Will a fire-stick work on a Princess Cruise if you have the internet Medallion package?

[shamrockace]

We are going on the world cruise and I go to sleep early and get up early while hubby stays up watching tv and sleeps in unless we have an excursion.  While Princess is one of the best for tv programming, I'm still worried he will run out of things to watch.  Has anyone ever used a firestick or tried it and if so, did it work and how well?

Thank you

[bronzey214]

I don't believe it will - when you access the internet on a Princess cruise it either recognizes you via the Medallion app or via going to <shipname>.princess.com to authenticate you - neither of which I believe work on the firestick.

Also, the internet has been... poor since about March of 2022.

[Sunshine Bob]

No.

Half the time it won't even load web pages, I think streaming would just never work. I just looked at the current download speed and it's too low to even register a meaningful reading.

[Sunshine Bob]

Got a current reading - 0.05mb/s , that's like dial up and you won't be able to stream , no way.

[MrBill64]

34 minutes ago, shamrockace said:

We are going on the world cruise and I go to sleep early and get up early while hubby stays up watching tv and sleeps in unless we have an excursion.  While Princess is one of the best for tv programming, I'm still worried he will run out of things to watch.  Has anyone ever used a firestick or tried it and if so, did it work and how well?

Thank you

 

We will be on the Island the end of October before setting sail with you on the World Cruise and I am going to try and do this. I will use my cell phone, which will be connected to the ship's internet, as a hotspot. I will attempt to connect my fire stick to my phone and see what happens.  All depends on the internet speed.

[Roberto256]

14 minutes ago, MrBill64 said:

 

We will be on the Island the end of October before setting sail with you on the World Cruise and I am going to try and do this. I will use my cell phone, which will be connected to the ship's internet, as a hotspot. I will attempt to connect my fire stick to my phone and see what happens.  All depends on the internet speed.

 

I think that's a good plan.

I was going to suggest a travel router...

 

But, it all depends on whether the connection is fast enough.

 

 

[tml1230]

In addition to the very valid  points made above....and.... IF you were able to get a good internet speed....you would also need a VPN to get any value out of the fire stick outside the U.S......we spend a lot of time in France, have high speed internet, but until we got a VPN to receive  American programs on the stick, it was useless,as my French language skills are sadly non existent.

[Lizabu]

Maybe before you go you can download some movies and tv shows from Netflix or prime to watch offline 

[shamrockace]

58 minutes ago, MrBill64 said:

 

We will be on the Island the end of October before setting sail with you on the World Cruise and I am going to try and do this. I will use my cell phone, which will be connected to the ship's internet, as a hotspot. I will attempt to connect my fire stick to my phone and see what happens.  All depends on the internet speed.

Mr Bill, please let us know upon your return.  Thank you

[beg3yrs]

Princess' Internet uses US-based IP addresses so needing a VPN shouldn't be necessary. IIRC the websites you visit will think you're in Santa Clarita.

 

Hey folks, my Fire Sticks all plug into my TV's HDMI port. IIRC, nobody has been able to use the HDMI ports on the ship's TVs since the Medallions have been put into service. I would think this makes a Fire Stick on board ship a non-starter unless you've brought your own TV ...

[dweeb]

47 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

Princess' Internet uses US-based IP addresses so needing a VPN shouldn't be necessary. IIRC the websites you visit will think you're in Santa Clarita.

 

Hey folks, my Fire Sticks all plug into my TV's HDMI port. IIRC, nobody has been able to use the HDMI ports on the ship's TVs since the Medallions have been put into service. I would think this makes a Fire Stick on board ship a non-starter unless you've brought your own TV ...

This is incorrect information.  I have used a firestick, or at least tried on every one of my cruises  this year.  8 total trips so far.  I have to use a VPN for it to work.  On the Alaska cruises, it doesn't work well.  Internet too slow, however when I was on Mexico cruises, it worked very well.  I use a travel router and a VPN and can get local channels on youtube TV.  Must change the input on the tv to hdmi 1 and plug the firestick into the hdmi 1 tv input.

Edited August 15, 2022 by dweeb
spelling

[beg3yrs]

25 minutes ago, dweeb said:

This is incorrect information.  I have used a firestick, or at least tried on every one of my cruises  this year.  8 total trips so far.  I have to use a VPN for it to work.  On the Alaska cruises, it doesn't work well.  Internet too slow, however when I was on Mexico cruises, it worked very well.  I use a travel router and a VPN and can get local channels on youtube TV.  Must change the input on the tv to hdmi 1 and plug the firestick into the hdmi 1 tv input.

Hey thanks for the info. Travel router makes perfect sense. Hadn't thought of that.

