internet access ? - Anthem

[Kmermaid]

Looking for an answer to how reliable is the internet on the Anthem. He is my situation: Looking to sail to Bermuda out of NJ next Sept or Oct. We are the owners of a small business which I am the sole person that handles the payroll for our 15 employees. The weeks that the Anthem is sailing is my payroll week and I need to be sure I can email the payroll company the information to process the payroll. I would need to be able to receive an email from my office and send another email to the payroll company. This would only be my second cruise (haven't taken the 1st one yet) so I don't really know how this works.

[Clarea]

Note that your ports will also have WiFi access, so that's another option if the ship's WiFi goes out.

[traveler279]

Full disclosure : I've not been on Anthem but I do have experience with other RCCL ships. Generally speaking the Internet access on board ship is slow. Very slow. If the files you need to work with are of any size this will be a consideration. Free Wi-Fi is readily available in the ports. You might have to buy a drink or a coffee to get the password. I use in-port Wi-Fi to send multiple pictures to my kids. Large files but they take almost no time at all.

 

Were I in your situation, I'm guessing you're going to use a laptop, I'd take the laptop off the ship in a backpack, find a bar or coffee shop, take care of business, return to the ship to leave the laptop in a secure place, then go out and enjoy the day.

 

Just a suggestion.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Chilander]

I've been on the Oasis last few weeks and the VOOM Internet (same as Anthem's) is amazingly fast. Duing our cruise we never experienced any slow down, cut, or blind spot (location without signal) on the ship.

 

I wonldn't worry too much about Internet access on Anthem as it is their newest ship.

[Merion_Mom]

I HAVE been on the Anthem and I HAVE used the internet.

 

It is excellent. Probably faster than your home network!

[jenfromjersey]

I was able to use Facetime on Anthem, so you should not have any issues with sending and receiving two emails.

[Turtles06]

We were on the Anthem TA, and the new VOOM internet was terrific, quite fast. The only caveat: some cabins are dead zones for wi fi, because of the location of the routers. If you have a problem in your cabin, just take your device to a public area.

 

All that said, anything can happen to technology on a ship, just as it can in your home or office.

 

BTW: any chance you can do your payroll authorization in advance, but just have the payroll processor pay your staff on the regular pay date?

[Turtles06]

Full disclosure : I've not been on Anthem but I do have experience with other RCCL ships. Generally speaking the Internet access on board ship is slow. Very slow.

 

 

 

Anthem has VOOM internet, which is not (yet) on all RCI ships. Your past experience on other ships is not what the OP should expect on board Anthem.

[DonnaK]

I have been on Anthem/Quantum. Internet is very fast and problem-free.

Edited April 14, 2016 by DonnaK

[Kmermaid]

Thank you everyone! The responses have been most helpful :)

[Bonnie Voyager]

We were on the Anthem TA, and the new VOOM internet was terrific, quite fast. The only caveat: some cabins are dead zones for wi fi, because of the location of the routers. If you have a problem in your cabin, just take your device to a public area.

 

All that said, anything can happen to technology on a ship, just as it can in your home or office.

 

This was my experience on Anthem...our cabin was in a "dead zone". I was never able to get internet inside my cabin. I could get intermittent internet if I stood near the edge of my balcony...sometimes. I could carry my ipad to anywhere else on the ship though, and get fantastic internet! My cabin number was 9250, on the edge of the hump. Great cabin, great balcony, NO INTERNET! :eek::p;)

[Kmermaid]

One other related question. Is there a business center on board that will print out a file that I would supply on a flash drive?

[Clarea]

One other related question. Is there a business center on board that will print out a file that I would supply on a flash drive?

I've not seen any guest computers with access to USB ports. You may be able to ask one of the concierges to help you, but they may be reluctant to plug outside USB sticks into their PCs.

[Turtles06]

This was my experience on Anthem...our cabin was in a "dead zone". I was never able to get internet inside my cabin. I could get intermittent internet if I stood near the edge of my balcony...sometimes. I could carry my ipad to anywhere else on the ship though, and get fantastic internet! My cabin number was 9250, on the edge of the hump. Great cabin, great balcony, NO INTERNET! :eek::p;)

 

We were in a Spa JS and could not get wi-fi in our cabin. I did not know about the router issue then, and called Guest Services. They had me speak to an IT guy, who said there's only one router for every five cabins, which is what causes the problem. (Hello RCI, this is a fancy, new hi tech ship -- put in whatever hardware is needed!). He then said to me, "step out into the hall." Seriously. Our cabin was awesome, too, except for that.

 

(We normally don't even go on line during a cruise, but this time I needed to be available to my office. And so I often found myself sitting on the stairs near the elevators. Great internet there. :eek: )

[RadioRob]

One other related question. Is there a business center on board that will print out a file that I would supply on a flash drive?

 

 

Many IT organizations are skeptical about allowing USB devices into the network given they can be infected with malware, etc. One option might be to email the file to yourself and arrange to forward it to someone like the concierge who could possibly print it.

 

Hope that helps! :)

[nyctaximan]

I also rely on having Internet access on vacation for work. I was on the Anthem on an 8-day cruise in March 2016 and the following were my experiences:

 

Overall – I have one of the best experiences when connecting on Voom. Speed is not an issue.

