Wireless from verandah?

What are the chances I'll be able to catch a wireless signal for my laptop from verandah on Veendam? We'll be midship.

Hopefully someone with experience on the Veendam will post also.

We had a decent WiFi signal on our veranda mid ships, Portside on the Veranda Deck of the Westerdam.

You can find out where the access points are here:

http://www.mtnsat.com/digitalseas/hal.htm

The list might not be 100% up-to-date though. For example, the Volendam went through SOE updates during drydock and more APs were added. They're not listed on the page above, though.

Typically, you'd need to be pretty close to the access point in order to get signal penetration through the interior wall and out onto the veranda.

Does that mean it would be free?!!!!!!

75 cents per minute.... not cheap.

Wireless runs anywhere from $0.40/min to $0.75/min depending on which plan you choose.

Pay as you go is $0.75/min

100 minutes is $55.00 ($0.55/min)

250 minutes is $100.00 ($0.40/min)

On Vista Class ships (Zuiderdam, Oosterdam, Westerdam, & Noordam) in-room "dial-up" access is $0.50/min.

The speeds are pretty much like slow dial-up, so don't think in terms of minutes like you'd have from a normal wireless hotspot.

If you're planning to do a fair amount of work on your cruise, it can get expensive. I have to check my e-mail every day and do a little bit of work and it winds up costing about $300 on a 10-day cruise.

Also, when you connect, a "keep-alive" window will open. This window constantly refreshes and keeps your connection up. Why do I tell you this? Well... If you have a pop-up blocker on your machine, you may find that the connection keeps dropping.

We were able to get a strong, clear signal from our verandah on the Maasdam at St. Thomas and Puerto Rico using Verizon service.

In most ports, you'll find a fairly strong WiFi signal from a verandah, especially if you're facing the port. Just make sure that you're connected to a real service provider and that you aren't giving your credit card info to a rogue access point.

If you do a little homework, you'll know which ISPs offer wireless access in which ports. These connections are usually true WiFi (~11 Mbps) and you can get more done in 1/2 hour in port than you can in 3 hours at sea.