Questions about MedallionNet.....

[bindy1]

Background story----i work as a consultant.  I knew I would have to work on our upcoming cruise on the Coral in two weeks.  I signed a new client last month and I am still in the process of fine tuning the onboarding process. I will need to have one Goto meeting with the client on a sea day.   I also just signed a new client that will start the week we leave on the cruise.  Business is good!  But if I am not working I am not getting paid.  😉

 

I have seen where the new internet/wi-fi is very fast and compares to wi-fi at home.  Does anyone have experience hosting video meetings using the new internet service onboard?  Just trying to plan my time with clients that I will need to interact with more than just exchanging emails.......

 

Thank you in advance for any input!

[kywildcatfanone]

I'm not tried a gotomeeting onboard, but have used video calling separately, and done voice calls with skype with no issue on ships with the medallionnet.  Gotomeeting should be fine.

[Haboob]

10 hours ago, bindy1 said:

Background story----i work as a consultant.  I knew I would have to work on our upcoming cruise on the Coral in two weeks.  I signed a new client last month and I am still in the process of fine tuning the onboarding process. I will need to have one Goto meeting with the client on a sea day.   I also just signed a new client that will start the week we leave on the cruise.  Business is good!  But if I am not working I am not getting paid.  😉

 

I have seen where the new internet/wi-fi is very fast and compares to wi-fi at home.  Does anyone have experience hosting video meetings using the new internet service onboard?  Just trying to plan my time with clients that I will need to interact with more than just exchanging emails.......

 

Thank you in advance for any input!

 

Depending upon which ship and where on the globe the ship is, you may well not get the "new" internet.

 

The key to the unlimited-minute, homelike internet is the new "O3b" satellite constellation.  They fly narrow-

focus, steerable dish antennae so they can sell their entire bandwidth to 10 different ships and offer them

bargain-basement uplink costs.

 

To have video-conference quality internet, you'll need a ship equipped with upgraded satellite tracking

hardware, be south of about Seattle / Southampton, and (personal experience here) have ship's crew

smart enough to aim at an O3b satellite instead of the ones which they are used to using.

 

Works great when it works, but lots of opportunity for failure.

[TimbersfanOR]

I wouldn’t plan on having internet fast enough for a video conference.  I’m on a cruise now and the internet never was faster than 3mbps.

[caribill]

Also, Internet availability is never guaranteed.

 

It might be available 100% of the time or there might be outages which can range from a few minutes to multi-day.

[bindy1]

9 hours ago, Haboob said:

 

Depending upon which ship and where on the globe the ship is, you may well not get the "new" internet.

 

The key to the unlimited-minute, homelike internet is the new "O3b" satellite constellation.  They fly narrow-

focus, steerable dish antennae so they can sell their entire bandwidth to 10 different ships and offer them

bargain-basement uplink costs.

 

To have video-conference quality internet, you'll need a ship equipped with upgraded satellite tracking

hardware, be south of about Seattle / Southampton, and (personal experience here) have ship's crew

smart enough to aim at an O3b satellite instead of the ones which they are used to using.

 

Works great when it works, but lots of opportunity for failure.

We are on Coral Princess sailing from Whittier to Vancouver.  The day I would normally have a video conference is the day we sail Hubbard Glacier.  I could delay the conference until the day after we leave Ketchikan. But that is almost an entire week.   Our other port days fall on Saturday and Sunday and then Memorial Day.  So connecting with a hotspot won't help there.  

 

Thank you for the info on being south of Seattle.  Not exactly the same but I do recall when we were in Alaska last year for 11 days on our own land tour, the XM Sirius radio only worked Anchorage and south and we were not moving/driving down the road.  

[bindy1]

4 hours ago, caribill said:

Also, Internet availability is never guaranteed.

 

It might be available 100% of the time or there might be outages which can range from a few minutes to multi-day.

for sure!  Although with the 4-5 hour time change I will be hosting a call almost in the middle of the night while the rest of the ship is asleep or at least not all up and on the internet.  

 

Several years ago I was taking classes online for my MBA.  We went on a mother-daughter cruise and of course I had a timed mid-term during that time.  Took the test online at 6am on Lido. Got a 98% on the test and no issues with losing the internet connection in the middle of the test.  

[Dysan]

I am on the Royal now and the internet was amazing the first day but is now quite slow and very high latency (think what you see on planes). It's fine for web surfing but I can't imagine you can video conference over this connection (or do much else). 

 

I believe the previous poster's comment about being below a certain latitude is true. Online descriptions of the O3B service mentions service up to 50 degree latitude which is just north of Vancouver. Our service definitely changed as we headed north.

