Mercruiser

Starlink will significantly help the sloth-like internet. I say that based on our personal experience with Starlink on Azamara Onward. But unfortunately, it will do nothing to fix the lack of a wifi signal in many of the cabins. Those are two different technical issues requiring two different technical solutions. Hopefully Cunard will add additional wifi access points in the hallways to solve the cabin problem. Here is an example from Onward. Notice "Starlink" in the lower left. And notice the small Ping times

That's easy to answer: Azamara Onward. See my thread on the Azamara board. She is consistently getting 90+Mbps.

You are welcome. Go early to the purser's office. There have been long lines the entire cruise.

There is a wifi router in the hallway between cabins 6289 & 6291. Basically 1 door away. You should be okay.

Unfortunately, yes. I say unfortunately because I'm listening to an excellent pianist in Carinthia lounge and a woman nearby is attempting to answer a phone call. I am relieved to see that the call fails to connect even when she attempts to call back. I really dislike it when people force me to listen to their calls in restaurants, especially when they talk loudly, as many people do on phone calls. If Starlink were operational, I'm sure the call would have gone through. Steve4031, I'm sure you intend to make your Skype calls from the privacy of your cabin. 😁

This is from today's Daily Programme on the QM2. We disembark on Friday.

Here is my last speedtest for the old QM2 satellite internet system. Now that Starlink is being installed, it seems we have all the data needed for a comparison between old and new. Once Starlink is installed, expect the text circled in yellow to include "Starlink" Also expect the Ping times, circled in red, to be dramatically reduced. The 2061 download Ping time means there is a 2 second delay in downloads, due to the old satellites being 20,000 miles from early. The Starlink satellites are only 500 km away.

I used Lyft. The Marriott will give you a $15 off coupon which brings the cost down to about $10. Hint: Book a Lyft XL. It costs about the same as a standard Lyft but gets you a larger, newer vehicle.

Princess appears to be handling that by limiting the bandwidth for any one user. Azamara only has 700 passengers max. Starlink Maritime uses antennas in pairs. It appears that QM2 is getting 6 pairs or 6X the bandwidth of a single pair. That seems reasonable for a 3000 passenger ship.

ballroom-cruisers: See my response here

ballroom-cruisers asked on another thread: "Is that on QM2 and are they working on the installation during the voyage? I guess once the antennas are installed on the upper deck area, all the rest of the work is under cover within the ship once the cabling from the antennas is linked in to the central networking hardware in wherever the comms centre is on the ship. It is possible that the rest of the network cabling throughout the ship is being left as it is, with the only difference being the external router is feeding signal from Starlink rather than from the box that was connected to the original satellite antenna(s)? At some point improving the (many) wireless routers around the ship so that better wifi is fed to cabins and public areas may be on the cards, but unless a discussion is held with the engineers who are actually doing the install, or the managers who are directly involved with the decisions, then it will remain supposition and speculation!" I'm going to answer here. Yes it is QM2 mid-voyage on a TA. I expect that Starlink will significantly improve the internet speed and responsiveness. But it will do nothing to prove the wifi coverage on the ship. They need new/more wifi access points to solve that problem. Until then, go to a public area and look for an access point (I'll post a photo later) and seat yourself nearby to have a good wifi signal. I tried talking to the installation guys on the top deck. Unfortunately, their English was no better than my Italian.

I forgot to explain in my original post, Starlink is a new satellite internet system that is typically 10X faster than the existing satellite systems. My personal experience with Starlink is on Azamara Onward (former Pacific Princess) which pretty consistently provides 90+ Mbps. That's than fast enough to stream 4k video. But more important, the Starlink satellites are only 500 km above earth, compared to 20,000 miles for the geosynchronous satellites used by legacy systems being used by QM2 up till now. The 40,000 mile round trip distance to the satellite causes a 1 second delay that makes it seem slower. Starlink will be a significant improvement.

I think we might be on the last cruise with this internet system. They are installing Starlink right now as I type. See my other post on Starlink.

I have not talked to them. But if I see them again I'll try to find out.

Yes, the weather has been blue skies all the way so far. The waves have been minimal, not even white caps most of the time. I know this sounds strange, but I was kind of hoping for a storm so I could experience QM2's famed seakeeping abilities.

I'm 95% sure these are Starlink antennas being installed today on QM2. We are approaching midway in our eastbound TA. I've been following Starlink installs on Azamara, and this is what the antennas look like.

I paid $144 for the whole voyage starting on day 2. (I had cell phone data till 10pm the day of departure.) I'm booked in an inside cabin, so I guess this was my extra spend.

I'm sorry to hear that it's not working for you. I have very good WiFi in my cabin. But that is just luck since I had no prior knowledge of WiFi access point locations. I'm glad I went with the Premium plan, based on D&N's review.

In February, I was on the StarLink-equipped Azamara Onward (former Pacific Princess) on a Lima Peru to Miami Panama Canal cruise. The Starlink system worked especially well. The speeds were very consistent. Starlink works very well up to the +/- 60 degree latitudes. North of 60 degrees, as on a Norway cruise, Starlink does not work nearly as well due to the relatively few satellites in polar orbits.

Today's update, east of St John's, due South of Greenland. 6:22 am ship time

I'm on QM2 now. There is one male and one female host in the Queens Room tonight.

The other issue I see on QM2 is that the WiFi access points are far apart, resulting in poor signal strength in many of the cabins. Walking down the deck 5 corridors, I counted between 5 and 9 cabins between WiFi access points. There are many cabins where the nearest WiFi access point is 4-5 cabins down the hall. They probably need to double the number of access points for all cabins to have good WiFi.

Today's update, 8am ship time, SW of St John's Newfoundland. These are very good speeds for satellite. The main thing that makes it seem slower is the long Ping times (about 1 second, compare at home). The satellites in use are 22,000 miles away or 44,000 miles for the internet round trip, resulting in 1 second delays. In contrast, Starlink satellites are only about 500 km above earth, so they have much quicker Ping times. Reminder - this is the Premium package.

I've owned 3 Moto Gs and been happy with them. I went for a Pixel 6a because of the Black Friday price, $300 unlocked; and the very good camera. Like you mentioned, I get the best signal at the cabin door. But it is perfectly usable while reclining in bed. Im only 1 cabin away from the router. Maybe the next thing we need added to the deck plans are the Wifi router locations. 🤔

Here is the same test again, but at 10 am, ship time. As expected, it slows down as more people wake up and get on the Internet - same as at any hotel on land. It's still quite usable for CC messaging 😁