Unacceptably slow internet on the Crown Princess

[geoherb]

6 hours ago, Haboob said:

 

No great surprise here.

 

North of 48º latitude (Southampton-ish), satellite uplink bandwidth is up to 10x more expensive, so the money we pay for internet packages simply does not buy as much of it.  The problem isn't aboard the ship so a cable rather than a WiFi link will not help (except for helping him by getting you to go away).

 

What the internet manager is implicitly admitting is that the ship is now too far north to use the low-cost satellites in Medium Earth Orbit over the Equator, but after the 4th you'll be far enough south again to switch back to those "good" satellites.

 

The ship has been below 48 degrees N for nearly a week. We're now below 32 degrees N and heading practically straight across the Atlantic, with just a few degrees farther south to go. And it doesn't explain why the internet speed was working at a speed where I could download the newspaper in Zeebrugge, which was the farthest north we went, but not since then.

 

 

[geoherb]

The above photo was from around 6 a.m. Here is the noon update, when I'm competing for scarce internet bandwidth with more people.

 

 

[HJH]

Currently on the Caribbean Fall Colors Cruise and the Medallion Net speeds have been incredible throughout the first week.Download speeds between 34-62 MB’s. Able to FaceTime easily.

[Colo Cruiser]

16 minutes ago, HJH said:

Currently on the Caribbean Fall Colors Cruise and the Medallion Net speeds have been incredible throughout the first week.Download speeds between 34-62 MB’s. Able to FaceTime easily.

The CB is the best that we have experienced. 

[CineGraphic]

If you're in the area where you're supposed to have faster speeds, and they can't deliver, it's time to ask for a refund....full or partial.

[Haboob]

9 hours ago, geoherb said:

 

The ship has been below 48 degrees N for nearly a week. We're now below 32 degrees N and heading practically straight across the Atlantic, with just a few degrees farther south to go. And it doesn't explain why the internet speed was working at a speed where I could download the newspaper in Zeebrugge, which was the farthest north we went, but not since then.

 

 

 

ACK!

 

Well, besides being S of 48º, the ship has to actually aim their antennae at the faster satellites -- D'oh.    That `ping` time is typical of speed-of-light up to and back down from a satellite in GEO orbit.  The `ping` using the "O3b" satellites in their lower MEO orbit is about half of that.

 

More likely explanation, then, is that they couldn't get a booking on an O3b until the 4th.  

[CineGraphic]

1 hour ago, Haboob said:

More likely explanation, then, is that they couldn't get a booking on an O3b until the 4th.

Princess should have been upfront from the start if this is true, and pricing should have been adjusted accordingly.

I'm sure it's easier to just keep customers in the dark, but it's bad business in my book.

[geoherb]

Tonight it took 10 minutes to attach three photos to a post on my live thread: 6.5 MB total file size.

[Colo Cruiser]

I  agree I would ask for a refund.

[BigGuy25]

On 9/30/2019 at 10:25 AM, WatchHill said:

I've been on many Princess ships and none of their internet connectivity is worth the cost.

We were on the Regal Transatlantic last year and the internet speed both in Europe and all the way to NYC was very fast. By far, the fastest I’ve ever experienced on a ship in 25 cruises. Clearly not as fast as at home, but plenty fast for streaming, Facebook, uploading photos, downloading newspaper, etc.  We were very pleased!

Edited October 2, 2019 by BigGuy25

[geoherb]

I managed to load today's newspaper at 6 this morning while the download speed was a blazing 1.72 Mbps. It was a small PDF, under 10 MB. I tried loading some of the previous issues I have missed but did not get any of them to load successfully.

[hpeabody]

Medallion Net on the Crown has been mostly horribly slow to bad to barely acceptable.  I am feeling very ripped off with the price we pay for such unreliable service.  I have been on board sine Sept 10th.

[CineGraphic]

53 minutes ago, hpeabody said:

Medallion Net on the Crown has been mostly horribly slow to bad to barely acceptable.  I am feeling very ripped off with the price we pay for such unreliable service.  I have been on board sine Sept 10th.

Have you asked for a refund?

[hpeabody]

I just need to

 

SCREAM!!!!!!

 

Thank You.

[geoherb]

I am waiting for closer to the end of the cruise to ask for a partial refund. The big test will be tomorrow night--when our hockey team has its opening night game. I'd like to stream it. There's another game on Sunday we want to watch as well. The promise they make is "MedallionNet delivers Wi-Fi wherever you are, letting you stream your favorite shows, movies, music, sports."

