Explorer WiFi is a rip off

[Sunshine3601]

As others have said location makes a huge difference.   If you have poor wifi in cabin try the computer lounge / library or somewhere near a wifi repeater.   

We had awful wifi on a cruise earlier this year but when I left my cabin it improved.  Sailed same ship 5 weeks ago and had great wifi in my cabin because there was a wifi repeater just outside our cabin.   Weather plays a huge part in the satellite signal too!

 

 

[rudeney]

Hopefully those are not wifi "repeaters" but actual antennas or even mesh systems.  Repeaters do extend the signal, but they cut the speed in half.  And if you are unlucky enough to be going through two repeaters, it's halved again, so 25% of max speed.  I suspect the cruise ships use antenna arrays and maybe the newer ones have mesh systems.  I do know that all the metal in the ship is a real challenge for providing good wifi.  I do wish they would provide a hardwired Ethernet jack in the cabins.  That way I could either plug-in my laptop or bring my own router to cover the room.  I actually used to do this in the early days of hotel Internet service when they did not have wifi.  

[Blur]

20 minutes ago, rudeney said:

Hopefully those are not wifi "repeaters" but actual antennas or even mesh systems.  Repeaters do extend the signal, but they cut the speed in half.  And if you are unlucky enough to be going through two repeaters, it's halved again, so 25% of max speed.  I suspect the cruise ships use antenna arrays and maybe the newer ones have mesh systems.  I do know that all the metal in the ship is a real challenge for providing good wifi.  I do wish they would provide a hardwired Ethernet jack in the cabins.  That way I could either plug-in my laptop or bring my own router to cover the room.  I actually used to do this in the early days of hotel Internet service when they did not have wifi. 

I do usually bring my own access point which does help with your device staying connected but doesn't help if internet via satellite is going in and out, but at least your device won't keep disconnecting which it will depending on the ships WiFi signal strength in your room.

 

Also there is a setting on most phones that will try to switch back and forth between mobile and WiFi if you lose Internet.  You probably want to disable that if you plan on not using airplane mode.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Blur

[rudeney]

12 minutes ago, Blur said:

I do usually bring my own access point which does help with your device staying connected but doesn't help if internet via satellite is going in and out, but at least your device won't keep disconnecting which it will depending on the ships WiFi signal strength in your room.

 

Also there is a setting on most phones that will try to switch back and forth between mobile and WiFi if you lose Internet.  You probably want to disable that if you plan on not using airplane mode.

 

So is there a wired port in the cabin that your access point plugs into, or are you just using it as a repeater for the existing wifi?  I guess I've never looked for Ethernet jacks in the cabins as I "assumed" they did not have them!

 

As for airplane mode, yes, I know all about that.  I will warn others, though, that on more than one occasion, we've had problems with iPhones "mysteriously" switching airplane mode off in the middle of the night and then incurring mobile data roaming charges.  We have Androids and have never experienced this, but our kid had an iPhone and it happened on two cruises.  I'd have not believed her except that when I had Verizon detail when the phone used mobile data, it was when we were all in the cabin and all asleep.

[Guest TopoChico]

7 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

So is there a wired port in the cabin that your access point plugs into, or are you just using it as a repeater for the existing wifi?  I guess I've never looked for Ethernet jacks in the cabins as I "assumed" they did not have them!

 

As for airplane mode, yes, I know all about that.  I will warn others, though, that on more than one occasion, we've had problems with iPhones "mysteriously" switching airplane mode off in the middle of the night and then incurring mobile data roaming charges.  We have Androids and have never experienced this, but our kid had an iPhone and it happened on two cruises.  I'd have not believed her except that when I had Verizon detail when the phone used mobile data, it was when we were all in the cabin and all asleep.

If you’re charging a near dead phone, it turns on when it reaches usable/full charge.  My husband’s phone was in Airplane mode and nearly dead. He was not using it on the trip to avoid work-related stress.
 

