How do I rent the "kit"in advance to use my Laptop in my cabin while at sea

[marvin]

I tried to order the "Kit" needed to use my laptop at sea. The Captains Club rep I spoke to insisted I had to wait until we boarded the ship to order the needed hookup. Any other suggestions? Thank you Marvin

[nparmelee]

Which ship? Some of them have wireless now and all you need to do is go by the computer center and pick up the instructions for the settings. Everything else is the same as if you were using their computers except that you can do all your emails ahead of time and then get ready to send on line.

[lysolqn]

You only need the kit if you want internet service in your cabin, in which case you can get the kit at the computer center once you board the ship. The charge is $25 per day for 50 minutes of internet service. Additional minutes are charged at the standard rate of $0.75 per minute. There are bulk minute packages available for purchase but the packages are in addition to the daily $25 charge. Some of the ships have wireless hot spots where you can connect to the internet in the Rendez-vous lounge using your own laptop, provided you have set up an account enabling you to do so. Service is fairly reliable considering the fact that you're dealing with satellites, but it is slower than you're probably used to at home, so keep an eye on the clock because the minutes go by very quickly.

[marvin]

Which ship? Some of them have wireless now and all you need to do is go by the computer center and pick up the instructions for the settings. Everything else is the same as if you were using their computers except that you can do all your emails ahead of time and then get ready to send on line.

We will be on the Summit R/T from San Pedro to Hawaii on 1/02/06----- Marvin

[Andy]

Hi Marvin !

 

I have never been able to rent the kit in advance. I do not think there is any way to do that.

 

The good news is, they have plenty of the kits on Summit, so it really should not be a problem. Just go to the Computer Lab as soon as you board, and sign up for it. They will give you the necessary equipment. If you have any problems, they will also come to your cabin to help you get it set up.

 

Enjoy your Cruise !

[marvin]

To all who passed on the information THANK YOU. ..... Marvin

[morriscats]

We are on Infinity - is there a kit for that one also. We don't have a laptop but are considering getting one as we are sailing for 14 days and would like to keep in contact with family members.

[nparmelee]

The Summit did have wireless available in April when we were on her. If you have a midship cabin it may work from there. If not, you can take your laptop to the Cova Cafe, or something similar and use the wireless from there. It was about the same speed as their computer setups (ok, slow) but faster than dialup would be.

[sandpiper]

Hi,

Does anyone know what is availiable on the Mercury. My wife contacted the Captains Club and all they said was the C-class ships really had nothing. They said the M- class ships had wireless in some cabins. It would be great to have the ability to use my laptop in the Cova Cafe or Rendez-ous lounge. I wasn't sure how they would keep track and bill the time. Twenty-five dollars a day is a bit steep, in my eyes, even though you get a decent amount of time. I was going to bring my laptop anyway to connect to a GPS receiver, so I could track the movements of the ship. It would be an added bonus to connect to the internet.

[Andy]

Hi,

Does anyone know what is availiable on the Mercury. My wife contacted the Captains Club and all they said was the C-class ships really had nothing. They said the M- class ships had wireless in some cabins. It would be great to have the ability to use my laptop in the Cova Cafe or Rendez-ous lounge. I wasn't sure how they would keep track and bill the time. Twenty-five dollars a day is a bit steep, in my eyes, even though you get a decent amount of time. I was going to bring my laptop anyway to connect to a GPS receiver, so I could track the movements of the ship. It would be an added bonus to connect to the internet.

 

Hi !

 

While the C-Class ships do not have in cabin connection to the internet, I was told they DID install Wi-Fi Spots in few locations on each ship, several months ago. I wish I could confirm it. I was on Century about a year ago, and was told they were putting Wi-Fi in within a month or 2. I was told it was to be the same for ALL C-Class ships.

 

I am guessing Captains Club gave you the wrong information. I would call again, and ask to speak with a supervisor.

 

Enjoy your Cruise !

[Charles4515]

Hi !

 

While the C-Class ships do not have in cabin connection to the internet, I was told they DID install Wi-Fi Spots in few locations on each ship, several months ago. I wish I could confirm it. I was on Century about a year ago, and was told they were putting Wi-Fi in within a month or 2. I was told it was to be the same for ALL C-Class ships.

 

I am guessing Captains Club gave you the wrong information. I would call again, and ask to speak with a supervisor.

