internet problems?

[bcnvcanada]

Has anyone else had internet problems? We cruise often, three months a

year. Since November, we have found that the internet is down, even when we are in sight of land. We realize that it is free for many, is this the problem? To get a concection, we have had to move out of the room to a hot stop, early am. (04:00). Is it possible that they limited the free service? If anyone knows or has thoughts, they would be most welcomed.

[Toto2Kansas]

Has anyone else had internet problems? We cruise often, three months a

year. Since November, we have found that the internet is down, even when we are in sight of land. We realize that it is free for many, is this the problem? To get a concection, we have had to move out of the room to a hot stop, early am. (04:00). Is it possible that they limited the free service? If anyone knows or has thoughts, they would be most welcomed.

Being close to land doesn't have anything to do with the ship internet access, as it is totally provided by satellite. I would guess the slowness is because of so many now bringing their own laptops and all being on at once, plus those crew members also connecting at some times. Like you mentioned, with as many Platinum and Elite members getting those free minutes, that can also cause this to happen.

[Loonbeam]

There's a recent thread on this (search Skype). The short answer is demand has exceeded to supply, especially if people are using real time chat programs (thankfully Princess seems to be blocking those more often).

 

Has anyone else had internet problems? We cruise often, three months a

year. Since November, we have found that the internet is down, even when we are in sight of land. We realize that it is free for many, is this the problem? To get a concection, we have had to move out of the room to a hot stop, early am. (04:00). Is it possible that they limited the free service? If anyone knows or has thoughts, they would be most welcomed.

[Mike11]

While I am sure that increased demand has stressed the on-board systems and resulted in a further slow down of an already painfully slow system, I think the reason goes beyond that. Having cruised for several years, my experience has been that on-board internet has always been slow and continues to get slower. Since land based communications, including the internet, sometimes use satelites as part of the link and their speeds have been increasing, I can only conclude that the shipboard systems have always been a little sub-standard. And why not. The slower the system, the more minutes people will consume/buy, the more money the cruise line makes. Even if the minutes are free for some cruisers (myself included), why invest money when there is no profit to be made. Frankly, my wife and I have given up the internet at sea, free or not. When it takes 5-10 minutes just to log in, there is something basically wrong with the on-board system, and the satelite has nothing to do with it. The cruise lines do invest in shipboard upgrades/maintanence all the time. If they wanted to upgrade the internet capabilities, I expect they could. But why kill the golden goose.

[PescadoAmarillo]

When it takes 5-10 minutes just to log in, there is something basically wrong with the on-board system, and the satelite has nothing to do with it. The cruise lines do invest in shipboard upgrades/maintanence all the time. If they wanted to upgrade the internet capabilities, I expect they could.

I completely agree. And it will only get worse as more and more people bring smartphones and internet accessing pads and kindles. The Internet benefit used to be the most valuable one to us. Last winter (5 cruises) we generally had between 125 and 150 minutes per cruise remaining (out of 250) because we simply gave up even trying to log on. I understand slow...it's always been slow. But it has become entirely unreliable too.

 

We now know all the Internet hotspots near the piers on the eastern/southern Caribbean islands.

[Potstech]

Wouldn't it be great if there was a place on these boards that would list all of the hotspots in the various ports. Users could then post additional ones or let the cruisers know which ones are still working or not. Also which ones would work from the ship at the pier or where you would ahve to go to access them. One time leaving San Juan a passenger was up by skywalkers using an access point from the town until we were a mile or two out to sea. He said you just ahd to get high enough to stay in line of site with the router.

 

Cruise critic staff - Can this be done?????

[califgary]

Bad Weather can also be a factor we sailed on the tail end of a pacific hurricane one year and due to that, internet was very spotty

[Loonbeam]

A couple of factors here..

 

1> Land based systems are stationary and can target stationary satellites. Makes a HUGE difference in equipment capacity. Ship based systems are constantly retargetting and may have to change satellites depending on where they are at the time. This requires a a more flexible protocol which is less optimized.

 

2> The equipment on ships is smaller than high speed land based connections (remember, those DISH network antennas are only supporting one residence, mass communication ones can be the size of houses). Needless to say, space and power on a ship are limited.

 

In short, yes they could increase capacity, but it is NOT cheap at all. I don't have exact figures, but last best estimate I heard for net access runs an average cruise ship around 40k per month. So if you just added another channel (which would not quite double capacity and still be nowhere near enough) that would be 80K. Pure high speed would probably requires something in the 300K per ship per month range.

 

While I am sure that increased demand has stressed the on-board systems and resulted in a further slow down of an already painfully slow system, I think the reason goes beyond that. Having cruised for several years, my experience has been that on-board internet has always been slow and continues to get slower. Since land based communications, including the internet, sometimes use satelites as part of the link and their speeds have been increasing, I can only conclude that the shipboard systems have always been a little sub-standard. And why not. The slower the system, the more minutes people will consume/buy, the more money the cruise line makes. Even if the minutes are free for some cruisers (myself included), why invest money when there is no profit to be made. Frankly, my wife and I have given up the internet at sea, free or not. When it takes 5-10 minutes just to log in, there is something basically wrong with the on-board system, and the satelite has nothing to do with it. The cruise lines do invest in shipboard upgrades/maintanence all the time. If they wanted to upgrade the internet capabilities, I expect they could. But why kill the golden goose.

