Skype on board ?

[familytrippers]

Has anyone used Skype while cruising to keep in touch with family back home? I am new to the service but was hoping my husband and I could call our kids (and see them!) while crusing to Alaska at the end of the month. I have to admit, I don't totally get how it works so really don't know if this is even possible on the ship. (we are bringing our skype enabled laptop). thanks!:)

[spongerob]

There are only a few places on the ship where you can use a wireless laptop, and the charges can be quite high. The ship uses satellite for internet connections and has limited bandwidth, so even if you could get on you might not be able to maintain the connection.

[pungo3]

That's a great question and I haven't seen it asked before. As the OP said, internet connection can be tricky onboard, not to mention expensive, so I wouldn't count on it as a means of communication with home.

[Colo Cruiser]

Saw someone on the Sapphire using it last month. :)

At least they were having a conversation with their computer. :eek:

[5Cats]

You may want to consider "skyping" your kids when you are in the ports - you should get much cheaper prices. Of course, then you would have to take your laptop back to the ship or carry it around. Some of the ports are pretty easy to get on and off the ship though.

 

Just a thought..

[clojacks]

I sailed on the Coral's partial transit of the Panama Canal in April and had my wireless enabled laptop containing Skype on it with me. I found the service on the Coral to be incredibly slow and didn't even try using the calling feature of Skype. I did use the texting/chatting feature of Skype and that even seemed to lag at times making the conversations frustrating. Thankfully, my wife and I had each received a Princess coupon booklet in it with a $5 off internet coupon, so we each opened an account on board and actually received a total of $10 off of our internet bill. We hardly used the service as it was sooooo slow, but we were trying to keep tabs on a blizzard that did some damage to our home while we were at sea, and we were wondering if we needed to try to contact someone back home to take care of some issues for us.

[Colo Cruiser]

Saw someone on the Sapphire using it last month. :)

At least they were having a conversation with their computer. :eek:

 

 

And they were getting answers. ;)

[Atomica]

The internet connections on most ships aren't likely to be fast enough to support conversation via Skype, and will probably be more frustrating than it's worth.

 

You'll probably have better luck sending your kids an email or two and calling them in port.

[naras15]

Does anyone know if there are internet cafes for wireless around greece and italy?

[jonikal]

On the Crown's trans-Atlantic recently we were told that the bandwidth wouldn't be sufficient for Skype so we never bothered. After 5 sea days we arrived in the Azores where we had good luck using Skype at the local internet cafe.

For the subsequent ports, the ship was already underway by the time we would have been able to call at a decent hour. Hopefully they will adjust to new technology! At least they now allow laptop use charged to the minutes purchased - they didn't used to and one had to pay extra. The system for logging on has also greatly improved - it's much easier now than swiping the card.

[mmyorkston]

I have used my Sprint card in US ports (Hawaii) for wireless connection. Skype should work OK with that

[donscomp]

Just cant see it working on the slow in motion connections on the ship.

But like the above post. I use verizon Broadband and it would/should be fast enough AROUND the stops to use it. And Alaska being part of th U.S.

 

We also used ours in hawaii. It was great. I would wake up in the early AM. Go out on the balcony and the card would kick in. Loved it. However, it also kicked in in Mexico on the way back. Just for *#its & giggles I connected. Juuuuuuust for a second. 15.00 with no international roaming. LOL

[shining gem]

Hi there!

We sailed on the Diamond last year and took the laptop hoping we could keep in touch with Skype. We couldn't connect to Skype on the ship, despite lots of attempts.

My husband did manage a connection on the promenade deck on sail away one day but we couldn't get a service on board otherwise. He thinks they block it or maybe the service is just too slow.

[familytrippers]

Thank you all so much for the wonderfully helpful info...after reading all your responses and finding others on other boards, I guess we'll just call the kids on our cell phones or email from port! No big deal...just thought our 4 yr old would like to "see" Mom and Dad once or twice...maybe will take the laptop into Skagway and give it a try there one time.

 

One last question...anybody know if the new cell phone service Princess announced earlier in the year is in effect yet on the Sapphire Princess? It's supposed to make all cell phone services work better on board.

 

Really appreciate all the info!

[drbeep]

I was on a recent cruise on the Disney Magic. I used the wireless the wireless network to connect. I was unable to establish a voice connection but, Im still worked.

 

I conducted a speedtest. See image.

 

Eddie

[alanmal]

Has anyone used Skype while cruising to keep in touch with family back home? I am new to the service but was hoping my husband and I could call our kids (and see them!) while crusing to Alaska at the end of the month. I have to admit, I don't totally get how it works so really don't know if this is even possible on the ship. (we are bringing our skype enabled laptop). thanks!:)

 

Skype did not work on the Sapphire last November in Asia, nor did it work this past May in the Med. But, Magic jack does work. Did use it in the Med. go to http://www.magicjack.com/9/index.asp for the info on it.

 

Hope this helps a little. Cell phones work on some ships and others are coming on line, but they have a big fat roaming charge.

 

AL :D

[BigGuy25]

Just for those reading this thread who don't know what Skype is ... it's a on-line service that uses a high-speed internet connection to let you communicate for free through voice and video to anywhere in the world. It's like a free video phone. We use it all the time to keep in touch with our kids and grandson. But I agree, the ship's service would most likely be too slow.

[BurBunny]

I've used Skype for several years, and it's very spotty on ships. Sometimes I can get voice, but rarely. More often, I can use the IM feature.

[Posaune]

Just back off of Crown today and only got Skype to work once.

 

Richard

[Pam in CA]

At least they were having a conversation with their computer. :eek:

I do that all the time, even when I'm not on a cruise. :)

[JBrid23456]

My wife and I were on board the Celebrity Century in December with our laptop. Our internet access was fine but neither Skype nor Google Talk worked. The guy in the internet room said that their bandwidth wasn't high enough. I am not sure this was the reason since I couldn't even get Skype to load.

[Bowie MeMe]

Skype is the way that Meme gets to see the first steps of world's cutest grandson. I guess I will be skyping this weekend instead of going to DGS house if the 20 + inches of snow falls in the DC area. Please resend the memo on skype that Washington DC is a SOUTHERN type city!:eek:

[VegasPier]

Thank you all so much for the wonderfully helpful info...after reading all your responses and finding others on other boards, I guess we'll just call the kids on our cell phones or email from port! No big deal...just thought our 4 yr old would like to "see" Mom and Dad once or twice...maybe will take the laptop into Skagway and give it a try there one time.

 

One last question...anybody know if the new cell phone service Princess announced earlier in the year is in effect yet on the Sapphire Princess? It's supposed to make all cell phone services work better on board.

 

Really appreciate all the info!

 

You might want to be a little cautious with your cell phone while on board. Once out of port the ships have a local net(satellite based I presume) that allows you to use your cell phone while at sea. The problem is that it's rather expensive. I set my cell phone to the airplane mode so that the system will not see me.

 

An interesting situation occurred on the Pacific Princess last August (where I discovered the above mentioned onboard net) was that while tied up at the pier in Vancouver my cell phone would connect to a Canadian provider while I was on the north side of the ship. While I was on the south side of the ship I would receive my normal AT&T connection.

 

Cheers, VegasPier