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

[Mercruiser]

After seeing these speeds, I would only buy Azamara Internet if there are a lot of sea days. Or for this cruise, lots of days cruising along uninhabited shores (Chilean Fjords). For a Mediterranean, Baltic, UK, Alaska, or Caribbean cruise, I would just use cellular data (esims).

Edited January 22 by Mercruiser

[aliaschief]

On Onward we have Star Link High Speed and so far we have been able to Face Time, watch streams and even watch our church’s on-line services. 

 

[ECCruise]

2 hours ago, Mercruiser said:

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.

Those are very similar to what we had on Journey and Quest last year and Pursuit a month or so ago.  Basic was fine for emails and basic tasks.  Upgraded was fine for streaming Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Zoom, WhatsApp, wifi calling, etc. 

Edited January 22 by ECCruise

[Mercruiser]

Arrived in Punta Arenas Chile on Quest. This is the southern -.most city in Chile.

 

Here is the ”high speed" Starlink connection measured at 5 am, before any sensible person is awake.

 

This is really bad for Starlink in general and the extra cost high speed package. 

 

 

After we docked, I switched my phone over to cellular data. This is way faster than ship internet on Starlink. I'll speculate this is a Quest problem and not an indication of Starlink performance users in general.

 

Lesson learned is that you still want a esim in port stops (or international data from you cell company).

 

Using Claro for cellular data.

[ECCruise]

There are places where we do not expect (nor have had) fast access even when we are on Starlink (I am surprised that they didn't switch to the old antenna when access is that poor as we've had a few times).

 

We will be in Punta Arenas in about 3 weeks and expect we will find the same lack of fast access due to it's remote location.

[Mercruiser]

Punta Arenas should have excellent Starlink throughput.  Starlink has a ground station (gateway) in Punta Arenas. The remote location does not matter if it has a ground station. 

 

Source: https://starlinkinsider.com/starlink-gateway-locations/

Edited January 28 by Mercruiser

[Mercruiser]

This Reddit user was experiencing Starlink speeds of 196 Mbps in Patagonia (region adjacent to Punta Arenas). I don't think we can blame Quest's poor Internet on Starlink. It looks like an Azamara issue to me.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/xu4gdh/starlink_offgrid_in_patagonia_next_to_magellan/

Edited January 28 by Mercruiser

[Mercruiser]

Quest internet while in Ushuaia. This is the fastest I've seen yet. It's 12:30 pm local. Most passengers are off ship touring. Remember, I paid extra for the high speed access. Still underwhelmed by the Internet. Everything else about Quest has been great.

 

 

Edited January 30 by Mercruiser

[java spot]

I just had almost identical speeds on the Onward in the south Pacific.  Agree,the upgraded service is still not especially robust  but much better than the standard.  On Explora I had better speeds than in my house.  

[A0131]

We are currently on the Journey between Hong Kong and Tokyo. 

The standard service is consistently giving approx. 0.5MB/s down  and 250kB/s up, but also has periodic disconnection. It’s fine for WhatsApp, ok for downloadable email but really quite frustrating for any website, eg reading BBC news.  Also takes quite a while to download my newspaper, The Times.

The standard service is USD 240 for the full cruise, we received a 50% discount for status (discoverer) and same again for being in a suite so it becomes free.  This for all of us (me, my wife and son).  It is for one device per person at a time, and is easy enough to swap back and forth from phone to laptop etc. 

 

The staff tell me that the high speed service provides 4MB down and 1MB up and it costs $8.95 per day.  They also said that it is Starlink, whereas the standard is something else. 

My son has just opted to pay the additional $8.99/day (every day from the day your start until end of cruise) and is getting a much more pleasant experience, seeing 3.5MB / 0.9MB on speedtest so consistent with the above info. 

 

We also have data SIMS for Asia from Airalo which cover Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.  They seem like good value and provide good service.  Without them, I’d find the basic service to be unsatisfactory for my needs which is lots of general browsing but not really watching videos.   When I’m next on Azamara, I expect to upgrade to the Starlink service.

[Rabo]

Just did a speed test on the Journey . . . 

[Mercruiser]

7 hours ago, A0131 said:

This for all of us (me, my wife and son).  It is for one device per person at a time, and is easy enough to swap back and forth from phone to laptop etc. 

