Laptop Safety

[rfische1]

How safe are laptops on board. I would like to bring my notebook to get on the Internet and to download photos from my digital camera. Has anyone had their's stolen from their cabin?

[tiffani!]

wow, great question, i cant help you, but i would LOVE to know the answer!

[audome78]

I have taken my laptop on the last two cruises, and plan to do so on our upcoming Freedom Cruise. I have had no issues with security, but I don't leave it out when I am not using it...it goes back in my pack and either under the bed, or gets locked in a piece of luggage under the bed. I figure being onboard a ship is no different than being on the road in a hotel on business. You can't be too careful.

 

I also enjoy downloading my photos each day. I also burn them all on DVD for our travel companions and present it to them at dinner the last night.

[leoandhugh]

there is no guarantee that it would be safe in your cabin, but if you are that concerned, I certainly would not leave it out on display when you are not in the cabin. if you aren't there, put it in a suitcase under the bed or in a laundry bag at the bottom of a closet. personally I travel with mine on a couple of cruises each year and never give it a thought, but i would not leave it out on a desktop in the cabin. your room steward is probably very honest - they are very aware they are the logical suspects - but remember there are other passengers walking by your cabin door when it may be open while he or she is cleaning your bathroom - or even getting clean sheets or towels, and he doesn't know who you might have authorized to come down and pick it up for you. just common sense.

[LAKaye]

How safe are laptops on board. I would like to bring my notebook to get on the Internet and to download photos from my digital camera. Has anyone had their's stolen from their cabin?

 

Early on in our cruising history, we would bring one PowerBook and go through the trouble of taking one of those wire-rope style cables to lock the machine with---we would find that inevitable hole in the cabinetry and find something in there to loop the lock wire to and then lock the laptop to it.

 

Lately though, we haven't bothered. We take both of our laptops and don't lock up either of them. One of them justs sits out there on the vanity shelf wired up and running 24/7 usually with a GPS hooked up to it so we can see where we are sailing. Mine I just leave around the stateroom either in or out of its little soft case. I love to look at the day's photos and labelling them while they are fresh in my mind.

 

We love having the in-room interenet package for the week; for those wondering why we would bother, it is because we have many elderly or unwell relatives and friends that we wish to stay in contact with.

 

To sum up, nothing has happened in two dozen cruises over a number of years.

 

Leslie

[glgolfer]

We've taken our laptop on the last few cruises including to Norway on a small coastal steamer ship, on the Danube for a river cruise and in various hotel rooms. We have left it on the desk every time and so far have had no problem.

[critterchick]

We put the laptop away after using and/or recharging it, usually in the closet, but we aren't diligent about it. I guess we're not too concerned about our cabin steward and/or the rest of the crew and it's a little hard to imagine somebody paying all that money for a cruise and then stealing stuff out of staterooms. Perhaps we're a bit naive. Oh, well.

 

I have heard of people losing cameras and such - leaving them behind and nobody turning them in or leaving them on a chair or table while going to the bathroom and coming back to find they've disappeared. But not from their staterooms.

[uksimonusa]

always taj]ke the laptop for photos internet etc. Sometimes leave it in the thin center drawer under the vanity, but mostly leave it on the table or vanity. Never had a problem.:)

[taminator]

Early on in our cruising history, we would bring one PowerBook and go through the trouble of taking one of those wire-rope style cables to lock the machine with---we would find that inevitable hole in the cabinetry and find something in there to loop the lock wire to and then lock the laptop to it.

 

Lately though, we haven't bothered. We take both of our laptops and don't lock up either of them. One of them justs sits out there on the vanity shelf wired up and running 24/7 usually with a GPS hooked up to it so we can see where we are sailing. Mine I just leave around the stateroom either in or out of its little soft case. I love to look at the day's photos and labelling them while they are fresh in my mind.

 

We love having the in-room interenet package for the week; for those wondering why we would bother, it is because we have many elderly or unwell relatives and friends that we wish to stay in contact with.

 

To sum up, nothing has happened in two dozen cruises over a number of years.

 

Leslie

 

I'm curious... sounds like you were able to use your PowerBook to access the Internet while on board. Which ship were you on board? Any special configuration needed to access the Internet?

 

We were on the Mariner of the Seas last month and there were three of us with PowerBooks/iBooks who could not access the Internet either via the WIFI hotspots nor the in-cabin service.

 

I've heard others with Apple notebook computers were able to use them on RCCL ships without any problem, but I'm guessing none of them were on the Mariner.

 

As for the original post, I felt completely safe having my PowerBook with me on board. I used it to download pictures from three digital cameras daily. Funny, though... I always lock it up using a Kensington cable when I stay in hotels but I didn't feel obligated on board the ship.

[Cuizer2]

I've taken my laptop on my last four cruises. I have not had any problems, but I always keep it locked.

