laptop on Caribbean cruise

[pna]

Have just purchased my first laptop to use when I travel. If we are in a port, will I be able to use the internet via wireless technology or will I have to go to an internet cafe and hook up to use the internet, check e-mail, etc. I prefer not to pay ship prices for minutes on their computers and online. Does Celebrity have internet hook up in the cabins? What does it cost?

[hajekfam]

There is no internet hookup in the cabins on nearly all of Celebrity's ships - however depending on where your cabin is located in respect to a wireless hot spot, you may be able to access the internet. However, you do need to pay for minutes on their ships. The fee currently is 68 cents a minute - but you can buy packages. The $100 package comes out to 38 cents a minute.

There are several wi-fi hot spots on the ship where you can use your laptop. We took our laptop on our back to back as we needed to pay bills since we were gone for over a month. We also had an opportunity to use the ship's computer to access the internet when I needed to print out our car rental papers as we did the online checkin for the car rental while on the ship. We found that using our laptop to access the internet and email was a lot faster than using the ship's computers. The difference in speed between the ship's computer and our laptop for accessing and using the internet was about the same as the difference between dial up (representing ship's computer) and broadband (representing our laptop).

[J-man]

Aboard ship, you will pay shipboard rates for Internet access (currently 65 cents/minute on Celebrity, though you can cut this about in half if you pre-pay for a lot of minutes). At most ports, you will find cheap or free wi-fi in bars or cafes near the pier.

[pinebro]

Any Idea If You Can Use Skype Or A Similar Internet Based Video Phone ?

[J-man]

I wouldn't advise it. The ship's bandwidth is quite tight ... expect download speeds closer to dial-up than broadband.

[hajekfam]

Aboard ship, you will pay shipboard rates for Internet access (currently 65 cents/minute on Celebrity, though you can cut this about in half if you pre-pay for a lot of minutes). At most ports, you will find cheap or free wi-fi in bars or cafes near the pier.

On our cruises in Nov and Dec, the rate is 68 cents per minute without the package. Packages ranged from $40 to $100 with the $100 package per minute price only 38 cents. The more expensive the package, the lower the per minute cost - however no refunds for unused minutes and no carryover on a back to back cruise.

[J-man]

On our cruises in Nov and Dec, the rate is 68 cents per minute without the package.

 

The rate was $.65/minute last week on Millennium.