Working Remote on NCL in Carribbean (work from home /WIFI reliability)

[tedbearz]

How reliable is the WIFI internet on the NCL ships? (Epic, Encore)

 

Looking mostly to connect through Corporate VPN to access emails, files and Webex conference calls (VOIP).

 

Any difference between port days and sea days?

 

Thanks!

Edited March 15, 2022 by tedbearz

[Funky Fusion FoodsJ]

I was on the Epic Feb 27-Mar 6.  Very relaxing vacation, I was forced not to work too much due to continuously poor/dropped connections.

 

Port days, off the ship was great.

 

I wouldn't go with an expectation of anything better than mediocre service.

 

Sorry....... 

[chengkp75]

This has been discussed recently on HAL board, and from what I've seen, using a VPN on a satellite internet connection may not work, there are questions of latency, and the fact that upload speeds on satellite systems tend to be far slower than download speeds.

[DeSaxMan13]

In the past 10 years of my company wanting me to be available while on vacation, and them paying for whatever WiFi was "best" onboard, I have yet to experience a consistent enough connection to do much more than occasionally download emails. Files, not so much. VoIP? Forget about it.  At least as of my last cruise thanksgiving 2019. In port, I could respond to emails and sometimes connect via VPN successfully, but not always. If you need to do actual remote work, I wouldn't count on a high rate of success, but YMMV.

[eileeshb]

With far fewer people on board the internet isn’t under the same pressure as the past. On my last 2 cruises on Epic I spotted a lot more routers/access points dotted around the ship then I’d seen in the past. I was able to stream a rugby match with vpn on a sea day in October with only one freeze during the game. 

[WindinmySails]

It shouldn't be called WiFi...it should just be called WHY?

[dolfan1980]

I'm not sure why people without actual experience have provided this input.  I sailed the Joy in December, so no Encore/Epic experience, but I can tell you that I had no trouble at all using VPN from work and participated in numerous MS Teams meetings.  The quality of video was generally good, with the odd need to turn off cameras to keep the feed going, but I participated in probably 1-2 hours of calls per day on my 7 day sailing without many more issues than I normally have at home.  I did not find any difference at sea or in port.

 

I will add an extra caution to my note above that I have no sailed Epic/Encore, which may or may not have an older system than Joy which is a very new ship.  I have sailed other ships in the past where the wifi has been terrible (NCL Sky, RCCL Mariner, Oasis, but those cruises were 5+ years ago with the exception of Sky in 2019).

 

Good luck, perhaps someone with recent Encore/Epic experience can weigh in.

[Midnight Traveller]

In 2019 on the Spirit through the Mediterranean and Canary Islands I used VPN for work. There were no issues in port or at sea. Just make sure you have the ultimate streaming package.

[BirdTravels]

On 3/15/2022 at 10:32 AM, tedbearz said:

How reliable is the WIFI internet on the NCL ships? (Epic, Encore). Looking mostly to connect through Corporate VPN to access emails, files and Webex conference calls (VOIP). Any difference between port days and sea days? Thanks!

Sea Days vs. Port Days. Most people will switch off the satellite and go direct to a cell tower in port. Many carriers have a International Day Pass or similar that provides access to your home plan for a minimal cost. So the satellite becomes less "busy"

 

We were on the Encore to Alaska last year (which has a fairly low look angle to the satellite) and was able to Zoom into my meetings with no problems.

 

The challenge with email is that folks don't give a second thought to emailing out 10MB files. Large files will tie up your connection for a long while. If you are using a web-based email app where you can pick and choose what gets downloaded, no problem. If you are on Outlook or similar where it is sucking down all emails and all attachments, it may be very slow. 

 

Just remember, it is satellite-based internet where every bit needs to travel 23,000 miles up and 23,000 miles back from a satellite. There is significant latency for every packet of data. If you are just surfing the web, the ship has cache servers that try to pre-fetch web pages, so it "appears" to have decent response time. If you are doing something interactive, it can't prefetch data and you will see veeeerrrrryyy slow response times. 

 

And, you are sharing a single line with hundreds/thousands of your new best friends on the ship. 

[bortman23]

Worked a few days on a 5 night cruise in Feb on the Getaway. Had the streaming package and had no issues getting work done. Didn't do many video calls but it was fine.