aviator1945

Taxi drivers have called an indefinite strike in Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Alicante, Malaga and Bilbao; other destinations may be affected at short notice.

Do all Canadian McDonald's have a maple leaf on the Golden Arches? Does any other country have an emblem on the Arches?

Haven't been everywhere, but at least as far as Europe is concerned, we haven't spotted any emblems on the McD arches.

I'll make a prediction, ping above 600ms and download of about .5 Mps.

Day 11: Final Sea Day

As we still had two free wifi days left, we decided to make the comparison between regular Surf and Surf+Stream, keeping in mind that more CC subscribers would benefit from such a comparison. We used my iPhone 7 Plus and DW’s iPhone 8 Plus. All times below are local. It should be kept in mind that Serenade of the Seas does not offer O3B service, it would not work at high latitudes like at North Cape (N70 degrees). See Biker’s post earlier in this thread.

Time: 11.06

Latitude: N57.71229

Surf: Ping 863 ms, DL 0.36 Mbps, UL 0.08 Mbps, Server Altibek Stavanger (Norway)

Surf+Stream: Ping 715 ms, DL 2.81 Mbps, UL 1.89 Mbps, Server Frontier Miami

Time: 11.14

Latitude: N57.71127

Surf: Ping 619 ms, DL 0.46 Mbps, UL 0.24 Mbps, Same server as above

Surf+Stream: Ping 691 ms, DL 2.82 Mbps,

UL 1.90 Mbps, Same server as above

Time: 12.38

Latitude: N57.69989

Surf: Ping 618 ms, DL 0.46 Mbps, UL 0.27 Mbps, Server Nygreen IT, Hirtshals (Denmark)

Surf+Stream: Ping 711 ms, DL 1.94 Mbps, UL 1.77 Mbps, Server OPX Miami.

Why the Speedtest iOS app selects nearby servers for Surf is understandable, but why the app for Surf+Stream selects servers ln North America beats me. Perhaps someone with better knowledge than I have, can explain why.

My next cruise will be a Snowbird cruise in October from Quebec to FLL on the Adventure of the Seas. Does anyone know if that ship has O3B internet?

BTW: Many thanks to Biker for his close predictions!

Day 10: Bergen

Our final port day. Latitude N60.3913. 4G performance: Ping 73 ms, download 57.0 Mbps, upload 15.4 Mbps.

Day 9: Flåm

Yet another landbased 4G day. Flåm latitude: N60.8608. Ping 68 ms, download 31.4 Mbps, upload 12.8 Mbps. Tomorrow we’ll be in Bergen, quite likely with a strong 4G signal. Day 11 will be a sea day; we still have two free wifi days and I’ll use one of them to compare with 4G.

Day 8: Ålesund

Another land-based 4G day. During the entire day, the lowest level of performance was as follows: ping 69 ms, download 13.2 Mbps, upload 4.76 Mbps. Ålesund is at latitude N62.4722, i.e. near that of southern Alaska. Tomorrow we’ll be in Flåm, in the southern Norwegian fjord country.

Day 7:

Yesterday we left Honningsvåg around 4.30 pm for our next stop, Ålesund. Less than an hour later we passed North Cape, which was really impressive. Most of our itinerary to Ålesund is oceanic, i.e. at a respectable distance from the coastline. Right now, at 11 am we are some 50 miles from Lofoten, still with a half-decent 4G signal on the port side of the ship, towards land: ping 130 ms, download 9.47 Mbps, upload 0.63 Mbps. On the starboard side, towards the ocean, there is no useful 4G signal. Ship’s wifi gives an omnidirectional signal of ping 1172 ms, download 0.42 Mbps, upload 0,06 Mbps. Current latitude is N68.481. Arrival in Ålesund tomorrow morning.

