How bad is the Basic WiFi?

[cruisegal415]

We will be on the Summit next week.  We would like to use the wifi mostly to read our emails, keep up with the news, facebook, and text each other and maybe friends not on the cruise.  We don't plan on streaming music or videos or movies. 

 

Is the Basic wifi good enough for this? Or should we go with the Premium? There's such a big price difference I hate to get it if we don't need it.

[DCPIV]

It should be good enough for what you want to do. 

 

If you find you need more, then you can always upgrade.  However, what we've found (by my very unscientific survey) is that the premium internet isn't much better than the basic isn't working well.

[keesar]

On some ships, the Internet service reminds me of the old Dial Up mode. Serve is better on some ships than others and your location on the ship can make a difference as well as the time of day.    We don't expect speeds like at home.   On some cruises, I have remarked how happy I am for not having purchased it (as I get some free minutes).   

 

A couple of options here.  Try the basic and see if it works for you.  Be aware that MANY will be using it the first evening and that connection speeds will be slow for all.  On our last couple of cruises, we were able to try ti out for free when we boarded.   That could give you some  hint of how well it is working on your particular device.  

[lv2cruisgrl]

We had it on Edge and sometimes it was a little slow but depends on time of day. I used it to upload photos to FB with not much issue. Also read emails, text.

[tert333]

We were on the summit last week with the "premium" service.  It was slow, but we wanted to watch videos.   If you are just looking at emails and texting, you should be fine as long as you are patient... 🙂

 

[PinkSandGirl]

The basic internet, in my experience,  is frustrating.  Pre-shutdown I had internet included and it was great for e-mails, texts, internet, WiFi calling etc...  In October, we had the included basic internet and didn't think there was a reason to upgrade since they advertise you need it to stream videos.  

 

We couldn't get the WiFi calling to work.    We visited the iLounge and were told we needed to upgrade.  I said we could use WiFi calling before and had better access and that's when they said that included internet a few years ago was basically the upgraded internet now offered.  So, the upgrade was needed.  

 

Prior to upgrading,  text messages would sometimes be delayed/not come through  and certain internet sites (Cruise Critic being one) would not load properly or at all.  Note:  Cruise Critic still had issues after upgrading.

 

This was on the Equinox in October. It seems some ships have better access/some have worse. 

 

You can always wait until you board to see how it works for you and then decide.  If eligible,  Captain’s Club discounts are also available onboard for certain tiers. 

 

🍹

Edited March 22, 2022 by PinkSandGirl

[phoenix_dream]

I disagree that you can do everything you want to with the basic internet, at least based on our experience.  First of all, we were unable to text with surf internet.  We have an Android phone, and we were told sometimes people with Apple products have better luck but they don't understand why.

 

We could view our emails, but could not open some of them.  We could view Facebook, and we could post words, but not pictures.  We could, however, "text" using Facebook messenger.  

 

We could surf the internet, but often could not open the sites we were interested in.  I don't think you mentioned needing it, but we were unable to do wi-fi calling.

 

This feedback is based on our sailing on Millennium last year.  I know on different ships it can be better or worse than others.  In fact, in December we were on Apex and even though we had stream as we were in a suite, the internet was awful all the way around.  Recently on Reflection and their stream internet was pretty good overall, except for now and then when we were docked at a port and even that was pretty bad.

 

I agree that the price to upgrade is very high - absolutely ridiculous IMHO.  Unless there is some kind of sale pre-cruise, I would suggest waiting until you are onboard and then determining then if you need to upgrade.

[keesar]

Actually, we found the best Internet was found at the ports we visited.  And it was FREE.  We used Internet at Diamonds International and this burger place with arches 🍔.  It was very frustrating on our ship.  However, during the cruise,  a signal booster (?) was installed in our room and that helped.

[tallyho8]

I've been on 3 Celebrity cruises since they reopened and had basic internet all 3 times. I could never access my email. The only way I could check my email was to upgrade to premium and then it was very slow and sporadic.

[killsport]

The Basic internet on Reflection was borderline unusable. Could not sign in to Home Depot. Could browse its site. Couldn’t send picture messages without reducing file sizes. Texts (iMessage) took a long time to send or receive. If you really NEED the connectivity (vs want) then I’d say a full fail. 

