Life, Liberty (of the Seas), and the pursuit of Internet

[Cruise Gopher]

Currently onboard Liberty of the Seas 3 night sailing, I have purchased the unlimited Surf + Stream internet and they have Starlink onboard.  The internet has been crap to say the least.  When running a speedtest the speeds appear to be amazing, like 100MBps download and 20-50MBps upload.  But it's all smoke and mirrors.

 

I can't even do a Microsoft Teams call on my laptop.  It connects fine and I can hear people fine, then as soon as I go to speak it drops the call.  I tried a couple Facetime calls last night and those performed miserably as well.

 

Oh and I guess I should have done more research beforehand because Royal Caribbean blocks VPNs and so there went any hope of doing any sort of real work while on the ship.  They really need to disclose this up front on their website and also before you commit to buying an internet package.

 

Does anyone have any tips or advice as to what parts of the ship might be better to try and get a better signal or service?  I am on deck 12 forward, so about as close to the satellites as you can be.

 

 

[Biker19]

18 minutes ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Does anyone have any tips or advice as to what parts of the ship might be better to try and get a better signal or service?  I am on deck 12 forward, so about as close to the satellites as you can be.

Your location on the ship relative to the sats/receivers don't matter - your location relative to the nearest wifi access point is what matters. In the cabin, your best reception point is likely to be near the cabin door - the wifi AP is in the hallway. Even that likely won't matter - the dropouts are due to the system overall, not between you and the AP. As long as you have a good wifi signal anywhere on the ship, the rest of the problems are upstream which you can't fix.

 

You can ask at the Voom desk how much longer the testing phase will take as it is very unlikely it is over (no, once settled, you won't be getting 100Mbps down).

Edited November 3, 2022 by Biker19

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Is it really a vacation if you have to do work while on vacation? 

[KelJ]

3 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Is it really a vacation if you have to do work while on vacation? 

 

Very helpful comment.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

35 minutes ago, KelJ said:

 

Very helpful comment.

Thank you. 

[firefly333]

I couldnt connect to wifi from the cafe on liberty but deck 14 was very good. 14 aft. Try another location. Even the buffet worked better than lower decks.

[firefly333]

4 hours ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Currently onboard Liberty of the Seas 3 night sailing, I have purchased the unlimited Surf + Stream internet and they have Starlink onboard.  The internet has been crap to say the least.  When running a speedtest the speeds appear to be amazing, like 100MBps download and 20-50MBps upload.  But it's all smoke and mirrors.

 

I can't even do a Microsoft Teams call on my laptop.  It connects fine and I can hear people fine, then as soon as I go to speak it drops the call.  I tried a couple Facetime calls last night and those performed miserably as well.

 

Oh and I guess I should have done more research beforehand because Royal Caribbean blocks VPNs and so there went any hope of doing any sort of real work while on the ship.  They really need to disclose this up front on their website and also before you commit to buying an internet package.

 

Does anyone have any tips or advice as to what parts of the ship might be better to try and get a better signal or service?  I am on deck 12 forward, so about as close to the satellites as you can be.

 

 

I thought thought huge round things in the aft were the satalittle. At least so I was told. Aft not forward.

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I thought huge round things in the aft were the satellite. At least so I was told. Aft not forward.

For old school sats, yes, but the new Starlink receivers are much smaller, more of them spread out and the norm seems to be to install them a bit forward.

[Cruise Gopher]

3 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Is it really a vacation if you have to do work while on vacation? 

Who said I was on vacation? Not everyone on a cruise is on vacation. 
 

This cruise was dirt cheap so I was hoping to work during the day and enjoy my evenings onboard with my free diamond drinks and sit down meal service, a nice clean room all made up for me twice a day, etc. 

 

I know Starlink is still very new and they will have lots to learn and the technology will evolve over time, but I sure hope Royal Caribbean can evolve with it and open up VPNs, don’t filter websites, don’t throttle people, etc.  It’s like we’re stuck driving a Ferrari through the streets of Manhattan at this point. 

[firefly333]

4 minutes ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Who said I was on vacation? Not everyone on a cruise is on vacation. 
 

This cruise was dirt cheap so I was hoping to work during the day and enjoy my evenings onboard with my free diamond drinks and sit down meal service, a nice clean room all made up for me twice a day, etc. 

