Azamara Internet (Wi-Fi) with Starlink - How well does it work?

[aliaschief]

3 hours ago, needingwifi said:

Any update on the wifi on the Journey? Wondering if they have fixed the starlink issues by now... 

Presently on Journey and WiFi has been slow. Sure not the outstanding  speed we had on Onward earlier this year. Right now we are docked in Seville and it’s slow.

[Lunadune]

Any new info on Journey WiFi speed?

[Grandma Cruising]

6 minutes ago, Lunadune said:

Any new info on Journey WiFi speed?

It was fairly slow in November/December

[needingwifi]

Is there a standard speed and a premium speed package or has that all been harmonized since Starlink?

[luv2travel90266]

I used a hotspot connected to land when we were off the coast  a mile or so off in the Med with good results. The basic internet was useless for working. They appear to now offer a high speed option for more dollars and are throttling the basic price Internet package.   

[Grandma Cruising]

Standard speed is $19.95 a day and I think the high speed is $7.95 a day extra

[excitedofharpenden]

6 hours ago, needingwifi said:

Is there a standard speed and a premium speed package or has that all been harmonized since Starlink?

You asked the question I was going to!

 

Phil 

[excitedofharpenden]

3 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Standard speed is $19.95 a day and I think the high speed is $7.95 a day extra

I'm on Journey in March. Anyone with experience on that ship as to whether this higher speed is offered and more importantly if it's worth it?  Thanks. 

 

Phil 

[uktog]

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

I'm on Journey in March. Anyone with experience on that ship as to whether this higher speed is offered and more importantly if it's worth it?  Thanks. 

 

Phil 

Similar question for April re Journey 

 

Also how is Quest speeds in South America?

Edited January 6 by uktog

[ECCruise]

Here is our experience(s) this year with Starlink.

 

When it was first introduced, the $19.95 per day service was 2-3 MPS in May on Quest.  Fine for streaming.

 

When we sailed Pursuit last month, we found that they have throttled back the speed for the $19.95 per day (maybe 300-400 kbs) which is fine for normal email, browsing, etc. but not for streaming.  You'll need to add the faster speed at $7.95 per day to ramp up to the 2-3 MPS speeds.

 

With the Circle loyalty discounts (which only apply to the basic package, not the upgrade) we still think it's a pretty decent deal for acceptable access. 

 

[crzrr]

2 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

I'm on Journey in March. Anyone with experience on that ship as to whether this higher speed is offered and more importantly if it's worth it?  Thanks. 

 

Phil 

We were on the Journey in September when they first rolled out the option to upgrade the internet.  We had lots of OBC so decided to try it out.  It was definitely better than the basic internet.  We are on your cruise and plan on purchasing the upgrade.  

[fruitmachine]

4 hours ago, ECCruise said:

Here is our experience(s) this year with Starlink.

 

When it was first introduced, the $19.95 per day service was 2-3 MPS in May on Quest.  Fine for streaming.

 

When we sailed Pursuit last month, we found that they have throttled back the speed for the $19.95 per day (maybe 300-400 kbs) which is fine for normal email, browsing, etc. but not for streaming.  You'll need to add the faster speed at $7.95 per day to ramp up to the 2-3 MPS speeds.

 

With the Circle loyalty discounts (which only apply to the basic package, not the upgrade) we still think it's a pretty decent deal for acceptable access. 

 

My experience on Journey in April and Onward in October was that they speeds were too slow for any reliable access to the likes of Google mail or other services where background code is downloaded in the browser (normally without you even knowing or noticing).  Instead, all but the most simple text-based sites typically timed out, or worked less than 50% of the time.

 

Once we had used up the included minutes, I didn't purchase any more internet access (even though it was offered at a hefty discount for our status & cabin grade).  Using my phone as a hotspot, paired with an e-SIM that cost £12 (just over US$15) for 10GB for a month, gave me virtually unlimited access in-port and for an astonishing proportion of the sailing time.  This was in Adriatic, Agean and Marma Seas, so frequently quite close to land.  

[needingwifi]

19 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Standard speed is $19.95 a day and I think the high speed is $7.95 a day extra

Interesting. Thanks for this - seems not even shown on their own website yet…!

[excitedofharpenden]

On 1/6/2024 at 12:40 PM, crzrr said:

We were on the Journey in September when they first rolled out the option to upgrade the internet.  We had lots of OBC so decided to try it out.  It was definitely better than the basic internet.  We are on your cruise and plan on purchasing the upgrade.  

Thanks very much for the info. I think we will be using a bit of OBC to upgrade. See you in March!

 

Phil 

[Homerody]

This has been a very instructive thread.

 

Perhaps, someone will come across this post/request in the near future while on a cruise and can upload a screen grab of network upload/download mbs data.

 

Thanks!

