Internet connection on Oasis of the Seas

[fllisa]

My husband and I are sailing the Oasis on Aug 21st. We would like to know how is the internet connection onboard the ship. Rccl told me that their service is like dial up but I couldnt believe that for a new ship it wouldnt be fast as DSL. My husbands business requires him to be logged on 24/7 and he needs a faster connection other than dial up as they advised me. Has anyone logged on from their own laptop and seen how fast the internet connectivity is? He is worried about loosing his job or being replaced if he cannot stay connected with his employer. My husband manages the payroll of all employees for CVS pharmacies across the US. Please advise. Thanks in advance!!

 

Lisa:confused:

[jrljel]

Well I'm on Oasis now and logged in from my cabin. Up until this cruise, I have always been really disappointed with the internet connectivity at sea. However, I can tell you that for me right now, it's just as fast as a cable connection. This afternoon I did experience some delays but not major ones in opening pages. I'm happy to report that I am very satisfied with the connectivity!

[pepsicruiser]

My husband and I are sailing the Oasis on Aug 21st. We would like to know how is the internet connection onboard the ship. Rccl told me that their service is like dial up but I couldnt believe that for a new ship it wouldnt be fast as DSL. My husbands business requires him to be logged on 24/7 and he needs a faster connection other than dial up as they advised me. Has anyone logged on from their own laptop and seen how fast the internet connectivity is? He is worried about loosing his job or being replaced if he cannot stay connected with his employer. My husband manages the payroll of all employees for CVS pharmacies across the US. Please advise. Thanks in advance!!

 

Lisa:confused:

Lisa do you know you have to pay for internet connections. It is not an expensive way to be in touch 24/7. You get minute packages. It's not like a hotel where you pay for the day. I'm sure someone could give you info about the packages available. Good luck.

[fllisa]

Lisa do you know you have to pay for internet connections. It is not an expensive way to be in touch 24/7. You get minute packages. It's not like a hotel where you pay for the day. I'm sure someone could give you info about the packages available. Good luck.

 

 

Yes I am aware that we will have to pay for a package onboard. Rccl told me that they have a 500 mins package for $150.00 among others. that can get expensive with him knowing he has to be logged on everyday of the cruise. He will have to do something because he has to be connected every day. Thanks for your response. :)

[swwake]

More information here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1226196

 

I think this was your thread from yesterday.

 

Also, more here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1224650

[Plut0]

Lisa,

I also had to be connected everyday and found that the connection was a pretty good connection, speed wise. Since we are platinum, we had a coupon for some free minutes about $20 worth. This had to be used first and was used at .65/minute. After that you can purchase a package and you are right it was about $150 for 500 minutes.

 

One issue that I ran into was connecting to my work system. For my work, we use a VPN system to actually get to our systems. While I could connect to the internet and get to web sites and to comcast, etc. Only on the first day could I successfully get to my work systems. Now I was lucky that I had a blackberry where I had periodic connections and could respond to e-mails via the blackberry and also sign on and use my laptop to respond using my personal e-mail.

 

I do not mean to alarm you and I have read others who had no issues, but for me, I was not able to get to anything for work while on the ship. In the hotel before and after the trip, I had no issues, even the WIFI onthe plane worked good.

 

Mary

[fllisa]

Thanks for letting me know Mary, I will show this post to my husband so he can read it.

[robtulipe]

Lisa,

Since we are platinum, we had a coupon for some free minutes about $20 worth. This had to be used first and was used at .65/minute. After that you can purchase a package and you are right it was about $150 for 500 minutes.

 

This has not been our experience on our RC cruises, although our cruises have not been on Oasis. We bought and started using our internet package, then applied our C&A internet coupons and the credit was used at the same lower rate per minute our internet package provided us. Doing this provided more usage minutes for the C&A coupon. I know RC says that the C&A credit should be used first before buying a package.

[fllisa]

This has not been our experience on our RC cruises, although our cruises have not been on Oasis. We bought and started using our internet package, then applied our C&A internet coupons and the credit was used at the same lower rate per minute our internet package provided us. Doing this provided more usage minutes for the C&A coupon. I know RC says that the C&A credit should be used first before buying a package.

 

We are Platinum members with this cruise ow on Oasis and so I will look for the coupon book with the free internet coupon. Thanks for advising on this.

 

 

Lisa

fllisa

sailing on Oasis in 40 days.

