*Sput*te*r not VOOM on Serenade OTS

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

we still have two free wifi days and I’ll use one of them to compare with 4G.

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

Day 10: Bergen

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

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!

.... 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?

...

No O3b on Adventure.

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.

Seems that Surf and Stream use different downlink stations - the speed test app usually chooses the closest server in terms of network hops. A sure way to prove this is to use the "tracert" command on a laptop and see where the network hops are. RCI may get a discount to use Miami for the land based connection point in conjunction with Surf.