Internet Speed (for work)

[JonnyCT81]

Hello my fellow Cruise Critic'ers!

 

My partner and I are thinking about taking a TA next year, however with the time required for it, and the stay in Europe my partner is going to need to get some work done on a few days on this ship (bummer I know...). He needs to "remote" into his office through his laptop and is concerned about the internet speeds. The last time he tried to do this was back in 2012 and it was just simply too slow. I didn't know if Celebrity was going to be taking advantage for the new advertised "fastest internet at sea" that Royal has since they are the same company. Can anyone please give me some info/personal experience as to their speed lately? For any computer geeks out there, he is planning on using Citrix to remote in. Thanks as always for the help!! ;)

[cruisestitch]

First, Royal and Celebrity are not the same company, they are each owned by the same parent, but they run very differently, with some cooperation between them, but they are not identical. You will not find the "fastest Internet at sea" on Celebrity -- it is about as slow as a dial up connection. You cannot Skype, cannot do things that take lots of bandwidth, and it is at the mercy of the seas, the weather and the satellite connection, so it may drop out unexpectedly. If it was too slow in 2012, you will find that it is still too slow today.

[floridatravelersforlife]

If you can upload and download at 2AM shipboard time you may have some luck, when pax and the ships various depts. are not using onboard computers. I found that with speed tests on the improved system are 2-3Mps at that time of night, but the problem is the latency and burst techniques used by the ship might not work with Citrix. Burst downloads and uploads work the best, but 2 AM may not be satisfactory to your needs. If you need to correspond during the day, connectivity will be iffy. Don't count on any continuous connectivity if seas are heavy. If you can swing it, rent a Globalstar Sat Phone - a better choice for voice and data for business needs. Cost depends on how much time and data you use.

[1Gizmo]

On a November 2013 TA, we were able to Skype quite often. We had no problems. The internet connections are somewhat slow but you known that.

[Bosjoe]

Hello my fellow Cruise Critic'ers!

 

My partner and I are thinking about taking a TA next year, however with the time required for it, and the stay in Europe my partner is going to need to get some work done on a few days on this ship (bummer I know...). He needs to "remote" into his office through his laptop and is concerned about the internet speeds. The last time he tried to do this was back in 2012 and it was just simply too slow. I didn't know if Celebrity was going to be taking advantage for the new advertised "fastest internet at sea" that Royal has since they are the same company. Can anyone please give me some info/personal experience as to their speed lately? For any computer geeks out there, he is planning on using Citrix to remote in. Thanks as always for the help!! ;)

 

It will be slow, but your best bet is to test it on your upcoming cruise. Then decide if it is worth it. It will be slow, average speeds 128k upload and slightly faster DL.

[Phxazzcruisers]

It is slow and very frustrating when I tried to "work remotely" As others have said, if he can go on line at odd hours in the LATE evening and EARLY morning, it is better, but still not great for work.

[dkjretired]

First, Royal and Celebrity are not the same company, they are each owned by the same parent, but they run very differently, with some cooperation between them, but they are not identical. You will not find the "fastest Internet at sea" on Celebrity -- it is about as slow as a dial up connection. You cannot Skype, cannot do things that take lots of bandwidth, and it is at the mercy of the seas, the weather and the satellite connection, so it may drop out unexpectedly. If it was too slow in 2012, you will find that it is still too slow today.

 

Since they have an undetermined date of their cruise they might get lucky if everything falls in place. On my cruise two months ago, I asked a very high ranking officer about the internet and he said they are hoping if the Quantum works out, they will get the same system on the ships at the next drydocks. We can only hope.

[cle-guy]

"Remote Desktop Connect" is disabled if you need to use that to "remote in". I used it to do my work remotely, and couldn't use it on ship, but was fine in ports.

 

Perhaps look to an itinerary with a few stops along the way, and do work in bermuda/bahamas, then plan the day in the azores to work too?

 

Use the ports to get the work done with they land-based wi-fi

 

Not sure about "tethering" to your cellphone. AT&T has a plan for use at sea, I found it to be a bit more reliable to the ship, but depending on which ship you are on, it may not work. Reflection uses another service that's not "Cellular at Sea" than the AT&T and I forget which other ship, either Sillie or Solstice.

 

Using your own phone and data may at least get beyond the blocked Remote Desktop Connect issue.

[cruza]

Hello my fellow Cruise Critic'ers!

 

My partner and I are thinking about taking a TA next year, however with the time required for it, and the stay in Europe my partner is going to need to get some work done on a few days on this ship (bummer I know...). He needs to "remote" into his office through his laptop and is concerned about the internet speeds. The last time he tried to do this was back in 2012 and it was just simply too slow. I didn't know if Celebrity was going to be taking advantage for the new advertised "fastest internet at sea" that Royal has since they are the same company. Can anyone please give me some info/personal experience as to their speed lately? For any computer geeks out there, he is planning on using Citrix to remote in. Thanks as always for the help!! ;)

 

REALLY SLOW... We were able to work in port when everyone is out in St Croix, but we had some sparadic period of slowness as well...Not reliable...

[alcpa1]

Just as a FYI, if you need internet in Bermuda the fastest service in the quietest location is at the library in Hamilton. There is also free internet at the Frog and Onion but it can get a little noisy and fun - too much fun to concentrate on work. It's near the port at King's Wharf.

[Shake]

Hello my fellow Cruise Critic'ers!

 

My partner and I are thinking about taking a TA next year, however with the time required for it, and the stay in Europe my partner is going to need to get some work done on a few days on this ship (bummer I know...). He needs to "remote" into his office through his laptop and is concerned about the internet speeds.

 

If you find yourself on vacation and can not live without the internet, the best advice is just stay home. :cool:

[cle-guy]

If you find yourself on vacation and can not live without the internet, the best advice is just stay home. :cool:

 

A day at the office on a ship FAR outweighs a day in the office on land, wouldn't you say?

