Skype

[Kununoppin]

Has anyone tried using Skype on their laptop on any of the Silversea ships? I figure that using the ship internet charges of $0.50 per minute will be much less than cell phone charges in most of the Black Sea countries. Will it work?

[FlyerTalker]

Many cruise lines block access to the Skype servers, because of 1) distraction of having conversations in the computer room, 2) bandwidth issues, 3) loss of revenue for the "telephone profit center" onboard.

 

Ditto on streaming video sites (Hulu, TV.com et al) for 1) and 2).

 

Cannot speak specifically to Silversea, but I would wager they block access for the above reasons. If you do get through, congrats. BTW, you can definitely access Skype once ashore at hotspots and internet cafes.

[CanadianKate]

We run our own business and thus need to be in contact with the office even when cruising. We used Skype to phone in to our voicemail daily (in May/June of 07 & 08) and it was not blocked. Some of the guest performers also use Skype for voice calls (we were chatting about that one night at dinner.)

 

It isn't good quality and I'd hate to do an important call with it but it isn't blocked.

[FlyerTalker]

Good to know....thanks for the update.

[Kununoppin]

Thanks for the info. I'm taking my laptop for our Silversea cruise next week, and I'll try to report back how Skype works.:D

[FlyerTalker]

Thanks for the info. I'm taking my laptop for our Silversea cruise next week, and I'll try to report back how Skype works.:D

Assume that's on the Wind...definitely, please report on the internet experience on that ship, both Skype and the wifi. Thanks.

[Keith1010]

What I've found is that cruise lines are blocking Skype where there is a lot of contention for the Internet. Just an observation but based on my recent experience with Silversea I think far fewer passengers use the internet as much as some other lines as I found the response time to be excellent. My only problem was that I had to keep the door ajar to get to the internet. But aside from that the connections speeds were quite good. I brought my own computer but the few times I passed the computer area I rarely saw anyone on it. So, based on what I observed I would have said that Skype would be fine because I do not think many people use it on the ship and of course CanadianKate's post indicates she could use Skype.

 

Keith

[unfathomable]

Assuming that you're using the ship's satellite Internet connection, you have to deal with the high latency on this type of connection. Probably no problem for voicemail, but not so good for a conversation. And a bit antisocial if somebody else is trying to share the same bandwidth.

[greencardwpb]

I just used Skype on the Silver Whisper a few weeks ago. The in suite documentation said that high bandwith sites were blocked (Skype was specifically mentioned) but I found it was not and it worked fine for me. Keep in mind that since the internet connection is via satellite the quality will vary depending upon the ship's position, weather, etc. I only used Skype for voice calls. If you're planning on video calls it may be quite different.

[billcrooz]

rerlax ;it's called a VACATION! 15 years ago none of this technolgy existed; and we had so much more fun; more time in the lounges !

[LBR#48]

I was on the Cloud in the Mediterranean last year and it worked just fine for me. I was using both audio & video.

[Hotbroker]

Has anyone used their I-Phone with Skype application? I am leaving Friday Sept. 5th on the Cloud and would like to use my I-Phone. Happy Labor Day.

[Keith1010]

Has anyone used their I-Phone with Skype application? I am leaving Friday Sept. 5th on the Cloud and would like to use my I-Phone. Happy Labor Day.

 

I would not recommend doing that. I suspect that the roaming charges would be incredibly high IMHO.

 

Keith

[Kununoppin]

We returned from 11 days on the Wind yesterday. I had tested Skype on my laptop on a wireless network before we left, and it worked fine. During the cruise, I logged onto SS wireless network in my cabin (425) without any problems, downloading my email into Outlook from an Exchange Server. However, when I tried to use Skype, it appeared to "connect" but was so slow that it effectively didn't work. I suspect that they don't block Skype, but restrict bandwith that makes it unusable.

[Keith1010]

On another cruise line they used to allow Skype but the ships just don't have the band width to accomodate this without impacting all other users. So, in the end the cruise line restricted access to this and some other web sites that require considerable bandwidth.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience

 

Keith