The Definitive Allure Of The Seas Internet Speed & Pricing Guide

[Spaniel Lover]

As you may have heard, Royal Caribbean's three newest ships have recently switched over to a new Internet service provided by O3B networks. There's been a lot of talk online, including here on Cruise Critic, about how fast the new system is supposed to be... but I haven't been able to find any credible information from anyone on how fast it actually is. Nor have I seen a decent explanation of the various options offered when you sign up for an Internet plan onboard.

 

I think it's time that someone documented the actual speeds you can get onboard when connected to the Internet, and to spell out some of the options and the costs. Since I'm currently onboard the Allure Of The Seas, I think I'm just the guy to get this discussion going.

 

Having an always-on Internet connection during a cruise is important to me, as is being able to upload and download large files (such as YouTube videos) in minutes rather than hours... so I signed up for the highest-speed Internet option they offer. It's called the "Premium Plus" Internet plan, and Royal Caribbean describes it this way:

 

"With download speeds never before seen at sea, this package lets you do it all - from streaming movies, to live video calls, downloading large files and more. With Premium Plus the sky is the limit"

 

So, how fast is it? Not just in words, but in objective, quantifiable terms. To determine that, all we need is a little web site called Speedtest.net... which can very quickly perform a few tests to measure how good your connection to the Internet is.

 

Cutting right to the chase, let me just say that I've been onboard for about 24 hours now with the ship at sea, on the way to Labadee. I've run the speed test about 8 different times... and the results have been very consistent. With the Premium Plus plan, I'm consistently getting a ping time of about 185 milliseconds, a download speed of about 4 Mbps, and an upload speed of about .9 Mbps. That's the fastest Internet connection I've ever experienced (at sea) in 27 cruises.

 

Those numbers may not sound very fast compared to what you might be used to on land (I get 60 Mbps downloads at home with my cable modem) but it actually feels pretty snappy using it here in my cabin and it's not at all frustrating and un-reliable like most at-sea Internet connections have been on my previous cruises. The bottom line: it works, very consistently, and it seems fast as you use it.

 

For those of you who are not familiar with upload/download speeds and ping times:

 

The ping test measures how "responsive" the connection is. Basically, it measures how long after you click on something does the server at the other end find out that you clicked on it. Smaller numbers are better. The smaller the number in the ping test, the quicker things happen as you click on things. At home I get a ping time of about 10 ms, which is BLAZING fast... cable modems are really good at that. But a ping time here at sea of under 200 ms is a very respectable time and it results in a very good experience as you surf the Internet. It feels like things happen quickly, when you expect them to.

 

The download test is also very important, especially if you are dealing with very data-intensive tasks like viewing videos or even sites with pictures. For example, lots of times here on the Cruise Critic forums, you'll see threads where people will post pictures from their cruise. If there are more than a few pictures, you can be dealing with a lot of data. Just getting all the pictures to load on to your screen can take a long time if you don't have a good Internet connection with snappy download speeds. When viewing the speed test results, the larger the number in the download speed test, the better.

 

Two years ago, I did a Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Magic when Carnival was testing some new high-speed Internet equipment that MTN communications had developed. At the time, it was the fastest Internet connection I had ever experienced at sea, and it was a real joy to use. It worked well, and provided a good user experience. The download speed was about 2 Mbps, and the upload speed was about .5 Mbps... in other words, about half of what I'm getting on Allure Of The Seas today. Hopefully, that helps you put it all in perspective.

 

Of the three things tested on an Internet speed test, upload speed is really the least important. It most noticeably comes in to play when you are sending pictures (for example, in an email to family or friends) or if you are uploading a video to YouTube. I shot a nice time-lapse video of our departure from Fort Lauderdale yesterday and immediately uploaded it to YouTube. The upload literally just took a few minutes... thanks to the good connection we have onboard with the O3B network. Uploading a video was simple, and worked well. I've tried it on other cruises, and it was just so slow and flaky that I had to wait until I got home to do it.

Edited November 17, 2014 by Spaniel Lover

[Spaniel Lover]

Now let's talk about the various options they offer when you sign up for Internet service here on the Allure Of The Seas. (And presumably, also on Oasis and Quantum.)

 

There are three main levels of service available, based on the speed and quality of the connection: The "Basic" plan, the "Premium" plan, and the "Premium Plus" plan... which is the fastest, and that's the one I've been telling you about so far in this post.