 He threw it on a charger near the end of the trip, and when we came back to our cabin after a day on the beach, he had a bunch of work texts and email push notifications. 

[Blur]

57 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

So is there a wired port in the cabin that your access point plugs into, or are you just using it as a repeater for the existing wifi?  I guess I've never looked for Ethernet jacks in the cabins as I "assumed" they did not have them!

 

As for airplane mode, yes, I know all about that.  I will warn others, though, that on more than one occasion, we've had problems with iPhones "mysteriously" switching airplane mode off in the middle of the night and then incurring mobile data roaming charges.  We have Androids and have never experienced this, but our kid had an iPhone and it happened on two cruises.  I'd have not believed her except that when I had Verizon detail when the phone used mobile data, it was when we were all in the cabin and all asleep.

I use a travel router which will connect to voom wifi so that my devices in room have a stable WiFi connection.  The router seems to do a better job of keeping a connection to a weak wifi signal as well.  I usually only use it when in the room for stable WiFi connection.  I turn it off when I leave so I can connect normally to voom from other locations.

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, rudeney said:

Hopefully those are not wifi "repeaters" but actual antennas or even mesh systems.  Repeaters do extend the signal, but they cut the speed in half.  And if you are unlucky enough to be going through two repeaters, it's halved again, so 25% of max speed.  I suspect the cruise ships use antenna arrays and maybe the newer ones have mesh systems.  I do know that all the metal in the ship is a real challenge for providing good wifi.  I do wish they would provide a hardwired Ethernet jack in the cabins.  That way I could either plug-in my laptop or bring my own router to cover the room.  I actually used to do this in the early days of hotel Internet service when they did not have wifi.  

Maybe I am using the wrong name - maybe they are some type of wifi boosters but someone on CC told me they were called wifi repeaters.      I am not sure but whatever the device that was mounted on the wall near the ceiling outside my cabin made a big difference for our surf n stream pkg.

[Joseph2017China]

I hate posts that blame RCCL for a persons own mistake on not understanding how roaming works and what is covered.

[14Terry]

I’m currently on the Explorer and the VOOM is and has been working well for my wife and I. We’re on a B2B and intend on using it next week as well. Happy cruising everyone! 

[rudeney]

2 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Maybe I am using the wrong name - maybe they are some type of wifi boosters but someone on CC told me they were called wifi repeaters.      I am not sure but whatever the device that was mounted on the wall near the ceiling outside my cabin made a big difference for our surf n stream pkg.

 

My guess is that these devices in the hallways are antenna nodes, but in a way, that's just slightly better than a repeater/extender.  The problem with a repeater/extender is that it's like have a conversation with a person who is just slightly too far away to be heard, so you place a third person between you who then yells back and forth, repeating what you say to the other person, and then what the other person says to you.  This is why they cut the speed in half. 

 

A series of antenna nodes won't cut the throughput, but they also do nothing to increase the number of devices a single wifi access point can handle.  The best solution is a mesh system with many access points spread out so each can handle a different group of devices, with enough overlap that as devices move around between them, they don't lose the signal and can be handed-of between them.  This is how the cellular telephone systems work. 

 

Of course all of this depends on the throughput of the main Internet feed, which on a cruise ship is a very sophisticated satellite transceiver.  It will have a finite bandwidth so the more data (i.e. passengers) it has to handle, the slower it gets/  Additionally, its signal can be degraded by weather and sometimes nearby land terrain.  

 

I have never used cruise ship Internet service that I thought was worth the price they charge, yet I still pay the price because it does work "somewhat" and I like to be able to stay in touch with work, friends and family.  And that does not negatively affect my vacation.  In fact, not being able to keep in touch would likely cause me more stress!

[Blur]

19 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

My guess is that these devices in the hallways are antenna nodes, but in a way, that's just slightly better than a repeater/extender.  The problem with a repeater/extender is that it's like have a conversation with a person who is just slightly too far away to be heard, so you place a third person between you who then yells back and forth, repeating what you say to the other person, and then what the other person says to you.  This is why they cut the speed in half. 

