Which NCL ships currently have reliable high speed internet?

[pookel]

I'm considering booking a longer cruise, but I have limited PTO at work so I would need to put in some hours while traveling. I don't need to stream video, but if the service is good enough for video, it should work for my job. 

 

Last time I sailed with NCL I just used the basic internet package, and we were on the Gem which I know is a bit older. So are their newer ships more reliable/faster? Are there specific ships or destinations where it works better? 

 

Also for those of you who need to connect through VPN, is there any technical barrier to doing so with the ship internet? 

[BirdTravels]

It was always my understanding that you needed Premium internet for most corporate VPNs. 

 

NCL is still evaluating Starlink and has not proceeded with its fleetwide deployment. So, you have traditional satellite wifi. Newer ships are not more reliable/faster. It is all slow. The biggest problem with modern corporate work is that people email around large files,,, which could take minutes to hours to download when they hit your inbox. 

 

In the past, despite some marginal performance, I have run my zoom meetings from multiple ships since the pandemic restart. At worst, you could use wifi calling to dial in to your meetings. 

[JustAllie]

My friends who tried to work remotely during our cruise to the UK & Norway earlier this year struggled with the internet connection. Part of the issue may have been the steep Norwegian fjords blocking the satellite signal, or part of it may have been the slow satellite internet in general. We had pretty good luck with the local cellular signal when we were in port, but obviously that's not available once you sail away from port. 

 

I would not rely on being able to use video or streaming of any kind even if you upgrade to the highest premium package with streaming. Have a backup plan for dialing in via voice only or just working offline and not trying to attend meetings. 

 

I was lucky in that my employer does not allow me to work outside of the U.S. due to security issues with VPN etc. That gave me an out and allowed me to enjoy my vacation! 🙂

[ChiefMateJRK]

I can only speak from personal experience, and the answer is "none."

[graphicguy]

Starlink…MPower…Speedcast..etc.  All of them sound good from a marketing perspective.  In reality…while better than speed and access was 5 years ago, none of them are what I’d consider “good”!!!!

[Turtles06]

10 hours ago, pookel said:

Also for those of you who need to connect through VPN, is there any technical barrier to doing so with the ship internet?

 

10 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

 

It was always my understanding that you needed Premium internet for most corporate VPNs. 

 

On the Gem this past winter, Premium internet was required to use a VPN. (For your convenience of course. 😂)

[DCGuy64]

12 hours ago, pookel said:

I'm considering booking a longer cruise, but I have limited PTO at work so I would need to put in some hours while traveling. I don't need to stream video, but if the service is good enough for video, it should work for my job. 

 

Last time I sailed with NCL I just used the basic internet package, and we were on the Gem which I know is a bit older. So are their newer ships more reliable/faster? Are there specific ships or destinations where it works better? 

 

Also for those of you who need to connect through VPN, is there any technical barrier to doing so with the ship internet? 

A good friend of mine just came back from a cruise on the Breakaway, and he had work to do during part of the cruise. The Breakaway has Starlink, and my (very picky) friend said it was fast.

[pookel]

1 hour ago, Turtles06 said:

 

On the Gem this past winter, Premium internet was required to use a VPN. (For your convenience of course. 😂)

 

I should be clear, I'm definitely willing to pay for premium internet if it lets me take a two-week cruise! I don't really need to be in video meetings at work, I just need to be able to use the VPN and reliably browse the internet/get email/etc.

[DCGuy64]

4 minutes ago, pookel said:

 

I should be clear, I'm definitely willing to pay for premium internet if it lets me take a two-week cruise! I don't really need to be in video meetings at work, I just need to be able to use the VPN and reliably browse the internet/get email/etc.

My friend on the Breakaway is a real estate agent and he never stops working, and he was also editing a travel blog for his son. He upgraded to the Premium plan and had no complaints, so take that for what you will.

[knitlady037]

my granddaughter took all her video classes on the Breakaway with no issues with premium package. I was on Prima out of NY to Bermuda and internet was the worst of any ship I have ever been on. They even refunded my payment. So being a new ship is not the answer. 

[schmoopie17]

Working on vacation? No, thanks. Now that I'm retired, the thought of work makes me ill. The thought of working on vacation is beyond my comprehension. But as they say on CC...YMMV.

