A Bit of a Rant About Internet - Discuss.

[Chunky2219]

Just off Silhouette after a very relaxing cruise with wonderful crew. I originally intended to post a blog but by the second day I’d realised this would be a frustrating waste of precious internet minutes. I’ll post it later this week once I’ve bottomed a two week mountain of junk mail.

 

 

Anyway .............Celebrity makes a big thing about “Xcellerate”, which is an internet service good enough to stream video or use video telephone. I can only say there’s not much point in having the speed if you don’t have the connectivity. And the speed isn’t there anyway, so I guess it hasn’t been rolled out to Silhouette yet.

 

 

Now I do appreciate that a ship rolling about on the high seas is going to have a few problems pointing a dish at a satellite 36,000km away. But rubbish slow speeds when the ship is berthed in port and we were just about the only people on board is ridiculous. Add to that spotty and inconsistent WiFi connectivity and the result is a service that drove me nuts. If I’d stumped up three figures for the unlimited package rather than getting 2 x 90 minutes for free I’d have seriously got the hump.

 

 

Let’s talk about WiFi first. On the first day I couldn’t get any connectivity in the suite so had to go out to the library to even create an account. A few days later I realised that Cafe al Bacio was about the best place and that some other public areas were absolutely no good at all. The WiFi scanner app on my phone was useful. The Ocean View Buffet was sometimes a very good signal, sometimes it was pitiful. A suspicious man would think that it was deliberately degraded to keep people moving at busy times.

 

 

Yes, yes, I know that ships are made out of steel with lots of walls that a signal won’t go through. By the same token, Cat5e cable, WAPs and signal extenders cost peanuts. Eventually I did manage to get a signal in suite which was there one day, gone the next. I don’t know if it’s a signal strength issue, a problem with contention rates or just poor design and set up. Whatever the cause, it ain’t good enough.

 

 

Not so long ago when we sailed on Constellation in an RS there was a keyboard and monitor in the room as well as an RJ45 port. That’s fine by me. If steel walls are a problem for WiFi, give us somewhere to plug in 20th century style.

 

 

Now let’s talk about account control. At one point my device went flat while I was still connected so I went to the iLounge to make sure that I’d been logged out and the counter wasn’t still running. Surprise surprise, I was still logged in and minutes still ticking down. In any circumstances this is symptomatic of poor system implementation and management. If you lose the signal the connection should automatically terminate the session. It just isn’t good enough Celebrity, buck your ideas up.

 

 

While getting the lost minutes restored I queried the poor WiFi. I was told that maybe my device had been hooked up to an access point that was quite remote on the ship and the system wasn’t releasing me to find another. The solution was to go into network settings, forget the Celebrity WiFi and then find it again. Now, I’m savvy enough to be able to do that with my eyes closed but some people aren’t and it shouldn’t be necessary anyway in a properly designed, well managed service. The technique seemed to work for a day or two and then I was back to a hit and miss service.

 

 

And finally, to the internet service itself. Assuming I could manage to log in, I found the connection speed to be chronically slow. All thoughts of connecting to my home server to watch a couple of movies were quickly discounted. I couldn’t even download a couple of e-mails which had biggish attachments and I had to go direct to the IPS to check out the text, reading the attachments had to wait until I got to the hotel in Amsterdam.

 

 

Why oh why can’t we get a decent speed when in port? It doesn’t need a super sophisticated, gimballed satellite dish to deal with a force 8. If you can’t point the dish properly and provide adequate bandwidth when the ship is stationary, simply plug a cable into something shore side and unplug it when the ship departs. It’s not rocket science.

 

 

And so ends my rant. Please, please Celebrity, do something about this.

 

 

Discuss.

 

 

 

 

.

[gopro63]

Thanksfor your rant but how did you live life befre the net was around?

[sonia2509]

You were at port and you wanted to stream some movies from your home server? You are on holidays on a beautiful ship and your concern is that you can't watch some movies and the Internet is so slow. As gopro63 pointed out what did you before the net was around? Enjoy your holidays and only use the Internet to maybe check emails and maybe a blog now and again but watch movies from your home server I think is asking a bit too much.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[cindy1957]

Are you kidding? I cruise to get away from this stuff!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cruisestitch]

Perhaps you have never been ill on a cruise and just wanted to stay in your room and watch a movie. Or never had insomnia. Or never had to try to calm a cranky and fussy child with a favorite movie. Or never had a reason to stream a movie. But it's important to some people, and a reasonable question to discuss. Telling someone not to want it isn't really relevant.