 

For me, there's something delightfully indulgent about sitting on the pier in Bermuda and running a payroll or balancing the checkbook for my business.

Edited November 24, 2014 by cle-guy

[Bosjoe]

If you find yourself on vacation and can not live without the internet, the best advice is just stay home. :cool:

 

Well if your retired that's fine. But some people can not take time of for 14 days on average for TA cruises. I myself have to fight for this time off as I work for a company that is open 24/7/365.

 

If I had to work for a day or two in a cruise, I take that any day compared to being in the office.

[Hlitner]

Getting back to the specific concern of the OP, we think the news is really not very good. Although RCI has been doing some experimentation with higher speed internet on a few ships, it does appear to be anything that will quickly spread through the industry. In the past there have been promises of high speed internet on cruise ships, but it has not come to pass. And the bandwidth problems have only increased (in a huge way) as nearly every cruiser now has an internet-ready device be it a tablet, laptop, or smartphone.

 

On TA cruises (of which we have done dozens) there also seems to be some regions where the satellite positions are not very conducive to high speed internet or even any internet. My hunch would be that the OP's friend needs to plan based on having internet speeds no better then what he/she experienced in 2012 (or even 2008). We also look forward to decent internet speeds on our many cruises, but will not be holding our breath.

 

Hank

[ECCruise]

It also seems to be hit and miss, even on the same ship.

 

We spent 3 weeks on Eclipse in the spring and it was the fastest internet we'd experienced in years. Got off the Eclipse yesterday and was some of the slowest ever. Maybe the system needs a reboot, LOL.

[Shake]

A day at the office on a ship FAR outweighs a day in the office on land, wouldn't you say?

 

For me, there's something delightfully indulgent about sitting on the pier in Bermuda and running a payroll or balancing the checkbook for my business.

 

Not me. When I'm on vacation payroll and checkbooks are not my concern. Business is covered and completed.

[ECCruise]

Not me. When I'm on vacation payroll and checkbooks are not my concern. Business is covered and completed.

 

Everybody is different. We do spend a little bit of time when we are traveling to "do business."

 

Of course, we travel a minimum of 5-6 months a year for pleasure. Because we spend a little bit of time when we are traveling to "do business."

[JonnyCT81]

I would like to thank everyone for your advice with this topic, it has given my partner and I a lot to think to think about!

Edited November 26, 2014 by JonnyCT81

[beentothere]

Speed and connectivity have not changed much, and in some cases had

service to ftp and drop box totally disabled.

 

Logon is much faster but now you don't know that you are dead in the water.

 

Food is great and service is a winner....but you can't email many about it

 

maybe things will change

[FLcruiser2011]

I have found that MTN now blocks Dropbox and most every other cloud site -- even obscure ones they missed a year ago. But so far, I have been able to get through to my office FTP site.

 

How would they block FTP, when each FTP site has a unique address?

[Hammer61]

Its nice to go away and forget about work, but when you work for yourself its often not as easy as that, well not for me anyway and although I don’t need to be online working while away I do need to be available via email so will have to take the internet option whilst onboard and just check in 2 or 3 times a day, so im hoping this basic function is available most of the time without problems, not like I need to load or run any software or download anything its purely email I will want access too, can I ask are the internet terminals they say they have onboard any quicker than the Wifi that many seem to say is unreliable?

[WestLakeGirl]

It's the entire system that is slow, their terminals or your device no real difference. But you can be more efficient by using your own device. Log on, download new email, log off. Then compose answers, log on and send. This is more efficient than reading your email on this machines, typing your answers as the clock is ticking and then sending

[Hlitner]

We sometimes think that our own devices are faster then their terminals. In fact, over a few years we have noticed that our iPad seems to be the fastest device for downloading/uploading e-mails. If you set-up the iPad (or any computer) e-mail settings to not clear your mail off the server this really helps reduce the time needed for e-mails. (On an iPad this setting is found under the "advanced" tab on each mail account).

 

Using the ships own computers is very inefficient. On a personal device you can compose and answer e-mails while off line and then only put the device online to d/l and upload. But when you use their own internet terminals you will be online the entire time you are reading and composing e-mails...and you are doing this at about 50 cents (or more) per minute.

 

We recently took a 38 day HAL cruise and only used about 150 min of internet time during the entire cruise, despite the fact we did d/l our e-mails every day (and sometimes more then once a day). This is only accomplished by logging in, getting and sending the e-mails, and logging off. Even with a slow connection my iPad generally needs less then 4 min to connect to 3 separate e-mail accounts and get all of our mail (about 60 e mails per day). The same transactions, done on one of my laptops, generally takes several additional minutes.

 

Hank

Edited November 30, 2014 by Hlitner

[cruisestitch]

Also consider unsubscribing to as many commercial emails as you can, all the "recipe of the day" and "latest book releases" and things that are just clogging up your in box for the duration of the cruise so you will have fewer things to download each time you log on.

[Kathamo]

I suppose that if we are not traveling with a laptop, downloading the Citrix driver onto the iLounge computers is a non-starter....

I think I know the answer to this but (hail mary) if anyone has a good answer, feel free to share.

 

Also:

If you find yourself on vacation and can not live without the internet, the best advice is just stay home. :cool:

Some of us have jobs that require us to be available 365 days a year. I have been working enough years that I have the leverage to say "I'm going on a ship and I'm basically not going to be accessible for a whole week," but my bosses and clients are not happy about it. It is not unreasonable for cruisers to ask questions to figure out how to deal with a work emergency when it arises. Good for you that you have the luxury of turning it all off for extended periods of time, but for some it's a matter of making a living or upholding a professional reputation.