Regent Voyager wi-fi

[Doris Banting]

Wondering about the speed and reliability of the wi-fi onboard. Also, are we strictly limited to one device per suite?

[Steve Q]

We were just on the 18 day Transatlantic cruise. We had a Concierge cabin and had four devices connected. Honestly, the WiFi was not very good. At times, it barely worked at all. That said, if you are only looking to send emails, it might work for you. It is possible, however, that the internet will work better this summer in Europe.

[hapzfl]

8 hours ago, Steve Q said:

We were just on the 18 day Transatlantic cruise. We had a Concierge cabin and had four devices connected. Honestly, the WiFi was not very good. At times, it barely worked at all. That said, if you are only looking to send emails, it might work for you. It is possible, however, that the internet will work better this summer in Europe.

Is it the ship's internal wifi reception or lousy satellite signal reception?

[Steve Q]

22 minutes ago, hapzfl said:

Is it the ship's internal wifi reception or lousy satellite signal reception?

I honestly have no idea. At times, it would work fairly well. At other times, it did not work at all. 
Fortunately, we have TMobile as our cell carrier. At each port, we had pretty good service at no charge. I was able to download some podcasts to listen to while using the gym.

Other than the WiFi, our cruise was excellent. I had concerns about Voyager, but found those concerns unfounded.

[papaflamingo]

11 hours ago, Doris Banting said:

are we strictly limited to one device per suite?

Not sure what you mean by "strictly."  Yes you only get ONE free log in if in a suite below Concierge.  However you can log off of one device ...say your cell phone.... and log in with another device....say  your iPad.  So you can only use ONE device at a time, but it can be any device. Just log out on one and log in on another. 

Edited April 9 by papaflamingo

[wcsdkqh]

Gold level and above also get 4 concurrent logins regardless of suite.

[DatawCruiser]

What does it cost to upgrade to multiple devices if you don't already get this?  Can you use OBC for an upgrade?

[Doris Banting]

I would also like to know this. Can we upgrade. Cost to upgrade to 4 devices. OBC to upgrade permitted? Can we arrange prior to departure, if not, how do we go about this on the ship. We leave in 2 weeks.

[Pcardad]

41 minutes ago, Doris Banting said:

I would also like to know this. Can we upgrade. Cost to upgrade to 4 devices. OBC to upgrade permitted? Can we arrange prior to departure, if not, how do we go about this on the ship. We leave in 2 weeks.

OBC is fine - you can do it as soon as you log in. IDK what the fee is - it is free if you are Gold or higher and free in Concierge (I think).

[UUNetBill]

21 hours ago, Pcardad said:

OBC is fine - you can do it as soon as you log in. IDK what the fee is - it is free if you are Gold or higher and free in Concierge (I think).

I believe you're correct on both counts.  And the wifi on Voyager is, as usual, abysmal.  It's a combination of the on-ship infrastructure and the sat service.  Our last cruise on Voyager took us from Santiago to Buenos Aires via Antarctica, and the coverage was understandably slow in that region.  But even in Chile and up to northern Argentina it wasn't much better.  And the device timeout was ridiculous - my iPad would stay logged on with no issues, but my iPhone dropped every 5 minutes or so, it seemed.  Frustrating, to say the least.

 

And if you're using a VPN, be aware that you (usually) can't log on if your VPN is active, so you'll need to pause your VPN, log on, then reactivate your VPN.  I found many sites were not accessible without using VPN.

 

Of course, YMMV depending on location, weather, the whims of the gods, etc...

[Gilly]

1 hour ago, UUNetBill said:

Of course, YMMV depending on location, weather, the whims of the gods, etc..

 

Oh I must have been very good then 🤣  We had the best connectivity we've ever had on board Voyager these last couple of weeks and I didn't have to resort to my *secret* place once!  Maybe it was our location on board - we had an aft suite on the port side - from where I posted my daily blog with quite a few (edited) photos without throwing my laptop across the room at all!

 

*my secret place was the one that Davor shared with me when we sailed on Voyager last year and I could not so much as log on from our mid-ship suite.

 

@UUNetBill you are absolutely spot on with your YMMV observation of course!

[PaulMCO]

Most Regent ships (except Grandeur) do not yet have Star Link -- so you are stuck with the high orbit legacy EMC Networks/MTN satellites with high ping times and limited bandwidth.  They had a long term contract with EMC so Starlink is not scheduled until the end of 2024, according to the Future Cruise consultant. 

 

Before you log in you might want to talk with the Internet Manager -- sometimes they will give you the extra logins complementary.

 

@UUNetBill is correct about turning off your VPN to reconnect.  Same with doing the end of cruise survey. 

 

Do not purchase the steaming package if you have a VPN.  With a VPN you override their site blocking algorithm as it is IP based, so you are wasting money.

[UUNetBill]

55 minutes ago, Gilly said:

 

Oh I must have been very good then 🤣  We had the best connectivity we've ever had on board Voyager these last couple of weeks and I didn't have to resort to my *secret* place once!  Maybe it was our location on board - we had an aft suite on the port side - from where I posted my daily blog with quite a few (edited) photos without throwing my laptop across the room at all!

 

*my secret place was the one that Davor shared with me when we sailed on Voyager last year and I could not so much as log on from our mid-ship suite.

 

@UUNetBill you are absolutely spot on with your YMMV observation of course!

Gilly, I didn't really have issues logging onto the ship's network - it was the bandwidth once I was logged on that was the issue.  Speedtests were pathetic (can't remember the numbers offhand, but it made me wish for the old days of my speedy 56k modem).  But they still have a way to go to successfully cater to those of us still working who need at least workable internet speeds to be able to get away for more than a week.  C'mon, Starlink...

 

On a somewhat related note, we're sure going to miss Davor.  We were fortunate to be on board for his last cruise and got to dine with him a few days before he flew home.  His send-off after Krew Kapers was amazing.

[Gilly]

2 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

we're sure going to miss Davor.

Oh we too!  We were really hoping to catch him before he left but sadly that was not to be.  He is a great chap and our loss is his family's gain without doubt.

[tg75219]

I did a crossing on the Voyager last year and the wifi speed and reliability were abysmal.  If you could connect at all the experience was comparable to late 1990s dial-up service, where web pages would take 45 seconds to load or would hang indefinitely.  After two days, I ended up paying for the upgraded wifi, which was better, though only marginally so.  

 

I just finished a 16-night voyage on the Grandeur and its wifi was significantly better.  Once again, I purchased the upgraded wifi package and was able to stream live TV on my iPad with no problems.  

 

Here's the weird thing about the upgraded wifi though... I was in a Concierge Suite where you can connect up to four devices... that is UNLESS you opt for the upgraded wifi package in which case you can log in only one device at a time... it's an all or nothing proposition... you can either connect four devices to the basic wifi or one device to the upgraded wifi.  By purchasing the upgrade you effectively forfeit your ability to connect multiple devices for the duration of the cruise.  I was traveling solo so it wasn't a huge deal for me, though it likely would have been had I been traveling with my significant other.

[Gray Eagle02]

We’re in an aft suite and with minimal exceptions the WiFi has been adequate. I suspect—given previous posting—that location on ship makes a huge difference. I have seen people sitting the hallways and on staircases trying to get connections so I suspected that reception in other areas of the ship is poor.