How Many Internet?

[happyglobetrotter]

I have been able to connect to some individual non secured internet service connexions from my verandah in some ports especially when we are docked right in town. Ex. Hong Kong, Sydney (Australia) etc.

 

The other advantage of taking your own laptop is that there is wireless internet now in many ports or even in cafes or hotels nearby, sometimes complimentary. When you can see some of the crew on their laptops in port, it is a sign !

 

 

 

Louise

[CruiseReg]

I generally buy the 250 minute package to check email, pay any bills I may have forgotten, move money, trade securities if something comes up, etc. I also bring a 3G wireless card to use with my Macbook Pro in US ports. I don't feel the need to but unplugged completely to thoroughly enjoy my vacation :)

[hal lover]

Before we leave for our cruise, I leave emergency contact info with family, then I shut off my computer. I do take my cell phone but keep it turned off until I want to make a call back home. When I am on vacation, I am on vacation.

[waiting2retire]

I'm so out of touch on a ship it's almost scary! It's like turning back the clocks to the 1970s for me. No computer, no cell phone; I don't even turn on the TV unless I'm checking on the weather (ship's weather that is).

 

I like to experience my cruise completely without distractions. I am in a different world, and truly don't care what happens at work (not my company). I leave the ship contact information with family members and instructions not to call unless there is something they can't handle. I can't imagine what that might be.

 

For now I am very lucky; my children are adults, my family is healthy, and I have a secure job that I do not worry about disappearing while I am on vacation. So let me lie in the sun, see places I thought I would never see, be served fabulous meals and thoroughly entertained.

 

Ahhhhh, how sweet it is :)

[ziggypup]

I'll just read and sent emails through my Blackberry while in a Port.

[sail7seas]

Thanks for sharing everyone. :)

[jcrandle]

I use my netbook on the ship to read email to my private account, reply to family and close friends if a timely reply is indicated. I also use it to access financial websites like my bank and credit card. I use the much less expensive internet time available in internet cafes to send photos, check email on non-private accounts, do web browsing, search for excursions or reservations or other web access that is less security sensitive.

 

I would never use an internet cafe computer to access any financial websites because of the risk (though possibly small) that a keystroke recorder could compromise logon ids and passwords. I believe that HAL's internet provider has procedures and controls in place to prevent that sort of compromise. On the other hand, for browsing, up and downloading from less sensitive sites, I believe that HAL charges a premium rate and I will opt for a less expensive connection if available and convenient.

[Zack Adams]

I plan on getting the internet package as well, but it is mainly to post some of the lower resolution pics taken with the iPhone to send to family and friends, updating my blog and checking emails... Mainly I plan on using it to get a head start on editing photos when I have nothing else to do (I love Photography and Editing Pics so for me that is a fun thing ;) ).

 

I don't deal with work at all once I point the car home, so once I am out the door I am free. So for me work is not going to be on my mind once I head toward Florida!

 

For some of us computer geeks there is a real thrill in being able to access the internet from a ship underway in the ocean:D

[sail7seas]

ZA....... We e-mail often with friends on HAL ships and each time I send or receive an e-mail from a ship at sea, it amazes me we can communicate in that way. The real time back and forth writing is fantastic and I'm no 'geek'. :D

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

When on a cruise -- I wait until we are ashore to use the internet to check e-mails -- much cheaper.

[VermeulT]

I don't take any internet package. I do take my laptop so I get a head-start on editing my photos, etc. I'll download my e-mails at the airport after the cruise so I can go through them on the plane ride home.

 

One great thing about cruising is being out of the office's reach!

 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

I told DH too that I wasn't taking my blackberry - as when we returned I didn't want to see the probably 500 emails waiting for me from work. We'll take his simple phone to call for our ride & check in with family.

[BlueCat1105]

Are there many free (or at least reasonably priced) WiFi spots in ports in the Caribbean? Santa just brought me a netbook, and I never thought about how easy it would be to carry it off the ship in port to connect there! This option could prove to be just what I'm looking for.

[cruisinjudy]

I now have an Iphone so I take that and get an internet package. I post pictures on Facebook of our travels and keep in touch by email to check on my elderly mom.

[Tricia724]

If we're on a longer trip or sailing to more remote ports, I get the 100 min. package; if US ports, we use the cell phone, so book less computer time. I use it to check in with airlines, contact excursion operators we have booked at upcoming ports, and to receive emails and send a little travelogue home. I never do any business transactions or banking on someone elses computer.

 

We also take advantage of the Internet cafes along the way for a big savings.

[bellebaby]

I'll just read and sent emails through my Blackberry while in a Port.

 

That's what we do too... Check-in on the pets, work, etc. briefly while in-port. Otherwise, I want to disconnect from the world while on vacation.

 

B

[RevNeal]

I take my laptop with me (I couldn't survive without my auxiliary brain) and purchase the largest internet package they have. Sometimes, if I'm reporting from the ship and it's a longer cruise, it takes two such packages to make the trip and post reports.

 

Using a laptop helps to keep the cost down, and also makes it easier to write up one's report wherever one may be. By this I mean, one can draft one's report in MS Word or Pages or some other Word Processing program, get it just like one wants it, and then sign on and post it via cut-and-paste. This saves a great deal of online time and, hence, a great deal of money. If one is DISCIPLINED in how one uses' one's online time and refuses to read while online (a hard discipline to learn), the financial savings can be significant over using the ship's terminals. I download all my emails and then get off-line to read them. I download whole pages of CC, downloading the pages of those threads that I want to follow, then get off line and read them and compose responses that way.

 

Using a laptop is essential if one wants to upload and post photographs while on cruise (as, for example, I did from the Eurodam Inaugural).