[dnoble74]

 

We were on the Mariner of the Seas last month and there were three of us with PowerBooks/iBooks who could not access the Internet either via the WIFI hotspots nor the in-cabin service.

 

I've heard others with Apple notebook computers were able to use them on RCCL ships without any problem, but I'm guessing none of them were on the Mariner.

 

We were on the Mariner (Dec 03) with our iBook. I think it was the 3rd cruise of the Mariner after her maiden voyage. I was told at the Purser's Desk that the internet (or at least the required CD) would not work with Mac's. I was not at all convinced, so I talked the desk manager into letting me try. It turned out their CD was an antivirus CD (by now perhaps you've seen the ads - Mac doesn't worry about viruses like a PC does). I simply connected the iBook to the internet cable, turned on Safari, and everything worked perfectly. (I may have set Network Preferences to "Automatic" - I don't remember for sure.) I reported this back to the Purser's desk, and kept the service for the week. At the time, I did not yet have an AirPort card installed, so I could not try the WiFi spots.

 

Like others, we have had no security problems taking our iBook on cruises (or in hotels for that matter). We just keep it locked out of sight when we are not present in the room. We use it primarily to download our photos to keep the digital camera open for more pictures!

[lv2bcruzin]

For those of you who take your laptop to put your digital cam pics on it. Do you do this to immediately post them somewhere on the net or do you just not have enough memory?

 

I could see taking a laptop for downloading photos to post on the web immediately if your into doing live updates from the ship, but if the camera just doesn't have enough memory I thinnk I would invest in a larger memory card.

 

What size laptops are we talking here. I have a Dell XPS which has a 17inch screen, so it's rather large, but I still plan on taking it for movies on the plane and in the airport.

[sunandsalt]

I've taken my laptop on the last 3 cruises and leave it on the vanity. No problems so far. Hope I didn't jinx it

[gems4me]

How safe are laptops on board. I would like to bring my notebook to get on the Internet and to download photos from my digital camera. Has anyone had their's stolen from their cabin?

Just returned from a cruise on the Navigator on July 1. I brought my laptop and put it in the case and put it in the closet when we left the cabin in the morning; however, when we returned to the cabin in the afternoon I would download my pictures and leave it on the desk until the next morning. I never had a problem with it.

 

When we were ready go leave the ship, my husband said go me "where is your laptop", he was supposed to be in charge of it. It was left in the Boleros Lounge and we were already through Customs, etc., and were at the baggage claim area. They would not leave me on the ship but did send security to see if it were still there and it was right there in the lounge where it was left.

 

I was so thankful since this had all my vacation pictures and all the pictures of my grandson.

 

So, I can honestly say that I had no problems.

[Cuizer2]

For those of you who take your laptop to put your digital cam pics on it. Do you do this to immediately post them somewhere on the net or do you just not have enough memory?

 

I could see taking a laptop for downloading photos to post on the web immediately if your into doing live updates from the ship, but if the camera just doesn't have enough memory I thinnk I would invest in a larger memory card.

 

What size laptops are we talking here. I have a Dell XPS which has a 17inch screen, so it's rather large, but I still plan on taking it for movies on the plane and in the airport.

 

I use my laptop to upload photos from the camera. However, I do not use the Internet while on the ship. I have plenty of memory cards, but I like to be able to actually see the photos. My laptop has a 15 inch screen. The photos are much easier to see the on the laptop then on the 1.5 inch screen on the camera. Besides, using the camera's screen uses up the batteries. Downloading to the computer does not use any battery power.

[taminator]

We were on the Mariner (Dec 03) with our iBook. I think it was the 3rd cruise of the Mariner after her maiden voyage. I was told at the Purser's Desk that the internet (or at least the required CD) would not work with Mac's. I was not at all convinced, so I talked the desk manager into letting me try. It turned out their CD was an antivirus CD (by now perhaps you've seen the ads - Mac doesn't worry about viruses like a PC does). I simply connected the iBook to the internet cable, turned on Safari, and everything worked perfectly. (I may have set Network Preferences to "Automatic" - I don't remember for sure.) I reported this back to the Purser's desk, and kept the service for the week. At the time, I did not yet have an AirPort card installed, so I could not try the WiFi spots.

 

Like others, we have had no security problems taking our iBook on cruises (or in hotels for that matter). We just keep it locked out of sight when we are not present in the room. We use it primarily to download our photos to keep the digital camera open for more pictures!

 

Sigh... one of our friend's son brought his iBook with him with the assumption that he could use the unlimited in-cabin service. He couldn't get it to work with his iBook and I felt really bad. The guest services desk stressed it was for Windows-only computers and offered no other help except to give a refund for the connection kit.

[taminator]

For those of you who take your laptop to put your digital cam pics on it. Do you do this to immediately post them somewhere on the net or do you just not have enough memory?

 

I could see taking a laptop for downloading photos to post on the web immediately if your into doing live updates from the ship, but if the camera just doesn't have enough memory I thinnk I would invest in a larger memory card.