[idahospud]

1 hour ago, Dysan said:

I am on the Royal now and the internet was amazing the first day but is now quite slow and very high latency (think what you see on planes). It's fine for web surfing but I can't imagine you can video conference over this connection (or do much else). 

 

I believe the previous poster's comment about being below a certain latitude is true. Online descriptions of the O3B service mentions service up to 50 degree latitude which is just north of Vancouver. Our service definitely changed as we headed north.

I'm on the Royal right now too and and I agree completely. The service has slowed significantly as we've moved north. We've used MedallionNet on the Caribbean Princess and have been able to stream videos with absolutely no issue, but that's just not possible on the Royal in Alaska right now.

[bindy1]

7 hours ago, idahospud said:

I'm on the Royal right now too and and I agree completely. The service has slowed significantly as we've moved north. We've used MedallionNet on the Caribbean Princess and have been able to stream videos with absolutely no issue, but that's just not possible on the Royal in Alaska right now.

Thank you all!  This is super helpful information.  I will try and get all my calls in while we are still in the Seward/Girdwood area prior to boarding and then wait for the last sea day just before we get to Vancouver.

 

Another question ---- does anyone know if the Internet Cafe offers printing services?  I may need to print and sign a document ( just a few pages ) that will not accept an electronic signature.  

[DougK]

On 5/16/2019 at 3:13 AM, idahospud said:

I'm on the Royal right now too and and I agree completely. The service has slowed significantly as we've moved north. We've used MedallionNet on the Caribbean Princess and have been able to stream videos with absolutely no issue, but that's just not possible on the Royal in Alaska right now.

 

I got back from the Coral Princess in Alaska last week, and I'd say the Internet service on the Coral is worse than the Royal, even though they're both MedallionNet. It wasn't just a matter of being slow--my biggest issue was that there was *no* Internet service at all for large portions of the trip. It would come and go unpredictably, and not based just on geography. For example, much of the day we were docked in Skagway had no service, but sometimes it had good service, without us changing position at all. But I never knew whether good service would last for 30 seconds or an hour, or when it would come back, and eventually I just got sick of trying to use the web intermittently, and gave up on the Internet. Maybe MedallionNet is great in the Caribbean, but it appears to have minimal value in Alaska.

[mrell345]

if you wait till you are in port, you can use your cell phone internet.  It may be better using the shoreside cell service.

[idahospud]

1 hour ago, DougK said:

Maybe MedallionNet is great in the Caribbean, but it appears to have minimal value in Alaska.

Yup.

[Lindaru]

We just came from Alaska on the Ruby and the Medallion.net was reliable and fast no matter the location or time of day/night.  What was intermittent at times was the satellite television service.

[caribill]

On 5/16/2019 at 12:51 PM, bindy1 said:

 

 

Another question ---- does anyone know if the Internet Cafe offers printing services?  I may need to print and sign a document ( just a few pages ) that will not accept an electronic signature.  

 

A printer is available. Many use it for printing airline boarding passes on the last full day.

[bobstheboy]

I do not wish to high jack this thread, but seeing it is entitled Questions about Medallion Net, here goes.

 

Cruising next year from Singapore to Sydney. Do you think it will work during that cruise ?

 

[AF-1]

bindy1,  I used medallion net in Feb.  I did online streaming of our hometown church services;  Video was great with no buffering. I also used the printers in the internet cafe.  I printed documents twice;  just log on the computer and print what you need;  there is no charge for this 

Edited May 21, 2019 by AF-1

[Haboob]

6 hours ago, bobstheboy said:

I do not wish to high jack this thread, but seeing it is entitled Questions about Medallion Net, here goes.

 

Cruising next year from Singapore to Sydney. Do you think it will work during that cruise ?

 

The cheap high-bandwidth uplink satellites will be well above your

horizon since you only go south to 33ºS, but I'm not aware of any

Medallion Class ships on that route...?

Edited May 21, 2019 by Haboob
Un-wrapping extra line-wraps

[bobstheboy]

1 hour ago, Haboob said:

The cheap high-bandwidth uplink satellites will be well above your

horizon since you only go south to 33ºS, but I'm not aware of any

Medallion Class ships on that route...?

Regal. Repositioning in October 2020 from Southampton to Sydney.

[Haboob]

8 hours ago, bobstheboy said:

Regal. Repositioning in October 2020 from Southampton to Sydney.

 

Ah!  Enjoy.  (and wise for getting on *after* she passes the Horn of Africa )

 

I was on Regal last month, and her Medallion Net was stellar until the O3b MEO satellites dropped below

the southern horizon.  Expect it to work just fine from Singapore to Sydney.