 

A series of antenna nodes won't cut the throughput, but they also do nothing to increase the number of devices a single wifi access point can handle.  The best solution is a mesh system with many access points spread out so each can handle a different group of devices, with enough overlap that as devices move around between them, they don't lose the signal and can be handed-of between them.  This is how the cellular telephone systems work. 

 

Of course all of this depends on the throughput of the main Internet feed, which on a cruise ship is a very sophisticated satellite transceiver.  It will have a finite bandwidth so the more data (i.e. passengers) it has to handle, the slower it gets/  Additionally, its signal can be degraded by weather and sometimes nearby land terrain.  

 

I have never used cruise ship Internet service that I thought was worth the price they charge, yet I still pay the price because it does work "somewhat" and I like to be able to stay in touch with work, friends and family.  And that does not negatively affect my vacation.  In fact, not being able to keep in touch would likely cause me more stress!

Fyi... Half of max theoretical speed throughput on a cruise ship is still way way way more than the voom cap they put on stream. 😉

 

Comparing wifi speed which is usually way greater than throttled internet speed per account provided by voom.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Blur

[rudeney]

3 minutes ago, Blur said:

Fyi... Half of max theoretical speed throughput on a cruise ship is still way way way more than the voom cap they put on stream. 😉

 

Comparing wifi speed which is usually way greater than throttled internet speed per account provided by voom.

 

That's true, although if you had dozens of devices hitting the same router using older protocols at 2.4ghz, throughput could drop below that throttled threshold. 

 

I know we joke about the seeming incompetency of RCI "IT", but I would hope the network engineers have done everything they can given the challenging environment of a cruise ship to maximize throughput of their wifi.  I am sure they don't want us complaining any more than we want to have to complain.  We don't cruise until October, but I may do some "snooping" to see if I can tell what they have configured.  

[Blur]

17 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

That's true, although if you had dozens of devices hitting the same router using older protocols at 2.4ghz, throughput could drop below that throttled threshold. 

 

I know we joke about the seeming incompetency of RCI "IT", but I would hope the network engineers have done everything they can given the challenging environment of a cruise ship to maximize throughput of their wifi.  I am sure they don't want us complaining any more than we want to have to complain.  We don't cruise until October, but I may do some "snooping" to see if I can tell what they have configured.  

Roger.  I'd agree number of connections is prob their bigger issue with WiFi infrastructure.  I was just talking with personal experience with certain rooms having spotty WiFi signals.  Easily fixed by running your own router which will keep your devices connected. 

 

Internet going in and out due to weather and other satellite infrastructure things is out of your control lol.

 

I'd also not assume they know what they are doing especially after using the royal app... Did they not even consult with anyone that does user friendly design???  When it takes you 8 clicks to find information that's a fail in my book (exaggerating a bit but you know what I mean).

 

My favorite is the number of times I've had to stop booking a show to go back to my events to make sure I didn't book something too close to something else. What day/time did i book that thing?  Oh back back back... Look... Then go back to the show again.  The only thing it warns you about is if there is a conflict.

 

They could fix this by just showing you all the shows on a single page (like the paper show sheet) and let you select the shows to add.... I am sure everyone would prefer this over what they have now.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Blur

[Biker19]

9 minutes ago, Blur said:

Did they not even consult with anyone that does user friendly design??

User friendly design is a bit subjective - you can provide feedback to the developers at : AppFeedback@rccl.com.

[Blur]

5 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

User friendly design is a bit subjective - you can provide feedback to the developers at : AppFeedback@rccl.com.

Understood which is why I went back and edited to provide an example.  I do like some of the interface but anything schedule related is horrible.  I am a computer/software engineer by trade and I sometimes prefer the paper copies over the app.  That should make non tech people happy to hear.

