Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Skype-ing on the ship....

flgatormom29

By flgatormom29,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

Recommended Posts

flgatormom29

flgatormom29

Posted
Posted

Has anyone done this? Just curious if it's even worth trying....

 

Does it stick or is the picture smooth? I want to be able to contact my kids while we are gone, and would love to be able to SEE them and them see us. But don't want to skype if it's going to be choppy.

 

Just curious to hear others experiences, so I can decide what I want to do....

 

Thanks! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
*Mach*

*Mach*

Posted
Posted

I have heard of a FEW folks report success with Skype... a few. With the exception of Dream Class ships all of the passengers who are online share a 750 k satellite connection so the available bandwidth is minimal. I've measured download speeds around 15 k and less. Upload speeds are generally in the single digits.

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
flgatormom29

flgatormom29

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I have heard of a FEW folks report success with Skype... a few. With the exception of Dream Class ships all of the passengers who are online share a 750 k satellite connection so the available bandwidth is minimal. I've measured download speeds around 15 k and less. Upload speeds are generally in the single digits.

 

:)

 

Hmmm.... I have no idea what any of that means :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
flgatormom29

flgatormom29

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Do you remember the days of dial-up internet. Those are comparable internet speeds from those days.

 

Ahhh, thanks for putting it how i would understand...

So it would probably be a little choppy. I want to be able to see my girls, not just look at a frozen image of them! I have plenty of pictures to look at.... well, maybe we will just have to look at an international plan on our cell phones and just call them that way. Darn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
serene56

serene56

Posted
Posted
Ahhh, thanks for putting it how i would understand...

So it would probably be a little choppy. I want to be able to see my girls, not just look at a frozen image of them! I have plenty of pictures to look at.... well, maybe we will just have to look at an international plan on our cell phones and just call them that way. Darn.

 

 

even with the international phone plan you want to be careful when on the ship using their towers for cell phone charges.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
*Mach*

*Mach*

Posted
Posted
even with the international phone plan you want to be careful when on the ship using their towers for cell phone charges.

 

 

That's right... cell service on board is provided by Cellular At Sea. They pass a $2.49/minute charge on to your service provider regardless of plan. Calls made from the ports of call are generally much cheaper than onboard. You should also consider skype for your smart phone and use it in the ports at internet cafes...

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
flgatormom29

flgatormom29

Posted
  • Author
Posted
That's right... cell service on board is provided by Cellular At Sea. They pass a $2.49/minute charge on to your service provider regardless of plan. Calls made from the ports of call are generally much cheaper than onboard. You should also consider skype for your smart phone and use it in the ports at internet cafes...

 

:)

 

Wow. I did not know this. If we use the international plan, we would just be using it while we were at port, not on sea days. That's why I wanted to do skype, so we could talk to them everyday.

 

I'll look forward to your skype review and hopefully it'll work OK! If not, I'll live with going a day or 2 without talking to them. They will be with my mom, so I know they are in good hands, it's me i'm more worried about....

Link to comment
Share on other sites
*Mach*

*Mach*

Posted
Posted
Wow. I did not know this. If we use the international plan, we would just be using it while we were at port, not on sea days. That's why I wanted to do skype, so we could talk to them everyday.

 

I'll look forward to your skype review and hopefully it'll work OK! If not, I'll live with going a day or 2 without talking to them. They will be with my mom, so I know they are in good hands, it's me i'm more worried about....

 

 

I'll try to get it posted the day we return. I'll get some screen shots of the results...

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
*Mach*

*Mach*

Posted
Posted
I'm not sure if Ecstasy still has this offer but earlier this year phoning home was

only $1.99 per minute from the cabin phones.

 

 

That offer pops in and out and varies by ship. I asked the folks at Carnival about it and heres the reply...

 

Hi Mach,

The ships offer special from time to time. This is why we no longer have prices of the phone calls listed in the stateroom directory so we can offer specials, in the directory we now just say refer to fun times for rates.

They can range from $1.00 per minute to $6.99 per minute. So still the cheapest way to stay in touch is by using the “Currently Onboard” Funville Forums! Sorry couldn’t help myself. J

Mischelle Beattie Coccera

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cio541

cio541

Posted
Posted
Ahhh, thanks for putting it how i would understand...

So it would probably be a little choppy. I want to be able to see my girls, not just look at a frozen image of them! I have plenty of pictures to look at.... well, maybe we will just have to look at an international plan on our cell phones and just call them that way. Darn.

 

Just remember if you use your phone on the ship you will also have a charge from "ship at sea" cell phone usage. An international plan would help when off ship though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
K&P Luv2Cruise

K&P Luv2Cruise

Posted
Posted
Yeah, I agree. To tell you the truth I'm going to be surprised if it completes a voice call...

 

:)

 

We used Skype on our Dec. '10 cruise on the Destiny to call the Grandkids on Christmas morning. We got an initial video image, but it was choppy. However, the voice portion was just fine. We made sure to have 'our' image off on our screen, but the kids could see us the same way we saw them.

 

We found wifi in a lot of the ports we've visited, and while I wouldn't think of checking "secure" sites such as banking, we surfed email, and talked on Skype just fine. We did change the passwords on our email after our cruise, just to insure security remained intact.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kaboochi

Kaboochi

Posted
Posted

Skype would be expensive. I really wish the ships would just do away with charges as we all use cell phones and the internet to communicate when away from home. I would rather pay a higher charge for the room so that I could call use the internet freely.

 

So OP, as of now, skypping would be quite expensive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...