 

On sea days, it becomes hard to get the login page. It seems that there is a limited number of sessions allowed. But once connected, the service is great. A workaround is to try connecting early in the morning or starting around dinner time.

[FrannyK]

This was my experience on Anthem...our cabin was in a "dead zone". I was never able to get internet inside my cabin. I could get intermittent internet if I stood near the edge of my balcony...sometimes. I could carry my ipad to anywhere else on the ship though, and get fantastic internet! My cabin number was 9250, on the edge of the hump. Great cabin, great balcony, NO INTERNET! :eek::p;)

 

Hello Bonnie, This thread came up when I searched for Anthem cabin 9250, hoping to see a picture of the balcony. Was the balcony larger than others? It looks so on the deck plans but I'm not sure. It is worth switching from a "regular" balcony to this cabin? Also, is this cabin handicapped? It came up that way on another website but no where else. Sorry to interrupt this thread people :) Looks like Bonnie is the only one on CC to have been in this cabin!

[spookwife]

Note that your ports will also have WiFi access, so that's another option if the ship's WiFi goes out.

 

no way in hell would I ever use any free(UNSECURED)shore WiFi in another country to process payroll. in fact I am not even sure I'd trust the ship board wiFi to be secure enough.

[Clarea]

no way in hell would I ever use any free(UNSECURED)shore WiFi in another country to process payroll. in fact I am not even sure I'd trust the ship board wiFi to be secure enough.

If your payroll processing does not have end-to-end SSL encryption, then I'd not use it remotely at all. If it does have end-to-end SSL encryption, then it does not matter if the WiFi is unsecured.

[reedl]

no way in hell would I ever use any free(UNSECURED)shore WiFi in another country to process payroll. in fact I am not even sure I'd trust the ship board wiFi to be secure enough.

 

Pretty much every email client uses SSL encryption for getting and sending email. Every financial app uses SSL encryption. Every financial web page uses SSL encryption.

 

If the WiFi link in the middle is unencrypted, there is nothing anyone can do with those packets as the data flowing is encrypted.

 

So do not worry.

[Bonnie Voyager]

Hello Bonnie, This thread came up when I searched for Anthem cabin 9250, hoping to see a picture of the balcony. Was the balcony larger than others? It looks so on the deck plans but I'm not sure. It is worth switching from a "regular" balcony to this cabin? Also, is this cabin handicapped? It came up that way on another website but no where else. Sorry to interrupt this thread people :) Looks like Bonnie is the only one on CC to have been in this cabin!

 

Hi! 9250 was a great cabin choice. Other than being in a "dead zone" for internet, it was a great location for proximity to everything! The balcony was indeed just a tad larger than a standard side balcony. I will attempt to add some photos for you. I apologize for the size, I could not figure out how to make them smaller...

 

[FrannyK]

Hi! 9250 was a great cabin choice. Other than being in a "dead zone" for internet, it was a great location for proximity to everything! The balcony was indeed just a tad larger than a standard side balcony. I will attempt to add some photos for you. I apologize for the size, I could not figure out how to make them smaller...

 

 

Thank you so much Bonnie! Finally some pictures! I can see the balcony is a tad bigger so I just switched our cabin to 9250. And I like the sofa near the balcony instead of the bed so that was great to see too. I had paid for a balcony guarantee and was upgraded to a D7 on deck 10 so switching to 9250, which is also a D7, was no problem at all. Now I feel like I'm getting the best I can get, balcony wise, in the D7 category :)

[Bonnie Voyager]

Thank you so much Bonnie! Finally some pictures! I can see the balcony is a tad bigger so I just switched our cabin to 9250. And I like the sofa near the balcony instead of the bed so that was great to see too. I had paid for a balcony guarantee and was upgraded to a D7 on deck 10 so switching to 9250, which is also a D7, was no problem at all. Now I feel like I'm getting the best I can get, balcony wise, in the D7 category :)

 

We loved 9250 and would most definitely book it again...even with the wifi "dead-zone"! :eek::D

[Les57]

Just off the Anthem. We were able to share the internet connection on several devices at the same time using a Wifi Hotspot / Router. I do not want to say the name of the router used as the IT department might block its Mac address. I purchased it for less then $25 on Amazon. Took seconds to set up using the app it came with and then we all logged on. Shared internet between 2 cabins and six people with decent signal. Speed was on 3MGB but it was fast enough. Message me and I will tell you which one worked. I will even sell you mine as I dont need it anymore.

[kemck1974]

Just off the Anthem. We were able to share the internet connection on several devices at the same time using a Wifi Hotspot / Router. I do not want to say the name of the router used as the IT department might block its Mac address. I purchased it for less then $25 on Amazon. Took seconds to set up using the app it came with and then we all logged on. Shared internet between 2 cabins and six people with decent signal. Speed was on 3MGB but it was fast enough. Message me and I will tell you which one worked. I will even sell you mine as I dont need it anymore.

 

Hi- I'd be interested in talking with you. I just sent you a friend request on here...because I don't see how to send you a private message. We're sailing on Anthem in Nov and I'm trying to figure out my options for wifi. Thanks!