Internet on Enchanted Princess is appalling

[quack1010]

35 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

It’s not just a TA issue. We were on the previous sailing in Europe and it was appalling then. Many, many complaints at GS about the poor WiFi.

Well, that is depressing to hear. Bummer. May be SES was concentrating on North America? I don't know. I do know that is was good in North America when I travelled. I guess the true test might be the Enchanted Princess 11/19 thru 11/29 for the Southern Caribbean. I hope we can report better Internet and it's not a flaw with this vessel. That would not be good news for Princess and their Passengers. Thanks for that info! 

[caribill]

On 9/8/2022 at 12:11 PM, sloopsailor said:

Royal Caribbean International is adding Starlink to all of it's ships, including Celebrity and Silversea, for it's internet. Eventually I expect most cruise lines to follow as the coverage will be much wider and faster with Starlink than with traditional satellite systems. 

 

 

"Royal Caribbean Voom, the fastest internet at sea, is now available on every Royal Caribbean ship. With six times faster onboard WiFi speed than you’ll find on any other cruise ships in the world, the internet connectivity is unlike anything you’re ever experienced on a cruise ship," the cruise line shared on its website.

In reality, the internet may count as passable on the newer ships, and on the older ships, it's more an idea than an actual service. Even on the newest ships, service can be spotty on days sea days and slow at the best of times.

Royal Caribbean has a plan to solve this problem by installing SpaceX Starlink internet on all of its ships. The cruise line has been testing that service on Freedom of the Seas and got permission from the U.S. government (which previously banned Starlink on moving vehicles/vessels) to install it fleetwide.

The company has not, however, communicated when that would actually happen.

 

[caribill]

On 9/8/2022 at 5:08 PM, MikeD4134 said:

Internet on cruise ships has sucked from the dawn of time.  This conversation is ridiculous.  

 

Except that Princess promises the Internet is so fast that passengers can stream movies to their devices.

[MissP22]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Except that Princess promises the Internet is so fast that passengers can stream movies to their devices.

I actually had no problems with the internet last March when the Enchanted was in the Caribbean. Has something happened to degrade the service since then? I head of so many people complaining that it seems as though their talking about a different ship. 

I streamed movies, made calls using WhatsApp and attended a 2 hour Zoom meeting on a sea day without any interruptions. 

[capriccio]

14 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

I actually had no problems with the internet last March when the Enchanted was in the Caribbean. Has something happened to degrade the service since then?

 

We were on the Enchanted in the Caribbean in mid March and all 6 of our group commented on how improved it was!  Reading all the complaints since the TA to Europe, location must factor into it and/or number of passengers on board (the ship was 2/3s filled on our cruise).

[sonomaphil]

On 9/8/2022 at 8:24 AM, nugent said:

Currently on the transatlantic cruise, and the MedallionNet internet is essentially useless.  The ship internet staff blame the satellite provider and claim it will be better once we get to Boston.  They admit the service is problematic, but can do nothing about it.

 

This is very frustrating for those who rely on the "Best internet at sea" to conduct any basic business - I am not talking about phone calls, streaming or downloads, just navigating common websites.

 

I have sacrificed 20 minutes of my life to bring you this message...

No, you're very wrong.  Princess has "The Best Wi-Fi at Sea."  Just ask them.   😉

[billco]

I like this article from 2018

Carnival Corporation's MedallionNet™ to Set Industry Apex for Wi-Fi Bandwidth Capacity at Sea Powered by SES Networks
Regal Princess set to eclipse 1.5 gigabits per second stream during special event

Staying connected allows guests to share photos and videos, and stream movies, live sporting events and other content onboard Regal Princess and at Princess Cays

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carnival-corporations-medallionnet-to-set-industry-apex-for-wi-fi-bandwidth-capacity-at-sea-powered-by-ses-networks-300603933.html

 

Also, a detailed look at coverages on SES website helps to explain

https://www.ses.com/our-coverage#/explore/search?type=network&q=United States

[spyro1952]

On 9/8/2022 at 11:24 AM, nugent said:

Currently on the transatlantic cruise, and the MedallionNet internet is essentially useless.  The ship internet staff blame the satellite provider and claim it will be better once we get to Boston.  They admit the service is problematic, but can do nothing about it.

 

This is very frustrating for those who rely on the "Best internet at sea" to conduct any basic business - I am not talking about phone calls, streaming or downloads, just navigating common websites.

 

I have sacrificed 20 minutes of my life to bring you this message...

 

On 9/8/2022 at 12:05 PM, PacnGoNow said:

Ask them if they are using the High Earth satellites, if he knows?  Been a real issue on TA and Northern Europe for cruise ships due to the bandwidth used for the war in Ukraine.  Wonder if that’s still an issue?  Only another 20 mins of your time?

Have fun!  Hope you have good weather.

 

 

This has been a big problem for Princess.  Same thing happened last yr on my Regal TA.  No internet after we left Azores until close to Fl.  Whatever Internet cafe is telling you is a bunch of BS.  I’m going on Northern lights cruise in couple weeks and don’t expect internet on the ship especially being that far north and their current crappy system.  You-tube bloggers have also commented how bad it is.  
Royal Caribbean is getting Musk’s Starlink system.  Might have to Change cruise lines.