 

So, what's the procedure for changing the ship's tv input to HDMI 1? It's certainly not on the remote, at least I couldn't find it and, when on the Royal in June, not a button to be found accessible on the TV itself. Also, physically getting to those HDMI ports is tough. Any tricks there? Inquiring minds want to know!

[dweeb]

On the Ruby, Majestic, Discovery and the Crown, there is a little toggle button on the bottom center of the tv.  Turn the tv on and go to bridge cam.  Pressing this button/switch/toggle will activate a menu.  One of the menus is for input,  there you can select hdmi 1.  Bridge cam will now show what is being played on hdmi1. 

 

Granted, getting to the sid of the tv for putting the firestick into hdmi1 can sometimes be difficult.  But with patience, it can be done.

 

There is a complete step by step on youtube as well as on a forum here on CC dating back around the beginning of  the year.  I know the search function doesn't always perform well though.  Good luck!!

 

  

 

 

Here is a guy on the Royal

 

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by dweeb

[Ptroxx]

40 minutes ago, dweeb said:

On the Ruby, Majestic, Discovery and the Crown, there is a little toggle button on the bottom center of the tv.  Turn the tv on and go to bridge cam.  Pressing this button/switch/toggle will activate a menu.  One of the menus is for input,  there you can select hdmi 1.  Bridge cam will now show what is being played on hdmi1. 

 

Granted, getting to the sid of the tv for putting the firestick into hdmi1 can sometimes be difficult.  But with patience, it can be done.

 

There is a complete step by step on youtube as well as on a forum here on CC dating back around the beginning of  the year.  I know the search function doesn't always perform well though.  Good luck!!

 

  

 

 

Here is a guy on the Royal

 

 

This did t work on discovery.    They have the toggle set to default. Wasn’t able to use it. 

[kkmiausa]

I would think using your phone as a hot spot on a world cruise would be very expensive! If you do plan to do it get a special plan through your wireless provider to see if feasible. It would use a ton of data.

 

[dweeb]

2 hours ago, Ptroxx said:

This did t work on discovery.    They have the toggle set to default. Wasn’t able to use it. 

Sorry to hear that.  It worked for me on the Discovery Princess May 15-22, 2022 Alaska cruise.  Not sure how they can set it to default without being able to change it since its a tv function.  Unless they go in and change the firmware to not allow it.   But, I guess some tv's don't work.

Edited August 15, 2022 by dweeb

[dweeb]

56 minutes ago, kkmiausa said:

I would think using your phone as a hot spot on a world cruise would be very expensive! If you do plan to do it get a special plan through your wireless provider to see if feasible. It would use a ton of data.

 

You don't use your phone as a carrier supplied hotspot.  You use the medallion net internet.  Or get a Travel router and use the medallion net internet .

[Ptroxx]

3 minutes ago, dweeb said:

Sorry to hear that.  It worked for me on the Discovery Princess May 15-22, 2022 Alaska cruise.  Not sure how they can set it to default without being able to change it.  But, I guess some tv's don't work.

Wasn’t for a lack of trying.   I had my hdmi connected lol toggle not so much lol

 Fortunately there’s a ton of tv show options 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Ptroxx

[dweeb]

6 minutes ago, Ptroxx said:

Wasn’t for a lack of trying.    Fortunately there’s a ton of tv show options 

Looks like there is something plugged into the hdmi 1 port.  Princess uses a cat5 cable for their programming.  Therefore they don't need the hdmi ports.

[Ptroxx]

1 minute ago, dweeb said:

Looks like there is something plugged into the hdmi 1 port.  Princess uses a cat5 cable for their programming.  Therefore they don't need the hdmi ports.

Yes. My hdmi cable is in there. Lol.  Not easy.   But I got it.  Lol.  

[MissP22]

9 hours ago, dweeb said:

On the Ruby, Majestic, Discovery and the Crown, there is a little toggle button on the bottom center of the tv.  Turn the tv on and go to bridge cam.  Pressing this button/switch/toggle will activate a menu.  One of the menus is for input,  there you can select hdmi 1.  Bridge cam will now show what is being played on hdmi1. 

 

Granted, getting to the sid of the tv for putting the firestick into hdmi1 can sometimes be difficult.  But with patience, it can be done.

 

There is a complete step by step on youtube as well as on a forum here on CC dating back around the beginning of  the year.  I know the search function doesn't always perform well though.  Good luck!!

 

We've been using that process for years now and it's always worked for us on all the ships. We don't use a VPN but just connect a Roku unit to their TV's for play our mp4 movies and YouTube programs. It also allows us to view out photo's shot on the trip from our phones via Bluetooth. 

We also don't tune to the bridge channel but go to a news channel to switch the input.

The bridge channel doesn't seem to always work as well.

We haven't sailed the Discovery but it would surprise me if it didn't work the same way.