Princess Captains Circle

>>The last time we cruised on Princess was just over three years ago. We were
>>already Platinum CC members, and really appreciated the free computer use,
>>however, there were several people there that seemed to be on the computers
>>"24/7", and sometimes it was hard to get a half hour to check and send
>>email.

> This is perfectly easy to fix without charging money for it. All you
> have to do is what the library does - limit a person to 30 minutes
> unless no one is waiting for a terminal. Works like a charm - NOT
> necessary to implement a fee.
>

I was wondering if anyone had noticed that approach. I suspect that the
line wants the money.

> I was wondering if anyone had noticed that approach. I suspect that the
> line wants the money.

Some people seem to think that the internet on a ship is something that
costs the cruise line nothing. They have to pay for someone to install
and then maintain the equipment and to maintain the software. There is
also security that must be maintained. Then after the costs no doubt
they do want to make some revenue above the costs. They are running a
business and like every aspect of your cruise they go beyond breaking
even because they would be out of business if there was no return to
the investors, the investors would withdraw their cash and move it to a
business that had a return or a higher rate of return. Just like right
now I am moving my liquid cash fund to a money market account with a
higher interest rate from the one they are currently in that has not
kept up.

--
Charles

In article <id5vs2pdek2emiku1j1266lv0u6l2qgin3@>, Rosalie B.
<gmbeasley@> wrote:

> In order to keep people from hogging the terminals, it is not
> necessary to withdraw the free internet. So since they have done so
> it is probably either that they are unwilling to do it in a nicer way,
> or else they are doing revenue enhancement.

They have not withdrawn free internet. They have capped the amount of
free internet. You get a $75 credit for internet on a seven day cruise.
And by capping it that would discourage people from hogging the
terminals. Also it would discourage people from hogging the bandwidth.
I don't know if this was a real problem but as mentioned someone
posting here bragged about using thousands of dollars of access. That
is one that this small forum knows about. It reminds me of when using
washers and dryers in the laundry room were free in a condo in this
area. One of the residents was bringing all the linens from his
restaurant to the laundry room. So they had to stop that. It only takes
a few abusers to ruin a good thing.

--
Charles

>> I was wondering if anyone had noticed that approach. I suspect that the
>> line wants the money.

> Some people seem to think that the internet on a ship is something that
> costs the cruise line nothing. They have to pay for someone to install
> and then maintain the equipment and to maintain the software. There is
> also security that must be maintained. Then after the costs no doubt
> they do want to make some revenue above the costs. They are running a
> business and like every aspect of your cruise they go beyond breaking
> even because they would be out of business if there was no return to
> the investors, the investors would withdraw their cash and move it to a
> business that had a return or a higher rate of return. Just like right
> now I am moving my liquid cash fund to a money market account with a
> higher interest rate from the one they are currently in that has not
> kept up.

These costs [hardware, software, baby-sitter] are almost nothing
compared to what the satellite time for the connection costs. If the
ship is going to remain connected "24/7" they need dedicated bandwidth
on a bird, and it has to be on a bird that covers the area they are
operating in. Satellite time is not cheap at any time, and for wide
area coverage it is even more expensive than one with just the Gulf of
Mexico.

Been there, done it, got several T-shirts.
John in LALALand (On the Left Coast where it is presently a cool 66)

> HAL I understand has no
> perks for repeaters and yet still has a loyal following.

What about that nice shiny medal they hang on your neck after sailing
100 days?

Warren

> > HAL I understand has no
> > perks for repeaters and yet still has a loyal following.
>
> What about that nice shiny medal they hang on your neck after sailing
> 100 days?

Is that not the funniest thing? You see people strutting around the
ship, proudly wearing the "medal" that they "earned" for buying
cruises. I just wanna shake 'em and say, " do you know how many
thousands of $$ you spent to "achieve" this "honor"? I don't get it at
all...passengers PAY for those 100 days...they're being recognized for
spending enough $$?

I'd like to see more of a frequent flyer-style program with
cruiselines. Earn enough "miles" get free cruises.

Lee