[pookel]

13 minutes ago, knitlady037 said:

my granddaughter took all her video classes on the Breakaway with no issues with premium package. I was on Prima out of NY to Bermuda and internet was the worst of any ship I have ever been on. They even refunded my payment. So being a new ship is not the answer. 

 

Oh, good to know - that's two votes for the Breakaway, I wonder if it's the ship or just a coincidence where sometimes it's great and sometimes it isn't. 

[1025cruise]

I would not rely on cruise ship internet, period, if work was required.

[pookel]

2 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

Working on vacation? No, thanks. Now that I'm retired, the thought of work makes me ill. The thought of working on vacation is beyond my comprehension. But as they say on CC...YMMV.

 

Well, I'm 46 and I have a really good job, but I only have a week of vacation time built up at the moment and I need to save some to visit family. So the choices are "work while cruising" or "don't cruise at all."

[schmoopie17]

2 minutes ago, pookel said:

 

Well, I'm 46 and I have a really good job, but I only have a week of vacation time built up at the moment and I need to save some to visit family. So the choices are "work while cruising" or "don't cruise at all."

Hence my comment of "YMMV". 

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, pookel said:

I should be clear, I'm definitely willing to pay for premium internet if it lets me take a two-week cruise! I don't really need to be in video meetings at work, I just need to be able to use the VPN and reliably browse the internet/get email/etc.

Then do it!

 

While I have an Outlook client on my laptop, my office also has a webmail interface that I use when I travel,,, because of the reasons I cite above. If someone dumps a bunch of big files, it clogs up Outlook client on a slow internet link. 

 

I do fine doing work "off shore", but most of my work is on my laptop (i.e., create/edit files and load back on company shared storage). 

 

And as stated, wifi calling (set up phone before you leave) and even zoom calls work fine on most ships. I run my meetings from my stateroom or quite public spaces (I am known for being in the Observation Lounge with a plate of cheeses and my phone on a tripod or out on deck if the ship is in port (no wind)). 

[DCGuy64]

28 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

Working on vacation? No, thanks. Now that I'm retired, the thought of work makes me ill. The thought of working on vacation is beyond my comprehension. But as they say on CC...YMMV.

I'm not retired, but I NEVER work on vacation. That's the whole point, LOL! 🤣 I don't understand people who choose to work on vacation, and then complain that the internet isn't fast enough. It reminds me of people who choose to work from a café and then have the nerve to tell others to "keep it down" because they're on a business call. "Hey, buddy, it's your choice to be here, you can leave anytime you want." NOTE: I am NOT suggesting OP is doing this. I still work full-time, and while we get a very generous amount of annual leave, I have to budget for a number of vacations + time to see family, take my wife to the doctor, our pets to the vet, etc. all of which comes out of that leave time. I fully understand @pookel's predicament here. The only thing we need some internet for is Duolingo, because we both study foreign languages and I haven't missed a day in over 3 years. 😁

[SimplyAlbert]

1 hour ago, DCGuy64 said:

A good friend of mine just came back from a cruise on the Breakaway, and he had work to do during part of the cruise. The Breakaway has Starlink, and my (very picky) friend said it was fast.

 

When we sailed on the Breakaway we found it to be very inconsistent.  Some days were really good and others were painfully slow.

[DCGuy64]

1 minute ago, SimplyAlbert said:

 

When we sailed on the Breakaway we found it to be very inconsistent.  Some days were really good and others were painfully slow.

If you don't mind a few questions, especially since we're booked on her for November:

1. When you say "some days" were painfully slow, how many days, what's your definition of painfully slow, and what sorts of things did you need to accomplish?

2. When you say "very inconsistent," do you mean sometimes it worked and sometimes it failed to work at all? Or do you mean the speeds varied a lot?

3. Was there any rhyme or reason, meaning: were the bad experiences confined to sea days, or was there inconsistency no matter where the ship was?

 

Thanks in advance, and no problem if you don't want to answer. I'm just curious to hear people's impressions of Starlink.

[cruiseny4life]

2 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

Working on vacation? No, thanks. Now that I'm retired, the thought of work makes me ill. The thought of working on vacation is beyond my comprehension. But as they say on CC...YMMV.

I'm not retired, and unless something drastic happens, I won't be retired for at least thirty years....but I share your illness at thinking about work! Humans could have (and still could) do so many things better...but that's a conversation for elsewhere.

