Seabourn to get Starlink

[mraven]

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carnival-corporation-expands-next-generation-wi-fi-connectivity-with-spacexs-starlink-301724881.html

[cruiseej]

And now we all want to know: which ships get it when? 😉 

[tjcox9]

20 hours ago, cruiseej said:

And now we all want to know: which ships get it when? 😉 

The article I read  said that Carnival and Aida ships would be the first of the Carnival Corp lines to get it. I'd imagine Seabourn will be down the line quite a way, but may be wrong. 😉

[Darspurs]

3 minutes ago, tjcox9 said:

The article I read  said that Carnival and Aida ships would be the first of the Carnival Corp lines to get it. I'd imagine Seabourn will be down the line quite a way, but may be wrong. 😉

Shame I am due on my first Seabourn cruise on 7th May. I was on the Celebrity Beyond in November and the Starlink Internet was so good I could watch a live soccer game from the UK in the middle of the Caribbean Sea with no buffering.

[mraven]

Starlink tweeted that Venture and Pursuit have starlink installed.

 

Edit: Actually, the tweet came from Seabourn. Starlink replied to it.

Edited May 17, 2023 by mraven
bad formatting

[tv24]

Hooray!  Can't wait!  Long overdue!

[2SailingNomads]

Having sailed on Crystal, Regent, Scenic and Seabourn to date none of them had even decent internet.  2MPS if you are on when most people are off the ship or sleeping.  The last couple of times on Seabourn  it was vastly improved but will never be great due ships location and number of people using the same pipe.  It will be interesting  to see how good Starlink at sea will be and how they scale out.  I am sure it will never approach the gig speed at home I have.

[travelwell]

We were on the Odyssey For 26 days on NZ and OZ in Feb/March. Up until that time internet access was pitiful on all lines we had traveled. This trip the internet was incredibly fast. My husband is retired from the internet/cable business and he asked the captain whether the ship had Starlink already. The answer was a vague, only that they they had switched the internet company.

[2SailingNomads]

On 5/19/2023 at 3:43 AM, travelwell said:

We were on the Odyssey For 26 days on NZ and OZ in Feb/March. Up until that time internet access was pitiful on all lines we had traveled. This trip the internet was incredibly fast. My husband is retired from the internet/cable business and he asked the captain whether the ship had Starlink already. The answer was a vague, only that they they had switched the internet company.

Why not be upfront about the provider?  Maybe he didn't know??

[travelwell]

11 hours ago, 2SailingNomads said:

Why not be upfront about the provider?  Maybe he didn't know??

I have no idea. Who knows, maybe partially in the works.  To make matters more interesting the sale of the Odyssey was announced during our cruise. I would love to hear if anyone else on Seabourn ships feel internet is noticeably  better.

[kbnovak]

I've been on two other lines using Starlink for internet service, and I'd classify it as ranging from good to excellent.

[2SailingNomads]

From what I have seen, it appears only being rolled out to Venture and Pursuit so far.

Edited May 29, 2023 by 2SailingNomads
Typo

[mraven]

In case you missed the email from Seabourn:

 

The next generation of Wi-Fi connectivity – SpaceX’s Starlink, the leader in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite technology – will provide Seabourn guests with faster service, greater connectivity and more reliable Wi-Fi wherever Starlink’s services are available. This upgraded technology debuted on Seabourn Venture in June in the Arctic region, one of the most challenging regions to stay connected in the world, and our guests are sharing very positive experiences. Seabourn Sojourn will be equipped with the new technology just in time for her World Cruise departure and Starlink's Wi-Fi connectivity will roll out across the entire Seabourn fleet by the end of 2023.

[markandjie]

I'm on Venture now and we're ~8 hours into the Denmark Strait on our way from Iceland to South Greenland. Here's a speed test I just ran:

 

We've routinely got 40mbps while immediately off the Iceland coast. 

 

What's really interesting about the included Surf plan vs the paid Stream plan is that they do not appear to be throttling speed on the Surf plan. Rather, they are simply outright blocking certain high bandwidth services and sites. 

