iluvncl Posted November 29, 2023 #1 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Thinking of booking a 35 day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise on Koningsdam, but I need internet access daily for work. (Can't take a vacation from my own business, lol). Anyway, can anyone speak to the reliability? I know it could be dreadfully slow and even inaccessible at certain points on any given day, but is it reasonable to expect I could respond to emails and check on things daily? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruiserBruce Posted November 29, 2023 #2 Share Posted November 29, 2023 I think you pretty much answered your own questions. Answering e mails and the like should be pretty dependable. Beyond that, it can always be sketchy, but the new Starlink system has improved it considerably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REOVA Posted November 29, 2023 #3 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Haven't tried Starlink but before you would have drop spots in the S Pacific, more so further South you go. You may have to delay responding to emails one day. Also you may find that you you cannot get connection in your room (depending on location) so finding where the boosters and routers are placed to get close to may be necessary. Also time of day may cause issues if everyone is using the bandwidth at same time so finding when use is less busy might help (not necessarily early or late as everyone has the same idea). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crystalspin Posted November 29, 2023 #4 Share Posted November 29, 2023 19 minutes ago, iluvncl said: Thinking of booking a 35 day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise on Koningsdam, but I need internet access daily for work.... Anyway, can anyone speak to the reliability? I know it could be dreadfully slow and even inaccessible at certain points on any given day, but is it reasonable to expect I could respond to emails and check on things daily? I believe K'dam was the first of the fleet to get Starlink (all HAL ships will have it by end of year). Like REOVA, I haven't yet sailed with Starlink, but it should be very reliable with far fewer dead zones. Here is a discussion: https://www.travelagewest.com/Travel/Cruise/wifi-on-cruise-ships#:~:text Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boulders Posted November 29, 2023 #5 Share Posted November 29, 2023 I sailed on Noordam last month as she traveled from San Diego to Sydney, through Hawaii and French Polynesia. They were installing Starlink in San Diego and delayed sailing because they couldn't quite get it to work. The internet was off and on, even for the ship's operations, until Hawaii. Rumor has it that one person debarked in Hawaii because they were so frustrated with the internet. Once we got it fixed, it was fine. Email and most websites loaded quickly, but not as quick as at home. There were no dead zones, even though we were days away from the next port. Cons: Video through Apple TV was frustrating and frequently required reloading. Logging into some websites was a problem as they could determine my location wasn't at home and they wanted to send a verification code, but the texts they sent didn't get received over wifi. So, no Black Friday shopping on Amazon for me. The internet was a significant improvement over the last time I sailed, around Antarctica, in 2013. There were a lot of dead spots and very slow connection speeds on that cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare kazu Posted November 29, 2023 #6 Share Posted November 29, 2023 When we did that cruise we had huge internet issues. Dead in Hawaii and some locations in the Pacific. I think the IT guy didn’t know how to aim the satellite thing 😉 It was so bad, they refunded part of the cost. This was BEFORE Starlink. When I was on the Koningsdam and subsequently the Rotterdam I found the internet worked quite well (and Rotterdam was a transatlantic). I did notice my emails would not work for my regular email and had to use the web based version to check them - I am not sure on why that was and still haven’t gotten to the bottom of it. But email worked and my apple email worked fine without resorting to the web based route. I think with Starlink you should be ok most days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirkc Posted November 29, 2023 #7 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Currently on Rotterdam and the Starlink is great. Neptune lounge concierge told me that since they have switched to it complaints have dropped from 3 or 4 per day to one per cruise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiller Posted November 29, 2023 #8 Share Posted November 29, 2023 I thought it worked well on the Koningsdam over Thanksgiving. My only gripe was I didn't realize I couldn't download podcasts on the Surf package--didn't realize that was considered streaming. So I did that when in port. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingCruiser2 Posted November 30, 2023 #9 Share Posted November 30, 2023 18 hours ago, kazu said: When we did that cruise we had huge internet issues. Dead in Hawaii and some locations in the Pacific. I think the IT guy didn’t know how to aim the satellite thing 😉 It was so bad, they refunded part of the cost. This was BEFORE Starlink. When I was on the Koningsdam and subsequently the Rotterdam I found the internet worked quite well (and Rotterdam was a transatlantic). I did notice my emails would not work for my regular email and had to use the web based version to check them - I am not sure on why that was and still haven’t gotten to the bottom of it. But email worked and my apple email worked fine without resorting to the web based route. I think with Starlink you should be ok most days. They likely were blocking the IP port your email client uses (smtp). Web mail uses regular http/https port that are always open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare kazu Posted November 30, 2023 #10 Share Posted November 30, 2023 24 minutes ago, FlyingCruiser2 said: They likely were blocking the IP port your email client uses (smtp). Web mail uses regular http/https port that are always open. Thanks. Seemed strange and it hadn’t happened in the past. Maybe it’s part of the Starlink system? Appreciate the explanation. I’ll be prepared next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingCruiser2 Posted November 30, 2023 #11 Share Posted November 30, 2023 9 minutes ago, kazu said: Thanks. Seemed strange and it hadn’t happened in the past. Maybe it’s part of the Starlink system? Appreciate the explanation. I’ll be prepared next time. We are on Rotterdam right now, and I had the same thing for first two days. Then all of a sudden I started getting notifications from my email client and it has worked fine since then. So maybe they’re tweaking starlink still. Have to say though that with the enhanced internet upgrade speeds are surprisingly fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare kazu Posted November 30, 2023 #12 Share Posted November 30, 2023 14 minutes ago, FlyingCruiser2 said: We are on Rotterdam right now, and I had the same thing for first two days. Then all of a sudden I started getting notifications from my email client and it has worked fine since then. So maybe they’re tweaking starlink still. Have to say though that with the enhanced internet upgrade speeds are surprisingly fast. Thanks! Maybe they are still tweaking it 🤞. Other than my email, I thought the internet was quite decent when I was on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROUS Posted November 30, 2023 #13 Share Posted November 30, 2023 There's two connections to think about. One is the satellite to the ship, then there is the ship to your cabin. If your connection is too slow, and if the nature of your work allows it, you might move around to different spots around the ship to test speeds. This has helped me a time or two when I download files or when I need to send up something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingCruiser2 Posted December 1, 2023 #14 Share Posted December 1, 2023 (edited) 21 hours ago, ROUS said: There's two connections to think about. One is the satellite to the ship, then there is the ship to your cabin. If your connection is too slow, and if the nature of your work allows it, you might move around to different spots around the ship to test speeds. This has helped me a time or two when I download files or when I need to send up something. This is while inside the cabin. Deck 7, outside, just aft of forward elevators. Better than most hotels I’ve stayed at while working. Edited December 1, 2023 by FlyingCruiser2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antsp Posted December 3, 2023 #15 Share Posted December 3, 2023 They are fitting Starlink on the Amsterdam this week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare terrydtx Posted December 3, 2023 #16 Share Posted December 3, 2023 We upgraded to the premium Wi-Fi last month on the Koingsdam and the new Starlink was fantastic. We were able to stream on our laptops football games we couldn't get on our cabin TV. We also could make video calls on our phones without any issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PointsNerd Posted December 4, 2023 #17 Share Posted December 4, 2023 On the Rotterdam currently and it's fantastic... at least compared to Disney ships 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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