[BILLP1]

IT does not matter what you want to do on your vacation. Celebrity is selling a product for a very premium price that does not work as promised. Agree with the poster.

[Durkman]

I'm sure the OP appreciates you all ignoring the actual merits of the post and instead telling him/her what they should be doing on their vacation. Well done! ;)

 

I would be frustrated if I were marketed/promised a service as part of my vacation and that service (regardless of what it is) turned out to be less than advertised, particularly if I was planning on having it.

 

We'll be going on a RCCL ship this summer that has just implemented their Voom Internet service and I have prepaid to have it on two devices onboard so that my wife and I can keep in contact with our teen boys (via text/email). You can bet I'll be annoyed and complaining (and looking for a refund) if I have the problems similar to what the OP is describing.

[Baron Barracuda]

Used Xcellerate on Eclipse last month and Voom on Quantum last year. While Xcellerate is a big step up from our prior X cruises, Voom is definitely faster (as fast as back home), with better connectivity. Xcellerate did have more outages, hot/cold spots, and would occasionally freeze requiring me to disconnect and reconnect. This was understandable as voom was designed into Quantum while Xcellerate is just an upgrade to the old X wifi. Strangely skype worked better on Eclipse though. Video calls there were perfectly smooth, while voom was a bit jerky. The best news for those of us who want unlimited internet is the drop in price. Xcellerate cost me $130 for 14 days (after elite discount) and voom on my upcoming Anthem sailing will be around $10/day (After diamond discount).

[gopro63]

I do understand the persons needs, and I guess the next time one cruises they will prepare themselves better, then to rant about what we all can not control, an Old technology that needs updating big time.

 

When Aboard in Nov 2015 The ships Intranet was under service interruptions, the system is located by the Ocean café, service was not to par or speed. so yes I can relate but like said I am on vacation I will only use my camera. I do make it a priority to have the ship contact me in case of an Emergency that we left a number to call. Never out of touch family member at home has al lEmergency numbers

 

 

The question is ,If you are on a land excursion you personally booked outside Celebrity. and an Emergency came. You are out of luck to you get back to the ship.

 

If you were on the Celebrity Excursion and a Emergency from home. I am sure you will get contacted.????

 

Just saying

Edited May 5, 2016 by gopro63

[gopro63]

If the Data plan on RCCI is a affordable price I get it to Periscope 24/7

[Wine-O]

We were on the Silhouette TA last November, and the internet connectivity was the worst we've experienced on any of the other S-Class ships.

 

Just got off Constellation TA last month -- connectivity was great as they just installed Xcellerate right before sailing. Could even Face Time out in the middle of the Atlantic.

[gopro63]

Guess no complaining no refund? Lol

[fleckle]

......Now let’s talk about account control. At one point my device went flat while I was still connected so I went to the iLounge to make sure that I’d been logged out and the counter wasn’t still running. Surprise surprise, I was still logged in and minutes still ticking down. In any circumstances this is symptomatic of poor system implementation and management......

 

This is nothing new as it has been an annoying problem on Celebrity ships as far back as we can remember.

 

The system crashes but the clock on your account keeps running and you can't log out.

So your choices are having to keep track of the time lost and then waste even more of your time needing to go wait in line to ask to have the lost minutes refunded, or else just biting the bullet and accepting the loss, which is usually the easier, less stressful thing to do.

 

It was even more frustrating in previous years when those precious internet minutes were a lot more expensive than they are now. :eek:

 

Passengers have been writing complaints about this problem on end of cruise evaluations for years, but nothing was ever done about it.

 

Good luck. We wish you success in attempting to get this problem resolved, something that the rest of us have never been able to accomplish.

 

 

As for us, we have lowered our expectations and are resigned to encountering internet problems on a Celebrity ship, so we are pleasantly surprised at the times when the service actually works as it should. :D

[DrivesLikeMario]

If it makes you feel any better, the last time I was in the Med., not far from Spain, France and Italy, it took 20-25 mins. for a single page to download. It was infuriating. I feel your pain.

[cruisestitch]

Was this before or after the installation of Xcellerate?

[Chunky2219]

Just to put things in perspective:

 

I'm disabled, so some ports on the cruise were inaccessible/didn't have anything attractive to me and it would have been an ideal time to catch up on some stuff from home.

