Internet Strength Question

[wardwhitty]

My daughter is cruising with us and needs to take an online exam for one of her college classes.  Has anyone done this with one of the internet plans?  The test will need to download pictures for some of the questions.  We have always purchased the Basic Plan but it looks like the Premium may work.

[Mike45LC]

If you are lucky, the test will coincide with a port call, and there might be an internet cafe on land that she can use.  Even Premium Internet is not lightning fast.

[pohlerbear]

I wouldn't count on it. If she can take the test during a time window, she may be able to during non peak (people are sleeping) hours.  

[weezal]

internet speed isn't usually an issue, with premium plan, now that they've upgraded to starlink.

unintentionally blocked sites (due to their content filter), however, can ruin your day.

[teknoge3k]

As of May 2024, every ship in the Carnival fleet has Starlink now for their Internet provider. The speeds are good.

[jimbo5544]

I have been more than pleased with the speed of the premium plan.

[wardwhitty]

Thank you everyone.  We will be sailing on the Celebration and I thought the Starlink upgrade would make it a viable option, but I just wanted to make sure.

Edited August 22 by wardwhitty

[Gamecock_Cruiser]

I'd suggest her talking to the professor and take the exam before hand. Most worked with me when I had cruises booked during college. I wouldn't depend on the ship internet.

[Oletruckdude]

I have been on a number of recent Carnival cruises. Since the addition of the new starlink systems I have found the premium access to be very fast and reliable. I always get the premium because I like to read the news and surf the net while onboard. 

That being said, I have discovered the access works best higher up on the ship. Down on the lower decks I experience more drop outs. So I usually find a quiet spot in a public space on the upper decks and the access works much better with constant access and no drop outs.

[Solo1959]

Speed is undependable on Vista. It works but I;d hesitate to depend on it. This is in my stateroom while at sea

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, Solo1959 said:

Speed is undependable on Vista. It works but I;d hesitate to depend on it. This is in my stateroom while at sea

Thanks for sharing this.  It looks good to me, for a cruise ship.  I'm sure it varied from day to day - even minute to minute.

[DeniseTr]

I would caution against this while at sea, depending on test setup. 

Most online tests that I have taken have time limits, and if Internet goes down, even for a short while, it may screw up the test. 

If she can choose date/time to take it, I'd wait until port, and then tether to a mobile Hotspot if possible.

[john91498]

Even with Starlink, the signal is spotty at best. Especially in your cabin where the signal has to go through metal walls and bulkheads.

[movtarget]

(Warning: Grey-haired IT professional response) - 

I’ve been on three ships after the Starlink upgrade. (Magic, Legend, Vista). All three the premium internet service was fast and reliable. On the Magic, I did a B2B where I was in two different cabins. One cabin had excellent reception, the other was spotty.

 

Your experience for the use of internet will vary greatly depending on how close you are to the nearest wifi access point (to be read: how much interior ship metal is between your device and the nearest access point). On a typical ship there will be hundreds of wifi access points. I installed 172 to support a 10,500 seat stadium and surrounding campus.

 

Before test day, find out how well your internet (wifi!) access is in both your cabin, and a backup place with a little privacy (like the library or a corner of the lobby/atrium if no activity planned). There is a very high likelihood that with planning, your internet access will be fine. The bigger risk is interference if you are not close enough to a wifi access point. There are tools for Windows, Android phones, and Apple/IOS phones to measure wifi strength, but a little more technical than easily discussed in a forum post (hint: for Apple I use Apple’s own Airport Utility, designed to connect you to Apple’s wifi gear, but will show you signal strength for all surrounding access points).

 

Geek hat off.

[Sagittarius traveler]

Wifi can be good people so live reviews on here.

 

keep in mind maybe sea days spotty because others are using Wi-Fi around the same time 

[ledges1]

Is the internet strength sufficient to view football games on you tube tv?

[DeniseTr]

30 minutes ago, movtarget said:

(Warning: Grey-haired IT professional response) - 

I’ve been on three ships after the Starlink upgrade. (Magic, Legend, Vista). All three the premium internet service was fast and reliable. On the Magic, I did a B2B where I was in two different cabins. One cabin had excellent reception, the other was spotty.

 

Your experience for the use of internet will vary greatly depending on how close you are to the nearest wifi access point (to be read: how much interior ship metal is between your device and the nearest access point). On a typical ship there will be hundreds of wifi access points. I installed 172 to support a 10,500 seat stadium and surrounding campus.

 

Before test day, find out how well your internet (wifi!) access is in both your cabin, and a backup place with a little privacy (like the library or a corner of the lobby/atrium if no activity planned). There is a very high likelihood that with planning, your internet access will be fine. The bigger risk is interference if you are not close enough to a wifi access point. There are tools for Windows, Android phones, and Apple/IOS phones to measure wifi strength, but a little more technical than easily discussed in a forum post (hint: for Apple I use Apple’s own Airport Utility, designed to connect you to Apple’s wifi gear, but will show you signal strength for all surrounding access points).

 

Geek hat off.

Good info. 

It's also likely to be affected by number of people using it, so might vary a little by time of day. 

Would be curious to see if there were maps of Hotspot on ships, but I'd guess they wouldn't release that for security reasons.

[DeniseTr]

This is an interesting article on the topic.   https://circleid.com/posts/20240501-starlink-service-is-great-on-some-cruise-ships

 

[movtarget]

1 hour ago, ledges1 said:

Is the internet strength sufficient to view football games on you tube tv?

I streamed Spectrum on the Legend for the ACC basketball tournament March 2024. I was in the Sports Bar for the quarter-final watching on their TV’s, only to find they didn’t have the rights for the different channel the next night for the semi-finals. Went to my cabin to stream on my iPad via the Spectrum app to watch it (much to the dismay of my college-age daughter who was spring-breaking with us - where’d dad go?)

[jimbo5544]

3 hours ago, movtarget said:

(Warning: Grey-haired IT professional response) - 

I’ve been on three ships after the Starlink upgrade. (Magic, Legend, Vista). All three the premium internet service was fast and reliable. On the Magic, I did a B2B where I was in two different cabins. One cabin had excellent reception, the other was spotty.

 

Your experience for the use of internet will vary greatly depending on how close you are to the nearest wifi access point (to be read: how much interior ship metal is between your device and the nearest access point). On a typical ship there will be hundreds of wifi access points. I installed 172 to support a 10,500 seat stadium and surrounding campus.

 

Before test day, find out how well your internet (wifi!) access is in both your cabin, and a backup place with a little privacy (like the library or a corner of the lobby/atrium if no activity planned). There is a very high likelihood that with planning, your internet access will be fine. The bigger risk is interference if you are not close enough to a wifi access point. There are tools for Windows, Android phones, and Apple/IOS phones to measure wifi strength, but a little more technical than easily discussed in a forum post (hint: for Apple I use Apple’s own Airport Utility, designed to connect you to Apple’s wifi gear, but will show you signal strength for all surrounding access points).

 

Geek hat off.

We have been on 7 (Carnival) ships (10 sailings now) and always get premium.  No complaints here.