[cattolica]

We have many cruises under our belt and have used the internet on most of them. I have never found it to take the 5-10 mins that everyone talks about to get signed on/off. We use the Internet for exactly what it was intended for on a cruise ship.....checking e-mail.

I think about 10 or 11 years ago when the cruise lines decided to start offering Internet they did not realize that there are people out there who where going to basically try to bring their office on board with them.

We generally have either 150 or 250 mins (depending on cruise length) each of free Internet. Never have we used up all our free minutes.

What would you do if the cruise lines decided it was too much of a hassle to offer computer access for their passengers?

I know you are going to say that you have to keep in touch with the office or home.

How did you keep in touch before you had Internet access on a cruise ship or a cell phone?

[captainron]

We have many cruises under our belt and have used the internet on most of them. I have never found it to take the 5-10 mins that everyone talks about to get signed on/off. We use the Internet for exactly what it was intended for on a cruise ship.....checking e-mail.

I think about 10 or 11 years ago when the cruise lines decided to start offering Internet they did not realize that there are people out there who where going to basically try to bring their office on board with them.

We generally have either 150 or 250 mins (depending on cruise length) each of free Internet. Never have we used up all our free minutes.

What would you do if the cruise lines decided it was too much of a hassle to offer computer access for their passengers?

I know you are going to say that you have to keep in touch with the office or home.

How did you keep in touch before you had Internet access on a cruise ship or a cell phone?[/quote]

 

Satellite phone at USD$11-16 per minute connection and time fees.

 

Ciao for now!!!

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

While on Ruby some times internet was fast, near the end of the cruise it got slower

 

it would take 5 to 10 minutes just to get in, then on last night after midnight it still took 1 hour just to log in to BA and book our seats home,

 

others gave up.

 

With folks up loading large colour photos some trying to watch video

 

the internet becomes so slow for all,

 

I expect Princess will put up Prices up to reduce demand,

 

yours Shogun

[cruzedude]

One thing all cruiselines will need to eventually do if charge by actual usage (as in bandwidth) not minutes. Minutes is a meaningless measure.

 

If you have adblocker on, disabled flash, and browsing a mostly text website like cruisecritic (with signatures turned off) you could be online for an hour and use less bandwidth than someone trying to upload an uncompressed photo from his/her new 20 megapixel camera.

 

Charging by the minute misaligns the scarce resource (bandwidth) with method used to price (minutes). There is no incentive to be efficient (block ads, use smaller images, etc). The only metric that matters is time. Imagine if gasoline was sold to you in minutes of use. Why not drive a Hummer at 20mph over speed limit (to reduce time driven)? It would be cheaper than a slower Prius.

[SRQfireman]

I see nobody has mentioned this yet.....the speed will also be slower the farther away ya get from the home port. The longer the cable, the farther the distance that the signal has to travel back and forth :D You ever notice how the speed is better the closer you get back to port??? It's because the cable run is shorter, hence faster speeds .....if ya don't beleive me, check snopes and they'll tell ya ;):p

[chipmaster]

Must be me, but I find it refereshing break that going cruising is one of the only places now that I and my family take a complete internet break.

 

More and more people and bandwidth demand on ship = slower and slower as their system by design isn't scalable. That plus the ridiculous price makes me go cold turkey.

 

Between free wifi in many hotels, airports, and reasonble pricing on airplanes the cruise vacation is almost the only place to disconnnect, actually refreshing for me. Please keep it slow and gouging us please :D :D

[furb]

Must be me, but I find it refereshing break that going cruising is one of the only places now that I and my family take a complete internet break.

 

More and more people and bandwidth demand on ship = slower and slower as their system by design isn't scalable. That plus the ridiculous price makes me go cold turkey.

 

Between free wifi in many hotels, airports, and reasonble pricing on airplanes the cruise vacation is almost the only place to disconnnect, actually refreshing for me. Please keep it slow and gouging us please :D :D

I'm with you. I won't even touch a computer (or even turn on my cell phone) on vacation... the whole point of taking a vacation is to relax, not take everything that's stressing you out with you.

 

It's scary that as a society we're becoming more and more classless... the other day, an older couple brought their grandkids into a restaurant and sat at the table next to us. The two grandkids (probably age 10 and 12 or so) promptly set up a laptop and began watching a movie, completely ignoring the grandparents. When their lunch arrived, the kids reluctantly put the laptop away. Then, five minutes later, the 12 year old received (and took) a five minute cell phone call... while sitting at the table.

 

Classless trash.

 

If the expense of internet keeps me from having to endure this while I'm on a cruise, please keep the price high and the service slow!