 

Enjoy your Cruise !

 

Last year when I was on Galaxy I was told the same but I have never read any report backs confirming they had.

 

In a month I am going on Zenith. I am not holding my breath that they have done something that simple and put in a hot spot. I will look for a hot spot in Bermuda.

[BuckGuy]

Service is fairly reliable considering the fact that you're dealing with satellites, but it is slower than you're probably used to at home, so keep an eye on the clock because the minutes go by very quickly.

 

Yes, I would say that is a thousand percent accurate. And, if you might wish to attach some jpegs in an email to friends/family at home, you might want to stick it on a memory stick and ask the computer center if you can plug it into their computer to send. More reliable than the wireless hotspots....on your own laptop via a hotspot, sometimes a connection might get broken while in the middle of transmitting a jpeg, then you have lost those purchased minutes and have to start over.

[Andy]

Last year when I was on Galaxy I was told the same but I have never read any report backs confirming they had.

 

In a month I am going on Zenith. I am not holding my breath that they have done something that simple and put in a hot spot. I will look for a hot spot in Bermuda.

 

Hi Charles !

 

According to Celebrity, ALL C-Class ships have limited areas that have Wi-Fi spots (for a fee of course).

 

Here is the Link to Celebrityatsea.com, which confirms this : http://www.celebrityatsea.com/index.aspx?value=6

 

It makes NO mention of any Wi-Fi spots on Horizon or Zenith, so I believe that Wi-Fi is not available. I would think the only option on Horizon & Zenith, is the internet cafe.

 

I hope this helps answer your questions. Enjoy your Cruise !

[sacway]

Yes, I would say that is a thousand percent accurate. And, if you might wish to attach some jpegs in an email to friends/family at home, you might want to stick it on a memory stick and ask the computer center if you can plug it into their computer to send. More reliable than the wireless hotspots....on your own laptop via a hotspot, sometimes a connection might get broken while in the middle of transmitting a jpeg, then you have lost those purchased minutes and have to start over.

 

Did not know the computer center would allow pax to use the flash memory sticks. Is this policy or an informal nicety?

 

sacway

[cruiseguy2]

The Mercury did have WiFi available in the Michael's Club. You can get a signal from the Cova Cafe.

 

 

-Chris

[slivers]

For M class: There is no longer a flat rate per day, including minutes, for in-cabin access using the phone modem kit. You can rent the kit for $10/day. Minutes can be purchased at $0.75/minute or in packages that reduce the cost to as little as $0.50 if you buy 500 for $250. If you start out at a high rate, you can just pay that rate per minute if you go over or you can jump to a higher minute package and get the lower rate retroactively.

 

On Constellation Baltic July 2 we did not rent the kit (we had before) but instead used the WiFi hotspots or the Internet Center. It did not work in our cabin (and I don't think it worked in any). There was access in public lounges, Words (the library), most of Deck 10 aft, and the two computer locations. Signal strength and logon ability varies. Sometimes you would have a strong signal, but could not log on to the Wireless@Sea network. Other times a relatively weak signal allowed instant access.

 

Pricing is the same as above from $0.75 down to $0.50. Can use your minutes on the WiFi network or in the Internet Center, which we did when we had difficulty logging on. Never had a problem getting access to a computer there.

 

We felt this pricing system, while still very expensive, was better than old daily flat rate. With that it was easy to go over the 50-minute limit one day (and pay for extra minutes) and then way underuse the next day but still pay $25. We opted for a 200-minute package at $120 ($0.60). We actually had 75 or 80 minutes left in 14 days, but a smaller package would have been almost as costly.

 

BTW, you can read your flash memory cards onto the ship's computers. Most, if not all, units had a multi-mode reader. In this way you could email photos (V - E - R - Y SLOW and therefore costly) or store them on server and they will burn them to a CD for you at the end of the cruise. I believe they even store them for a time and can send you backups later. This based on an overheard conversation, so I'm not sure of details.

 

Best way to deal with large number of digital photos (I brought back 815 from Baltic) is with your own laptop. Upload them each day using your camera's USB cable or a tiny flash card reader. I got one for xD cards at Walmart (Lexar brand) for $20; about 1.5-2X size of a Bic lighter. Much handier than cable. I saved them in folders for each city, which helped a lot in organizing. When complete, I erased the memory card each day, so I never needed more than one 512-Mb card, even with 6.3-Mpixel images and some videos.

