Free 50 MB Internet data

[SCPixie]

Talk to me about the 50 MB Internet data...

-How do I claim it?
-Per person or stateroom?
-**What apps do I turn off in the background that may hog this data?
-How do I turn the apps off?
-What else do I need to know?

TIA

 

[ZerasPride]

I am no expert but I fumbled my through figuring it out on our first DCL cruise - been home about a week now. I know I accessed it from the DCL app before we left Port Canaveral and I believe it was 50 mbs for our cabin. I have an iPhone six so I put my phone in airplane mode and turned off cellular data. It worked!! I will say that I used up 38 mbs really fast when checking emails and texts but perhaps I did something wrong. I am sure someone with more experience can probably explain better.

 

[jstewartgt]

Here are a couple threads I posted in about this topic a while ago. My suggestion is to leave wifi off(or at least not logged into the internet) whenever you are not using it. I managed to keep within 50MB by only checking email a few times a day while on the Dream last year.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/internet-packages.3377565/#post-53030581

http://www.disboards.com/threads/ne...enable-before-cruising.3382925/#post-53124390

 

[RedM94]

Talk to me about the 50 MB Internet data...

-How do I claim it?
-Per person or stateroom?
-**What apps do I turn off in the background that may hog this data?
-How do I turn the apps off?
-What else do I need to know?

TIA

@SCPixie I am not an electronics expert by any means, but if you have an iPhone, you can learn from my mistake. I turned off my notifications, background app refresh, and location services on my phone.

I signed up for the free 50 mg sent a few emails and it was working great. The usage meter barely moved. I checked again a couple of hours later and the remaining free mg were all used.

It took me several minutes before I realized I forgot to turn off "My Photo Stream." I took one picture with my phone, the photo automatically uploaded to the cloud using up the remainder of the MBs.

Hope this helps.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

It's 50mb per stateroom. I'd recommend going to the Connect at Sea desk to have them check your settings to make sure all the auto update and anything using background data is turned off.

 

[TXTransplant]

The 50 MB is per cabin. You sign up online...it's very easy. I did it while we were waiting in the terminal to board. I was on a 6 day cruise, and I turned off EVERYTHING on my iphone (automatic email downloads, all app refresh, app notifications, icloud backup, imessaging, everything). The only thing I kept on was a third party texting app that I had downloaded prior. I occasionally turned on imessages to send/receive texts, but I didn't leave it on. At night, I turned on airplane mode, but I don't think this was really necessary. I did not check Facebook or email; essentially all I did was text message (with instructions to those I was texting to NOT send pictures).

I was able to make the 50 MB last the entire cruise. I think I had <5 MB left when we docked to disembark. I will say, I had better luck with the third party text-messaging app than I did imessage. For some reason, imessage would get hung up and not send text messages that I KNEW were going to another iphone (it wanted to send them as regular texts, so I kept getting error messages). I had no problems with using the messaging app, though (I used Kik, but there are plenty others out there).

When checking my data, I noticed that the average text probably used between 3-5 MB. I was not texting a whole lot. I also made sure to LOG OUT of my WiFi account when we were in ports with cell service, to be sure I wasn't using up my free WiFi when other service was available.

 

[Orsino]

The Disney Cruise App (which you should have since it actually works well) will direct you to the connect at sea website to register and log in. We didn't have to go to the Connect at Sea Desk. That was handy for us since we nearly forgot the first night and only remembered while waiting for the evening show. A few clicks here and there and we were all set.

I logged out when I wasn't using the internet and was fine, though I was only on a 4 night and didn't check email very often.

 

[MUN]

On the Wonder, I have used the terminals at the internet cafe and the 50mb per stateroom allowed me to check emails and FB through a 7 day cruise. We've had two 7 day cruises and really have enjoyed this promotion. I have never tried to use the data on a personal device.

MUN

 

[jstewartgt]

At night, I turned on airplane mode, but I don't think this was really necessary. I did not check Facebook or email; essentially all I did was text message (with instructions to those I was texting to NOT send pictures).

Airplane mode when the iphone is plugged into power is a good idea. If an ios update becomes available while you are on the cruise, the phone takes wifi+power as an indication it can download the ios update even if you have not requested it. There is no way to turn off this feature. The chances of this happening are slim, but I had it happen to me and burned through 500MB data overnight even though I had all the normal settings turned off.

 

[TXTransplant]

Airplane mode when the iphone is plugged into power is a good idea. If an ios update becomes available while you are on the cruise, the phone takes wifi+power as an indication it can download the ios update even if you have not requested it. There is no way to turn off this feature. The chances of this happening are slim, but I had it happen to me and burned through 500MB data overnight even though I had all the normal settings turned off.

Oh, yes, I forgot about those pesky iOS updates! Lucky for me, there were none during our cruise! Wouldn't logging out of your WiFi account accomplish the same thing, though? I did sometimes log-out for extended periods (including overnight), depending on whether or not I was expecting to receive a text. If you stay logged in all of the time, though, this could cause a big problem.

I do have a question, though...does anyone know if looking at your usage on the Connect at Sea mobile website use up data? During our entire cruise, I tried to figure out if checking my status used any of the 50 MB, but I couldn't tell for sure one way or the other.

 

[JTBE]

I had the free 50 mb but never used it. Only wanted it for absolute emergencies to reach family in US if needed. We used the Disney app throughout the 5 days. We turned on the phone to airplane mode and the navigator Disney app uses the Disney network which u don't pay for. Using the navigator app is free and so convenient. Texting is through the app as well.

 

[chirurgeon]

I found if you log out of your wifi account after each use, you don't burn thru the wifi. I used my 50 mb on my 4 day cruise. Haven't decided how much m paying for on the PC Repo coming up.

 

[ShelleyTaylor]

So the navigator app messaging doesn't count toward wifi?

 

[vvv]

So the navigator app messaging doesn't count toward wifi?

That is correct. You can use the App without having to sign up for any Internet Plan.

 

[CM Dad]

So the navigator app messaging doesn't count toward wifi?

Correct. You can stay connected to wifi, log out of the internet and still use the navigator app.

 

[ShelleyTaylor]

That is correct. You can use the App without having to sign up for any Internet Plan.

Correct. You can stay connected to wifi, log out of the internet and still use the navigator app.

Thank you both!!

 

[jstewartgt]

Oh, yes, I forgot about those pesky iOS updates! Lucky for me, there were none during our cruise! Wouldn't logging out of your WiFi account accomplish the same thing, though? I did sometimes log-out for extended periods (including overnight), depending on whether or not I was expecting to receive a text. If you stay logged in all of the time, though, this could cause a big problem.

I do have a question, though...does anyone know if looking at your usage on the Connect at Sea mobile website use up data? During our entire cruise, I tried to figure out if checking my status used any of the 50 MB, but I couldn't tell for sure one way or the other.

Yes, logging out of the wifi was exactly how I handled it. I didn't get the feeling checking the usage used data as I did it pretty frequently and never burned through my 50 with checking email quite a bit over our 4 nights