 

 

 

 

Note that all three of you can simultaneously share a single internet connection using the Hotspot feature on your Android or iPhone. We do this all the time on cruise ships. The only significant limitation is that you have to be near the phone that has the hotspot feature turned on. You cannot be spread out over the ship when doing this.

 

Your son could share his high-speed connection with you using this method.

 

The iPhone instructions are here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/111785

 

Android here:

https://support.google.com/android/answer/9059108?hl=en

 

This also works for sharing an Airalo Esim internet connection, or a in-flight Internet package.

Edited March 14 by Mercruiser

[excitedofharpenden]

On Journey now Hong Kong to Tokyo and have purchased the upgraded wifi package at $107.40 for 12 night cruise. I'm finding it much better than the standard I've used in the past. Streamed Netflix/Prime Video etc no problem and am glad I bought it. No frustrating buffering. 

 

Phil 

[flydc]

4 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

On Journey now Hong Kong to Tokyo and have purchased the upgraded wifi package at $107.40 for 12 night cruise. I'm finding it much better than the standard I've used in the past. Streamed Netflix/Prime Video etc no problem and am glad I bought it. No frustrating buffering. 

 

Phil 

 

 

Sorry for what may be a dumb question - but is this what they refer to as the "Wifi Plus"? We bought a "Experience More" package that includes Unlimited Wifi Plus for two devices. Hoping that means we get the Starling instead of the "regular" internet.

 

We board Onward next week in Hong Kong for 15 nights to Singapore.

 

Any thoughts?

 

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, flydc said:

 

 

Sorry for what may be a dumb question - but is this what they refer to as the "Wifi Plus"? We bought a "Experience More" package that includes Unlimited Wifi Plus for two devices. Hoping that means we get the Starling instead of the "regular" internet.

 

We board Onward next week in Hong Kong for 15 nights to Singapore.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Yes you do get the upgraded starlink Wifi. We had an Indulgence package on our recent cruise and our Wifi was good (apart from the first two days when we were told they were testing the systems - even the future cruise managers Wifi was poor on those two days)

[Riocca]

Currently onboard Quest and can confirm that the WiFi included with the Experience More packages is the faster Starlink service. However when I initially logged into the system using the package link I was only getting the standard slow speed internet, took a quick trip to customer services to get it corrected.

Even though I am entitled to free WiFi as a Loyalty/Suite benefit the system only allows one account per person, just something to be aware of.

[gsutiger2]

Was recently on Quest - internet was horrible and frustrating 😤.  I heard complaints all around. We did not appreciate paying for sub par/non existent service and then offered to pay more for the service/speed we should of had at the standard rate. 

[ECCruise]

3 hours ago, gsutiger2 said:

Was recently on Quest - internet was horrible and frustrating 😤.  I heard complaints all around. We did not appreciate paying for sub par/non existent service and then offered to pay more for the service/speed we should of had at the standard rate. 

On Quest now and the standard internet is as it has been for years (and on HAL 2 weeks ago): slooooow. 

To get decent internet on both lines we needed to upgrade. And at a price less than we were paying for terrible internet 15 years ago. 

[excitedofharpenden]

2 hours ago, ECCruise said:

On Quest now and the standard internet is as it has been for years (and on HAL 2 weeks ago): slooooow. 

To get decent internet on both lines we needed to upgrade. And at a price less than we were paying for terrible internet 15 years ago. 

It's a slow old process (if you'll pardon the pun). At the moment I'm comfortable paying the extra for faster internet that at least enabled me to stream, knowing that not everyone chooses to do so and thus overload the system. 

 

Phil 

[uktog]

The basic package is so slow it should be included at no charge as lines like Viking and Explora do. That would probably be fast enough for many guests leaving the faster speed for those who want to stream or access work systems and will be happy to pay.

It’s sad to see this criticism of Azamaras wifi speed and cost has been talked about since 2014.  Every time management acknowledges the issue and hints better is coming. 10 years on, they lag their competitors really badly on this one. 

[gsutiger2]

21 hours ago, uktog said:

The basic package is so slow it should be included at no charge as lines like Viking and Explora do. That would probably be fast enough for many guests leaving the faster speed for those who want to stream or access work systems and will be happy to pay.

I totally agree with this. Speed is abysmal.