What is the European Internet quality like?

[Mississippian]

I was on the Enchanted trans-Atlantic in April. Wonderful ship. I spent my time reading and catching up on sleep, plus having a few cocktails. After about four days the Internet almost died. One could go to the Internet cafe and send and receive emails. After a few more days the ship was essentially without Internet, and never got it back, even though we were fully in Europe.

 

I've thought about taking another cruise, but I simply can't be without Internet. Can anyone offer any advice as to where things are right now and might be for the next T-A crossing?

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Mississippian said:

I was on the Enchanted trans-Atlantic in April. Wonderful ship. I spent my time reading and catching up on sleep, plus having a few cocktails. After about four days the Internet almost died. One could go to the Internet cafe and send and receive emails. After a few more days the ship was essentially without Internet, and never got it back, even though we were fully in Europe.

 

I've thought about taking another cruise, but I simply can't be without Internet. Can anyone offer any advice as to where things are right now and might be for the next T-A crossing?

Did you by chance go down and ask the Internet folks why the service was so minimal to non-existent? We’ll be on the Regal in a few days for a 21 day cruise around the Med. Last week folks expressed different internet experiences on the same ship, so it will be interesting to see what my experience will be as I plan to post to a “Live from” thread. So hopefully I’ll be able to express some positive thoughts about the internet service. Of course, if you don’t see me posting daily to my upcoming thread, you’ll know they definitely have issues on the Regal. 😁

[Rick&Jeannie]

The general consensus is that the deal Princess had with SES Networks apparently fell through.  (OR...SES cannot deliver) That is the firm that they had just signed with when they first started touting "The Best WiFi at Sea".  No way to prove it but it appeasers that they have scrambled to sign up with ANY provider that can deliver ANY type of signal.  Almost universally this has been shown to be very poor service.  Some people have claimed that they had very good service...and then they share that they were either in or near a port!  This lack of good signal appears to be across the fleet.

[Alcairns]

On Sky Princess Canary Islands cruise in April the internet was very poor. 

[majortom10]

Don't think it has anything to do with Europe or where you are in the World as internet is satellite. Think it is more how good the company is that Princess use for this service and whether they can provide.

[Guest ldtr]

13 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

The general consensus is that the deal Princess had with SES Networks apparently fell through.  (OR...SES cannot deliver) That is the firm that they had just signed with when they first started touting "The Best WiFi at Sea".  No way to prove it but it appeasers that they have scrambled to sign up with ANY provider that can deliver ANY type of signal.  Almost universally this has been shown to be very poor service.  Some people have claimed that they had very good service...and then they share that they were either in or near a port!  This lack of good signal appears to be across the fleet.

I have had very good service on Majestic and Grand from last October through April of this year. Internet speed is horrible, less that 41 kbps during day, around 73 kbps at 3 am on Ruby, south of Seattle yesterday and today.

[Ken the cruiser]

Here's an interesting CC article as of June 22, 2022 regarding satellite internet service onboard.

 

Do Cruise Ships Have Wi-Fi? And 6 Other Things You Need to Know About Internet at Sea (cruisecritic.com)

 

[smixsell]

Just off the Regal (21 days) and the Internet was virtually nonexistant the entire cruise, except in the wee hours of the night when it seemed decent.

 

[Fisherwoman]

We are on Discovery Princess.  The internet speed is horrible.  I cannot open PDF's, Outlook stopped sending but still receives and forget trying to watch anything that's video.  I just sat beside a guy at breakfast who said "they don't have a library, I can't buy a book and I can't get any book to download, I'll never sail Princess again".  He's Elite!   I tried to do a speed test, but I can't access the network to do it.

[Rick&Jeannie]

On the past couple of cruises I had to resort to checking email via my ISP web portal (Comcast).  Outlook will time out too quickly even though it may be very slowly receiving data.  The web portal does not operate like Outlook.  Granted...it very often was very slow just getting *to* the portal...but if I was patient long enough it almost always worked.

[mtnesterz]

We have done two TAs. Both times, the internet went out in the middle of the Atlantic. What concerns me is your statement that you, "simply can't be without internet." While this may have been hyperbole on your part, I sincerely hope you can come to a resolution, whatever that entails, of why you feel you are inescapably tied to the internet.

[beltsbear]

On the island princess the internet was ok for just email and text and was touch and go as well. We just got back last week. Video or any heavy tasks failed. 

[Alanr204]

Slow but functional on the Regal last month. Was able to do everything I needed to do but with a great deal of patience. Was very glad we bought European SIM’s so we at least had good speeds in port and close to land. 

[vjmatty]

I think if you’re like me and like to watch movies or series on the treadmill when it’s too rough outside to walk or run the jogging path, downloading ahead of time will be the answer for now. If you have Amazon Prime you can down a limited amount of media without paying extra, two seasons of a series and I don’t know how many movies.