Pete's Girl Posted February 6, 2019 #1 Share Posted February 6, 2019 (edited) I am sure there are other posts on this subject so forgive me for asking something I'm sure is redundant. (I've scrolled down some of the posts, and haven't found what I'm looking for.) We are sailing Mariner in 12 days. I am seriously considering the Voom and Stream package as it says you can stream movies, etc. I wouldn't be opposed to watching Netflix at night instead of the countless repeat television shows they offer. My first question is.....is it worth it? Is it really fast enough to stream Netflix? I don't care about social media while we're away...we like to turn off from family, friends, and life back home while we're gone. But watching movies is definitely attractive. Have any of you done this and how successful has it been? Second question...how low have you seen the price drop prior to the cruise? Right now, it's $13.99/day for one device...which we're cool with. But if that has shown to go down further, I'll hold out for a few more days. Thanks in advance!! Jay Edited February 6, 2019 by Pete's Girl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarea Posted February 6, 2019 #2 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Since Mariner does not have the faster, lower latency O3b service, I would expect video streaming to have buffering periods. Prices change all the time, no pattern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete's Girl Posted February 6, 2019 Author #3 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Hmm.....okay. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare orville99 Posted February 6, 2019 #4 Share Posted February 6, 2019 (edited) It would be~ $17.99pd onboard if that is a 30% pre cruise discount. $17.99 pd is what we paid last week on Oasis. Not sure what O3b is, but we streamed Netflix with no problems on Oasis last week. Edited February 6, 2019 by orville99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarea Posted February 6, 2019 #5 Share Posted February 6, 2019 1 minute ago, orville99 said: It would be $17.99 onboard if that is a 30% discount. $17.99 pd is what we paid last week on Oasis. Not sure what O3b is, but we streamed Netflix with no problems on Oasis last week. O3b is the faster, higher capacity internet service that is on all Quantum and Oasis class ships. O3b has only been retrofitted to a handful of older ships, none of which is Mariner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpostman Posted February 6, 2019 #6 Share Posted February 6, 2019 8 minutes ago, Host Clarea said: O3b has only been retrofitted to a handful of older ships, none of which is Mariner. Would Brilliance by any chance be among that handful of ships? dp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare orville99 Posted February 6, 2019 #7 Share Posted February 6, 2019 1 minute ago, dpostman said: Would Brilliance by any chance be among that handful of ships? dp Based solely on our internet experience on Brilliance in November - probably not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarea Posted February 6, 2019 #8 Share Posted February 6, 2019 39 minutes ago, dpostman said: Would Brilliance by any chance be among that handful of ships? dp No. As far as I can remember, there are no Radiance class ships that have been upgraded to O3b. I believe Majesty and Freedom have O3b, and maybe one or two others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norway olin Posted February 6, 2019 #9 Share Posted February 6, 2019 1 minute ago, Host Clarea said: No. As far as I can remember, there are no Radiance class ships that have been upgraded to O3b. So on Radiance ships is there much difference between Voom and Voom+Stream if streaming is going to be wonky anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare orville99 Posted February 6, 2019 #10 Share Posted February 6, 2019 17 minutes ago, norway olin said: So on Radiance ships is there much difference between Voom and Voom+Stream if streaming is going to be wonky anyway? It was a bit wonky, but it worked. The buffering wasn't that bad that we couldn't watch what we wanted on our iPads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ocean Boy Posted February 6, 2019 #11 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Streaming was horrible on Adventure. Non-streaming was horrible on Adventure. Basically, the internet service is horrible on Adventure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarea Posted February 6, 2019 #12 Share Posted February 6, 2019 39 minutes ago, norway olin said: So on Radiance ships is there much difference between Voom and Voom+Stream if streaming is going to be wonky anyway? Yes, there is a difference, Surf is limited to around 0.5 Mbps and Stream is limited to around 5 Mbps. However, the total bandwidth available to the ship is much lower than O3b ships, so there is a much greater chance of being oversubscribed on a non-O3b ship. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRF Posted February 6, 2019 #13 Share Posted February 6, 2019 On Grandeur two summers ago, we were seeing 5 mbps stream pretty much any time. People were video chatting fine. Pings are HORRIBLE though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpostman Posted February 6, 2019 #14 Share Posted February 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Host Clarea said: No. As far as I can remember, there are no Radiance class ships that have been upgraded to O3b. I believe Majesty and Freedom have O3b, and maybe one or two others. Thanks Bob, that is what I thought, I did purchase the 2 device S&S package back on Black Friday for the same price as Stream is available during current sale, so I won't bother downgrading, but it there was a substantial $ difference, I'd probably just got with stream. dp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ocean Boy Posted February 6, 2019 #15 Share Posted February 6, 2019 7 minutes ago, dpostman said: Thanks Bob, that is what I thought, I did purchase the 2 device S&S package back on Black Friday for the same price as Stream is available during current sale, so I won't bother downgrading, but it there was a substantial $ difference, I'd probably just got with stream. dp You can't just go with stream. Surf is the slower connection, surf and stream is the faster. If you get stream you also get surf. They are not bought separately. