Communication / Internet (Carnival Dream)

[fingolfin269]

We'll be on the Dream next week, it's my first cruise, and I'm concerned about the internet functionality. How is the speed on the Dream? Is it good enough or frustratingly slow? I'll be purchasing whatever the fastest option is. How is the reliability? Etc. Yeah I know, some people like to be completely disconnected but I'm definitely not one of those people.

 

Also, what communication options are available? Will cell phones work on board? Texts? Have a feeling I'll constantly be off exploring on my own so would like to know what options are available if folks who I'm traveling with need to get in touch with me (or vice versa).

[coevan]

I'm like you and need to be connected as we own a business. We bought the fastest and the best signal I got was 2Mb on speedtest.com. During heavy usage mornings and before dinner, I could not even get speedtest to even register. If you have 60Mb- to a gig at home you will be disappointed. You can text through iMessage. The only signal on the phone will be Cellular at Sea, I think $2.99 a minute. When you are in port your phone will show available cellular connections, check your home carrier for rates.

[originalgeek]

Ship's wifi will most likely be frustratingly slow to the outside world. It's coming through satellite and shared with everyone else on board who is using it and there are a few dead spots on all ships. But with that said, the highest package is definitely faster than the mid and lower packages.

 

The lowest is strictly limited to social media - FB, WhatsApp and a few other social media things. You can't actually browse the internet with it but if all you want to do is chat and post pics up to FB it's cheap and will work. FB messenger works as well.

 

Ship's cell service is Cellular at Sea and pretty expensive. If your phone and plan include wifi calling (And I know T-Mobile does) you should be able to use that by getting one of the wifi packages - just turn off cell service completely on board. T-Mobile is great while in port though - I consistently got 3G speeds at no extra charge with my unlimited data plan as they count Mexico, Belize and the Caribbean as the same as US. I was able to chat with my daughter at home and send a few pics to FB while in port but, as you are surely aware, 3G doesn't do much more than that. In most ports I went there was an option to upgrade that service right on the phone for some amount of dollars but I never needed or tried it.

 

 

You can pay for just one day of wifi and see if it works well enough for you and then, if it's acceptable, buy the whole cruise at a discount off the per-day price.

We offer three different types of plans that can be purchased for either a 24 hour period or for the entire length of the cruise at a discount - price for voyage plans vary by length of cruise:

 

Social ($5 USD per day) – Access the most popular websites and applications. Includes: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Does not include access to other websites or apps.

Value ($16 USD per day) – Surf all your favorite sites, including e-mail, news, sports, weather, banking and finance. Note: Does not support Skype calling or music streaming (such as Spotify).

Premium ($25 USD per day) – From e-mail to Skype, our Premium plan promises the fastest possible connection, at speeds up to 3 times faster than our Value Plan. Supports Skype video calling, where coverage allows.

Users may easily upgrade from one plan to another. Users may use one device at a time on each plan, including either their personal devices or one of our on-board computers. All plans exclude video streaming (such as Netflix or Hulu) and Snapchat. Cellular-network-dependent WiFi Calling and Facetime services are also not supported at this time. Printing is offered at no charge.

 

more here: Carnival WiFi and HUB app

 

By the way, the HUB app is not supported on Dream yet but you can still download it and see a cool countdown clock to your cruise.

 

Have fun!

 

edit to add - just saw that thing in the Carnival text about wifi calling being not supported. I wonder if that's new as I'm sure I saw reports of people using it before. I didn;t try it but I swear I read someone did. They are changing things all the time and tweaking service but, no matter what, it's all slower than home lol.

Edited September 26, 2016 by originalgeek