 

I managed fine before the interweb thingy. Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn't and I do need to keep in touch. I don't get to choose what people e-mail to me and a repeatedly failed download of a large junkmail locking out important messgees really made me fizz.

 

We have a grandaughter, almost three y.o. If I can't Skype to say hello, why advertise to me that I can?

 

No I didn't ask for a refund, 'cos I got my minutes for free. See the OP. I'd have paid for a decent service though. On the other hand, our original booking included unlimited internet as a freebie but I lost it when I re-booked to save £1k+. If I'd have been sitting with unlimited limited service I wouldn't have been a happy bunny.

 

Streaming video from home would have been nice, but we coped with DVD's we'd brought with us, played on a laptop plugged into the TV. Service on getting this sorted was excelllent, by the way.

 

I find the suggestion that next time I'll prepare better to be condescending hogwash. My preparation will be a comfy yellow chair in Cafe al Bacio. If GoPro has any better suggestion for how to deal with it at sea then I'm all ears.

 

It's my choice of what do do and how to enjoy my holiday aboard a beautiful ship and no one else's. I've been on a lot of beautiful ships and that particular novelty has worn off. I've no desire to eat or drink myself to death, I'm not seduced by the price of stuff for sale on board and both zumba and the paper aeroplane challenge are inaccessible to be. (See disabled comment above).

 

I'm sure there's a point being made somewhere in the tangential comments about something going wrong on an excursion but I've read it three times and I just can't figure out what on earth you're trying to say.

 

Many thanks to those who shared my pain and think it didn't ought to be like this.

 

And yes, I've completed the post cruise survey and had a toot there as well.

 

 

. _______

[richsea]

Just to put things in perspective:

 

I'm disabled, so some ports on the cruise were inaccessible/didn't have anything attractive to me and it would have been an ideal time to catch up on some stuff from home.

 

I managed fine before the interweb thingy. Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn't and I do need to keep in touch. I don't get to choose what people e-mail to me and a repeatedly failed download of a large junkmail locking out important messgees really made me fizz.

 

We have a grandaughter, almost three y.o. If I can't Skype to say hello, why advertise to me that I can?

 

No I didn't ask for a refund, 'cos I got my minutes for free. See the OP. I'd have paid for a decent service though. On the other hand, our original booking included unlimited internet as a freebie but I lost it when I re-booked to save £1k+. If I'd have been sitting with unlimited limited service I wouldn't have been a happy bunny.

 

Streaming video from home would have been nice, but we coped with DVD's we'd brought with us, played on a laptop plugged into the TV. Service on getting this sorted was excelllent, by the way.

 

I find the suggestion that next time I'll prepare better to be condescending hogwash. My preparation will be a comfy yellow chair in Cafe al Bacio. If GoPro has any better suggestion for how to deal with it at sea then I'm all ears.

 

It's my choice of what do do and how to enjoy my holiday aboard a beautiful ship and no one else's. I've been on a lot of beautiful ships and that particular novelty has worn off. I've no desire to eat or drink myself to death, I'm not seduced by the price of stuff for sale on board and both zumba and the paper aeroplane challenge are inaccessible to be. (See disabled comment above).

 

I'm sure there's a point being made somewhere in the tangential comments about something going wrong on an excursion but I've read it three times and I just can't figure out what on earth you're trying to say.

 

Many thanks to those who shared my pain and think it didn't ought to be like this.

 

And yes, I've completed the post cruise survey and had a toot there as well.

 

 

. _______

 

Touche', & thanks for your comments. I hope someone at Celebrity is paying attention.

[TMR]

So disappointing to hear all of this as we will be on the Silhouette in a few weeks.

 

Last April we were on the Reflection for a transatlantic crossing and had excellent connections all the time, even out in the middle of the ocean!

 

However, I have heard many complaints about Silhouette and I too hope they are paying attention!

[cruisingdelt]

I was on the summit a couple of weeks ago. I did not try to download movies but visited a number of websites including JetBlue and read some e-mails. It was not like being at home but a step function leap in speed compared to the old system. Had no issues. Logged on every day to read mail and do some searches and only used about 3/4 of the 90 minutes. It used to take several minutes to connect to the e-mail server and now it was 1 - 2 minutes.

[SheriffJoe]

I do feel the OP's pain though X has announced that Xcellerate will be installed on ALL X ships by the end of the month so this issue should be pretty much moot....Solstice is getting it installed today and Silly should be getting it within a week or 2....

