Wi-Fi Speeds

[Tierun]

Sailing on Divina next week, is the surf and stream faster than the regular surf package, or is the only difference between the two the ability to watch streaming services?

[HikingPete]

I do not work with MSC and have no knowledge of their infrastructure, but if I were a betting man I would say that both services work at the same speed, and they've simply blocked certain bandwidth-hungry services beyond basic browsing and emails on their surf package.

[bac513]

We were on the Divina a few weeks ago and did not purchase the upgrade. The basic browse wifi was downright slow and almost worthless.

[Crabmanstyle]

We were on the Preziosa a few weeks ago and like bac513, it was pretty much a waste of money. It worked here and there, and was really only good for messaging.

 

A little tip - for the Norwegian Fjord cruise we were on recently,  3/4/5G worked for the majority of the trip, with a few exceptions of a couple of hours here and there. I think most of us in the EEA have decent roaming allowances, so once you're not going crazy streaming, your personal package should be more than ample.

Edited August 1, 2022 by Crabmanstyle

[gadaboutgal]

On Divina last cruise and this week: I have the surf internet and it is painfully slow.  And, they do block sites like YouTube, etc.

[Tierun]

We booked free drinks (easy plus) and Wi-Fi package. Was considering upgrading the internet knowing how dreadful it is using the basic package. Cruise ship internet is worse than airplane Wi-Fi 

[publicpersona]

This could be a your mileage may vary thing, and no one of us has enough data points to say for sure. But being network knowledgeable, my observation is that the speed of the surf package is no different from the stream package. The difference is that popular streaming sites including YouTube are blocked under the surf package. But there is a flaw in their execution, that's all I'll say.

[TwoAdriftAtSea]

The best time to use the internet on the Seashore is when the majority of passengers are off the ship. 

When in port and the ship is deserted = 400kb/s

When the ship is sailing = 10kb/s (tops)

 

One of the topics brought up last week during a luncheon with MSC higher ups was the internet and how bad it "sucked" so hopefully some changes are made soon.

 

[mowogo]

11 hours ago, TwoAdriftAtSea said:

The best time to use the internet on the Seashore is when the majority of passengers are off the ship. 

When in port and the ship is deserted = 400kb/s

When the ship is sailing = 10kb/s (tops)

 

One of the topics brought up last week during a luncheon with MSC higher ups was the internet and how bad it "sucked" so hopefully some changes are made soon.

 

I have a feeling if the Starlink testing goes well there will be a huge push to update Wi-Fi among lines.  That is really the next big jump in satellite internet for cruise ships because of the volume of new capacity.  

[iwtobek]

On 8/3/2022 at 2:23 PM, TwoAdriftAtSea said:

The best time to use the internet on the Seashore is when the majority of passengers are off the ship. 

When in port and the ship is deserted = 400kb/s

When the ship is sailing = 10kb/s (tops)

 

One of the topics brought up last week during a luncheon with MSC higher ups was the internet and how bad it "sucked" so hopefully some changes are made soon.

 

Ports sometimes allow the ship to use shoreside internet, hence the faster speeds. Check the latency, if <100ms you're not on satellite.

[wcook]

On 8/3/2022 at 8:23 AM, TwoAdriftAtSea said:

One of the topics brought up last week during a luncheon with MSC higher ups was the internet and how bad it "sucked"

One of the crazy things about technology is how fast we go from “Sci-fi dream” to “this sucks.” A connection to the internet, every computer, business and every person in the world (sort of.) On a moving ship. In the middle of the ocean. We are docking in Rome tomorrow. Buy train tickets into town, see when the museum opens, and find a restaurant that serves Ossobusco. 

 

The magic lasts for a few years. Then we take it for granted. And when the speed isn’t quite up for streaming Matlock reruns, it sucks 🙂

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, iwtobek said:

Ports sometimes allow the ship to use shoreside internet, hence the faster speeds. Check the latency, if <100ms you're not on satellite.

When you get near land you can simply connect to land based cell providers (assuming you have access through your provider).  You can than access the Internet through the shore based systems (which have nothing to do with the ship).  Since we have T-Mobile, our phones work just about everywhere in the world (no extra cost for 2G data and $5 a day if we want LTE).

 

We do a lot of cruising (all over the world) on many different lines and the one thing they all have in common is that the Internet usually sucks!    We have been on many cruises where the Internet is completely down for days at a time.

 

Hank