Xcellerate performance on Reflection - some technical details

[markluke]

Hello everyone,

 

Before cruising I looked up as many details as possible and found they were mostly anecdotal with little technical content. Hopefully this will provide some more info for those travelers who are looking/needing to do some work onboard between shore excursions and the buffet!

 

First - if you have the unlimited internet package, either purchased or part of Go Best, you have the high speed internet. Having experienced cruise line internet before I was hopeful that my experience would be better, and it was.

 

Second - ping times range from 600-800 ms. This is correct, this high, because it is satellite internet. Regardless of bandwidth available this means VoIP calls are next to impossible due to extremely high latency. The same would apply to online gaming. So if you want to make calls on the high seas get a cell phone plan from your provider.

 

Bandwidth ranged from around 200kbps to 2mbps download and was somewhat bursty in nature. Upload ironically was more consistent likely due to fewer demands. This shouldn't impact most users.

 

Streaming through my Amazon Fire Stick worked fine, both for Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, as long as you didn't want HD video quality (SD is better). During peak demand there was a fair amount of buffering and blockiness as the streaming slowed down to the minimum allowable amount. I forced my stick to 720p even though the TV was 1080p to reduce bandwidth requirements further.

 

How I connected - I used a HooToo Titan in wireless pass through mode to connect to the Celebrity Guest WiFi and broadcast on my home SSID so all of my devices didn't have to change. This also effectively only used one internet account. Cost is around $40 on Amazon and its battery will power the device for many hours; it also doubles as a cell phone charger. Note that this device is not trivial to set up, but for any tech savvy person it should work fine. Try it at home before cruising!

 

I was able to remotely view my house security cams fine over the connection. Once or twice it dropped but otherwise it was very similar to regular cellular speed.

 

For video, I merely unplugged the HDMI and RJ jacks from the back of the TV and plugged in my streaming stick (via extension HDMI). There are USB ports on the TV that powered my stick fine. The TV remote still worked for on/off and volume. An alternative option is to plug into HDMI2 and use a remote control app like I have on my Galaxy Note 4 - I confirmed this works.

 

Finally, I had to re-authenticate on a daily basis. This wasn't an issue but it's worth noting. It seems to do this every 24 hours after you first set up your account and log in.

 

Net-net - this is a huge improvement for people cruising with technology who need to stay connected. If you have questions please ask and hope this helps.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Good information - much appreciated! I wish that this had been in place for our Equinox sailing earlier this month. I at least managed to stream Pandora, which was an improvement from other sailings. My ping there (again, "regular" ship internet) was in the 600-900 ms range.

 

Our next sailing is on the Allure, where they have VOOM (high speed) internet. Andrew is onboard now, and reported the following info regarding the internet:

 

...

 

 

...

 

 

 

Looks like VOOM is significantly better, at least in this single test result !

 

Tom

[markluke]

Good information - much appreciated! I wish that this had been in place for our Equinox sailing earlier this month. I at least managed to stream Pandora, which was an improvement from other sailings. My ping there (again, "regular" ship internet) was in the 600-900 ms range.

 

Our next sailing is on the Allure, where they have VOOM (high speed) internet. Andrew is onboard now, and reported the following info regarding the internet:

 

 

 

 

 

Looks like VOOM is significantly better, at least in this single test result !

 

Tom

Big improvement assuming he's not dockside - I wouldn't be surprised if the ships used satellite only when out of range of land-based systems. Also, there may be some added latency due to my router but it shouldn't be much - maybe 10ms or so.

 

Nonetheless things are slowly improving!

Edited March 20, 2016 by markluke

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Big improvement assuming he's not dockside - I wouldn't be surprised if the ships used satellite only when out of range of land-based systems. Also, there may be some added latency due to my router but it shouldn't be much - maybe 10ms or so.

 

Nonetheless things are slowly improving!

 

Just checked. He got that reading while at sea on Thursday - about 5 hours after leaving St. Maarten.

 

We'll be back on Celebrity (Solstice) in August. Hopefully by then they'll have the higher speeds on tap!