Arrival at Honningsvåg (Latitude N70.98749) around 6 am. Originally the plan had been to dock near the town center, but for reasons unknown to me we ended up being tendered to shore. Weather was barely ok for tendering (wind westerly around 15 knots, temperature around 41 degrees Fahrenheit). Today’s internet parameters for landbased 4G were ping 110 ms, download 52.1 Mbps, upload 36.9 Mbps. Didn’t check ship’s wifi since I might need the remaining three free days later during the cruise. The Honningsvåg latitude is roughly equal to that of the northern coast of Alaska. Seward, on the southern coast of Alaska, is roughly 10 degrees of latitude further south than Honningsvåg.

Around four hours after departure from Tromsø, we noted three Hurtigruten cruiseferries in close succession. Closest was ”Polarlys” (Polar Light) that we met on opposite headings, relatively near. Serenade and Polarlys offered us a concert of ships’ horn salutes, with passengers of each ship chiming in, waving their arms at each other.

Woke up this morning with Serenade approaching Tromsø (latitude N69.679) in somewhat inclement weather. We docked in an industrial area about four kilometers from downtown. Safety drills for the crew during much of the morning. I felt sorry for the lifeboat crews that were rehearsing their procedures in the cold five degree Celsius (41 degree Fahrenheit) water. Today is another Telenor day: ping 91 ms, download 9.84 Mbps, upload 17.5 Mbps. Continuing tonight up to North Cape. Remains to be seen how internet performance will be that far north in the wilderness.

After almost a whole day of wifi, Telenor 4G showed up again around 8 pm, a sure sign that we could look forward to a port day in Tromsø tomorrow. Parameters: Latitude 68.480, ping 112 ms, download 39.0 Mbps, upload 1.12 Mbps. I just noted on MarineTraffic.com, that another, much smaller ship, Astoria (ex-Stockholm) is also on her way to North Cape. She’s one of the oldest cruise ships in the industry, built in Gothenburg in 1948 as a passenger liner for the Swedish American Line. In 1953 and 1955 my Mom and I did Transatlantic crossings on her. In 1956, off Nantucket, she collided with Andrea Doria of the Italian Line, with a number of fatalities on both ships among crew as well as passengers. Since then she has had a number of different owners; nowadays she runs cruises mainly from the UK. Her history can be found at wikipedia.

At 11:32 am Captain Stig announced that a couple of minutes earlier we had crossed the Arctic Circle and that an initiation ceremony of crew and voluntary guests would be held a couple of hours later. Ice water was poured onto the victims, who then would swallow a shot of aquavit. Captain Stig was Master of Ceremonies in lieu of King Neptune, who was unable to attend. Some internet data from 2:30 pm: Latitude N67.290, ping 625, download 0.40 Mbps, upload 0.17 Mbps. Incidentally, the location of all my transmissions has been from our balcony cabin on Deck 10, immediately adjacent to the Bridge, just in case that has any relation to internet performance. And all wifi-based transmissions have been undertaken using the slower ”Surf” variant, i.e. not “Surf and Stream”.

This morning DW and I woke up around 6 am, and sure enough, the 4G signal was gone. So we opted for Plan B, which was ship’s wifi. A simple and straightforward registry process with no requirement for entering folio number. Got our wifi signal quickly, with the following parameters: at 08.50 am, location N65.820 E8.018, ping 736 ms, download 0.46 Mbps, upload 0.17 Mbps. Not stellar, but good enough for our needs. BTW, Serenade is the RCI ship that ventures closest to the North Pole, much closer than the Alaska cruises.

On our way out of the fjord country, some ten miles SE of Ålesund. Still on Telenor 4G, ping 353 ms, download 22.3 Mbps, upload 24.8 Mbps. Current latitude is N62.385 degrees. Tomorrow is a sea day, next port is Tromsø on Thursday. Wouldn’t be surprised if when I wake up tomorrow we will have lost our 4G connection. If so, I’ll switch to ship’s wifi, FWIW. Tomorrow we’ll also cross the Arctic Circle. A ceremony is being planned to take place on Pool Deck in the early afternoon.

