iPad on ship

[montereybob]

I will be sailing on Equinox. Will the wifi signal in the cabins and in the common areas be good enough to use my iPad?

[trcy]

Absolutely. I brought my ipad and had no issues using it in the cabin or around the ship.

[jimcruser]

Was recently on the Equinox and my i-pad worked fine. So did a laptop and a nook. We were in a room near the library and had no problems connecting. The only "problem" was with my daughter's i-pad. She was reading by the pool (right next to a hot tub). Although she was cautious the whole day, when her dad (me) came up for an afternoon swim she left the i-pad on her seat. A young boy in the hot tub with his dad thought that was the perfect time to make my daughter's seat into another pool! The i-pad got wet and suffered a slow death. We did get some rice and let the i-pad sit in the rice for a while to dry off, but it needed a funeral. Despite the fact that you could tell that the i-pad got wet (half red, half white thing in the audio plug), and the knowledge that the warrantee expired one week after we got home (lucky for us), the folks at apple looked at the i-pad, agreed it was dead, and gave my daughter a brand new one! Wow! Those guys were great. So now we will try the i-pad on the Infinity next year in South America. Hope it works as well on the Infinity as it did on the Equinox, even if the new one will never, ever, get anywhere near the pool.

[montereybob]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I will not leave my iPad anywhere near the hot tub.

[L11]

Thanks for the heads up about the pool. I was not planning on taking my iPad anywhere near the water, but it never occurred to me that the water might come to me!

[KirkNC]

Was recently on the Equinox and my i-pad worked fine. So did a laptop and a nook. We were in a room near the library and had no problems connecting. The only "problem" was with my daughter's i-pad. She was reading by the pool (right next to a hot tub). Although she was cautious the whole day, when her dad (me) came up for an afternoon swim she left the i-pad on her seat. A young boy in the hot tub with his dad thought that was the perfect time to make my daughter's seat into another pool! The i-pad got wet and suffered a slow death. We did get some rice and let the i-pad sit in the rice for a while to dry off, but it needed a funeral. Despite the fact that you could tell that the i-pad got wet (half red, half white thing in the audio plug), and the knowledge that the warrantee expired one week after we got home (lucky for us), the folks at apple looked at the i-pad, agreed it was dead, and gave my daughter a brand new one! Wow! Those guys were great. So now we will try the i-pad on the Infinity next year in South America. Hope it works as well on the Infinity as it did on the Equinox, even if the new one will never, ever,

anywhere near the pool.

 

Wow, surprised Apple replaced it.

[blong2200]

When I bought a Kindle Fire ( two of them) I paid for the warranty. The warranty says they will REPLACE it for any reason. We are bringing them on the cruise, but I don't plan on using the wi-fi on it much as we will have 160 free internet minutes at the internet cafe, in case I really need to check my email.

[hurwitz5]

In order to use the IPad, how much did you pay for Internet service?

[subtchr]

When I bought a Kindle Fire ( two of them) I paid for the warranty. The warranty says they will REPLACE it for any reason. We are bringing them on the cruise, but I don't plan on using the wi-fi on it much as we will have 160 free internet minutes at the internet cafe, in case I really need to check my email.

 

Free internet minutes are free whether you use the ship's computers or your own device. You have to sign up for an account initially in the iLounge, but after that you can use the sign-in on your Kindle.

 

In order to use the IPad, how much did you pay for Internet service?

 

It's the same price for internet whether you are using the ship's computers or your own laptop, iPad, smart phone, or any other web-enabled device. As I mentioned above, you must first set up an account at one of the computers in the iLounge (just takes a minute to swipe your seapass and create a password). Then you can use that password to log in on your iPad. Be sure to save a logoff bookmark!

 

If you click on the link in my signature for the INFORMATION PACKET on Solstice, there is internet pricing and other info included if you scroll through the pages.

[trcy]

In order to use the IPad, how much did you pay for Internet service?

 

There are different options to choose from . The use as you go option is billed at $0.75 a minute. I chose the $49.99 plan which billed at $0.55 a minute. It was more then enough to check my email daily and do some research on the islands we would be going to.

 

It was not enough to print our airline boarding pass on the last night. I gave up after about 3 minutes, but on average it was taking people more than 20 minutes. When I tried the page kept timing out. The gentleman next to me was having the same issue. It wasn't a big deal. We just got them at the airport. Just another annoyance to deal with on the ship.

[Fixit2010]

Your connection to the ship's wifi will be good. However the ship's connection to the internet is as fast as an early dial up connection, due to the very small bandwidth allocated to passengers.

[Wolfie469]

I will be sailing on Equinox. Will the wifi signal in the cabins and in the common areas be good enough to use my iPad?

 

Sometimes the signal was missing in my midship room. Most times it was ok. First day, there will be an offer to get additional minutes if you sign up that day. I believe it was 20% more minutes. I bought the $99.00 plan because I'm a net addict. That plan cost was 45 cents a minute. One tip: when you go to the iLounge, have the attendant put the app on your unit that turns access off and on. It'll save you money if you were to somehow fail to shut it down properly. Another tip: download emails, then use the app to turn off wifi to read them. Write replies on Notes, or Pages, then copy and paste to send. (you already know this, don't you? My bad.)