 

Anyway, Getaway also has decent WiFi. My husband (NOT ME) has chosen to work so he didn't have to take unpaid days off work. It annoys me - we could afford it. He's just...well anyway! He was able to be on Zoom with video off, check email, and do all his work while on Getaway with the standard unlimited plan. We were along the eastern seaboard, Bermuda, and the Bahamas on various cruises when he did this. 

 

Thankfully, he's not working (so he says) for our November cruise and I am taking unpaid time off since I'll run out of vacation days after our October vacation. No work here! But, we will still purchase an internet package. Internet is a must for us. 

[mattvqa]

Per this article:

"Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. — comprised of Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises — plans to employ Starlink across its corporate fleet in phases. Access on Norwegian Breakaway will come first, followed by seven more ships through 2023, including Norwegian Viva, Oceania’s Vista and Regent’s Seven Seas Grandeur. "

[UnbridledEnthusiasm]

Haven't been on any that had reliable wifi tbh. I don't really care if it's fast but I need consistent and reliable wifi. Been on Alaskan cruises with NCL and a Mediterranean one. I think it's kind of ridiculous that NCL charges so much on internet that they d@mnwell know isn't very good (yes I know to spite me someone will say that the wifi is great on NCL).

 

If you are someone who doesn't go online on a cruise due to needing a break from it, good for you. 

[SimplyAlbert]

On 8/18/2023 at 10:28 AM, DCGuy64 said:

If you don't mind a few questions, especially since we're booked on her for November:

1. When you say "some days" were painfully slow, how many days, what's your definition of painfully slow, and what sorts of things did you need to accomplish?

2. When you say "very inconsistent," do you mean sometimes it worked and sometimes it failed to work at all? Or do you mean the speeds varied a lot?

3. Was there any rhyme or reason, meaning: were the bad experiences confined to sea days, or was there inconsistency no matter where the ship was?

 

Thanks in advance, and no problem if you don't want to answer. I'm just curious to hear people's impressions of Starlink.

 

On sea days the speeds were very slow.  It was worse during late morning through early evening hours (11 am-6 pm ish).  There were times we couldn't even log on and if we did eventually get on, it was super slow, and there were times we were kicked off.  We found that it worked really well very early in the morning.  I'm up every day between 5-5:30 a.m. and didn't have any problems then.  DH tends to stay up pretty late and he didn't have any trouble from about 11 pm and later.

 

On non-sea days it worked very well overall.  We'd been to all the ports before so we'd get off and just walk around a bit and then go back and relax on our aft-balcony.  Again there were times it got slow (when everyone got back on the ship into early evening), but overall it seemed to work better than on sea days.

 

Luckily neither one of us (or our adult children) had to be on-line for anything.  For us it was more of an inconvenience.  If it was slow or we couldn't get on, we just waited and tried again later.  One afternoon on a sea day DH tried to stream a movie and it just wouldn't work.  He streamed it later at night and it was fine.  Personally, I wouldn't want to have to rely on it for work unless you could do everything during off hours.

[graphicguy]

...if you're transmitting PPTs, XLS, graphic rich e-mails, etc, I would find WiFi on board the ship to be spotty, at best.  I wouldn't count on it.

Edited August 22, 2023 by graphicguy

[smillerholmes]

On 8/18/2023 at 12:14 PM, cruiseny4life said:

I'm not retired, and unless something drastic happens, I won't be retired for at least thirty years....but I share your illness at thinking about work! Humans could have (and still could) do so many things better...but that's a conversation for elsewhere.

 

Anyway, Getaway also has decent WiFi. My husband (NOT ME) has chosen to work so he didn't have to take unpaid days off work. It annoys me - we could afford it. He's just...well anyway! He was able to be on Zoom with video off, check email, and do all his work while on Getaway with the standard unlimited plan. We were along the eastern seaboard, Bermuda, and the Bahamas on various cruises when he did this. 

 

Thankfully, he's not working (so he says) for our November cruise and I am taking unpaid time off since I'll run out of vacation days after our October vacation. No work here! But, we will still purchase an internet package. Internet is a must for us. 

I can chime in for the Getaway. I had to work from the ship and VPN is required me too.  As for working during vacation, sometimes things just happen and work has to intrude.  The Getaway was my first stint at working while cruising and the speed surprised me.