[Thrak]

6 hours ago, hpeabody said:

I just need to

 

SCREAM!!!!!!

 

Thank You.

 

Don't scream, Holly. Just be firm and get your money back. That is unacceptable service. Period.

[geoherb]

This morning's speed test. I could not replicate yesterday's luck in getting my newspaper to download. Streaming hockey tonight is looking doubtful unless there's a major improvement.

 

 

[SandG]

I'm on the Crown and also really frustrated, paid for unlimited with the promise of fast internet. Silly me, I even packed a small streaming device based on the promises. I'm at least happy I have unlimited and not paid minutes, otherwise I'd really be pulling my hair out.

 

Sue

[CineGraphic]

Anyone who's paid for "the best wifi at sea" for this voyage deserves at least a 50% refund, if not 100%.

[geoherb]

I'm still waiting to see if the internet manager's prediction of better internet comes true. I plan to base my request on the percentage of good and bad days. So if we have speeds that are acceptable tomorrow, it will work out to be a request for 75 percent of the money back for 12 bad days out of 16.

[voljeep]

27 minutes ago, geoherb said:

I'm still waiting to see if the internet manager's prediction of better internet comes true. I plan to base my request on the percentage of good and bad days. So if we have speeds that are acceptable tomorrow, it will work out to be a request for 75 percent of the money back for 12 bad days out of 16.

how many times have you discussed this with the internet manager .... and on the bad days , you were still able to do both your live threads, with pics, and also post this thread about how bad things are ... on an almost daily basis  ?

 

yet you want a full refund for those 'bad days'?  you'll prolly get it , but ...

[geoherb]

Streaming hockey is out tonight. I can get updates on the score.

 

 

[vicd1969]

7 hours ago, voljeep said:

how many times have you discussed this with the internet manager .... and on the bad days , you were still able to do both your live threads, with pics, and also post this thread about how bad things are ... on an almost daily basis  ?

 

yet you want a full refund for those 'bad days'?  you'll prolly get it , but ...

 

GeoHerb's intent to pro-rate his discount based on the number of bad days is more than fair imho. True, he was able to still connect with pics and threads, but I'm sure that took a lot more of his time to do so. This represents a large opportunity cost on what else he could have been doing on the cruise - activities, enjoying the sea breeze and views, etc. - the stuff most people pay to enjoy on their cruise.

[geoherb]

13 hours ago, voljeep said:

how many times have you discussed this with the internet manager .... and on the bad days , you were still able to do both your live threads, with pics, and also post this thread about how bad things are ... on an almost daily basis  ?

 

yet you want a full refund for those 'bad days'?  you'll prolly get it , but ...

 

I discussed it once with the internet manager. He's the one who told me things will get better today. I figure there's no use talking with him again before today since he's already said it will not speed up before then. I talked with one of the people at the Medallion help area before seeing him. I've talked to three people at that area since. They've been frustrated by the number of frustrated people they've had to deal with as well as frustrated by the slow speed they're experiencing. They also pay for internet access according to one young woman there.

 

I hope I get the refund on board the ship. You are right that I have been able to use the internet. It's not totally down. But it is almost useless for some basic things, such as being able to read my hometown newspaper, and totally useless for streaming video. Loading photos in my live thread is averaging three or four minutes per photo. Sometimes it has been a lot longer. (The little screenshots of the current internet speed take a lot less time since they're under 20 kb in size.) When posting, I start loading the photos, write what I want to say, and then wait and wait for the photos to finish.

 

If the internet was working up to speed, we would not have purchased the unlimited internet package. Our free minutes would have been sufficient. When I took my back-to-back cruises on the Island Princess this summer, it took less than a minute to download my newspaper each day. I did a live thread with lots of photos. I checked email and Facebook daily. And I ended up with over 50 minutes left at the end. 

 

 

[geoherb]

14 hours ago, voljeep said:

how many times have you discussed this with the internet manager .... and on the bad days , you were still able to do both your live threads, with pics, and also post this thread about how bad things are ... on an almost daily basis  ?

 

yet you want a full refund for those 'bad days'?  you'll prolly get it , but ...

 

P.S. One of the reasons I started this separate thread is so I don't keep harping about slow internet on my live thread. I like keeping it more upbeat than complaining about the same thing on it every day. Another reason is as warning to others and commiseration with those who are on the Crown currently. And a third reason is to help me document my experience in case I don't get a refund on the ship and need to pursue it after we get home.