 

I have to assume that the "basic" plan is similar in speed and quality to that which is offered on most other cruise ships. In other words, slow. I really can't find any information on how much faster the "premium" plan is supposed to be. Perhaps someone else currently onboard, using the premium plan, could go to SpeedTest.net and run a test and post the results here.

 

With each of the three plans you can buy access for one hour, 24 hours, or for the entire length of the cruise. It is NOT like the way you buy Internet access on other cruise lines. For example, on Carnival you can buy 120 minutes of Internet access time and you can use it for 5 minutes, log out, and still have 115 minutes left that you can use any time during the rest of the cruise.

 

With this new system on Allure Of The Seas, you are buying consecutive minutes. In other words, if I buy one hour of Internet access it starts now and ends in an hour. I can't just use five minutes now and log out and use the other 55 minutes on some other day.

 

Also, if you buy any of the three plans for the duration of the entire voyage, you have a choice of whether you want it to be able to work on just one device at a time, or a more expensive option that would let you use it on two devices at one time. This might be a good option for couples who both need to access the Internet from different devices at the same time.

 

So, those are all the options. Now let's look at the pricing, because that's where the rubber meets the road, right? If they were to price it a $5 for the whole voyage, everybody would buy it and the network would get clogged up and perform poorly. On the other hand, if they priced it at $1000 for the whole voyage, no one would buy it... and then what would be the point?!?

 

I happen to think that they have chosen to price it WAY to high. That's just my opinion.

I mentioned my cruise on the Carnival Magic two years ago where Carnival was testing a new high-speed Internet system developed by MTN communications... which provided a 2 Mbps download speed and an always-on connection for the entire length of the cruise. Carnival priced that at $99... and that seemed like a fair price to me.

 

For the one-device-at-a-time plan here on the Allure Of The Seas, the fastest option ("Premium Plus", which gives a 4 Mbps download speed) for the entire 7-day cruise sells for a whopping $280.

 

The "premium" plan, which is the middle speed plan (although I don't know exactly how slow or fast it really is), is priced at $160 for one device at a time during the entire 7-day cruise.

 

The "basic" plan, which is the slowest option, goes for $150 for the 7-day, one device at a time version.

 

Here is the pricing for ALL of the versions of the three plans:

 

Premium Plus Voyage Plan - 2 Devices $350

Premium Plus Voyage Plan - 1 Device $280

Premium Plus Daily Plan $70 Session expires 24 hours from the time of purchase.

Premium Plus hourly plan $35

 

Premium Vogage Plan - 2 devices - $210

Premium Voyage Plan - 1 device - $160

Premium daily plan - $40

Premium hourly plan - $20

 

Basic Vogage Plan - 2 devices - $200

Basic Voyage Plan - 1 device - $150

Basic daily plan $35

Basic hourly plan $18

 

Let's see how this compares to what they currently offer on Carnival. According to Carnival.com, the current fleetwide pricing for Internet service is:

 

• 480 minutes for $159

• 240 minutes for $89

• 120 minutes for $59

• 45 minutes for $29

• Pay As You Go: $0.75/minute

 

Again, keep in mind that with Carnival (and Princess, and some others) you can log in, use the connection for a few minutes, log off, and then save the rest of the minutes to be used at some later time. With the new system on Allure Of The Seas (and presumably on Oasis and Quantum) if you buy an hour of access time, it works for one hour begin right now and at the end of that hour you have run out of time and you can not save up unused minutes. So, this is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison... and one or the other may be better for you depending on how you plan to use the Internet during your cruise.

 

It would be really helpful if someone onboard a Carnival ship in the Caribbean would go to Speedtest.net and post the results here so we can all compare the speeds Carnival is currently offering. I read that by the end of December, in other words in the next 7 weeks, all of the Carnival ships in the caribbean will be offering some kind of improved Internet technology. I know it's not provided by O3B newtworks, though, so I know it won't be as fast as what RCCL has on its three newest ships.