 

Tom

[drarill]

Hello everyone,

 

Before cruising I looked up as many details as possible and found they were mostly anecdotal with little technical content. Hopefully this will provide some more info for those travelers who are looking/needing to do some work onboard between shore excursions and the buffet!

 

First - if you have the unlimited internet package, either purchased or part of Go Best, you have the high speed internet. Having experienced cruise line internet before I was hopeful that my experience would be better, and it was.

 

 

Thanks for this info, we got the unlimited internet through the suites go best offer. I was wondering if we were going to need to upgrade to get the high-speed internet. Great news for us. :)

[cruise47]

Thanks. Sounds like a step in the right direction, big improvement in speed.

[mypyr]

Hi! I will be on the Transatlantic 16 night voyage in 3 weeks and purchased the Unlimited Internet package so that I will be able to communicate with my daughter at home.

 

I just read a daily from last year which said that during the sea days we will be sharing satellite service with other ships and that the service is iffy at best.

 

Does that mean that I will not be able to contact her via e-mail? How about Imessage and facetime? I do most of my communication via my Iphone.

 

My daughter will be taking care of my house and dogs, so I need to be able to be in touch rather often. How reliable will my service be while at see with the Xcellerate? How about when we are in port once we are in Europe?

 

Thanks for your help!

[markluke]

Thanks for this info, we got the unlimited internet through the suites go best offer. I was wondering if we were going to need to upgrade to get the high-speed internet. Great news for us. :)

I am assuming no, because I didn't see any way of upgrading. Eventually though I'm sure the existing upgraded experience will also get congested and I would happily pay a nominal fee for guaranteed performance if QoS is in place for 'premium' internet. Some people only want to access Facebook or send emails so higher latency and lower speed is fine. But then again I grew up with a 300 baud modem so I shouldn't complain!

Edited March 20, 2016 by markluke

[markluke]

Hi! I will be on the Transatlantic 16 night voyage in 3 weeks and purchased the Unlimited Internet package so that I will be able to communicate with my daughter at home.

 

I just read a daily from last year which said that during the sea days we will be sharing satellite service with other ships and that the service is iffy at best.

 

Does that mean that I will not be able to contact her via e-mail? How about Imessage and facetime? I do most of my communication via my Iphone.

 

My daughter will be taking care of my house and dogs, so I need to be able to be in touch rather often. How reliable will my service be while at see with the Xcellerate? How about when we are in port once we are in Europe?

 

Thanks for your help!

Emails should be fine at any time, and probably iMessage. FaceTime may be iffy as that needs more bandwidth.

 

As to the TA cruise I can't comment on how reliable the service will be as I was in the Western Caribbean. If you're in port you may want to have an unlocked iPhone and buy local SIM cards (locally or prepaid ones before you leave). Another option is a MiFi device from T-Mobile - I have one that I use here and get free 2G international data when traveling. I brought it but honestly did t need to turn it on, but that is another option.

[mypyr]

Emails should be fine at any time, and probably iMessage. FaceTime may be iffy as that needs more bandwidth.

 

As to the TA cruise I can't comment on how reliable the service will be as I was in the Western Caribbean. If you're in port you may want to have an unlocked iPhone and buy local SIM cards (locally or prepaid ones before you leave). Another option is a MiFi device from T-Mobile - I have one that I use here and get free 2G international data when traveling. I brought it but honestly did t need to turn it on, but that is another option.

 

markluke,

 

Thanks for your reply. I have Verizon, and I am technologically challenged. How do I unlock my iphone and where to I buy the local or prepaid ones? When I put them in(which I guess I can figure out) does that mean that I can text and make local calls?

Thanks for your help!

Cindy

[bradleyk]

We chose the GO BEST offer for our Reflection sailing to get the internet option along with the other perks. Some of the info was over my head, but we were hoping to be able to use face book calling service? Will that work? What about messenger texting?

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

THIS article on using wi-fi to make/receive calls on your cell phone may be of interest to some of you. A limited number of phones can currently take advantage of this feature. According to them, you'll need speeds of ~1+Mbps for good quality.

