Cunard Internet QM2 Transatlantic

Hello,

How reliable is the internet service on a transatlantic cruise NYC to Southampton?

Astonishing bad and Cunard lags behind their competition in this area - at least that was the case last December. While shipboard wifi penetration was improved, the internet speed could be horrible at times and almost as bad as old dial-up service. This could be true even in the library or in Conexxions where the computers are running on ethernet cable rather than going through a wifi router. The worst times to connect are the prime email checking times which is after breakfast and before dinner. During first sitting dinner the speed was OK as most of the ship was dining rather than browsing.

Unless something has changed recently, be prepared to compose and read emails off line. Connect only to download and send.

Astonishing bad and Cunard lags behind their competition in this area - at least that was the case last December. While shipboard wifi penetration was improved, the internet speed could be horrible at times and almost as bad as old dial-up service. This could be true even in the library or in Conexxions where the computers are running on ethernet cable rather than going through a wifi router. The worst times to connect are the prime email checking times which is after breakfast and before dinner. During first sitting dinner the speed was OK as most of the ship was dining rather than browsing.

 

Unless something has changed recently, be prepared to compose and read emails off line. Connect only to download and send.

Thanks for the information

On my TA last fall,I found the internet speed seemed faster in the Corinthia Lounge than in Connexions, for what it's worth.

We boarded the QM2 for a crossing on June 7 (very recent), and sadly I can completely confirm BlueRiband's post. The speed and availability were pathetic. There are routers at regular intervals in the hallways, but still i often had to leave our cabin and stand out in the hallway, holding my laptop up in the air to the router just to be able to log in. Forget about doing anything complex that required band width! I did travel 8 decks down to Connexiions to get marginally better speed, but even that was horrible and sometimes didn't work at all. In a few words, I hate to pay for a service that I don't receive.

While shipboard wifi penetration was improved, the internet speed could be horrible at times and almost as bad as old dial-up service.

;)

(But seriously, offline reading & posting is a good idea especially if you're paying for access or dealing with a Gold CWC allotment.)

On my TA last fall,I found the internet speed seemed faster in the Corinthia Lounge than in Connexions, for what it's worth.

Thank you

We boarded the QM2 for a crossing on June 7 (very recent), and sadly I can completely confirm BlueRiband's post. The speed and availability were pathetic. There are routers at regular intervals in the hallways, but still i often had to leave our cabin and stand out in the hallway, holding my laptop up in the air to the router just to be able to log in. Forget about doing anything complex that required band width! I did travel 8 decks down to Connexiions to get marginally better speed, but even that was horrible and sometimes didn't work at all. In a few words, I hate to pay for a service that I don't receive.

Great tip thanks

It would be helpful if reports of good/poor reception in staterooms included information regarding the stateroom location. I generally have had few reception issues on QM2 in a deck 5 BZ sheltered balcony. As reported, speed is often a separate issue but that can be helped by using the service at times when few other passengers are trying to use bandwidth.

It would be helpful if reports of good/poor reception in staterooms included information regarding the stateroom location. I generally have had few reception issues on QM2 in a deck 5 BZ sheltered balcony. As reported, speed is often a separate issue but that can be helped by using the service at times when few other passengers are trying to use bandwidth.

OK, in response to your post. We were in 10086, toward the back of the ship. Very, very frequently the signal was so bad in our cabin and we could not even log in. Thus I would go out into the corridor and hold my laptop up to the router and wait to be connected. This happened even at midnight when one would expect that most users were sound asleep. We seldom tried to do anything other than read email, respond to email or check some basic on-line info such as our bank accounts or credit card accounts. It was just plain bad.

Wifi reception may be dependent on the strength of your transmitter/receiver. I kept an old XP laptop, scrubbed of most personal information, as a travel machine and have never had any wifi connectivity issues anywhere on the ship. Yet I've often observed tablet users sitting on the stairway steps - presumably because they could not get a signal in their stateroom.

I had similar issues with WiFi reception on QV in 2011 or 2012 (I don't remember which trip but probably it was 2012) and found in that case the best reception local to my room was sitting on the stairs near the elevator lobby.

Yes, I think the plethora of antennae and access points makes access far more complicated than in years past. For what it's worth, on our TAs last year and this past May, we had no complaints of access availability in our sheltered balcony cabins on 5 Forward 5048, 5053 (I believe). While I primarily used my laptop (a year-old Mac) an old iPad had good connectivity as well.

Besides slow speed, the ship lost connectivity through the satellite on a few occasions (it happens). At one time, it went down just as I was logging in. Later, I noticed that there were 20-some minutes charged. A quick visit to Connexions that afternoon easily got them re-credited.

Wifi reception may be dependent on the strength of your transmitter/receiver. I kept an old XP laptop, scrubbed of most personal information, as a travel machine and have never had any wifi connectivity issues anywhere on the ship. Yet I've often observed tablet users sitting on the stairway steps - presumably because they could not get a signal in their stateroom.

Thanks for your post, BlueRiband! In my case, I was using a 6-month old MacBook with very little stored on the hard drive. I wish I could report better ability to connect, but my experience was very, very bad. Certainly did not ruin the crossing, but as I wrote above, I hate to pay for a service that I did not receive.

It's terrible and they shouldn't charge what they do for it!

The charges aren't out of line compared to other ships using the same generation technology.

I'm staying on deck 6 towards the back near the D staircase and it's not too bad in my room, a little slow but usuable. This morning around 6:30 I even managed to stream a live TV show from back home with no dropouts at all. It's not cheap though.

Hello,

How reliable is the internet service on a transatlantic cruise NYC to Southampton?

Was on the July 21 crossing, it was OK on days 1, 6, 7 and terrible the rest of the time.