 

This means, for example, that YouTube is completely unusable. Videos just won't load period. But when I needed to download an 800 mb update in Lightroom it completed in less than 10 minutes.

[Sucellos]

1 hour ago, markandjie said:

What's really interesting about the included Surf plan vs the paid Stream plan is that they do not appear to be throttling speed on the Surf plan. Rather, they are simply outright blocking certain high bandwidth services and sites. 

 

If this is correct it would be a gift of stream plan to anybody with IT skills just slightly above "completely basic". I'm not saying you're wrong, but if there's no other mechanisms in place it's almost too good to be true. If the source app and the website is representative however, it could very well be. 

[markandjie]

46 minutes ago, Sucellos said:

 

If this is correct it would be a gift of stream plan to anybody with IT skills just slightly above "completely basic". I'm not saying you're wrong, but if there's no other mechanisms in place it's almost too good to be true. If the source app and the website is representative however, it could very well be. 

I'm not exactly sure how one would bypass it because they are also blocking VPN services. If you have suggestions I'm willing to try. 

[Sucellos]

7 minutes ago, markandjie said:

I'm not exactly sure how one would bypass it because they are also blocking VPN services. If you have suggestions I'm willing to try. 

 

Depends on how they block and what services your vpn service provider offers. Usually there are openings if you really need/want to use a vpn and as a principle I don't like that service providers don't allow me to secure my own data traffic. As an example: The whole ip-range of the largest commercial vpn providers is often blocked whereas company/private vpns are less likely to be totally blocked. In addition most ports are usually blocked, but some need to be kept open. Finally there are many nice letter combinations and numbers in the world, but TCP and 443 are some of my favourites 🙂

[Aexboeingdriver]

We just finish our cruise from June4 -18, Iceland around Greenland on the Seaborne Venture.

We did spring for the enhanced Wi-Fi package and we were able to stream video on the popular streaming services. 
I was expecting Space X speeds like we have at home, 300-600 mbps, but never saw it. After a lengthy conversation with the IT officer onboard he was able to show me that there was very few Space X satellites above 50 North.
It thought the service was good and was generally pleased with the speed.

 

https://satellitemap.space/
 

https://findstarlink.com/
 

[CLOU]

Can someone tell me how much the enhanced wifi costs?

[cruiseej]

7 hours ago, Aexboeingdriver said:

After a lengthy conversation with the IT officer onboard he was able to show me that there was very few Space X satellites above 50 North.

 

I think this is a key for tempering expectations, particularly on the expedition ships which spend a large part of their cruising year in the far north and far south of the planet, when're StarLink has limited (or no) exposure. 

[markandjie]

9 hours ago, CLOU said:

Can someone tell me how much the enhanced wifi costs?

On Venture it is $20 per day, and you have to purchase for the remaining duration of your trip. So it started at $240 or so and I could now purchase it for the remaining days for $120.

[galeforce9]

56 minutes ago, markandjie said:

On Venture it is $20 per day, and you have to purchase for the remaining duration of your trip. So it started at $240 or so and I could now purchase it for the remaining days for $120.

Thank you. Is that per person and for one device please?

[markandjie]

3 hours ago, galeforce9 said:

Thank you. Is that per person and for one device please?

Per person but four devices. Also, one very nice feature of Android is that you can tether from a WiFi connection. That means on my Android phone I can connect to WiFi and then tether my iPad or computer to that one connection. 

[mraven]

18 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

I think this is a key for tempering expectations, particularly on the expedition ships which spend a large part of their cruising year in the far north and far south of the planet, when're StarLink has limited (or no) exposure. 

Early on, yes. But they are still building out the constellation. The plan is for coverage everywhere. True limiting factor will be how many people in the area are using it and at what load.

[cruiseej]

5 minutes ago, mraven said:

But they are still building out the constellation. The plan is for coverage everywhere.

 

I agree — but they're unlikely to have as many satellites servicing remote northern and southern areas of the planet simply because there isn't as much demand for service there. And yes, performance will also depend how much bandwidth the cruise ship is paying for, and how many people on the ship are trying to do things online.