Working Remote on a Cruise (work from home)

[jenfew]

I'm curious if any "work from home" people ever work on a cruise and if so, is the wifi reliable?  I love to travel, so working from home has been great for that reason.  I've just never done it on a cruise and would prefer not to take vacation time if I can work during the day and enjoy evenings on a ship.  Thanks for your feedback. 

[1025cruise]

I wouldn't expect the WiFi to be reliable enough.

[Essiesmom]

There are threads asking this from time to time.  Some report success, others not so much.  It all depends on the quality and reliability of internet onboard.  Which may look depend on itinerary.  EM

[Markanddonna]

Meeting new, tight deadlines would be really hard on a cruise. If you have flexibility and don't mind the sacrifice, it is possible. I was editing and revising a book manuscript with my editor on a 23 day transpacific cruise. As you can imagine, the amount of data was pretty intense but I did it. That said, I woke up early before the typical cruiser and worked in the late evening when others were socializing at bars. This was out in the middle of the Pacific ocean, and I didn't have major problems. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

51 minutes ago, jenfew said:

I'm curious if any "work from home" people ever work on a cruise and if so, is the wifi reliable?  I love to travel, so working from home has been great for that reason.  I've just never done it on a cruise and would prefer not to take vacation time if I can work during the day and enjoy evenings on a ship.  Thanks for your feedback. 

Not a good idea. All internet at sea is vis satellite communications. Even the best wifi is worthless with “dead spots” in the ocean and other issues with satellite transmission speeds/latency/etc.

Edited July 30, 2021 by Flatbush Flyer

[Flatbush Flyer]

duplicate

Edited July 30, 2021 by Flatbush Flyer

[hallasm]

Depending on your requirement for bandwidth- I have successfully worked from a cruise ship using VPN - primary email and SAP applications. Sometime the problem has been WiFi accessibility in the Cabin - and from time to time not network not reliable - but if no tight deadlines and requirement of high bandwidth certainly doable.

[klfrodo]

While Hallasm indicates they were successful using a VPN, my experience was different. I was able to get reliable internet access, however my corporate VPN (F5 at the time) was not able to connect successfully to allow me access to the corporate intranet.

[hallasm]

5 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

While Hallasm indicates they were successful using a VPN, my experience was different

Might very well  be that the Cruise Line is blocking use of VPN or that particular VPN is not working properly at the cruise ship. My recommendation is to use VPN - might not be that critical at a cruise ship however VPN should always be used for security reasons at public WiFi. If OP has a specific cruise line in mind ask at that cruise line forum.

[SelectSys]

Never mind - SAP humor really isn't funny.

Edited July 30, 2021 by SelectSys

[aungrl]

As others have said, I think it's very ship and location dependent, but FWIW, I worked successfully on three different Viking cruises - (Viking includes wifi with the cruise fare for all passengers) - in both remote and not-so-remote locations.  I only required reliable email, and didn't need to send or receive large/data-intensive attachments.  I was able to receive and send typical presentation decks, for example, without a problem.  Your mileage will almost certainly vary...as someone suggested, checking with the specific cruise line, and reading about internet experiences on that cruise line, would be a good next step.

 

[zekekelso]

Depends on how “reliable” you need. Be able to log in, get and set emails, glitches are fine as long as they don’t last more than a minute or two - that reliable? Sure. Be in zoom meetings all day with nobody able to tell you aren’t working from your hard-wired home office? Nope. 

[lenquixote66]

On 7/30/2021 at 1:02 PM, jenfew said:

I'm curious if any "work from home" people ever work on a cruise and if so, is the wifi reliable?  I love to travel, so working from home has been great for that reason.  I've just never done it on a cruise and would prefer not to take vacation time if I can work during the day and enjoy evenings on a ship.  Thanks for your feedback. 

We never buy WiFi .I would never want to work on a cruise.That defeats the purpose of cruising .

[SuiteTraveler]

My husband has a very demanding career and he has worked while on various cruises.  What you need to know is that passenger bandwidth is usually severely limited so that transferring or emailing large files from most guest areas is usually completely impossible.  The work around for this is to either wait until you are in a port where you can go somewhere such as Starbucks that has free WIFI or an Internet cafe on land or go to the ship's computer center, open your email on one of their machines and attempt to send from there.  

 

There is no way Zoom meetings would work on a ship at sea.  You need to find out if your cellphone service is supported by the specific cruise line, otherwise you get unbelievably high rates if your phone is on while onboard unless you buy an international roaming package.    

 

So you need to figure out if you can work with these limitations.  For my husband, he has been able to, although it was odd walking off the ship in Civitavecchia with him on the phone the whole time with a client who had no idea we were on a Med cruise.  LOL! 

 

[ajs2294]

Really depends on your role. If your WFH is heavy phone/video calls and email based than I wouldn’t personally recommend attempting it. Ship WiFi is simply not reliable even for recreational use.

 

If you’re an independent contributor who works from their local PC and sends the odd email then you should be fine.

[ldubs]

16 hours ago, SuiteTraveler said:

My husband has a very demanding career and he has worked while on various cruises.  What you need to know is that passenger bandwidth is usually severely limited so that transferring or emailing large files from most guest areas is usually completely impossible.  The work around for this is to either wait until you are in a port where you can go somewhere such as Starbucks that has free WIFI or an Internet cafe on land or go to the ship's computer center, open your email on one of their machines and attempt to send from there.  