[highway180]

1 hour ago, killsport said:

The Basic internet on Reflection was borderline unusable. Could not sign in to Home Depot. Could browse its site. Couldn’t send picture messages without reducing file sizes. Texts (iMessage) took a long time to send or receive. If you really NEED the connectivity (vs want) then I’d say a full fail. 

i couldn't agree more....was on the Reflection for new years eve, Basic was useless( we had free minutes to use) ,Upgraded to Premium ...almost useless. I even moved to the I lounge with my laptop, thinking it would be better there....nope. I could not log into my VPN at work, and it was so noisy in there(with people complaining about the crummy wifi) i gave up until back on land.

[TeeRick]

IMHO.  In this day and age, there is no need for basic vs. premium internet services on a Celebrity ship.  The best and fastest service should be the only level.  But then they could not charge more.  I know some hotels do this too.  But I have found this is mostly a US thing.  A pet peeve.

[terrydtx]

On the Equinox last year, we had the streaming and it was soooooo slow I can't imagine how poor basic must be. Between Cuba and the ABC Islands it was totally down for about 24 hours, we were told it was a problem with Celebrity's third party vendor in New Jersey.  That never made sense why our WIFI had to go through New Jersey.

[DCPIV]

7 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

That never made sense why our WIFI had to go through New Jersey.

 

I'd say that's where the provider servers are located (or some other critical piece of infrastructure).  Internet is not point-to-point.

[travelwide]

On the Millennium recently you cannot use What's App voice calls. You can only use text. Could not get on CC so that you can read it. Was told you would need to upgrade at a ridiculous price. Was able to read emails. Why give us something for free that does not really work? I know.......make more money. They know how dependent we are on our devices. Ugh!

[ORV]

I got an email the other day concerning our package for an upcoming cruise. Notice where it says the Basic can not access Social Media. 

 

"We'd like to remind you that our Elevate cruise package includes Basic Wi-Fi access. This value-priced package is for anyone who simply wants the ability to surf the web, send emails, and text on messenger services. You'll stay connected through the basic functions of Wi-Fi but you will not be able to share large files in email, send photos and videos, stream videos, access social media or place video calls.

As a valued Elite member, you can use your exclusive 30% Captain's Club membership discount to upgrade to Premium Wi-Fi. This packages allows you to message or video chat in real time, browse the web, send emails – including sharing large files and posting on social media . Plus, stream all your favorite videos, movies, music, and shows while you're at sea, on up to four devices."

[Von & John]

Hi  --  we were just on the Constellation:  03/18-03/28.

We were not able to utilize the basic plan for texting nor for the simplest of e-mail responses, let alone access additional websites for work, etc.

Neither our phones, IPad nor Surface Pro worked in our cabin, in multiple locations on the ship nor in the ILounge itself...

I did spend an afternoon in the ILounge, on one of their computers, for a number of hours to complete what should have taken less than 30 minutes to accomplish....

Our cruise was sailing @ approx. 35% capacity.

It does not appear they have the bandwidth to provide service w/ Always Included...

We actually prefer when it's not included 🙂 
Much better than being frustrated by "having it" & not being able to access/use it.

I'd rather they reduce the cruise rate & not "include" internet access.

[tulok]

This is our first Celebrity and I am wondering about availability of imessages to others on the ship that we are traveling with using basic. On NCL they had availability to use the NCL app to message. I have not seen that option on Celebrity’s app. Other lines we were just able to use the basic wifi to imessage.

[RickT]

Just off the Millennium and the word I would use to describe it is Brutal.

It may be the class of ship but as PinkSandGirl says it was pretty good preshutdown but IMHO appears to have been dumbed down in order to get people to upgrade.  
During our cruise emails were slow to be received and when sending they would often not get sent until we were ashore using free wifi.  They said we should use webmail rather than our outlook app.

Many basic websites either wouldn’t load or were extremely slow to load and CruiseCritic was one of the sites that wouldn’t load.

The connect was so poor at times we got logged out of Apple and had to go to the Apple Store where the rep would access the stores stronger wifi and we could then log back in.  They said the basic signal was too weak to access the Apple authentication.