 

Before I go and let you all chime in with your comments (and hopefully your actual speedtest results on other cruise ships)... I do want to mention that Norwegian Cruise Line has a completely different system installed on their newest ship, the Norwegian Getaway. It is a hybrid network that uses a satellite connection when the ship is far out at sea, and a wirelss connection to a tower on land when the ship is within sight of a properly equipped port. I tested it a few months ago and it works FANTASTIC when the ship is in sight of certain ports... WAY faster than what is offered on Allure Of The Seas... but on the other hand it's terrible slow and flaky when the ship is out at sea beyond a line-of-sight of the tower on land. Here's a YouTube video that shows my disappointment with how slow and flaky it is at sea, and my joy and amazement at how blazingly fast it is when the ship is within sight of a tower:

 

[YOUTUBE]gpAKjlvybyU[/YOUTUBE]

[Spaniel Lover]

Oh, by the way, here's that time-lapse video I shot yesterday as Allure Of The Seas sailed out of For Lauderdale. It took me just a few minutes to upload to YouTube from the ship.

 

[YOUTUBE]EtMAywybRJE[/YOUTUBE]

[Wolfhunt]

Thank you for some great information. We are going to be on the Allure in a few weeks and I was looking for info on their internet connections. This helps alot. For what I'm doing I may try the middle of the road package so I can post some speed results to compare to your package.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the detailed info. I wonder if you have the capability to test whether you can establish any kind of a VPN connection?

[Groucho]

Spaniel Lover:

 

Thanks for the information. We just returned from Oasis on November 8; they did not have the new service yet.

 

On an unrelated note, but connected to satellite reception, I had read somewhere that Royal will be upgrading their TV service to include, for an added fee, about 300 TV channels. Any chance that system is up and running on Allure?

 

Thanks

[thrifty99]

I was on the Allure Nov 2-9 and had the middle "Premium" plan.

 

I ran Speedtest a couple of times during the week and consistently had 2Mbps download and 1Mbps upload speeds.

 

I only have one saved test and it shows a ping of 10ms

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Clarea]

I was on the Allure Nov 2-9 and had the middle "Premium" plan.

 

I ran Speedtest a couple of times during the week and consistently had 2Mbps download and 1Mbps upload speeds.

 

I only have one saved test and it shows a ping of 10ms

 

That ping time is hard to believe for a satellite connection.

[Spaniel Lover]

I had read somewhere that Royal will be upgrading their TV service to include, for an added fee, about 300 TV channels. Any chance that system is up and running on Allure?

 

Unfortunately, no. In fact, I was shocked to discover that you can't even watch CBS, NBC, or ABC on the cabin televisions!

[cruisebirdie]

Unfortunately, no. In fact, I was shocked to discover that you can't even watch CBS, NBC, or ABC on the cabin televisions!

When I was on the Rhapsody (purchased unlimited internet - very slow), I was still able to stream the US Open finals via their android app, as a work around for the lack of cabin television choices. It buffered quite a bit, but I could watch it until the internet/satellite went out for the whole ship. Seems to me, with the new speeds one could stream whatever news they want to see. You would have to find which site, mobile app or device works best for news viewing on the ship. I couldn't access my Tablo on the ship, but I could access Comcast's on-demand. Curious, have you tried streaming any type of TV programming?

[Spaniel Lover]

Yes, streaming seems to work just fine.

 

Also, as a test, I went to the Internet cafe and ran a speed test there... just to see if having a wired LAN connection instead of a wireless connection would have any effect on the speed test results.

 

It made no difference at all... all test results were consistent with what I was getting in my cabin with a wireless connection.

[asil621]

Great info to know! Do you happen to know if C&A internet coupons can still be applied to the wireless internet packages?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Clarea]

Great info to know! Do you happen to know if C&A internet coupons can still be applied to the wireless internet packages?

Yes, there are still C&A discounts for internet packages.

[debbs0723]

Does anyone know if you can buy the packages before we board?

 

Thanks,

Debbie

[Clarea]

Does anyone know if you can buy the packages before we board?

 

Thanks,

Debbie

I've never seen the internet packages available pre-cruise.

[debbs0723]

I've never seen the internet packages available pre-cruise.

 

 

Thanks, Bob.

 

Debbie

[Tennessee_Cruiser]

With the Premium Plus plan, I'm consistently getting a ping time of about 185 milliseconds, a download speed of about 4 Mbps, and an upload speed of about .9 Mbps.

 

I was on the Allure Nov 2-9 and had the middle "Premium" plan.

 

I ran Speedtest a couple of times during the week and consistently had 2Mbps download and 1Mbps upload speeds.

