Glory Wi-Fi ?

[richym1]

I have read they have wireless internet access on the Glory. We sail 8/14 and I was wondering where the transmitter is located. Can I log on from our room located on deck 10 near the bow? How much does it cost? Is it worth going out to get a Wi-Fi card for my laptop? I would like to send pictures and update our website from the ship, if I have any time. Thanks!

[watermo]

Richy, on the Roll Call Board the week of July 3 was a gentleman using wireless internet and sent an update of the daily activities. He was in the Cigar Bar he had mentioned. It may be worth you time to go check the roll call "Sailing on the Glory July 3rd" or something like that.

 

Naoma

[richym1]

Thanks! I will do that. If it's a pain, or very expensive, I'll wait to get home to post my review and pictures.

[CCLNCLRCICRUISER]

From the carnival website re:wi fi

 

Can I access the internet while on board?For those guests who want the option of staying connected to the everyday world, we have implemented Internet Cafes fleetwide.

 

The Cafe is open 24-hours a day and features private workstations with the latest flat panel computer terminals. Guests will have the ability to send and receive e-mail and access Internet sites. Guests can access their home account through AOL, Hotmail, Juno or Yahoo or have the option of setting up their very own temporary account on board with our CruiseE-mail.

 

The computers are equipped with WordPad.

 

The Internet is accessed via satellite through a satellite modem and guests are able to surf the internet as if they were at home. Files can be downloaded as "read only" but cannot be saved, since a floppy disk cannot be inserted into the PC's.

 

The Internet connection speed is able to connect with bursts of 2.5 megs and 128 kbps upstream.

 

If Palm Pilots are wireless than guests can take advantage of our wireless access.

 

Guests may bring their own personal Laptop for use on board by using our Wireless Internet Service.

 

If the laptop is not equipped with a Wireless Internet Card, guests will need to rent one from the Internet Cafe.

 

If the laptop is running on Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows 98 or Windows 95, software will be installed in order to run the Wireless System. This will take approximately five minutes.

 

If the laptop is running on Windows XP, the above software is not needed. The Wireless Internet Service is compatible with a Wireless 802.11b card, which is the industry standard.

 

Even with the wireless service, guest's personal Laptop must be used in close proximity of the Internet Cafe. It cannot be used in guest’s staterooms.

 

Internet Cafe Price List

 

Charges for the following services will be billed directly to guest's Sail and Sign Account as follows:

A one time activation fee is $3.95.

To obtain a temporary account while on board, the set-up charge is $3.95.

To print information, the charge is $.50-per page.

 

To utilize the service of the Internet Cafe, whether using a private workstation, renting a laptop or using the guest's personal laptop, the charge is:

$.75-per minute.

Block of Minutes (no refund for unused minutes):

 

3, 4 or 5 Day Cruise

30 minutes for $16.50 (.55 per minute).

60 minutes for $24.00 (.40 per minute).

 

 

7 Day Cruise or Longer

100 minutes for $55.00 (.55 per minute).

250 minutes for $100.00 (.40 per minute).

 

To rent a Wireless Internet Card for a guest's personal laptop, the rate is $10.00 per day. To rent a Laptop, the charge is $35.00 per day; optional insurance is $10.00 per day

[richym1]

Thanks you! That answers all my questions. (Guess I should have looked there first). I'll wait till I get home to post. .75 a minute is a joke!

[FurryCruiser]

I found this out the hard way on my cruise on the Fantasy... if taking your own laptop, it MUST be running a windows operating system. Macintoshes and Linux system will not connect to the network. Or at least, I and another system admin weren't able to get it to work, and about drove the Internet Cafe "expert" to tears.

[vjgraham]

i tried the wifi on the Glory back in may of this year, i was less than 20 feet from the cafe using a wireless g card. my speeds were barely 3time dial up. at home from 60 feet away i can get 40 times speed of dial up on my wireleee network. just something to think about. plus i feel that the access charges are way too high. hope this info helps you:)

[richym1]

I agree. It's way too expensive. I have cable at home, and it only takes seconds to upload pages with pictures. I can work on the report onboard and upload them when we get back. Our first week we'll be at Disney World, and I can post from there. Someday they will have highspeed access in every stateroom.