[Enzma]

Firm believer of the KISS method myself

[Guest TopoChico]

2 hours ago, Joseph2017China said:

I hate posts that blame RCCL for a persons own mistake on not understanding how roaming works and what is covered.

I really don’t care what you think, but thank you for sharing this useless piece of information, Joe.  Have a wonderful weekend! 

Edited May 13, 2022 by TopoChico

[Guest TopoChico]

On 5/12/2022 at 10:34 AM, TopoChico said:

Again, this thread is for two types of people, those going on Explorer of the Seas assuming taking the Voom Surf Stream package will work as advertised.  It does not. 
The second group I’m attempting to help are those people like myself who are not

well-versed in cell technology, or frequent cruisers who know the ins and outs of when, where and how to turn on/off which features and what to enable and disable. 
 

Just trying to help.   

This obviously does not include Joe up there 😂.  He hates this. 

Edited May 13, 2022 by TopoChico

[Ashland]

 

2 hours ago, Blur said:

I use a travel router which will connect to voom wifi so that my devices in room have a stable WiFi connection.  The router seems to do a better job of keeping a connection to a weak wifi signal as well.  I usually only use it when in the room for stable WiFi connection.  I turn it off when I leave so I can connect normally to voom from other locations.

I didn't think a travel router would work or that you could bring them onboard?

Name of one that you've used please.

[Guest TopoChico]

Narrator:

We are now entering the computer school learning phase of this thread, including but not limited to: wireless infrastructure, web interfaces, latency, wireless routers, ghz UI/UX, erroneous FCC, and things Joe hates.  🍿 
 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by TopoChico

[rudeney]

1 hour ago, Blur said:

I'd also not assume they know what they are doing especially after using the royal app... Did they not even consult with anyone that does user friendly design???  When it takes you 8 clicks to find information that's a fail in my book (exaggerating a bit but you know what I mean).

 

My favorite is the number of times I've had to stop booking a show to go back to my events to make sure I didn't book something too close to something else. What day/time did i book that thing?  Oh back back back... Look... Then go back to the show again.  The only thing it warns you about is if there is a conflict.

 

They could fix this by just showing you all the shows on a single page (like the paper show sheet) and let you select the shows to add.... I am sure everyone would prefer this over what they have now.

 

 

I am hoping that the guys who design and maintain the ship's Internet infrastructure are not the same ones in "IT: developing the crappy app and website and sending out erroneous FCC or "amount due" emails!  And network design is a heck of a lot easier than UI/UX design!  I am currently overseeing a project to create and entirely new web-based software for my company and I have a team of UI/UX developers working on it full-time.  It's not an easy process, but we know when we get it right and so far our panel of test customers likes what they see.  I've been in the software industry since 1981, and I've seen it all.  RCI's is not the worst, but it ain't good, either!

[Guest TopoChico]

On 5/12/2022 at 12:02 PM, Biker19 said:

Virtually every thread about Voom and phone use has this warning in it.

 

Your thread, while educational, will be forgotten by tomorrow when it goes off the front page.

Still on page 1. 

[Blur]

11 minutes ago, Ashland said:

 

I didn't think a travel router would work or that you could bring them onboard?

Name of one that you've used please.

It works great!  Search Amazon for travel router.  I've used one on many cruises.  Works great for hotels as well.  I used to travel all the time for work, and it's really convenient not having to reconfigure all your stuff to use a different WiFi access point. 

 

Technically you are still throttled on how much bandwidth you use per voom account and it's useless if you leave the room due to the steel structure of ships.

[Cruising89143]

5 minutes ago, TopoChico said:

Still on page 1. 

For someone that did not like others quoting them you sure seem to try and keep it going. Pot meet the kettle. 

[Guest TopoChico]

1 minute ago, cruisingator2 said:

For someone that did not like others quoting them you sure seem to try and keep it going. Pot meet the kettle. 

And when exactly did I say I don’t like being quoted?