Wi-Fi

[tiffstulips]

What is the charge to use the Wi-Fi on the ship? I will be bringing my laptop. Anything else I should know about bringing my own computer?

Thanks bunches!

[MisterMatt]

Im a new guy, but I believe I read .50/minute or you can pre-pay your time in various bundles.

[tiffstulips]

Bundles like 30 min for $10, something like that??

[Head Shot]

It would listed on their website. The 150 min is $ 50, best deal of the tier

[wraithe]

$25 for 60 minutes

$35 for 90 minutes

$50 for 150 minutes

 

Buy the plan, the minutes are yours, don't use them all, no refunds. There are usually coupons for free internet in the C&A coupon books, I think 10 minutes gold, 15 minutes platinum, probably more for diamond, d+.

[Morecruisesplz]

Save some money!

Set up your email account as a POP3 in Outllook or Outlook Express on your laptop. Then uncheck under Tools/Options "send and receive at startup" and "check for new messages..."

Sign onto your ship account with your laptop and make sure you are connected. (It will tell you how many minutes you have left.) Now click on Send/Receive in your email program. When it is done getting messages, disconnect from the interent -- it will tell you how many minutes you used. (I copy and paste that into a notepad page.)

 

Then read and reply to your messages and repeat the process. You will be amazed how few minutes you use a day when you aren't "burning" internet time while reading and writing messages.

[kittymom65]

It looks like I may have to take my laptop with me for work purposes. My company will pick up the cost, so I am not really concerned about that.

How do you establish a wifi account? I have never taken my laptop cruising before.

[wraithe]

It looks like I may have to take my laptop with me for work purposes. My company will pick up the cost, so I am not really concerned about that.

How do you establish a wifi account? I have never taken my laptop cruising before.

 

You have to swipe your seapass card at one of the ship's terminals first, select set up wi-fi account, you'll be prompted to select a log in name and password, and prompted to purchase a package (you can purchase one or not at that point). You log off the ship's terminal and go to your laptop.

 

Once you start up your laptop, wait until it tells you that wi-fi networks are available, pick Royal Wi-Fi and wait until it connects, you aren't paying for anything yet, so don't panic.

 

Once you're connected to Royal Wi-Fi, pop up Internet Explorer, it'll open up to Royal's splash page and give you a log in window. Type in your log in name and password, it'll authenticate and then give you a window that tells you how much time you have left and an elapsed time clock. Make sure that you're IE will connect to your normal home page and then download your mail. Once you've got your mail, click on the log in window and log off (I'm a little paranoid, so I actually turn off my wi-fi connection as well, there have been people who never logged off and got multiple hundred dollar internet fees). Read your mail, write returns, like fredmdcruisers said, then log on and send, log off again and you're ready for next time.

 

Some tips, don't log on at high traffic times, like lunch time on a sea day, you'll just waste your time. Early morning or late evening, or even better, while everyone is ashore during a port call, you'll get decent speed. Hope this helps.

[Morecruisesplz]

(I'm a little paranoid, so I actually turn off my wi-fi connection as well, there have been people who never logged off and got multiple hundred dollar internet fees).

 

Some tips, don't log on at high traffic times, like lunch time on a sea day, you'll just waste your time. Early morning or late evening, or even better, while everyone is ashore during a port call, you'll get decent speed. Hope this helps.

 

Wraithe has an excellent point about closing your wi-fi connection. I've never thought of that but will do so in the future. It is much easier than my method -- which I described in early post -- where I keep track of my minutes used in notepad by copying the close out page and pasting it into a file. Every cruise I've found time missing! It's usually 30 minutes but might happen more than once on a cruise. I think it might be when you log off while their system is down but I'm just guessing. The pursor's desk has always been fair about adding the time back when I present my list but it's a pain. With his method it is fool proof!

 

His tips are also excellent about when to use the internet. Most will post here about how terribly slow it is and how they spent all their time attempting to connect (not really possible) but if you wait until you see no one at those computers onboard -- then it is a good time to try. The number of people logged in at one time makes a huge difference.

[kittymom65]

:) Thank you both so very much!

I have never actually seen the process described, so that makes me feel better to know how it will work.

Thanks for the tips, also, I will keep them in mind.