[Roberto256]

21 minutes ago, billco said:

I like this article from 2018

Carnival Corporation's MedallionNet™ to Set Industry Apex for Wi-Fi Bandwidth Capacity at Sea Powered by SES Networks
Regal Princess set to eclipse 1.5 gigabits per second stream during special event

Staying connected allows guests to share photos and videos, and stream movies, live sporting events and other content onboard Regal Princess and at Princess Cays

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carnival-corporations-medallionnet-to-set-industry-apex-for-wi-fi-bandwidth-capacity-at-sea-powered-by-ses-networks-300603933.html

 

Also, a detailed look at coverages on SES website helps to explain

https://www.ses.com/our-coverage#/explore/search?type=network&q=United States

 

I thought back in 2018, when this rolled out on a couple princess ships...

 

Passengers were very happy, and there were generally good reports here.

 

Now, it seems like there are only negative reports here.

 

I wonder what happened in the interim?

 

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, capriccio said:

We were on the Enchanted in the Caribbean in mid March and all 6 of our group commented on how improved it was!  Reading all the complaints since the TA to Europe, location must factor into it and/or number of passengers on board (the ship was 2/3s filled on our cruise).

My opinion is that the bad reports had a lot to do with the location of the ship and not so much with the number of passengers.

Although last March/April the did have less passengers then they do now, my experience was always good at any time of day for streaming. 2,3,4 AM or 11 AM. Plus using Zoom at 2 PM on a sea day, it didn't cut out even 1 time. 

I can't wait to try it again this winter for a comparison. 

[emairs]

We are on the Enchanted now. Since we left Bergen on September 4, we have had NO internet, other than email and messaging. It would take hours to send one picture  and I usually gave up. At least we were able to keep in touch with family.

We have done numerous TA’s on various lines, and this is the worst ever.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, emairs said:

We are on the Enchanted now. Since we left Bergen on September 4, we have had NO internet, other than email and messaging. It would take hours to send one picture  and I usually gave up. At least we were able to keep in touch with family.

We have done numerous TA’s on various lines, and this is the worst ever.

It doesn't help you to be able to do what you want/need, but are you getting a full refund for the lack of service?

[Wakepatrol]

I guess we’ll just have to suffer not seeing your breakfast pictures

[emairs]

4 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

It doesn't help you to be able to do what you want/need, but are you getting a full refund for the lack of service?

Several people we spoke to requested and received partial refunds, but we didn’t bother to ask.

[cruisedoctor]

Just got off the 9/17/22 sailing of the Enchanted, from New York doing a Canada & New England sailing.  Internet was HORRIBLE.  I have e-mail accounts with 3 different major providers, and I couldn't access any of them during the entire trip.  Not good for someone who depends on having constant e=mail access in order to run a business.  Some other internet sites were accessible, but extremely slow.  Didn't even try to stream...what would be the chance of that working, if you can't even get simple e-mail?  Princess should quit advertising the "fastest internet" if that is only true in a limited area of where they cruise.

[lx200gps]

6 hours ago, cruisedoctor said:

Just got off the 9/17/22 sailing of the Enchanted, from New York doing a Canada & New England sailing.  Internet was HORRIBLE.  I have e-mail accounts with 3 different major providers, and I couldn't access any of them during the entire trip.  Not good for someone who depends on having constant e=mail access in order to run a business.  Some other internet sites were accessible, but extremely slow.  Didn't even try to stream...what would be the chance of that working, if you can't even get simple e-mail?  Princess should quit advertising the "fastest internet" if that is only true in a limited area of where they cruise.

We were on the same sailing and agree that the internet was poor when compared to the other MedallionNet cruises we've been on.  That being said, I rarely had full blown lack of connection, my Email worked fine and web browsing was mostly functional albeit very slow.  In general, internet will be the worst during the day on sea days which, let's face it we had more than our share. Mitigation procedures which have worked for me in the past include trying to use the system outside of the hours when thousands of others may be trying to use it, so early morning and late evening (even around dinner time when everyone is in the restaurants) If signal strength is an issue, then if you are in your cabin some have reported that leaving their door propped open sometime helps with the signal. Also, if you cabin is simply in a bad location, try using the wifi in a public space (I spent a lot of time in the usually very quiet Take 5). But yes, there does seem to be something amiss with the system on that ship.

[eclue]

We were on the enchanted Sept 17 to 24th ...Had no issues with the internet. It was slower than what I have at home but still decent connectiviity. I do not send files and pics ....

[NownZen]

On 9/16/2022 at 6:06 PM, emairs said:

Several people we spoke to requested and received partial refunds, but we didn’t bother to ask.

We were on an Iceland cruise and without Internet for the sea days. There was some sort of announcement about a refund for the internet. Nothing showed up in our account so after a few days I went to the PSD and asked for a refund. Got a full refund at $10/day for both of us even though we had the Plus package.

[Kay S]

Back in the historical past, when Elites got "free" internet, I seldom had problems, even on a TA.  The "Best WiFi at Sea" failed me, though, a couple of times on a post-shutdown cruise along the California coast.  But, hey, I got it at half price!  😉