 

I only have one saved test and it shows a ping of 10ms

 

Sound like the middle premium plan might be the sweet spot, unless you need the 4 Mbps vs 2 Mbps. But even 2 Mbps should be fast enough for YouTube, iTunes Radio, etc.

[thrifty99]

I used the middle plan for a FaceTime video chat with my son back home 2 weeks ago while on Allure. Clear video with no stutters.

 

Only tried it once - should have tried a few times for consistency. Now I have excuse to go back!!!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Tennessee_Cruiser]

I used the middle plan for a FaceTime video chat with my son back home 2 weeks ago while on Allure. Clear video with no stutters.

 

Only tried it once - should have tried a few times for consistency. Now I have excuse to go back!!!

 

Awesome! Good to know. I was debating which package to purchase on my next cruise on the Oasis. Now I know!

[Spaniel Lover]

We're now on day 6 of our cruise on Allure Of The Seas and the Internet connection has continued to be excellent the whole way. Every time I did a speed test, the readings came back nearly identical... with just one exception. Tonight, the ping time slowed down just a bit to 240 ms... every other time I tested it, it was right around 185 ms. Upload and download speeds have been right around .9 Mbps and 4 Mbps every time I've tested it.

 

Besides the good speeds, the other thing that has been great has been the reliability. There have been so many cruises we've been on where the Internet was just FLAKY... completely unusable at times... very unreliable. On this ship, it has been totally reliable except for about a one hour period today while the ship was docked in Cozumel. I think they had to do some network maintenance and waited until most guests were off the ship. I could not even connect to the wireless network for about an hour. But that was the only time during the entire cruise that the service wasn't rock solid.

 

I think on my next cruise with RCCL, I will try the Premium package and see how it compares to what we've experienced this cruise with the excellent (put way too pricey) Premium Plus package. But let the record show that in real-world testing, the Premium Plus service was fast and reliable. I'm pretty sure I have seen what will eventually become the standard expected level of Internet service on cruise ships.

Edited November 22, 2014 by Spaniel Lover

[gatour]

Spaniel Lover, thanks for the update on the consistency of the service.

 

Just for clarification. When the plans say one device vs two devices that is concurrent devices connected to the ships system, correct.

 

I normally bring my personal laptop to do light web surfing and emailing. We also bring along a couple of e-readers that are normally preloaded with our reading material. But there are times when on vacations when we would download more books/magazines. As long only one of the three devices is connected to the ships at any one time, would we be okay with one package that has the "one device at a time connection".

 

The scenerio would be...

 

1. My lap top would be online 8am-8:30am

2. My wife's e-reader would be online 10am-10:3O am

3. My own e-reader would be online 3pm-3:30pm

 

Since there is no concurrent connections, we could get by with one of the "one device" plans. Even though we would have a total of 3 different devices connecting through out the cruies.

[Spaniel Lover]

You've got it exactly right. When they talk about "one device" they mean one at a time. The scenario you spelled out would be no problem. Just make sure that when you are done using your laptop and you want to free up the connection for your wife to use, that you go to logout.com to log out of the connection.

 

I'm not quite sure how your wife would have to log out with the e-reader when she's done. Perhaps just turning the e-reader off would do it. I'm not sure on that aspect.

 

It has really been a pleasure to have an always-on high-speed Internet connection during this cruise. It has allowed me to not have to think about keeping all online work to the shortest possible number of minutes used. It's been nice to be able to upload videos to Facebook and YouTube, too.

 

Here are a couple of videos I've posted, for your enjoyment...

 

Time-Lapse Of Our Arrival In Cozumel:

 

[YOUTUBE]CUGuColIF-E[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

 

A delightful musical act, performing in the Viking Crown lounge:

 

[YOUTUBE]dKTcHWRzEFY[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

 

The huge waves created when the ship left the harbor in Ft. Lauderdale:

 

[YOUTUBE]H596HwbDssA[/YOUTUBE]

[thrifty99]

Just a note on logging off... I did not have to ever log off a device in order to use another one. Just logging onto the new device would log me off the current one automatically.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Spaniel Lover]

I tested this, and you're absolutely correct. No need to log off. Just logging in on a new device logs you off of the other. Simple!

[Tony O]

By using your C & A discount it does help lower the price.