[4774Papa]

Are you kidding? I cruise to get away from this stuff!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

BINGO, my belief as well. Once, we became elite and both have 45 free minutes, the first couple of cruises, I tried going into my email. It was terribly slow and frustrating. I used over 30 minutes of time and read about five emails, answered one and deleted about 20. That is something I could have done at home in a couple of minutes. Now, I just plan of skipping the internet and telephones while on a cruise. I love it.

[ozark74]

Just off Silhouette after a very relaxing cruise with wonderful crew. I originally intended to post a blog but by the second day I’d realised this would be a frustrating waste of precious internet minutes. I’ll post it later this week once I’ve bottomed a two week mountain of junk mail.

 

 

Anyway .............Celebrity makes a big thing about “Xcellerate”, which is an internet service good enough to stream video or use video telephone. I can only say there’s not much point in having the speed if you don’t have the connectivity. And the speed isn’t there anyway, so I guess it hasn’t been rolled out to Silhouette yet.

 

 

Now I do appreciate that a ship rolling about on the high seas is going to have a few problems pointing a dish at a satellite 36,000km away. But rubbish slow speeds when the ship is berthed in port and we were just about the only people on board is ridiculous. Add to that spotty and inconsistent WiFi connectivity and the result is a service that drove me nuts. If I’d stumped up three figures for the unlimited package rather than getting 2 x 90 minutes for free I’d have seriously got the hump.

 

 

Let’s talk about WiFi first. On the first day I couldn’t get any connectivity in the suite so had to go out to the library to even create an account. A few days later I realised that Cafe al Bacio was about the best place and that some other public areas were absolutely no good at all. The WiFi scanner app on my phone was useful. The Ocean View Buffet was sometimes a very good signal, sometimes it was pitiful. A suspicious man would think that it was deliberately degraded to keep people moving at busy times.

 

 

Yes, yes, I know that ships are made out of steel with lots of walls that a signal won’t go through. By the same token, Cat5e cable, WAPs and signal extenders cost peanuts. Eventually I did manage to get a signal in suite which was there one day, gone the next. I don’t know if it’s a signal strength issue, a problem with contention rates or just poor design and set up. Whatever the cause, it ain’t good enough.

 

 

Not so long ago when we sailed on Constellation in an RS there was a keyboard and monitor in the room as well as an RJ45 port. That’s fine by me. If steel walls are a problem for WiFi, give us somewhere to plug in 20th century style.

 

 

Now let’s talk about account control. At one point my device went flat while I was still connected so I went to the iLounge to make sure that I’d been logged out and the counter wasn’t still running. Surprise surprise, I was still logged in and minutes still ticking down. In any circumstances this is symptomatic of poor system implementation and management. If you lose the signal the connection should automatically terminate the session. It just isn’t good enough Celebrity, buck your ideas up.

 

 

While getting the lost minutes restored I queried the poor WiFi. I was told that maybe my device had been hooked up to an access point that was quite remote on the ship and the system wasn’t releasing me to find another. The solution was to go into network settings, forget the Celebrity WiFi and then find it again. Now, I’m savvy enough to be able to do that with my eyes closed but some people aren’t and it shouldn’t be necessary anyway in a properly designed, well managed service. The technique seemed to work for a day or two and then I was back to a hit and miss service.

 

 

And finally, to the internet service itself. Assuming I could manage to log in, I found the connection speed to be chronically slow. All thoughts of connecting to my home server to watch a couple of movies were quickly discounted. I couldn’t even download a couple of e-mails which had biggish attachments and I had to go direct to the IPS to check out the text, reading the attachments had to wait until I got to the hotel in Amsterdam.

 

 

Why oh why can’t we get a decent speed when in port? It doesn’t need a super sophisticated, gimballed satellite dish to deal with a force 8. If you can’t point the dish properly and provide adequate bandwidth when the ship is stationary, simply plug a cable into something shore side and unplug it when the ship departs. It’s not rocket science.

 

 

And so ends my rant. Please, please Celebrity, do something about this.

 

 

Discuss.

 

 

 

 

.

 

We were on the same cruise as the op and have a completely different opinion.

I never had a problem conecting on the Silhouette. Was aware that there may be problem in Norway because of the satellite position. Had not problem at all.

Used it in our cabins with good signal. We also used hangout with our daughter back in the states with no problem which we could not do in the past. Infact the wifi on this cruise was better than we have had in a long time.