 

Wolfie

[itsanita]

Sometimes the signal was missing in my midship room. Most times it was ok. First day, there will be an offer to get additional minutes if you sign up that day. I believe it was 20% more minutes. I bought the $99.00 plan because I'm a net addict. That plan cost was 45 cents a minute. One tip: when you go to the iLounge, have the attendant put the app on your unit that turns access off and on. It'll save you money if you were to somehow fail to shut it down properly. Another tip: download emails, then use the app to turn off wifi to read them. Write replies on Notes, or Pages, then copy and paste to send. (you already know this, don't you? My bad.)

 

Wolfie

 

Thanks for the tip about the app for access. So we take our IPAD, go to the ilounge, sign up for whatever plan we choose, and then we can use our IPAD whereever we want on the ship?

[subtchr]

Thanks for the tip about the app for access. So we take our IPAD, go to the ilounge, sign up for whatever plan we choose, and then we can use our IPAD whereever we want on the ship?

 

That is correct. When you sign up for the plan, you create a password that you will use to sign in each session on your iPad. Have fun!

[Wolfie469]

Thanks for the tip about the app for access. So we take our IPAD, go to the ilounge, sign up for whatever plan we choose, and then we can use our IPAD whereever we want on the ship?

 

Sue's right. I just clicked on the app on my iPad and copied the URL. Try it once aboard http://appdb.rccl.com/ekgnkm/WirelessLogin.asp

[srqman]

Note to everyone, you don't need to go to the ilounge to set up your iPad for internet. All you have to do is go on your tv in your room, pick the internet tab and it will walk you through the process along with picking a minute plan. This is on the S class ships.

[WpgCruise]

Note to everyone, you don't need to go to the ilounge to set up your iPad for internet. All you have to do is go on your tv in your room, pick the internet tab and it will walk you through the process along with picking a minute plan. This is on the S class ships.

 

Would one also be able to access the first day discount with this option?

[Milhouse]

Data point: Fairly shortly after we boarded, I asked about a first day discount on our recent Dec 12 Equinox cruise and nada. YMMV of course.

[Wolfie469]

Data point: Fairly shortly after we boarded, I asked about a first day discount on our recent Dec 12 Equinox cruise and nada. YMMV of course.

 

I was on the Jan. 8 Solstice cruise. I think it was announced in the daily.

[subtchr]

I just looked through the dailies for our Dec 11-18 Solstice cruise, and there is a coupon offering 10% bonus minutes to any internet package purchased on Tuesday only (we departed on a Sunday).

 

I had the 20% off Select coupon, so I just used that.

[edgee]

Remember also for Caribbean cruises that if you have an ipad with 3G, most (if not all) ATT and Verizon plans consider airtime in PR and USVI as locations which are part of your home plan---no roaming. In port we caught up on all e mails..etc. In the case of our Verizon plan we were told that data use including Ipad and cell phone texting has no roaming charges, although cell phone calls do incur a roaming charge.

[Ugaaucruisers]

Does anyone know if IPads are for sale in the Apple store on board the Eclipse. Were on Eclipse last year and can't remember what they had in the store. Would love not to pay tax!!

[queen of cruising]

There are different options to choose from . The use as you go option is billed at $0.75 a minute. I chose the $49.99 plan which billed at $0.55 a minute. It was more then enough to check my email daily and do some research on the islands we would be going to.

 

It was not enough to print our airline boarding pass on the last night. I gave up after about 3 minutes, but on average it was taking people more than 20 minutes. When I tried the page kept timing out. The gentleman next to me was having the same issue. It wasn't a big deal. We just got them at the airport. Just another annoyance to deal with on the ship.

 

Interesting....we were on the Allure last year and everyone was allowed to print out their airline boarding passes free without having to use up any personal internet minutes.

[rigldbrg]

Thanks for the heads up about the pool. I was not planning on taking my iPad anywhere near the water, but it never occurred to me that the water might come to me!

 

Agreed! What a great tip. I'm planning on doing a good deal of reading near the pool, so I'll be sure to watch out for splashers!

 

On a separate note, does anyone know if the on-board Apple store offers any type of iPad or iPhone classes?

[Sloop-JohnB]

Agreed! What a great tip. I'm planning on doing a good deal of reading near the pool, so I'll be sure to watch out for splashers!

 

On a separate note, does anyone know if the on-board Apple store offers any type of iPad or iPhone classes?

 

TO RIGLDBRG,

 

The Apple I-Lounge on the Solstice offered them (assume so would the others)... cost was $ 20 per session or $ 60 max to take as many as you liked (think in total there were 4 different ones offered)... the package deal also came with some internet minutes (maybe 30 or so)

 

Know that some folks here have said on the CC CELEBRITY BOARD previously that such classes are FREE if you go to a land-based store... but I don't have one nearby... and never seem to have the time for such things anyhow... going onboard was "relatively" convenient... so I didn't mind paying for the class.

 

I only did the Ipad Intro Course and the class was about 1 Hour long (although the Instructor ran over by about 15 Minutes) and then there was one-on-one help and a Q&A Session afterwards.

 

I thought the class quite good... and they delivered detailed NOTES to our cabin afterwards... nice touch.

 

I would have liked to have also done the Iphoto one or the IMovie one... but silly as it seems they were offering those courses on Port Days... :rolleyes: which is when most folks with cameras would want to be taking pictures !!

 

Hope this is helpful,

 

Cheers!