 

A laptop is also very helpful, but not essential, when one is paying one's bills online because one has all their security information with them and signing on to pay bills is no different than when one is at home.

 

And, finally, I really like using my own laptop for accessing the internet while aboard ship because it enables me to do so from the quiet and leisure of my own cabin, where I can stretch out on the bed and write up my reports and get online and post them during the afternoon or late night hours without having to get up and go to the Explorations Cafe.

[Spinner2]

We use the internet package with a laptop and I was delighted to find on our Dec 2 Amsterdam cruise that the speed had greatly improved from past HAL cruises. I don't think there was any instance of a slow connection during that cruise; page changes were fast and the mail came down quickly too. The wifi signal in our cabin (mid-ship, Deck 2) was excellent.

 

I'm a website developer and need to keep client pages current while we're traveling, but I make it clear that minor changes are all I am willing to do--no major page changes, design revisions, etc. It IS vacation, and the costs to upload all that would be significant. And if it failed in mid-load due to some technical challenge, the pages involved might be unavailable at all. But I carry all of my website files on the laptop and small changes are quick and not bothersome at all.

 

In addition to the tips that others have suggested: we've learned that if several of the ports will be USA we'll need fewer minutes because we can use our iphones for free in those places--we always have plenty of minutes and within your minutes plan, USA connections don't cost anything. So we can phone, pick up mail, even surf the 'net on the phone on port days. Thus, Hawai'i trips are a real internet bargain! We only need the ship's wi-fi on sea days, unless I have to make website page changes.

 

Like Rev. Neal I've found you can't get started reading interesting things online and hope to stay within your internet plan, so before we leave home I set up a separate bookmark file for sites I'd really like to visit occasionally. Then, while online, I'll open a new browser page and click on the link I want in my bookmarks. While that's loading I'll open another new browser page and click on another link, etc., leaving all of those browser windows open when I log off. I might have 6-8 pages ready to read once I'm offline. They'll stay as they are until I read them offline, then I just close them out. Closing the internet connection won't close those open windows--at least not on my laptop.

 

As a precaution I always screen-cap the minutes summary as "proof" that I logged off and so I'll be reminded to check how close to my time budget I'm at. And I close my wifi connection on my laptop too, as an added precaution.

[Former Goalie]

I generally buy the 250 minute package to check email, pay any bills I may have forgotten, move money, trade securities if something comes up, etc. I also bring a 3G wireless card to use with my Macbook Pro in US ports. I don't feel the need to but unplugged completely to thoroughly enjoy my vacation :)

Same here. I plan on getting the 250 min. package the first day (which I guess yields some extra minutes). So that yields about 4 1/2 hours for our seven day cruise, or 35-40 min./day to split between DW and I (although I use a lot more).

I'm getting one of those my-fi gadgets, that will be very convenient for high speed internet when in Port Everglades embarkation day, as well as pre and post cruise hotel stays. And, when in Puerto Rico, we will be able to connect just like state side, as it is part of the Verizon network.

[Roz]

I used to get an internet pkg., but then I re-evaluated what it was costing me. Instead, I just tell my cat sitter, family, next door neighbor, etc. to just call me on the ship in a true emergency and I'll reimburse them for the call when I get home. So far there have been no emergencies.

 

Roz

[RuthC]

If I'm doing a Happy Wanderer thread I need the 250 minute package, plus the bonus minutes, for 10 days. So that's three packages for one cruise. That doesn't include e-mail.

I didn't do a journal on my last cruise, so one 250 minute package, plus the bonus minutes, plus the 10 "free" minutes with the coupon almost lasted the full 32 days. I had enough minutes left to get on the Internet to check in for my flight. The extra minutes were then charged at the same rate.

All that just to check e-mail every few days! :eek: On shorter cruises I don't bother with a plan.

[Roz]

Ruth,

 

Do you have someone at home that you trust that can check you in online? I've started having one of my sisters do my airline check-in for me. I send her my confirmation number, and then she sets an alarm on her computer and her cell phone. Once she checks me in, I can print the boarding pass when I get to the airport. Another reason for me not to buy an internet package. :D

 

Roz

[Randyk47]

I have to kind of change what I said earlier in this thread. After some thought we've purchased a netbook for our next cruise and will be taking it with us. Mrs. K correctly pointed out that we're going on a 15-day, fairly port intensive cruise with stops at some amazing places. While we'd gotten by on memory and some notes before that probably won't work next cruise. Unlike our laptop it's light, it's small, but while we could use it for the Internet we still won't.

[RuthC]

Ruth,

 

Do you have someone at home that you trust that can check you in online?

No. :( No one at home to do that little chore.

I don't mind purchasing a 30-minute plan on the last day for the purpose of checking in for a Southwest flight. If I'm on another airline, one with an assigned seat, I'm willing to wait until I get to the airport to check in.

[CDRMark]

For various reasons we need to be in touch, so we definitely eat up the max minutes (business; ill family, etc).

I also try to commit to a 'live from' thread as much as possible, as a way of giving back to the great advice I have gotten here, so that goes in the mix as well.

Cheers

Mark

[Former Goalie]

No. :( No one at home to do that little chore.

I don't mind purchasing a 30-minute plan on the last day for the purpose of checking in for a Southwest flight. If I'm on another airline, one with an assigned seat, I'm willing to wait until I get to the airport to check in.

I'm a very loyal Southwest customer, fly LUV about 90% of the time (we live very close to a major hub).

Might I suggest purchasing the Early Bird boarding option at $10 pp, one way? With this option, you would purchase before leaving your home for the return confirmation number. After that, you would most likely be in the A group, in a number assigned before the masses start clicking 24 hours out. You could either print out the boarding passes any time 24 hours or less before flight time, or wait until you get to the airport (waiting until then means you would have no need to pay for shipboard internet minutes).