 

What size laptops are we talking here. I have a Dell XPS which has a 17inch screen, so it's rather large, but I still plan on taking it for movies on the plane and in the airport.

 

I brought my 12-inch PowerBook with the idea I would upload photos to my Flickr site from sea, but I had no luck connecting to the WIFI service as noted in another post.

 

I also had the PowerBook to download photos from my compact-flash cards. I have more faith in my laptop than the flash cards, which can easily fail. I always prefer to erase my flash cards after downloading them and start shooting with a clean card.

 

Plus, it was nice to edit through my photos in the cabin and also put together a simple slideshow via iPhoto of the previous day's activities.

[wrp96]

For those of you who take your laptop to put your digital cam pics on it. Do you do this to immediately post them somewhere on the net or do you just not have enough memory?

 

I could see taking a laptop for downloading photos to post on the web immediately if your into doing live updates from the ship, but if the camera just doesn't have enough memory I think I would invest in a larger memory card.

 

What size laptops are we talking here. I have a Dell XPS which has a 17inch screen, so it's rather large, but I still plan on taking it for movies on the plane and in the airport.

 

My Dell also has a 17 inch screen and I took it with me on my Brilliance cruise so I could post live updates. Also came in handy for passing the time in airports waiting.

[Treven]

How safe are laptops on board. I would like to bring my notebook to get on the Internet and to download photos from my digital camera. Has anyone had their's stolen from their cabin?

I always take my laptop with me on land-based vacations as well as on cruises. It's always left out day & night. I've never had any trepidations about leaving it out; this goes for my expensive digital camera as well.

[wanman]

What is the unlimited in cabin internet? How much does that cost?

[hobbit81]

I have taken my laptop on the last two cruises, and plan to do so on our upcoming Freedom Cruise. I have had no issues with security, but I don't leave it out when I am not using it...it goes back in my pack and either under the bed, or gets locked in a piece of luggage under the bed. I figure being onboard a ship is no different than being on the road in a hotel on business. You can't be too careful.

 

I also enjoy downloading my photos each day. I also burn them all on DVD for our travel companions and present it to them at dinner the last night.

 

Ditto here; two cruises no problem with security.

[RDeagazio]

I've always brought my laptop with me and I leave it on the desk, plugged in for the entire cruise and have never had a problem.

[hillsoftexas]

What is the unlimited in cabin internet? How much does that cost?

 

I read that its $100.00 for the cruise..we'll be hookin' up thats for sure..have to stay in touch with everyone and share with those that had to stay home..lol

[LAKaye]

Hello all~~

 

Brian and I travel with our Macs and have had little trouble getting them to work in our cabin---$100 for 7 day cruise. We have not yet sailed on the Mariner, and we have not yet bothered to use the ship WiFi because we get the in cabin service. I am cutting and pasting this instructional guide that Brian wrote a while ago. It looks more complicated than it is; just patiently follow the directions:

 

1) Go to front desk and tell them you have a windows PC. Do not tell them you have a Mac. This is essential. Like unknowing robots, they are told to tell you that the ships don't support Macs; their IT staff is indeed PC only.

 

They will gave you a special cable, and a slip of

paper with an extention number to call.

2) In your room plug the "Fat" connector into the wall port

Labeled INTERNET. Plug the "THIN" end into your machines

modem port.

3) Under the apple symbol in the top left corner pull down to

"LOCATION" then select "NETWORK PREFRENCES"

4) Once in the preference window, under the heading "Location"

choose "new location" name it "CRUISE"

5) Now Select from the option "Show" the line that says

"Network Port configurations"

6) Now UNCHECK everything EXCEPT Modem. You should have one

box checked and it should be the Modem.

7) Now return to "Show" and select "Internal Modem"

8) Make sure the window has the tab labeled PPP highlighted.

9) enter the 4 digit extension the desk gave you into the line

labeled "Telephone Number", you may also enter it into

the line marked "Alternate"

10) all the other boxes should remain blank

11) Now click the tab labeled "Proxies"

Make sure that there are NO BOXES CHECKED

12) Click the button at the bottom labeled "Apply Now"

13) Click the tab labeled PPP

14) Click the button labeled DIAL NOW

15) You should now connect to the ships server.

16) Launch Safari, you should be online

 

I hope that this will help some people on their cruise vacations. I feel a bit of a challenge coming on----what a great excuse to book another cruise: "Dear---we must book the Mariner, just to see if we can get our machines to work!!" I will come up with any excuse to cruise!!!! LOL :)

 

Bons voyages to all~~

 

Leslie

[tswatkins]

you know, if you were really concerned with leaving your laptop or any other valuables in your room or on the ship, you could lock it in the room safe, or I'm sure that the Service Desk can hold it for you in one of their safes (I've heard of people doing this before for items such as jewlery and other high price items). Have fun on your cruise! :)