 

There is no way Zoom meetings would work on a ship at sea.  You need to find out if your cellphone service is supported by the specific cruise line, otherwise you get unbelievably high rates if your phone is on while onboard unless you buy an international roaming package.    

 

So you need to figure out if you can work with these limitations.  For my husband, he has been able to, although it was odd walking off the ship in Civitavecchia with him on the phone the whole time with a client who had no idea we were on a Med cruise.  LOL! 

 

 

I think you cover it well.  Back in the old days when I had to work for a living, I always had business to attend to while traveling.   Zoom wasn't a thing back then, but I was on some costly conference calls.  When I had to deal with large file transfers I waited until in port, like you say.   

[Mike981]

We have only cruised in the Caribbean and for the most part it was fine. But you need to plan ahead on large files and such. That said, we have worked hard at needing it less over the years. I don't foresee us getting to the point of not needing WiFi, just less dependent.

FWIW ~ I love paying for my cruise  while I'm on a cruise. All of my vacations are paid ahead of time, so to have the next trip paid for while on vacation makes the trip that much more fun.

[zekekelso]

On 8/1/2021 at 6:42 PM, SuiteTraveler said:

My husband has a very demanding career and he has worked while on various cruises.  What you need to know is that passenger bandwidth is usually severely limited so that transferring or emailing large files from most guest areas is usually completely impossible.  The work around for this is to either wait until you are in a port where you can go somewhere such as Starbucks that has free WIFI or an Internet cafe on land or go to the ship's computer center, open your email on one of their machines and attempt to send from there.  

 

There is no way Zoom meetings would work on a ship at sea.  You need to find out if your cellphone service is supported by the specific cruise line, otherwise you get unbelievably high rates if your phone is on while onboard unless you buy an international roaming package.    

 

So you need to figure out if you can work with these limitations.  For my husband, he has been able to, although it was odd walking off the ship in Civitavecchia with him on the phone the whole time with a client who had no idea we were on a Med cruise.  LOL! 

 

This was the case, and may still be the case on some ships. But many ships today have newer technology that allows much better connections. Not as good as on land, but often possible to zoom or transfer large files. 

[aungrl]

2 hours ago, zekekelso said:

This was the case, and may still be the case on some ships. But many ships today have newer technology that allows much better connections. Not as good as on land, but often possible to zoom or transfer large files. 

This has been my experience on Viking, at least with essentially constant email connectivity and the ability to transfer files without a problem.  I haven't tried zoom.

[Luckiestmanonearth]

On 8/1/2021 at 1:28 PM, lenquixote66 said:

We never buy WiFi .I would never want to work on a cruise.That defeats the purpose of cruising .

completely agree.  Working sucks and vacation is fun and you should never let those 2 worlds collide

[lenquixote66]

8 hours ago, Luckiestmanonearth said:

completely agree.  Working sucks and vacation is fun and you should never let those 2 worlds collide

Great minds think alike😀

[SuiteTraveler]

On 8/2/2021 at 6:23 PM, zekekelso said:

This was the case, and may still be the case on some ships. But many ships today have newer technology that allows much better connections. Not as good as on land, but often possible to zoom or transfer large files. 

This was the case on our NCL Escape cruise in March 2020 - last cruise before the pandemic lockdown.  Their IT person told us that they limit passenger bandwidth.

Edited September 11, 2021 by SuiteTraveler

[chengkp75]

11 hours ago, SuiteTraveler said:

This was the case on our NCL Escape cruise in March 2020 - last cruise before the pandemic lockdown.  Their IT person told us that they limit passenger bandwidth.

The ships have a fixed bandwidth for data services.  First priority on this bandwidth is the ship's business, most of which is networked to corporate headquarters 24/7.  This includes things like accounting (passenger accounts), hotel management (ordering and inventory), and maintenance programs.  Whatever bandwidth is left over is available to passengers.  So, as many have noticed over the years, time of day affects the performance of passenger internet.  Late night or early morning (before 6am) are times when little ship's business is being done.

[Luckiestmanonearth]

In my company, working from home is a privilege and as such, it is expected people have good Internet to be able to do their jobs effectively (including ability to join Teams meetings).

 

Unfortunately based on past experience, the only reliable Internet on a ship occurs at 2 or 3am so this definitely wouldn’t work for my employer.

 

Take vacation days and enjoy the cruise.  I will reiterate a past comment that “Working sucks and vacation is fun and you should never let those 2 worlds collide”

Edited September 12, 2021 by Luckiestmanonearth

[AmazedByCruising]

Elons Musk said earlier this year that StarLink will offer 300Mb/s by the end of this year, and he has only just begun deploying satellites. Zoom sessions should be better because the low orbit leads to a lower latency. 

 

I expect internet connections on ships to be much faster and more reliable very soon. And a few years from now, passengers will regard internet access as a "basic need" that the ship should provide for free.

 

As an employer, Covid forced us to have everyone working from home. We had no problems whatsoever. I would be totally fine if people don't work from home but want to work while being on a ship. I'd only be jealous 🙂