If you absolutely need internet on the ship

[Hammergirl]

We have a cruise booked with NCL for May and I keep reading about internet on cruise ships being bad and/or really slow. It is imperative that we have internet, and good internet, on our cruise. If there really is no such thing, then I think I will have to cancel.

 

I know that a lot of people will tell me to unplug and that I am on vacation....but unfortunately some people don't have that luxury.

 

So am I out of luck here?

[hawkeyetlse]

We have a cruise booked with NCL for May and I keep reading about internet on cruise ships being bad and/or really slow. It is imperative that we have internet, and good internet, on our cruise. If there really is no such thing, then I think I will have to cancel.

It depends on what you mean by "good internet". What is the absolute minimum speed you can work with? Do you need instant reactivity to network requests? If you get kicked off the wifi and have to log back in every once in a while, is that going to be a problem? Can you run some things overnight?

 

Also, where are you sailing? Some itineraries go through zones where there just isn't any internet access for a day or maybe more.

Edited September 8, 2015 by hawkeyetlse

[Hammergirl]

It depends on what you mean by "good internet". What is the absolute minimum speed you can work with? Do you need instant reactivity to network requests? If you get kicked off the wifi and have to log back in every once in a while, is that going to be a problem? Can you run some things overnight?

 

We need a decent speed - waiting for 5 minutes for a page to load will not be acceptable.

We need to be able to use it at anytime of day and be able to respond to people in a quick manner if they need something.

[deefer]

I think if you need to do things in "real time" it will be a problem. A guy in the cabin next to us last cruise in the Caribbean was a stock broker and was ripping his hair out trying to do trades etc.

[hawkeyetlse]

It depends what's on the page, of course, but it is unfortunately quite commonplace for a page to stall or stop loading and time out. :(

[cliffd64]

If for whatever reason you need very reliable and fast internet, you are probably not going to get the level of service you require at all times.

 

I can't speculate on what your tolerance is really, but if you want consistency, this might not be the best for you.

[SwissLe]

We need a decent speed - waiting for 5 minutes for a page to load will not be acceptable.

We need to be able to use it at anytime of day and be able to respond to people in a quick manner if they need something.

 

When you are in dock, you have the option of going ashore and finding WIFI (ask the staff where to go, they will know for sure) or using the onboard WIFI which is normally OK when stationary - on the newer vessels I'd go as far as saying good.

 

When you are chugging through the sea expect frequent drop outs, pages not loading and slow speed. Couple that with the sign on to the internet timing out (you have to go through a gateway page again) and then it becomes frustrating.

 

I would certainly not be using it for share/forex trading or anything other than web surfing. You can forget remote desktop or streaming services in my experience.

[Hammergirl]

When you are in dock, you have the option of going ashore and finding WIFI (ask the staff where to go, they will know for sure) or using the onboard WIFI which is normally OK when stationary - on the newer vessels I'd go as far as saying good.

 

When you are chugging through the sea expect frequent drop outs, pages not loading and slow speed. Couple that with the sign on to the internet timing out (you have to go through a gateway page again) and then it becomes frustrating.

 

I would certainly not be using it for share/forex trading or anything other than web surfing. You can forget remote desktop or streaming services in my experience.

 

This answers my question - thanks. We do need to remote desktop so we may just have to cancel, unfortunately. Waiting to get to port is not an option as we need it at all hours of the day.

[gadaboutgal]

You may just need to switch cruise lines to Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas. They installed "Zoom" which is absolutely seamless internet. Were on last week and loading was the fastest on any ship ever. We are on NCl Getaway this week and it seems laboriously slow.

[richandkathynaplesfl]

We are just off the Getaway where we had an excellent time.

Not so excelloent was the internet speed.....laboriously slowwww.

I had trouble logging into my secure work website because of this and finally gave up. Checking email is also slow when you are not in port.

Hopefully NCL will upgrade and make faster internet connections available.

Rich

[barnacle_boy]

You may just need to switch cruise lines to Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas. They installed "Zoom" which is absolutely seamless internet. Were on last week and loading was the fastest on any ship ever. We are on NCl Getaway this week and it seems laboriously slow.

 

Even with high-speed internet on Royal Caribbean's latest ships (Oasis, Allure, Quantum, and Anthem) from O3b, anything can happen. O3b should allow for remote desktop work, but "what if?" What if there's a connectivity issue on O3b's side? What if the ship experiences a power failure?

 

If it's an absolute must, don't go on a cruise. Even with O3b, there's a million things that can happen to leave you in the dark (perhaps literally).

[cb at sea]

Exactly....the internet will be nothing like you're used to. If you MUST have RELIABLE internet...do some other sort of vacation...because there is no guarantee .

[SissasMomE]

This answers my question - thanks. We do need to remote desktop so we may just have to cancel, unfortunately. Waiting to get to port is not an option as we need it at all hours of the day.

 

There's no way you can remote desktop .. or maybe you can if you're willing to wait 10 minutes between pages loading. I've tried it several times ... it never worked for me. Logging in remotely to email was fine ... with the wait times ... but logging onto desktop - it never happened.

Edited September 8, 2015 by SissasMomE

[zqvol]

We have a cruise booked with NCL for May and I keep reading about internet on cruise ships being bad and/or really slow. It is imperative that we have internet, and good internet, on our cruise. If there really is no such thing, then I think I will have to cancel.

 

I know that a lot of people will tell me to unplug and that I am on vacation....but unfortunately some people don't have that luxury.

 

So am I out of luck here?

 

You are probably out of luck, well maybe. The Internet on most ships is fine for handling e-mail, and plain text. If you are doing anything involving graphics, images, or even browsing the web, it is really slow. Even CC is slow most of the time. Most ships simply do not have the band width available to accommodate all of the passenger desires.

