Bring the lap top?

[sailorgirl]

While cruising, I get on the Internet daily and have always gone to the Internet Cafe area and used their computers. But there could be a safety issue there if you wanted to go into your banking or use your credit card or something. Do most of you take a lap top along? We're always in a sky suite and there is no connection there so one would have to carry the lap top around the ship to find a wi fi location, right? I'm wondering if it's worth it to have a lap top on the ship. Any input here?

[ECCruise]

While cruising, I get on the Internet daily and have always gone to the Internet Cafe area and used their computers. But there could be a safety issue there if you wanted to go into your banking or use your credit card or something. Do most of you take a lap top along? We're always in a sky suite and there is no connection there so one would have to carry the lap top around the ship to find a wi fi location, right? I'm wondering if it's worth it to have a lap top on the ship. Any input here?

 

I wouldn't worry about the security of the system. If, however, you do a large volume of emails, it does save money to compose offline and transmit from your laptop rather than sitting at a ship computer with the clock running. Unless you are sailing on Century (where wi-fi is available ship-wide) you will have to get yourself to one of the limited hotspots available. It all depends on how much you plan to be online.

 

Hope this helps.

[wolfshadow]

I'm interested in knowing this, also. What is the lowest internet package available and what is included?

[Lsimon]

We usually lug a small laptop around but more for backing up our photos and so I can work on sorting them on the flight home. You usually need to go to a lounge or at least a chair by the mid ship elevator to get wifi. I suppose there some cabins that might be near some of these hot spots but I wouldn't count on that.

 

Service on the ship is painfully slow. On one of our cruses last year the computers in the cafe were extraordinarily slow themselves. It took a couple minuites just to get through the sign in screen let alone the internet connection speed. On that cruise our laptop worked a little better than the cafe since it wasn't bogged down by whatever was slowing the on-board computers. On other cruises there has not been any speed difference from the on-board computers and the internet connections are generally a little slower than dial up connections.

 

sorry - I don't remember the package prices but it was the same price for laptop as ship computer. I think it was $0.50 or $0.60/minute and packages offered a small discount for multiples of 100 minuites - but I'm a little foggy on my recollection as I never buy a package. If you are Select or Elite captains club there is usually coupon for some bonus minuites with purchase of a package.

[sailorgirl]

I would always purchase the largest package which is $100 for 260 minutes. Otherwise, the rate without buying a package is 65 cents a minutes I think. And there are deals in between.

[pna]

Is it true if you take one of the computer or internet classes they give you some free minutes?

[pinebro]

has anyone tryed internet video phone calls from your laptop while at sea ?

also, does the Mercury have wifi ?

 

thx!

[ECCruise]

has anyone tryed internet video phone calls from your laptop while at sea ? Most (like Skype) are usually blocked.

also, does the Mercury have wifi ? Yes, in limited areas of the ship.

thx!

 

Hope this helps.

[pinebro]

ECCruise - do they block all of Skype, or just video conf?

 

thank you !

[pinebro]

ECCruise - do they block all of Skype, or just video conf?

 

thank you !

[Lsimon]

ECCruise - do they block all of Skype, or just video conf?

 

thank you !

 

Generally the connection speed is slower than dial up so the bandwidth is very limited. This is not what we'd call "broadband" service. Unless we have something really important we won't use the on board internet just because the slow speed is so frustrating - it can take several minuites just to get to that first page where your email is listed let alone read it.

 

With all that in mind, I really doubt that anything like Skype would work for voice let alone video even if it wasn't blocked. If you need faster service and it is important to you then your best bet is in a land based internet cafe - you'll often be able to find these at local ports.

[hajekfam]

We took our computer on our last cruise as we were going to be away from home for 36 days and had to pay bills, transfer funds between accounts, book our rental car for after the cruise, etc. We actually found the speed on our laptop to be faster than the ship's computer (we had to use the ship's computer to print out our car rental paperwork- On our laptop I was able to research various prices, rent the car, and fill out the paperwork for online checkin in less time that in took me to just get to the website for the paperwork on the ship''s computer.). We were very fortunate in that our cabin was a few decks above the internet cafe and we were able to use our computer in the cabin.

