How is Internet on NCL for Alaska ?

[dipan0000]

Hi,

 

We will be taking 7 days NCL for Alaska in first week of June. Have some questions about it. Sorry, this is our first cruise.

Are there any bigger speed difference between regular and premium Wi-Fi package ($25 vs $29) ? All I need is, whatsapp, fb chat, hangout, email and need to check one website (trading) probably 3-4 times a day.

Few posts say that it is very bad and one page loads in very long time. if that is the case and I take "250 Minutes Anytime Internet", half of minutes will wipe off in loading itself.

What is your experience please ?

 

Thanks

[BirdTravels]

Logging on and off the server on the ship takes a few seconds. They probably round up to whole minutes. 

 

The internet on the ship is via satellite. You encounter the latency of every bit traveling 23,000 miles up to the satellite and then back down. If you are surfing, the ship uses cache servers to pre-fetch web pages so you feel like it is faster. If you are doing something interactive, not so much. 

 

If you are on one of the big ships, you are sharing that same satellite internet connection with 4000 of your new friends. Think about 4000 people using your wifi router at home

 

The only difference between regular and premium unlimited internet is that they open up the streaming ports on the premium. The speed is the same. 

 

The 250 minute plan can be used as $125 credit toward an unlimited plan. 

 

 

[alisonslp]

We had the unlimited plan on the bliss for May 5 cruise and found it variable. It was totally down the whole day in glacier bay and the next day traveling to Ketchikan, but other times it ran fine. Son used it for some kind of video chat, though I don't know which app he used. We did not use it for streaming video so I don't know how good that would be. Email and checking simple websites was fine. If you are taking the round trip from Seattle, you are in port at least part of the day for 5 of the 7 days. We had t-mobile as were able to roam for free without a problem, getting LTE in Juneau Skagway Victoria while 4g in Ketchikan. I don't know about the one way cruises though.