[OhioJeff]

Here is an interesting article regarding wi-fi

 

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040719/sfm038_1.html

[FurryCruiser]

Folks, the Wi-Fi on the ship is as fast or faster than you have at your house. It's not the Wi-Fi that is the delay here...

 

The bottle neck is the fact that from the ship to the rest of the internet you are on a satelite uplink connection, which is slow. Period. At home, you have a DSL or cable modem connection, there is a physical cable connecting you. Transmission speeds are much higher for that. The total bandwith on a cruise ship isn't going to improve greatly until either a) satelite uplink technology improves, which is going to be quite gradual because there isn't the market as there is for home and business networking and it is a massive capital investment to loft satelites with improved capabilities, or b) the cruise ship has a massive, several hundred miles long, fiber optic cable it drops off the back connected to the shore that it unrolls during the cruise and re-rolls on its way home. For some reason, I don't see the latter as being terribly likely.

 

Furry

[vjgraham]

Dear Furrycruiser,

 

While reading your previous post, I'm sure i detected a little bit of unecessary sarcasm on your part concerning wi-fi speeds via satellite uplink. While I was duly impressed by your bountiful knowledge when it comes to the various aspects of broadband wi-fi access, I did not need the tongue lashing you obviously were trying to impose on me and others discussing the relative speed or lack thereof on cruise ships.While I am well aware of the valid points that you brought up, but did you have to do it a condescending tone? We were just discussing the slow speed of the wi-fi and not the technology behind it all.

 

 

By the way I happen to be head of the IT department for a very large fortune 500 company, so please do not talk to me as if i am computer illiterate. This is suppose to be a discussion about the aspects of cruising and not a lecture about technology obviously meant to try to demean non computer savy cruisers. Nuff said!

[vjgraham]

Soloalaskancruiser,

 

 

thanks for the link you mentioned above. This sounds very promising, if it comes to fruition one day. It looks like HAL has the right idea. If they can implement it correctly there will be alot of happy wireless laptop users sailing their ships.

[richym1]

In a perfect world...They would place Wi-Fi stations all over the ship. Placing them in all the bars and lounges could also be a great $$ making move. I just think it would be fun to send some picture postcards to folks back home. Maybe I'll drop that one into a suggestion box...

Look for my report and photos from our 8/14 Glory Cruise! http://members.aol.com/richym1

[GoinCruisin]

Vigraham, I read the post and I really did not see it as a "tongue lashing" at all... remember that sometimes things may come across differently when typed... and I don't think it was directed at anyone in particular.... you may understand the reasons for the slow speed on the ship, but others may not. I for one, don't expect anything even close to the speed I get on land and I am just thankful that they have an option available these days, and really wish I did not have the need for it, but I do :( Also, while HAL expanding it's hotspots is a nice thought, the speed as mentioned above, will remain a problem.... high speed acess will never be available in staterooms because, well... no cables :D I'm sorry you saw the above post as harsh and sarcastic, but I really don't think it was mean to come across that way, at least I didn't see it that way at all... Let's all smile and be happy :)

[vjgraham]

GoinCruisin

 

You are probably right, I may have overeacted a tad bit. Thanks for puting a different perspective on the matter.:o

[FurryCruiser]

Didn't meant to be sarcastic, really. Was more trying to be tongue-in-cheek in pointing out something that some folks might not be aware of, because they aren't in the field (I'm also an admin of a large telecom company, and deal with the wireless end part of the time). Part of any negative vibes from me may have also come from working with one of the cruise ship cafe managers, and listening to her get repeated tongue lashings from passengers about "the ship connection is so much slower than my DSL/Cable at home" and honestly had meant to point out, in a nice way, the slight technology bottle neck.

 

If someone goes onto a cruise expecting they are going to get as fast a connection on the ship as at home, they may be frustrated. However, knowing there is a reason and about the situation before hand, they can be ready for it and not have it be a frustration point for them or ships staff at the time.

 

Again, I really hadn't intended the sarcasm or criticism you read in my post; since you did, I obviously should have said things better.

 

Furry

[vjgraham]

FurryCruiser,

My apologies for the overreaction to your post. Maybe I did take it too personally. I realize that like Goincruisin pointed out that you were really not meaning the sarcasm that i took it to be. From one professional to another, it is always welcome to hear insight from others. Happy cruising!:o ;) Thanks