Do I take a laptop on the Grandeur??

[insulationbabe]

On other smaller ships - the internet connections are horrible - was nice on the Liberty - they had WI FI in the cabins - but not on the Monarch or Navigator - We had a horrible time getting on line while on the Navigator with the ships computers - and never did get on line and guess what - our final bill had a charge of 70 dollars for internet - so we disputed it and they did give us a credit -- anyway wish all the ships had wi fi in the cabins but not sure - anyone know?:)

[madforcruising]

On other smaller ships - the internet connections are horrible - was nice on the Liberty - they had WI FI in the cabins - but not on the Monarch or Navigator - We had a horrible time getting on line while on the Navigator with the ships computers - and never did get on line and guess what - our final bill had a charge of 70 dollars for internet - so we disputed it and they did give us a credit -- anyway wish all the ships had wi fi in the cabins but not sure - anyone know?:)

 

Wifi in cabins is only available on Freedom class and Oasis.

So it´s Freedom otS, Liberty otS, Independence otS and Oasis otS.

 

All other ships have WiFi hotspots and you have to go there to get online with your own computer.

It depends on what you are trying to do, but I always prefer to use my own computer with the WiFi over using their computers and while it doesn´t come anywhere near the speed I´m used to at home, the WiFi is much better than their computers.

[wraithe]

It takes a bit of thought to get good internet speeds. If you try to get online at the same time everyone else wants to be on, then you're not gonna connect, even though the clock keeps running. If you get online early or late, when no one else is on, you get pretty good speed. There's finite bandwidth, imagine trying to share your home personal broadband with the whole neighborhood. I had good connection and decent speed by picking and choosing when I was gonna go online, on both the ship's computers and my laptop on my last Grandeur cruise (11/19/09 repo 14 nights). They did have trouble nearly every time that we pulled into port, don't have any idea why, but we could not connect while we were in port, but there was no charges either. Hope that helps.

[Flonightey]

Are the charges the same for the In Room WiFi as the Internet Cafe? Im going on the IOS and am contemplating the same...Thanks in Advance!

[Morecruisesplz]

Although the per minute charges are the same if you use their computers or take a laptop you can save HUGE if you take your laptop or netbook and only download email -- then sign off, read, reply and sign back on to send. I'm in business and communicate via email so I have to be able to keep in touch while on a cruise. I can usually check and respond for an entire week with one of the coupons in the diamond book and the minutes it provides. I also follow Wraithe's advice and check at off hours or when I walk by the internet cafe and no one is on the computers -- that's the perfect time to fire up your laptop.

 

The last thing you want to do with those per minute charges and slow connections is sit down in the internet cafe when there are only a few computers left to pick from and try to check email via a web browser -- the slowest way to access it. Set up your email as a POP-3 account on your laptop in I.E. or O.E. and click options and send and change it so it only checks for mail and sends mail when you click send/receive -- not when you open the program. Then sign on, click send/receive and sign off -- takes less than a minute usually.

 

Hope this helps!

[danacline]

I always take my laptop, primarily to store and process the day's photos and write about the cruise for my web site. Rather than use the ship's pricey minutes, I go ashore and find a net cafe. Usually I can get an hour for $5 or less, plus have a bottle of the local brew while I surf and do email. Every port I've been to has a net cafe within a 5-minute's walk. If I bring my own network cable, I can often tie directly into their router for the highest possible speed.

[insulationbabe]

thanks for the information - will try that - good idea:)