 

Verizon now offers this feature and I'm looking forward to trying it with my new Galaxy S7 Edge in May ! If I can realize speeds of even 1/10 of what Andrew measured, I should be in good shape. For the Solstice in August, I sure hope they've implemented Xcellerate onboard by then!

 

Tom

[SAC69]

Thanks for this info, we got the unlimited internet through the suites go best offer. I was wondering if we were going to need to upgrade to get the high-speed internet. Great news for us. :)

 

Agree, I was wondering about the Go Best internet being just the slow and would have to upgrade. Thanks for the info.

[markluke]

markluke,

 

Thanks for your reply. I have Verizon, and I am technologically challenged. How do I unlock my iphone and where to I buy the local or prepaid ones? When I put them in(which I guess I can figure out) does that mean that I can text and make local calls?

Thanks for your help!

Cindy

Hi Cindy,

 

Call your carrier and see if they will do an unlock. If not, there are sites - which I will not mention - that provide unlock codes. Another option is to buy a cheap/old smart phone that is unlocked and buy a SIM card for the countries you plan to visit.

 

For SIM cards, try searching online for cell providers in each country and then eBay or Amazon for these cards as a starting point. Look for Prepaid SIM cards.

 

Foreign SIM cards would come with a local # and should let you make local calls and text. Data and international would be handled according to each plan.

[markluke]

THIS article on using wi-fi to make/receive calls on your cell phone may be of interest to some of you. A limited number of phones can currently take advantage of this feature. According to them, you'll need speeds of ~1+Mbps for good quality.

 

Verizon now offers this feature and I'm looking forward to trying it with my new Galaxy S7 Edge in May ! If I can realize speeds of even 1/10 of what Andrew measured, I should be in good shape. For the Solstice in August, I sure hope they've implemented Xcellerate onboard by then!

 

Tom

Unfortunately network latency is the killer here. 800ms is 4/5 of a second, meaning packets are delayed and more like talking on a CB radio. Also, jitter is likely to be high, meaning packets arrive in the wrong order. This results in pops and clicks. 'Acceptable' latency end to end should be 150ms or less.

 

I'm actually surprised you need 1 Mbps for WiFi calling when a decent VoIP codec uses only around 32 Kbps, or 1/30th as much. A high quality one uses less than 100 Kbps. I used to do voice calls in the late 90's over a modem.

Edited March 23, 2016 by markluke

[Jim_Iain]

Hi! I will be on the Transatlantic 16 night voyage in 3 weeks and purchased the Unlimited Internet package so that I will be able to communicate with my daughter at home.

 

I just read a daily from last year which said that during the sea days we will be sharing satellite service with other ships and that the service is iffy at best.

 

Does that mean that I will not be able to contact her via e-mail? How about Imessage and facetime? I do most of my communication via my Iphone.

 

My daughter will be taking care of my house and dogs, so I need to be able to be in touch rather often. How reliable will my service be while at see with the Xcellerate? How about when we are in port once we are in Europe?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

I have done numerous TA's and while occasionally the internet is choppy it has always been available. I was able to stay in touch with home via email as well as text on my IPhone as well as laptop.

 

I also day trade and was able to keep connected to my quote streaming service. I would occasionally get disconnected and have to re-log in.

 

I would not be worried at all if I were you.

[markluke]

Hi Cindy,

 

Call your carrier and see if they will do an unlock. If not, there are sites - which I will not mention - that provide unlock codes. Another option is to buy a cheap/old smart phone that is unlocked and buy a SIM card for the countries you plan to visit.

 

For SIM cards, try searching online for cell providers in each country and then eBay or Amazon for these cards as a starting point. Look for Prepaid SIM cards.

 

Foreign SIM cards would come with a local # and should let you make local calls and text. Data and international would be handled according to each plan.

 

Just realized you are with Verizon. They mostly (exclusively?) use CDMA instead of GSM (which say AT&T uses as well as pretty much the rest of the world). Unless you have a world phone that also offers GSM you may be out of luck. In that case you can either rent a GSM phone package for Europe or buy a cheap multiband GSM phone to talk and text.

 

Something like this may work for you..