[robtulipe]

The C&A coupon books should be in your cabin on embarkation day. If it's not there just ask your cabin steward for them as it's his job to provide them to C&A status cruisers in the cabins that he services.

Also the satellite internet service speed is best when there are fewer people using this service so it is better to do your heavy downloads/uploads very early in the morning or late in the evening.

[orchidj5]

the ships use a satellite connection-it is NEVER going to be as fast as cable or DSL-its simply not techincally possible. and increased useage slows it even further. since they now allow wifi in cabins-its going to be slow-and your husband will very likely loose his connection at times because satellite reception is interfered with by things like storms and the postion of the ship relative to the satellites. I think sometimes we are too dependant on technology and expect too much that is not realistic.

[fllisa]

the ships use a satellite connection-it is NEVER going to be as fast as cable or DSL-its simply not techincally possible. and increased useage slows it even further. since they now allow wifi in cabins-its going to be slow-and your husband will very likely loose his connection at times because satellite reception is interfered with by things like storms and the postion of the ship relative to the satellites. I think sometimes we are too dependant on technology and expect too much that is not realistic.

 

 

so true. We are all dependant on Technology nowadays and especially him who even talks to his boss online and other co workers on a problem or whatever they are doing. I hope he will still be able to connect to his CVS Pharmacy server on the ship and stay connected otherwise he fears that they (IBM) who is managing CVS pharmacies around the country will replace him. Thanks for your advice.

 

fllisa

[smoosh21]

My husband and I are sailing the Oasis on Aug 21st. We would like to know how is the internet connection onboard the ship. Rccl told me that their service is like dial up but I couldnt believe that for a new ship it wouldnt be fast as DSL. My husbands business requires him to be logged on 24/7 and he needs a faster connection other than dial up as they advised me. Has anyone logged on from their own laptop and seen how fast the internet connectivity is? He is worried about loosing his job or being replaced if he cannot stay connected with his employer. My husband manages the payroll of all employees for CVS pharmacies across the US. Please advise. Thanks in advance!!

 

Lisa:confused:

 

It is like dial up. We were just on the Liberty last December and it was very slow. The only way to connect at sea is via Satellite and that is very slow. When you get lots of users involved, it can slow to a crawl. Unless somebody wants to build out a network at Sea it is going to be slow.

[fllisa]

It is like dial up. We were just on the Liberty last December and it was very slow. The only way to connect at sea is via Satellite and that is very slow. When you get lots of users involved, it can slow to a crawl. Unless somebody wants to build out a network at Sea it is going to be slow.

 

 

thanks for telling me. This is going to be a problem for my husband and his work.

[koxler]

My experience has been mixed. I would agree with earlier posts that when lots of people are online then it can get really slow, even unusable. I have found that early in the morning is the best time to connect. Meanwhile, I'll be honest as a person in the IT field and having to be connected at times that if my job were dependent on a connection 24/7 aboard that ship I wouldn't risk it. The connection is not reliable enough and frankly you shouldn't have the expectation that you will be able to connect at high speed anytime during your trip. If his job is really on the line (and that is very sad to me who manages lot of technology people, it shouldn't be the case) I would suggest that you look for a different type of vacation (land based where connections are more reliable) or book the trip for another time when his need to be online is not required. Just my two cents... Good luck.

[fllisa]

My experience has been mixed. I would agree with earlier posts that when lots of people are online then it can get really slow, even unusable. I have found that early in the morning is the best time to connect. Meanwhile, I'll be honest as a person in the IT field and having to be connected at times that if my job were dependent on a connection 24/7 aboard that ship I wouldn't risk it. The connection is not reliable enough and frankly you shouldn't have the expectation that you will be able to connect at high speed anytime during your trip. If his job is really on the line (and that is very sad to me who manages lot of technology people, it shouldn't be the case) I would suggest that you look for a different type of vacation (land based where connections are more reliable) or book the trip for another time when his need to be online is not required. Just my two cents... Good luck.

 

thanks for your input. This cruise is already paid for and we already got our cruise documents. I realize that it may be a problem for him but I am not going to cancel it and book something else. It is what it is and we will see once he logs on what happens. This job came after we had booked the cruise and he manages the payroll servers of all the CVS phamacies employees across the country and IBM only has him trained to do the job and no back up in this case if he cannot stay connected for most of the cruise to monitor the servers then I told him there will be another job out there for him since he is a software engineer/consultant. He was just wondering how fast or slow the connection is on the Oasis singe we are going in 5 weeks. Thanks again.