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New Wifi packages


Silver Spectre
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We are departing a 10day Baltic Sea trip in a week 1/2. Superexcited, but I have a couple of tech questions that relate to this thread. The SS cabin $10/minute to call home isn’tgoing to cut it. Verizon (onboard) is $2.99/minute. I have several VOIP /softphone options, but couldn’t get a solid answer from the (nice) SS customerservice representative I just called. He said one place said, “Skype is blocked” “another said “it wasn’t”. He didn’t know the answers from the following:

 

Does SS Whisper block phone / communication applications like, Skype, Vonage,Fonality? Or do they just throttlebandwidth? What is the most used digital communications method (ie: NOT $2.99/minute ;)

 

Do they block any IP addresses? I’m confident some of the USA SS cruisershave accessed corporate VPNs?

 

It sounds like bandwidth and intermittent spotty accessmight make all of the above mute points.. but I’m just trying to figure outwhat techno-reality I can truly expect on the Whisper (shhhhhhh....) 😊

 

Thank you for the information!

 

Just recently returned from this area and did the usual: while within sight of land our T-mobile simple plan allows free reduced data at 3G and free texting. Phone calls at 20 cents US per minute. Just remember to turn the data off or put it in airplane mode while at sea.

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Just recently returned from this area and did the usual: while within sight of land our T-mobile simple plan allows free reduced data at 3G and free texting. Phone calls at 20 cents US per minute. Just remember to turn the data off or put it in airplane mode while at sea.

 

Thx for the info. Our carrier is Verizon. You can pay $40/ 1 month Int'l package that allows 100 minutes voice, 100 outgoing texts and unlimited incoming texts (above those numbers, it's $2.99/minute voice, .50cents outgoing texts, .05cent <<incoming text).

 

We have unlimited *wifi / data with our 10 day cruise package... so we can turn off phone/data roaming on our phones / verizon and use the ship to shore internet connection. That's why I'm trying to see what non-cellular calling solutions SS cruisers are using.

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With a decent internet connection wifi calling will work okay if your phone has that feature, i.e., IPhone 6 or 7. The $40 Verizon international plan does not cover service on the ship while at sea. You need to have a land connection from an authorized local wireless provider, not the ships system. I used to use Skye but have had trouble lately connecting unless the internet connection is prestine. So most time it will be difficult to establish a clean connection over the ship wifi with Skype.

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Currently understand that there is 100MB available for the Wind guest internet, achieved just under 2MB this afternoon in Bergen using the standard daily free minutes.

 

That should be enough to give skype access if not blocked or VPN doesnt bypass. I didnt do a sped test in march on the wind, but it was defintely above that. (I was able to stream video - CCTV and Sky TV)

 

Further to the above comments regarding using Cell phone allowances, its probably worth mentioning that for now anyway (while the UK is still in the EU), roaming charges no longer apply and you can use your contracted minutes and data allowances inside the EU. Its worthwhile checking the details out - and its also worthwhile checking for a SIM only month sim could be purchased inside the EU for cruisers embark on a Med cruise, that could be used to give a cheap data source. (You can probably acquire via ebay I suspect too!)

 

The caveat applies of course..... when not in port, turn off roaming or risk "Maritime" charges. I had several texts last week warning of £3 per MB ..... luckily I wasn't streaming a film at the time! lol It would seem no charges were applied either so been fortunate.

 

Its something worth looking into anyway.

 

https://freesim.vodafone.co.uk/ Vodafone will give you 12GB for £30 to use in the EU

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Silversea have bought the package company wide and as such set the bandwidth per ship but they also vary depending on the time of day.

Wait a minute here, Les. This "package" we're talking about; are we talking about satellite time? Are you saying that all the SS ships are sharing the same satellite time package? That actually makes a lot of sense.

 

I don't think they've implemented the idea all that well, but the idea is reasonable.