 

I know Starlink is still very new and they will have lots to learn and the technology will evolve over time, but I sure hope Royal Caribbean can evolve with it and open up VPNs, don’t filter websites, don’t throttle people, etc.  It’s like we’re stuck driving a Ferrari through the streets of Manhattan at this point. 

I dont think they will open to VPNs. There was a thread recently. I wouldnt count on that. 

[Biker19]

7 minutes ago, Cruise Gopher said:

I know Starlink is still very new and they will have lots to learn and the technology will evolve over time, but I sure hope Royal Caribbean can evolve with it and open up VPNs, don’t filter websites, don’t throttle people, etc.  It’s like we’re stuck driving a Ferrari through the streets of Manhattan at this point. 

You may need to dial back your expectations - the only thing that will likely get better with Starlink is the latency, which can have a noticeable improvement in overall performance for some tasks.

[Btank]

6 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Is it really a vacation if you have to do work while on vacation? 

33 years of such vacations allowed me to take & enjoy those vacations - as well as support my "permanent" vacation in retirement.

 

      --bruce T.

[Tatka]

7 hours ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Oh and I guess I should have done more research beforehand because Royal Caribbean blocks VPNs and so there went any hope of doing any sort of real work while on the ship.  They really need to disclose this up front on their website and also before you commit to buying an internet package.

 

This is strange. I was using VPN on Anthem several times prior pademic for work.

[Cruise Gopher]

2 minutes ago, Tatka said:

 

This is strange. I was using VPN on Anthem several times prior pademic for work.

Certain ones work, like Cisco AnyConnect. 

[Tatka]

6 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Is it really a vacation if you have to do work while on vacation? 

 

We cruise 5 times a year 6-14 day cruises, so yes, sometimes (maybe several days a year) I need to work. I still rather be on cruise because it is only several days per year (the most was 3 days in a raw out of  8  , I had evenings and 5 other days. I worked partially from Solarium (Anthem) which is MUCH better than my office.     🙂

[Tatka]

2 minutes ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Certain ones work, like Cisco AnyConnect. 

 

I used my work VPN. Globalprotect.

[Tree_skier]

I used NordVPN and it worked.  You have to remember to turn it off if it was your phone you were using after you finish working.  If not it will bugger up the Royal app.  The app will act like you aren't on the ship.

 

This happened to me on Odyssey.

[Sunshine3601]

3 hours ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Who said I was on vacation? Not everyone on a cruise is on vacation. 
 

This cruise was dirt cheap so I was hoping to work during the day and enjoy my evenings onboard with my free diamond drinks and sit down meal service, a nice clean room all made up for me twice a day, etc. 

 

I know Starlink is still very new and they will have lots to learn and the technology will evolve over time, but I sure hope Royal Caribbean can evolve with it and open up VPNs, don’t filter websites, don’t throttle people, etc.  It’s like we’re stuck driving a Ferrari through the streets of Manhattan at this point. 

I have worked with VPN's onboard many royal caribbean ships over the years.    The one and only time I had an issue was this past January on Anthem where our VPN was not connecting.    After a couple calls to my IT team at corporate and IT people for Royal they worked out a solution and my last 4 cruises this year I had VPN access on each one.   

 

So Royal does not necessarily block your VPN, it could be another issue with firewall, etc.  Another option, you may want to ask your employer's IT Dept if they can set up a travel by pass for your VPN or use something like OpenVPNconnect.    We used this when we were in the UK.

 

[Sunshine3601]

As far as bad wifi signal.   How is the weather?   is the ship connected to starlink or ship satellite for internet this week?     Internet can be hit or miss in a cabin, depending on your location and distance from the repeater or whatever it is called.    

Did you try to take your laptop to the computer room or library and see if internet is any better there?

Try turning off the device when you relocate to the new location so it truly reconnects to where you are physically located.

Good luck!

[Cruise Gopher]

10 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

As far as bad wifi signal.   How is the weather?   is the ship connected to starlink or ship satellite for internet this week?     Internet can be hit or miss in a cabin, depending on your location and distance from the repeater or whatever it is called.    

Did you try to take your laptop to the computer room or library and see if internet is any better there?

Try turning off the device when you relocate to the new location so it truly reconnects to where you are physically located.

Good luck!

Weather has been amazing! Super hot in CocoCay but that’s ok plenty of water to cool off in. Food has been excellent too.