Wi Fi on the Ruby?

[travelersrus]

Wondering if anyone has had experience with free WiFi access during their Cruise on the Ruby? Am I likely to find it and use it while in port, thus allowing me to get email and is it worth while to take laptop?

[cynbar]

We had WiFi everywhere on the ship for our January cruise, including in our cabin. We took our laptop and really enjoyed being able to log in wherever we wanted. Very user friendly, also. However, you pay for it unless you are Elite or Platinum with Princess, in which case you get a certain amount of free minutes. You can either pay by the minute or buy a package. I think our package was $75 for 150 minutes. Even in port, the only network my computer found was the one on the Ruby (we didn't take it off the ship, however.)

[Pressure_Drop]

Didn't have a lot of success on the Sea Princess, told by the guy running the Internet Cafe (strange that, couldn't get a coffee in there?) that because of all the metal used in the ship the wireless connection was a bit unstable and advised using their PCs - purchased 100 minutes for $55 - lucky to have got a connection for a quarter of that time - personally would advise not taking a laptop.

[chamima]

Wondering if anyone has had experience with free WiFi access during their Cruise on the Ruby? Am I likely to find it and use it while in port, thus allowing me to get email and is it worth while to take laptop?

 

Yes the Ruby has wifi in the cabins.

The best thing about having your own computer and using the wifi in the cabin is that you can compose your emails while off line and then cut and paste when you log in, thus saving the paid time you're on line.

Just make SURE you log out of the ship's system when you're done! Others have posted about going through 700 minutes overnight when they forgot to do this!

[dsawyer]

Yes the Ruby has wifi in the cabins.

The best thing about having your own computer and using the wifi in the cabin is that you can compose your emails while off line and then cut and paste when you log in, thus saving the paid time you're on line.

Just make SURE you log out of the ship's system when you're done! Others have posted about going through 700 minutes overnight when they forgot to do this!

 

I was on the Ruby last week and I had great WIFI connection in my cabin was was C743, the last cabin before the cabins across the back.

 

Yes, we inadvertantly did not log out the last morning of our cruise. Actually, we thought we did by clicking on the logout button but one must type 1.1.1.1 in the address bar to be sure.

 

All of our complimentary minutes were used up and we had a lot left. We would not have been too upset about losing our comp minutes but we also had a $30.00 charge. Not a pleasant way to end our cruise with this surprise.

 

The Internet guy on the Ruby was so curt and almost nasy that he infuriated my husband. The girl at the passenger relations desk was almost as bad. My husband was so upset that he said he might cancel our next cruise and never cruise on Princess again. And she said "That's just fine." This was our 16th Princess cruise and never has my husband got mad on a ship.

 

If Princess is going to charge people for these misques than they better have a better pr way to go about informing people than the cold way they go about it.

 

The Internet guy finally took off our charge but not without a lot of unpleasantness first. Our cruise was PERFECT up until then.

 

I wish I had read about the heartache some were encountering before I went on the Ruby and I would have been atuned to this problem.

 

If you know about it ahead of time, then surely it won't happen to you.

 

Look for the logout page every time you log out that displays how many minutes you used.

 

There is no other reason to explain why Princess is doing this to passengers except to make a few extra bucks.

 

In this world today, any network times one out after a certain amount of inactivity but the Princess meter keeps on running. :eek:

[donscomp]

I go as far as Kill (disable) my wireless nic card. Not taking ANY chances and it only takes a second to enable it. Then around (usa) ports I use my Verizon data card. DSL speeds and works great. Way faster than the ship but hey, when out at sea, at least the IS internet.

[dsawyer]

I go as far as Kill (disable) my wireless nic card. Not taking ANY chances and it only takes a second to enable it. Then around (usa) ports I use my Verizon data card. DSL speeds and works great. Way faster than the ship but hey, when out at sea, at least the IS internet.

 

 

Good idea to do that. I assure you it won't happen to me again.

 

What really bugged us is we have used Princess Internet since 1999 when they first came out with it on the Grand Princess and never had a logout issue. However, we have seen many a minute lost over the last 10 year period because of the slowness of their system.

 

On the Emerald Princess Transatlantic in October, 2007, sometimes it took 10 minutes just to send 1 email and sometimes we even had to resend it. We waisted a lot of minutes but didn't complain or get mad because they couldn't really help it.

We did tell passenger relations about how slow the system was in hopes that it could be improved but not in a demanding way.

 

But when the shoe is on the other foot, they want to show no tolerance. :confused:

[WWCJR]

Yes the Ruby has wifi in the cabins.

The best thing about having your own computer and using the wifi in the cabin is that you can compose your emails while off line and then cut and paste when you log in, thus saving the paid time you're on line.

Just make SURE you log out of the ship's system when you're done! Others have posted about going through 700 minutes overnight when they forgot to do this!

 

No need to cut and paste. I have my email program setup so that I can just download it my computer, logoff, read it, compose the new email still in my email program, then log back on and hit the send button. It is very fast this way using the minimum amount of time logged on to the ship's internet. Most of the time I could do it all even sending upwards of 10 to 15 pintures in the email in under 5 minutes. I do use a program (Fotosizer) to reduce the size of the pictures so they aren't so large and take less time to send.

 

It is very important to ensure that you are truly logged off and you see the report on the number of minutes that you just used and the amount of time remaining. If you do not see this it is best to manually log off as this will not hurt if you are already logged off.

 

We were recently on the Ruby on Baja in and inside cabin and were able to use the WiFi in our cabin but it was a little weak if at the desk. Over closer to the wall toward the door it worked fine. I finally found a use for the dumb little table that is always in the way.

[dsawyer]

We keep missing each other on cruises by one week. I was on the Ruby the week after you I think and the week before you on The Caribbean Princess. :)

[cynbar]

dsawyer, I don't want to sound unpleasant here, but why was your husband so mad about the $30 charge if you agree you didn't log off properly?? I'm not trying to flame you, I'd just like to understand. Did you think you shouldn't be charged because you are Elite? I was on the Ruby in January, and the logout instructions were clearly displayed every time I logged in.

[dsawyer]

dsawyer, I don't want to sound unpleasant here, but why was your husband so mad about the $30 charge if you agree you didn't log off properly?? I'm not trying to flame you, I'd just like to understand. Did you think you shouldn't be charged because you are Elite? I was on the Ruby in January, and the logout instructions were clearly displayed every time I logged in.

 

 

I'm glad you didn't have any problem. :)