a big external harddrive but won't take it on vacation for fear of something happening to all its pics.   Not planning on taking my laptop because it's big.  I have a memory card for the tablet... wonder if I have one already in my phone...I did on my last one...hmmm! Jane

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/6/2018 at 1:28 PM, tiny260 said:

Get an external memory drive for your phone, that's what I did for my wife, on one end it has a plug for the phone and the other end is USB so you can plug it in to a PC when we get back.

Actually I think I did it more for her iPad instead of her phone, pad doesn't have much storage.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LSBMH1Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For once it's not Twangster spending my money!  LOL  Definitely going to look into this.  My phone kept coming up as full on my last cruise.  I have a 12 nighter coming up later this year and was not looking forward to emptying all my photos from it. 

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On 6/6/2018 at 1:28 PM, tiny260 said:

Get an external memory drive for your phone, that's what I did for my wife, on one end it has a plug for the phone and the other end is USB so you can plug it in to a PC when we get back.

Actually I think I did it more for her iPad instead of her phone, pad doesn't have much storage.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LSBMH1Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Can you choose just certain photos to move, or does it just automatically copy all photos? 

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O.M.G.   That is the problem with society.  UNPLUG and   enjoy life.    Life is too short.    Can you even remember how it was without a wireless society?????    I do as I  spent 38 years with MA BELL.     We shut off the cell phones and if their is an emergency the ship will tell us.  I admire Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban as they have never texted each other in 12 years.  

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On 6/5/2018 at 3:34 PM, georgeh said:

 

The lesson i suppose, is that we should just unplug from the outside world for a week...isn't that what vacation is for?

Completely agree. When we went away we put our phones in the safe and that’s where they stayed for 2 weeks, it  was a refreshing change not to hear the OH going on about what’s happening on Facebook, and I honestly didn’t miss my phone. The only thing my daughter used hers for was to take pictures.

As for these price hikes, I’m not sure where it’s going to end, it’s not as if the rises are slight increases, 20% ? 

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On 6/5/2018 at 11:11 AM, twangster said:

With several thousand people on ship you can expect a wide diversity of likes and dislikes.  No one way is right or wrong, to each their own. 

I totally agree. Some people choose to be addicted to the latest Candy Crush or Angry Birds or whatever, and others NEED to be in touch with their coworkers.

Next week I will be one of over 3 dozen relatives on the Mariner as part of a family reunion. (Some of these second-cousins I haven't seen in 50 years, and some I've never seen!) I had presumed that we would use WhatsApp to find each other and coordinate what we're doing, but a sizable number of them -- including some supposedly tethered millenials -- are planning to unplug. It will be very interesting to see how the information flows among us, and when something happens, who won't "get the memo". We'll see!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/5/2018 at 7:17 AM, monctonguy said:

SO the normal price is $12.50 which is a 40% increase?

All the more reason to purchase waaaay before sailing on the cruise planner. The price increase sucks across the board, no doubt. BUT! If you want those drink packages, now is the time to make the purchase.

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