[berryhappy24]

We packed ours at the last minute. It turned out to be the best thing we did. I would usually set up at the Cova on Millie, have a coffee and work on the computer. Some tables had plugs if it was needed. I never had to wait for a computer, especially when our cruise was cancelled and the computer lab was packed with a wait line. We were able to download photos every night and review our day, research restaurants and sights and then plan the rest of our trip when ours was drastically modified.

 

We mostly used a Blackberry with international service for email, but the computer came in handy.

[smdubowsky]

I had my laptop on the Summit last week. Mostly used it for photos. I did take their $80.00 package. Because I was an elite member of the Captain's Club, I received an additional 20% in time so I had about 3hrs of internet time. I didn't think I would use it all but on the last day of the cruise I had 88 cents of credit left!

 

The staff claimed that now there is more bandwidth in the connection which should translate to higher speeds, but I found that while sometimes it appeared that things moved along more quickly, often the connection was down, especially when we were at sea.

 

The wi-fi coverage did not extend to our cabin , but since we were on the same floor as the library, I often went there. Coverage was also available in some of the other public spaces including the buffet area.

 

I did see one passenger in the computer room using Skype. It loked like he was having a hard time but was getting through. I would not even attempt a video call with the bandwidth provided on the ship.

 

I agree that if you are doing multiple financial transactions on the internet while you are on a cruise, you'd be better off with your own laptop. I needed to do a couple on my laptop and all went quite well.

[drrich2]

Things you can do with your notebook:

 

1.) Type notes daily & use later in a scrapbook or a photo & text book (i.e.: www.blurb.com, www.mypublisher.com) to chronical your adventure while it's fresh on your mind.

 

2.) Quickly use your web browser to open several web pages for sites you like to read (i.e.: daily devotional, news stories, comics, etc...) or get your e-mail, log off, then later read over you content in your room offline & not using costly minutes.

 

3.) Type your e-mail up in your room, & THEN go log on & send it, then log off.

 

4.) Looks at your photos onscreen. Might tip you off that you're camera's mode wheel accidently got knocked over on the wrong setting, & all your photos that day were blurry or grossly overexposed & useless, so you don't do the same thing tomorrow.

 

Richard.

[TC Cruiser]

I brought my MacBook on board the Millennium and purchased a $60 package for 120 minutes, I think. Do whatever you can offline, such as composing an email to friends and then connect just long enough to send a receive email and check the news sites. Always remember to use the hyperlink to disconnect and stop the clock.

 

You'll probably find that your email software can only receive but not send email. You can ask for the SMTP settings but I found it easiest to use a web browser-based email service for sending mail. I use Gmail.

[sailorgirl]

I'm the original poster and I appreciate all this input but now I have another question. I'm a real neophyte when it comes to lap tops. I often need to print out an email while traveling. Using the ship's computer in their Internet Cafes, there is always a nearby printer. How does that work if you're sitting in a wi fi area and you want to print something?

[sailorgirl]

Do the wi fi areas have a printer to connect to?

[TC Cruiser]

I never tried to print but you might be able to print from one of their workstations. I'm not sure that you would be able to print from your notebook.

 

Has anyone tried this?

[Pontius Navigator]

We were about 70 feet or so from the central area and my laptop showed reasonable signal strength to the ships network but we were unable to connect.

 

They say there is no connectivity in the cabins and that would seem to be the case.

 

For printing I think you can use a USB pen and the workstations.

[sailorgirl]

Sorry for the lack of knowledge, but what is a USB "pen"?

 

I have had no problem printing from the ship computers/work stations but now that I'm considering purchasing and taking along a lap top, I'm trying to figure all these things out.

[wolfshadow]

Sorry for the lack of knowledge, but what is a USB "pen"?

 

I have had no problem printing from the ship computers/work stations but now that I'm considering purchasing and taking along a lap top, I'm trying to figure all these things out.

I'm assuming they meant that you could hook up your laptop to their printer with a USB port connection and then use a 'pin number' that they obviously would have to have given you when you bought the internet package.

[Lsimon]

To print you have to print from one of their computers. Once upon a time you could use their computers no charge for things that are not on-line (like word processing etc.) not sure if that is still the case or not.

 

We've found more than one wireless signal on board, but only one you can log into. So you might see a signal that is not open to passengers in some areas, in addition to the one that is in the hot spots for passengers.