Currently in Geiranger. Not using ship's wifi, instead staying with land based internet (Telenor). Ping 65 ms, download 25,1 Mbps, upload 4,04 Mbps. Tomorrow will be a sea day, crossing the Arctic Circle (roughly at latitude N66 degrees). As indicated in Biker's post above, O3b wouldn't have been of any use that far north. Depending on internet performance, I may have to switch to ship's "old-fashioned" wifi. Time will tell. Anyway, so far on this cruise I haven't had to spend any of our free ship's wifi allowance.

We’re now at N61.497 E4.195, with roughly 60 miles to go to the entry point of the fjord leading to Geiranger. Speed has slowed down from around 22 kts to roughly 16 (no point in charging in at full speed, since we’re not supposed to dock until around 7 am). Still enjoying a good 4G signal, with reception at times up to 16 Mbps. So far no need to use ship’s wifi. Currently a headwind of around 30 kts.

Thanks for your reply. We are now at N60.089 E4.183 (WSW of Bergen), still with a decent 4G signal, thanks to having our cabin on the starboard side of the ship, with direct line of sight access to land. Tonight we’ll start navigating upstream in the fjord that leads to Geiranger, where we hope to find an even better signal tomorrow. Wind has picked up to 40 knots headwind. Some motion in the ocean, but we have had worse conditions on Serenade in the Mediterranean.

Serenade: we had our M&M this morning. Chatted afterwards with the AM, who is Alison Hasler (from Scotland), who has been with the ship since early this year. Starting her vacation at the end of this cruise (14 June), after which Caroline Peters takes over as AM.

We'll be keeping track of ship's internet performance as well as the land-based Telenor performance.

Today is Day 2 of our 11 day Arctic Circle cruise, and our original plan was to avail ourselves of the first of our free internet. But taking a chance on 4G land based service, we changed our minds and opted for the Telenor internet, thus saving our free ship’s wifi until later. Our present location is N58.10235 E5.8809, about 20 nautical miles from the Norwegian coast near the town of Sogndalstrand. Ping is 321 ms, download speed 2.80 Mbps, upload speed 5.38 Mbps. We are presently in our cabin on Deck 10. On our balcony, download speed increases to well over 6 Mbps, with a straight line of sight to the Norwegian coast some 20 nm away. Won’t stay outdoors too long; it’s a somewhat windy day with a 25 knot headwind, with some nice white caps on the waves. Otherwise it’s a beautiful day, clear except for perhaps 10% of the sky covered by cloud.

My advice to anyone thinking of buying VOOM is: don't buy the package until you have tried it out onboard for a couple of days. The pre-sailing discount isn't worth the risk.

DW and I will be boarding Serenade this Sunday for an 11-day Arctic Circle cruise and will be keeping an eye on internet performance. Having done a Baltic cruise on Serenade a couple of years ago, we had a similar internet experience to that of OP. Being D+ members of C&A we have four days of free ship's internet between us, and those will be used during the four sea days on our journey. During port days we'll be using our subscriptions to Telenor, a good Norwegian telecoms provider. We'll be keeping track of ship's internet performance as well as the land-based Telenor performance.

Existing thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2533041&page=5&highlight=rci+app

 

All info about this app will be posted there.

Thanks Biker. I didn't realize that there already existed a thread on this topic. I'd suggest that we all consolidate our posts to the thread mentioned above.

I'll be sailing on Serenade in eight days' time. Just discovered the RCI app, which has recently been updated and is currently available for the following ships:

Allure, Oasis, Symphony, Enchantment and Serenade. Will gradually be rolled out to the remaining ships. Can be downloaded from the usual place where Apple iOS apps are found. Contains a wealth of useful information, for example daily menus for the MDR.

8 days until the Serenade sets sail for the Arctic Circle (along the coast of Norway)!

Following! DW and I will be on the next Symphony cruise.

Favorites: Serenade, Allure, Mariner