 

One way we cut down on web usage for email was to use a GSM cell phone instead. It's amazing how easily you can communicate with someone when you actually speak with them! Off course this only works when in or very near port. If you have Cingular or T-Mobile GSM service here, definitely consider using in Europe if that's where you are headed. Our whole family is locked into Sprint, so I upgraded to their new dual-mode Samsung IP-A790. It works like a CDMA phone in US, but you can add a SIM chip for GSM usage outside the US. The phone and activation are expensive, international roaming costs $6/month, and calls are a flat $1.50/minute. Worked everywhere, even St. Petersburg which was not listed by Sprint. Verizon has their version of same phone. There are cheaper ways to do the same thing by buying or renting a GSM phone with multinational roaming. Search on Google for sites that tell how to do this.

 

Steve

[lysolqn]

The $10/day charge for the kit must be new. We were on a Constellation Baltic cruise in May and the charge was still $25/day for 50 minutes of internet service.

[Begete]

Steve (and others who have done this)-

 

Thank you for a most informative post. We are still tryng to decide whether to bring our laptop.

 

A few more questions?

 

Do you know - to download your digital photos to the ship's server and then purchase the CD at the end of the cruise - do they charge per minute for the downloading as they do for Internet access?

 

Internet access - Are you able to access your AOL, compuserve, comcast, etc. e-mail accounts, or can you only use the shipboard account they have set up for you and which is in your documents?

 

I read somewhere on these boards that Celebrity bars access to AOL, for example, because if you send e-mail through AOL, even if you send the same piece of mail to 10 people, you get charged for only one e-mail address instead of 10. Is that the case? I assume they are still charging $2 per e-mail address to which you send or receive mail?

 

Do you know what costs you have accrued after each use? or is it an end of the trip "surprise"?

 

How does the wireless work? Do they give you a password when you buy a card that enables you to access their server? Other than a wireless card, do you need any other soft or hardware in your computer?

 

Thanx in advance for any answers.

[amcb]

Hi Steve/Slivers!! Long time no meet on these boards! :-)

 

Thanks for the up to date info for Constellation. We are also doing the Baltic itinerary (August 27 sailing) and I'm trying to figure out all the different options. Since I'll need to be in touch for work on a daily basis I'll be using the in-cabin option. Hopefully this time it will work for me.

 

We're on deck 9 aft. Any chance that the wireless from deck 10 aft will reach down to my cabin?

 

Thanks for all the wonderful info!

 

:-) amcb

[slivers]

Begete, I don't know if there is a charge for uploading pix to the ship's server. Maybe someone else can answer, but I THINK you are charged only for Internet or email access. Will be no problem accessing Comcast, since that's what we did to send/receive email when using the ship's computers. I did notice that accessing the Comcast website was slower than logging on to other websites. I heard that accessing AOL is slow, too.

 

Every passenger gets a login as part of the boarding process. When you sign on first time you set up password. No card needed, either for wireless or ship's computer access (except for first time to set up charge). You can access your minutes used, and it shows up as part of the logout process.

 

If you have a wireless card, you have everything you need. They sell them on board, but way overpriced. Either PCMCIA cards or USB plugins are very cheap now (I think under $20-25).

 

Whether to lug a laptop is a big decision. I have a very small "baby" laptop, Fujitsu Lifebook. It's just 10.5" x 8" x 1.3" with a 10.6 screen, just great for this kind of use. You should be fine wither way, but I did love knowing I had all my pix already uploaded and safe on my hard drive. Would have felt safer if I had burned CDs as backup (it has a CD burner). I took blank CDs, but didn't think of that little belt-and-suspenders ploy until just now.

 

amcb, have a great cruise! It is a fabulous itinerary. Click on my name above and look for my recent posts. You should find my comments in a thread on the Baltic Ports of Call board, dealing with the need to think carefully about what you can realistically accomplish given short port times. Especially, Oslo, where a Celebrity excursion may be the only sensible way to see more than 1 or 2 top attractions.

 

Steve

 

Hi, AMCB! We had an aft cabin on 8. No WiFi access, and I was told cabins were not covered. It may be that the cabin next to the midships elevators (across the hall from Words) has access. WiFi worked from chair in the elevator lobby (useful when Words is closed). But don't expect it