I’ve written before that I think the internet offering will be the next big battleground in the war between cruise operators.
When I first started sailing in earnest nearly four years ago, the internet plans on most ships were appalling. Some of them still are.
That’s why I’m happy to report that the Costa Diadema, where I am right now, on the deck 10 aft poolside lounge, has a brilliant plan. In terms of affordability, t’s second only to the rather clunky unlimited connection I got sailing to Jamaica, Haiti and back from Miami on Royal Caribbean.
Basically, I’m paying just over 100 euros for 3 gigabytes of data — which ought to do me nicely for a seven-day trip. On my last Costa cruise, on the Fortuna departing Dubai, it was nearly US$90 for two lots of three hours. Pathetic, really. I was lucky enough on that trip, however, to have access much of the time to my UAE mobile data plan.
The Diadema plan allows me to be permanently connected for social media while onboard, and to upload pictures to my website with a minimum of fuss and fairly decent speed.
I’m not sure what the others are doing, but this is the plan to beat. The only thing to make it better would be to make it cheaper (and, let’s face it, the mark-up must still be huge).