 

If you want much more than e-mail you probably need to look for a different vacation.

 

We need a decent speed - waiting for 5 minutes for a page to load will not be acceptable.

We need to be able to use it at anytime of day and be able to respond to people in a quick manner if they need something.

 

This is not going to be what you get. Many pages will never load, and during the day when everyone is awake it is worse than old school dial up ever thought about being.

 

This answers my question - thanks. We do need to remote desktop so we may just have to cancel, unfortunately. Waiting to get to port is not an option as we need it at all hours of the day.

 

You will not ever have enough band width to remote desktop.

Edited September 8, 2015 by zqvol

[tjt52545]

I was in and still am in the same situation where I need to have half way decent wifi when cruising. I am on call 24/7 for a hospital and need to be able to respond or take care of matters. I have been able to successfully process payroll using Remote Desktop on all of my cruises, the last one being on the Breakaway in May. That being said I make sure that my staff knows that my response may not be as quick as if I am at home. I did not want any obstacles to stop me from cruising!!! :D

[lwrandall]

Even on the Getaway you hit some dead spots the first day or two. The IT people had posted signs saying we will have VERY limited internet until we reached St Martin. I burned through about 20 minutes of my time before I found out. I went to see the IT person at the Internet cafe and he happily added more time to my plan.

[SwissLe]

I was in and still am in the same situation where I need to have half way decent wifi when cruising. I am on call 24/7 for a hospital and need to be able to respond or take care of matters. I have been able to successfully process payroll using Remote Desktop on all of my cruises, the last one being on the Breakaway in May. That being said I make sure that my staff knows that my response may not be as quick as if I am at home. I did not want any obstacles to stop me from cruising!!! :D

 

This post was brought to you in association with our connectivity partner MTN.

 

:D:D

[cruiser076]

Note that internet speeds on the Breakaway are substantially better than other NCL ships (hence the per-megabyte rather than per-minute plans that are offered on that ship). I recall reading that this is due to use of a different satellite technology than on the other ships. So the OP may be in luck if they booked on the Breakaway. I used the internet frequently for work while sailing on the Breakaway and never really had a problem (even during two sold-out weeks). I was also able to connect to a corporate network computer via remote desktop whenever it was needed.

[paulh84]

RCL Oasis class ships do get very positive reviews for having fast internet at sea. Possibly go that route and get a cruise package from your cell provided with a hotspot as a backup? I tried to negotiate the sale of my house while at sea last year. Not a fun experience :eek:

Edited September 8, 2015 by paulh84

[Demonyte]

Note that internet speeds on the Breakaway are substantially better than other NCL ships (hence the per-megabyte rather than per-minute plans that are offered on that ship). I recall reading that this is due to use of a different satellite technology than on the other ships.

 

 

Source?

 

Why would Breakaway have different (better) hardware than newer Getaway?

 

Yes, they are testing different pricing schema onboard Breakaway but nowhere have I seen any facts about anything else than standard MTN connectivity.

[hansolosmom]

I would look into the newer royal ships. Also Seadog 67 just did a review and commented on the internet speeds and there's a review by Perditax who works in computers who has some information on her internet experience too.

 

If you do cancel and book something else, make sure you check their internet too. For example we went to Sandals who say they have internet but it was also slow! When we go somewhere in the states, my dh takes his mi-fi which usually alleviates issues. We had one issue while at a campground, but it was a bad cell service area to start with.

[BermudaBound2014]

Source?

 

Why would Breakaway have different (better) hardware than newer Getaway?

 

Yes, they are testing different pricing schema onboard Breakaway but nowhere have I seen any facts about anything else than standard MTN connectivity.

 

I can't provide facts, but I can provide first hand experience having sailed on both the Getaway and Breakaway with a man who absolutely must stay connected for work. I have no idea if the Getaway has different hardware or different settings slowing things down, but without a single shred of doubt in my mind; internet on the Breakaway was infinitely faster than the getaway. Breakaway internet speed was manageable. On the Getaway it was an exercise in frustration.

[Relax@Sea]

We have a cruise booked with NCL for May and I keep reading about internet on cruise ships being bad and/or really slow. It is imperative that we have internet, and good internet, on our cruise. If there really is no such thing, then I think I will have to cancel.

 

I know that a lot of people will tell me to unplug and that I am on vacation....but unfortunately some people don't have that luxury.

 

So am I out of luck here?

 

You can purchase or rent a satellite phone with Internet. Though not as fast as land based systems it may have enough speed for your purpose. It cost quit a bit but if there is no other option your employer should be receptive to pay the cost if it is that important.

[MtreJ]

Bandwidth is managed on a per IP basis. That being said, not only is the latency of the ship's connection high, but the data caps the IT departments put in place coupled with having a high number of concurrent users would severely hinder your ability to remote desktop to the point of it being unusable.

[queenschick9b]

I would look into the newer royal ships. Also Seadog 67 just did a review and commented on the internet speeds and there's a review by Perditax who works in computers who has some information on her internet experience too.

 

 

 

If you do cancel and book something else, make sure you check their internet too. For example we went to Sandals who say they have internet but it was also slow! When we go somewhere in the states, my dh takes his mi-fi which usually alleviates issues. We had one issue while at a campground, but it was a bad cell service area to start with.

 

 

I did really well at the Marriotts in both curaçao and Aruba and the Westin and ritz in grand cayman. Wifi speed as good as home as long as near the pool or in the hotel. I was able to stream movies and the wifi didn't drop out. Highly recommend all of those if you need a more connection friendly vacation. (Marriotts and RC I used the upgraded internet because I get it for free as a gold, but believe it is $15/day still way better than cruise prices.)