[DS]

We were told by a "reliable source" on the Quest a couple of months ago that while they have the new Starlink system, they still have the old ( he called it the Royal") system as well until that contract runs out in April 24.  At that point(last November), the guests were getting the old Royal setup unless they paid for the high speed. Even in his work internet, which was supposed to be the high speed link, sometimes they ended up with the slow speed one...

    We are now on the ONWARD, and internet coverage for 1 device was part of the booking promotion when we booked.  We also have enough points/suite time to get another device full time.   The first account we set up was given the high speed, while the second one is on the old, low speed system, or at least throttled back.   So games are still being played...

 

Here is a sped test I just did   ( we are on a sea day)

[Homerody]

@DS thanks for the informative post and speed test data.

 

That ping/latency is a killer.  

[Aussie Cruise Nuts]

2 hours ago, DS said:

We were told by a "reliable source" on the Quest a couple of months ago that while they have the new Starlink system, they still have the old ( he called it the Royal") system as well until that contract runs out in April 24.  At that point(last November), the guests were getting the old Royal setup unless they paid for the high speed. Even in his work internet, which was supposed to be the high speed link, sometimes they ended up with the slow speed one...

    We are now on the ONWARD, and internet coverage for 1 device was part of the booking promotion when we booked.  We also have enough points/suite time to get another device full time.   The first account we set up was given the high speed, while the second one is on the old, low speed system, or at least throttled back.   So games are still being played...

 

Here is a sped test I just did   ( we are on a sea day)

 

we are currently on Journey and the wifi is painfully slow.    My speed test shows download between 2 to 3 MBPS and upload at less than 2 

 

We are hot spotting  from our phone when in NZ ports or along the coast and receiving a 4G signal.     The difference is like chalk and cheese 🤪

 

Rod

[excitedofharpenden]

10 hours ago, Aussie Cruise Nuts said:

 

we are currently on Journey and the wifi is painfully slow.    My speed test shows download between 2 to 3 MBPS and upload at less than 2 

 

We are hot spotting  from our phone when in NZ ports or along the coast and receiving a 4G signal.     The difference is like chalk and cheese 🤪

 

Rod

And that's the upgraded package you have?

 

Phil 

[Aussie Cruise Nuts]

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

And that's the upgraded package you have?

 

Phil 

 

No Phil.    We each have the standard wifi package complimentary thanks to our suite benefit discount and loyalty tier discount.

 

We knew for this cruise our iPhone 4G data would be available to hotspot for most of the Australian part of the itinerary and in every NZ port or close by.     I preferred to spend our OBC on upgraded drinks  🤪

 

Looking forward to the future when all Azamara ships have the faster standard wifi.
 

Rod 

[needingwifi]

18 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

And that's the upgraded package you have?

 

Phil 

 

If anyone has any speed tests of the Upgraded package on the Journey please do share 🙂 Thanks!

[excitedofharpenden]

5 hours ago, needingwifi said:

 

If anyone has any speed tests of the Upgraded package on the Journey please do share 🙂 Thanks!

I will do that and post it here. 

 

Phil 

[ECCruise]

On 1/14/2024 at 4:47 AM, Aussie Cruise Nuts said:

 

No Phil.    We each have the standard wifi package complimentary thanks to our suite benefit discount and loyalty tier discount.

 

We knew for this cruise our iPhone 4G data would be available to hotspot for most of the Australian part of the itinerary and in every NZ port or close by.     I preferred to spend our OBC on upgraded drinks  🤪

 

Looking forward to the future when all Azamara ships have the faster standard wifi.
 

Rod 

That definitely sounds like the Starlink speeds we were getting on both Quest and Pursuit in the last 6 months or so. 

 

The old antenna, which is what they used for the standard package on Pursuit (and on Quest when Starlink connectivity was spotty) was generally between 300-400kbs. 

 

And those 2-3mps speeds were enough to power Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Zoom, etc. Yes, there were spotty periods but were fine on those platforms for probably 70 days or so of the 80 days we were on those 2 ships.  

[Mercruiser]

Just boarded Quest in San Antonio (Santiago), Chile. Here are the speedtest results. All results are while docked in the port.

 

Cellar data from pool deck (LTE on Claro cellular)

 

Base internet package (free minutes and full journey base package have the same speed). This is amazingly slow. Web pages load very slowly.

 

This result is after upgrading to the high speed package. This is pretty darn slow for Starlink. I went to the Internet help desk guy. He said it is slower while in a city. I'll try again later when we are away from cities.

Edited January 22 by Mercruiser

[Mercruiser]

Here are the signup screens. First, you buy the Voyage package at $299 less discount for this 15-night cruise. I got the 50% discount for Discoverer. Then you buy the "High Bandwidth" package for $134. There is no discount on this.

 

In my opinion, the base level is too slow to be usable for anything but text emails, basic web pages, text messages, etc.

 

The High Speed package seems very slow compared to what we all saw Starlink doing early last year. I am underwhelmed.

 

Edited January 22 by Mercruiser