 

http://www.amazon.com/BLU-Advance-5-0-Unlocked-Smartphone/dp/B018IZ0SWI/ref=sr_1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1458696433&sr=1-1&keywords=unlocked+gsm+phones

 

http://www.amazon.com/Unlimited-Excellent-coverage-including-International/dp/B00YMRMWX0/ref=sr_1_2?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1458696837&sr=1-2&keywords=World+SIM+card

Edited March 23, 2016 by markluke

[mypyr]

Hi Cindy,

 

Call your carrier and see if they will do an unlock. If not, there are sites - which I will not mention - that provide unlock codes. Another option is to buy a cheap/old smart phone that is unlocked and buy a SIM card for the countries you plan to visit.

 

For SIM cards, try searching online for cell providers in each country and then eBay or Amazon for these cards as a starting point. Look for Prepaid SIM cards.

 

Foreign SIM cards would come with a local # and should let you make local calls and text. Data and international would be handled according to each plan.

 

Thanks for the info!

[cruza]

I have done numerous TA's and while occasionally the internet is choppy it has always been available. I was able to stay in touch with home via email as well as text on my IPhone as well as laptop.

 

I also day trade and was able to keep connected to my quote streaming service. I would occasionally get disconnected and have to re-log in.

 

I would not be worried at all if I were you.

 

Everybofy - pls note that Xcelerate is only on Reflection and it's not roll fleetwide (hopefully soon!). Based on our Summit experience, internet is extra slow and sporadic even from ILounge computer. X is adding free internet to the perks which is ading more users to current small sattelite bandwidth.

[CruiseCynic]

Thanks for the info. One question on device binding to the account. You are limited to a single device per account, right? So as you move around the ship you have to lug the router with you, right? How difficult is it to swap out router to phone and back as your needs change? Can that be done? My preference, when out of the cabin would be to use my phone directly, and not flow traffic through the router. Then, use router for multiple devices in cabin.

[NCHPcruiser]

Thanks Markluke!. While most of it is greek to me my husband will greatly appreciate this detailed information!

[markluke]

Thanks for the info. One question on device binding to the account. You are limited to a single device per account, right? So as you move around the ship you have to lug the router with you, right? How difficult is it to swap out router to phone and back as your needs change? Can that be done? My preference, when out of the cabin would be to use my phone directly, and not flow traffic through the router. Then, use router for multiple devices in cabin.

Agree not carrying the router around (although the battery powered one I have would fit in my pocket)

 

For people in a cabin with the Go Best package they'll get 2 individual accounts, so that covers that scenario.

 

For people only with one internet account, all you have to do is log into the account from the new device, it will offer to disconnect the other one. When back in your cabin you just connect to the router WiFi and go through the login page again.

 

Not tricky, just a step you need to do. Worth it rather than paying another $299 for unlimited internet though!

[TommyD3]

Onboard Eclipse. They just upgraded the internet today. The senior officers told us it was going to happen today. There has been no advertising about it. Running a speed test I got 600+ ms latency, 6 Mbps download and 0.5 Mbps upload. Still slow for most things due to latency but a definate improvement for app updates and things like Windows Update

[markluke]

Onboard Eclipse. They just upgraded the internet today. The senior officers told us it was going to happen today. There has been no advertising about it. Running a speed test I got 600+ ms latency, 6 Mbps download and 0.5 Mbps upload. Still slow for most things due to latency but a definate improvement for app updates and things like Windows Update

Latency makes sense, and the download probably as well because people haven't discovered it yet...I got higher upload rates on the Reflection but they varied quite a bit.

 

Glad that they are busy upgrading the fleet.

[livingasia]

I'm surprised this is not being sung from the rooftop by Celebrity, assuming it is any good.

 

I noticed over on the Azamara Journey re-fit thread there was a photo of all the new equipment related to wifi. Looked like pretty mammoth undertaking and presumably one that is ideally done when a ship is in dry dock? On this basis maybe the Summit has had it done recently and the upcoming dry docks for the Millennium + one more which I forget the name of.

 

For what it's worth, I found the Internet plenty fine on the Millennium in Jan 2016 for opening data demanding pages like Facebook. I was really quite surprised how good it was. After having read numerous threads, I did though have a low expectation.