 

I haven’t experienced wifi this bad in years and certainly hope it’s better next time I sail.

 

[HBDave]

4 hours ago, RickT said:

Just off the Millennium and the word I would use to describe it is Brutal.

It may be the class of ship but as PinkSandGirl says it was pretty good preshutdown but IMHO appears to have been dumbed down in order to get people to upgrade.  
During our cruise emails were slow to be received and when sending they would often not get sent until we were ashore using free wifi.  They said we should use webmail rather than our outlook app.

Many basic websites either wouldn’t load or were extremely slow to load and CruiseCritic was one of the sites that wouldn’t load.

The connect was so poor at times we got logged out of Apple and had to go to the Apple Store where the rep would access the stores stronger wifi and we could then log back in.  They said the basic signal was too weak to access the Apple authentication.

 

I haven’t experienced wifi this bad in years and certainly hope it’s better next time I sail.

 

I would second everything RickT said above. I had the exact same experience on the Millenium. Besides being slow / not useable. We had the exact same issues with Apple Authentication. When Apple Authentication fails, you lose iMessaging, Apple Mail, etc. I was told by the iLounge Rep this was unusual and only affects a few phones. I didn't believe it then and I don't believe it now. I also agree with PinkSandGirl, we had no issues using our iPhones on our previous Celebrity cruise's pre-pandemic. Based on our last experience using the Surf Package, I'd be inclined to leave to leave my electronics at home or step-up and pay for the Streaming Package.

[tonyinoc]

On 3/23/2022 at 6:05 AM, TeeRick said:

IMHO.  In this day and age, there is no need for basic vs. premium internet services on a Celebrity ship.  The best and fastest service should be the only level.  But then they could not charge more.  I know some hotels do this too.  But I have found this is mostly a US thing.  A pet peeve.

I think to better understand this is that Internet on a ship is not cheap, all the data has to travel 22,000 miles to space and back again. And they only have limited bandwidth available, Things are getting better with companies like ViaSat working on better systems. If they make the highest speed available to everyone on a ship and they all start to use it - It would just overload the system and be unusable for everyone . So charging for better access is a way of making sure the system works.   In a Hotel its a money grab more than it is on a ship. I hope things will get better in the future 

[phoenix_dream]

2 hours ago, tonyinoc said:

I think to better understand this is that Internet on a ship is not cheap, all the data has to travel 22,000 miles to space and back again. And they only have limited bandwidth available, Things are getting better with companies like ViaSat working on better systems. If they make the highest speed available to everyone on a ship and they all start to use it - It would just overload the system and be unusable for everyone . So charging for better access is a way of making sure the system works.   In a Hotel its a money grab more than it is on a ship. I hope things will get better in the future 

I understand your point. My issue is that the surf is way worse than what you used to get when you purchased wifi. So they didn't just add a higher level they downgraded what they had. And the cost to upgrade is very high IMHO.

[GB08]

On 3/23/2022 at 9:05 AM, TeeRick said:

IMHO.  In this day and age, there is no need for basic vs. premium internet services on a Celebrity ship.  The best and fastest service should be the only level.  But then they could not charge more.  I know some hotels do this too.  But I have found this is mostly a US thing.  A pet peeve.

Absolutely agree.    This “boost”  to a premium service for internet is simply a revenue generator.     We were on the Equinox 2 months ago and there was no way basic was adequate.        Internet is not a luxury and it is frustrating to be offered two levels when the basic is not sufficient.

[tonyinoc]

On 4/3/2022 at 12:11 PM, phoenix_dream said:

I understand your point. My issue is that the surf is way worse than what you used to get when you purchased wifi. So they didn't just add a higher level they downgraded what they had. And the cost to upgrade is very high IMHO.

I can say when i was on the Apex last September in Greece the internet was fine, I did have the highest level package i was able to stream a formula 1 race as well as an England football game with out any issues .. but then we where in Europe with only 900 on board .. I will be on the Apex in 4 days I will do a comparison then 🙂

[KruznKimmie]

Depends on how many people are on when you try to access wifi...we found the best time to be around midnight and later but never during the middle of the day on a sea day.