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarea Posted February 6, 2019 #16 Share Posted February 6, 2019 5 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said: You can't just go with stream. Surf is the slower connection, surf and stream is the faster. If you get stream you also get surf. They are not bought separately. Yet another confusing term invented by Royal. It's like they have a whole department dedicated to creating confusing terminology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpostman Posted February 6, 2019 #17 Share Posted February 6, 2019 25 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said: You can't just go with stream. Surf is the slower connection, surf and stream is the faster. If you get stream you also get surf. They are not bought separately. oops... I knew that, Thanks for the correction. I meant to say Surf. dp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpostman Posted February 6, 2019 #18 Share Posted February 6, 2019 20 minutes ago, Host Clarea said: Yet another confusing term invented by Royal. It's like they have a whole department dedicated to creating confusing terminology. Exactly Bob, Technically speaking, in English, to me if we were talking about water... Surf is much bigger than a Stream dp 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasukkie Posted February 6, 2019 #19 Share Posted February 6, 2019 You can download many Netflix programs to your device ahead of time, no need to have an internet package onboard and no worries about streaming quality. I do this every time I fly or cruise, it works really well. It just takes some advance planning while you are on wifi before your cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpostman Posted February 6, 2019 #20 Share Posted February 6, 2019 38 minutes ago, Jasukkie said: You can download many Netflix programs to your device ahead of time, no need to have an internet package onboard and no worries about streaming quality. I do this every time I fly or cruise, it works really well. It just takes some advance planning while you are on wifi before your cruise. I do the same thing. I probably would not even have onboard internet were it not that the Kids and dog are staying behind at home while we are in the Baltics for 2 weeks. But since we will have it, hopefully, it will be mostly used for pre-planning our "On our own" port excursions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SciFiGuy1960 Posted February 6, 2019 #21 Share Posted February 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Host Clarea said: Yet another confusing term invented by Royal. It's like they have a whole department dedicated to creating confusing terminology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama24 Posted February 6, 2019 #22 Share Posted February 6, 2019 On Serenade last March, I used Netflix a lot. If there was buffering, it was minimal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Rogueperson Posted February 6, 2019 #23 Share Posted February 6, 2019 (edited) The internet is wonky on the ship. They have their own quirks which are somewhat unexplainable, even by the IT professionals onboard. I've been able to stream on Grandeur and Navigator with Netflix, Hulu and I *think* Amazon prime. I don't use it that often. Xfinity will not work as it is too slow for them. On Anthem, Xfinity did work. Problems I have found. Internet can kick you off for no reason (had that happen to me on one of my three grandeur trips). Some decks get better data than others even at full wifi connection (On Navigator, I could not stream data from the top decks for some reason even though I had full connection with the wi-fi). On Anthem, I got data, but it would not stream. I could speed scan the video, but it would not play. IT manager replicated the problem on his device but was clueless at why it was happening. Edited February 6, 2019 by Rogueperson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare jean87510 Posted February 6, 2019 #24 Share Posted February 6, 2019 I had very few problems streaming Netflix on the jewel last November during our transatlantic. And also when just on the vision in January in the Caribbean. Xfinity was difficult but I used HBO go which worked and YouTube. I only get the surf and stream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brookmill18 Posted February 7, 2019 #25 Share Posted February 7, 2019 We have typically found the surf and stream on sale but this year are thinking of just doing the surf package. Just wondering if there is much of difference in quality? We'll be on Anthem, and in the past we have found we already can iMessage and read emails thru the ship's free wifi. We use the package to read media on line and the kids use it for snapchat and instagram. Not really interested in streaming movies/shows. Anyone have experience using just the surf package--strong enough to read media on line (NYT and Washington Post) and for social media? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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