 

-- Rick

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Wait a minute here, Les. This "package" we're talking about; are we talking about satellite time? Are you saying that all the SS ships are sharing the same satellite time package? That actually makes a lot of sense.

 

 

 

I don't think they've implemented the idea all that well, but the idea is reasonable.

 

 

 

-- Rick

 

 

 

That is precisely what they said to me in March on the Wind (by the Cruise consultant.... who had been moaning about the ships network connectivity.) At the time the satellite service we got was excellent, though it appears that was the end of the trial and hasn't been great since.

 

The concept does sound a good idea. Satellite internet is expensive, so managing bandwidth based on times and locations between all ships certainly is a cost effective way of maximising what's been paid for.

 

I don't know if they've changed things since March on the way they manage this. I didn't think to ask on the Muse last week.

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One thing that has been a boon to those who found out, the two workstations next to the Library are completely open, so posting and email can be done without exhausting the free minutes.

 

Les, did the Muse have any workstations and a printer?

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One thing that has been a boon to those who found out, the two workstations next to the Library are completely open, so posting and email can be done without exhausting the free minutes.

 

Les, did the Muse have any workstations and a printer?

 

I honestly didn't look so can't help out on that. I'm fairly sure it does though, but can't say for definite. I'm starting to go through photos now, so will check to see if I visited the room. It doesn't ring a bell though.

 

I do know they printed a few documents for someone in guest services though.

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It is fairly obvious to me that if some of the information provided to SS customers is accurate, then SS are trying to "big up" the challenges and costs of providing decent internet connections via satellite.

 

These services were expensive and slow when first introduced. It really isn't anywhere near as true today. Unlike land based internet providers, the market for satellite ISPs is international. To give an idea of the sorts of charges SS might have to pay, it is currently possible to buy a corporate package ie to be shared by a whole corporation that provides 30mbps download and 6mbps upload, shared across the whole fleet that would cover all passengers using it for the free basic emails etc for £840 monthly fee. That is the largest monthly package on offer. The cap on that plan is the largest and set at 500gb of data which is much more than is required for the basic free offering. It wouldn't be enough for the costly package. 100gb cap which I believe would be more than adequate for all emails is just £180 monthly for the fleet. Obviously more would be paid for more data. But that is more than adequatley covered with extremely good profit by their charges.

 

The costs and difficulties of providing these services seems to me to have been grossly over-egged.

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I honestly didn't look so can't help out on that. I'm fairly sure it does though, but can't say for definite. I'm starting to go through photos now, so will check to see if I visited the room. It doesn't ring a bell though.

 

I do know they printed a few documents for someone in guest services though.

 

Cheers Les.

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  • 2 months later...
Somewhat shocked to find that the wifi setup on the Wind is both completely new and no longer matches what we have had for the last year or so.

 

There is still one hour per guest per day free BUT minutes are no longer accumulated for the voyage, any unused minutes expire at midnight and there is no mechanism for tracking how much you have used unless you log out.

 

The instructions state that disconnecting your wifi also logs you out, but it doesn't. There are no detailed instructions for using the system in the suites.

 

The portal page has disappeared and there are no longer streaming movies available via the internet (to be replaced by the new interactive TV system - but its not installed yet on the Wind).

 

If you need more than 1 hour of wifi, then there is a premium unlimited package, $39 per day (!!!!!) or $437 for a 17 day voyage.

 

Unlimited standard wifi is $25 per day or $300 for a 17 day voyage.

 

Pretty unimpressed with this and cannot see it being anything other than another money making opportunity for SS.

 

So far have seen many guests either confused by this new system at reception or complaining about it.

 

Oh and the online instructions that show on the new login page are still for the previous system.

 

Thanks for the details i was just looking and think it's outrageous, perhaps we should all start complaining via emails, letters and social media (that's recently worked re Silver Muse, i started it!!) Silversea are dropping small things and this is obviuosly another sneaky cost cutting! They really should think things through before implimenting them &then take notice of those who matter, us!!

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