jbiz

I brought a similar TP Link travel router with me, an MR3040. The problem I have with mine is that you must scan for SSIDs and then it associates to the radio MAC address of a single access point. It doesn't associate to an SSID, it only associates to a single access point based on it's MAC address. This proves to be troublesome over time. I love to hear if your device behaves differently than mine as my device is a little older, only supports 802.11b/g and I've been think of replacing it.

 

Having only 1 Voom S&S code I was trying to use it both when I was outside on my cabin on my phone and on the MR3040 when I was back in my cabin. This involved logging in & out which was fine but the MR3040 wouldn't always associate cleanly and allow me to reach the captive portal to re-enter my code through it. In fact my success rate was around 10%. I ended using my Mac to login to Voom then sharing it's wifi connection to my MR3040 connect by ethernet cable to my Mac. This worked every time. One time I forgot to logout my Mac before leaving the cabin and I couldn't login my phone elsewhere on the ship but that's expected when you fail to logout properly.

 

The other problem I had on Harmony in a GS is that I couldn't access the HDMI connections on the flat panel. A GS has two flat panels and neither of them had HDMI ports I could reach (there were none on the sides or bottom). I brought a Samsung remote with me from home so I was able to access menus and change inputs but I couldn't physically access those inputs. On Anthem I had the same problem. No access to the ports. The flat panels are mounted very close to the wall and I couldn't despite many efforts find a way to reach any HDMI port.

 

I've brought this setup on many ships and had the best luck on Grandeur where I could easily reach the HDMI ports.

 

Appreciate any feedback after your trip as I consider different devices towards this goal until RCI delivers the new connectivity options they have announced (built in Apple TV support for streaming your own device).

well back from the trip.. i didnt get a chance to try out the appleTV but i would assume it would work just fine with this device since it worked well on the ship:

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-Travel-Router-TL-WR902AC/dp/B01N5RCZQH

I did however use that device often though as i bought the internet for 2 package, but sometimes at night i would want my iPhone and laptop on (plus wife had her iPhone connected).. or sometimes the kids were in the room late night or early AM and wanted to watch movie. the basic setup was simple, i did tell it to clone the MAC of the primary device which had a small side effect as i think their wifi validates that the MAC being used is from 1 device, so if i left the room and forgot to unplug it, the ships WIFI would kick my iPhone off wifi until i went back and removed it..

but i definitely plan to always bring this on my RCCL sailing now (i was on the harmony) as it was great to use when a needed a couple more devices connected for a while (but not like the entire trip).. also its very small, and i actually used an ANKER battery one night and put it in my pocket as the kids wanted to watch something while waiting for dinner and took it with me.

it also make it simple if you set it up with the same SSID and PW as like your home network, and then when your traveling your devices "just connect" and i don't need to run to each kid or device with the PW.

There are some travel routers now on the market that will share a WiFi connection. I know of one from TPlink and another from Netgear.

correct, the one i have is one of them.

I might be wrong on this, but AFAIK the travel router will only work with an Ethernet connectiong and turn that into a WiFi signal. There will be no wired / Ethernet internet access in your cabin.

 

 

The ship will provide a WiFi Internet only, no LAN.

this model is supposed to act as a wifi to wifi router, so you can use it as a private secure network over existing wifi like in a hotel. although you CAN use it with ethernet it also supports things like WISP

like this: http://www.tp-link.com/us/faq-617.html

I will be on the harmony next week and considering bringing an appleTV for the kids for the late-evening/early-morning when they are in bed.. i have been trying to read around to see how/if that would work...

i also have one of these (TP-Link AC750 Wireless Wi-Fi Travel Router (TL-WR902AC))

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N5RCZQH

anyone have any experience with doing that?

I believe they usually turn off the input button on the remote, and i always bring a universal remote with me as well.

using the travel router should mean the kids could share WiFi in the cabin too i think. I have the VOOM+Surf x 2 devices plan as well.

We liked the over water cabana, seemed more private, easy access to the water. When we did it the cost was $250. I would not pay $500 now.

but how long ago was that.. and also its split in 2.. so technically its only 250 :-)

i use a tracking site and i don't see any rhyme or reason to the pricing, but as you can see in the picture, it definitely varies from time to time.. this is for a D8 on the harmony in December 17

anyone do the Over the water one? seems all the others are on sale on my Dec sailing but that one is sold out so not on sale (i have it booked already but can't take advantage of 20% off since its sold out).. wonder if its worth it? its 2 families so the difference in price is not a much

Are upsell prices based on the price YOU paid for your room or are they just based on what category room you currently have to the category room you want?

I think based on what i read is they take what YOU paid, subtract from the current price of the category you want to move to, and then take 50% of that, but that is in general, i think there are variations to that, and sometimes room to negotiate

here are a couple of older threads but i think it still applies..

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1454952

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=878717

Understood...my wife is a breast cancer survivor and likes her bottled water...so not knowing the answer to my question maybe someone will answer!

granted i have not sailed out of houston yet (will be this weekend), but have sailed many times on NCL out of NYC and I always just tape a luggage tag on a case of water, a couple 12 packs of diet coke and give it all as-is to the baggage handler when checking in my luggage. no extra bag or anything, usually they just load that onto a luggage cart that is filled with other passengers water/soda cases piled high

How late can you wait to call the upsell line? We leave on the getaway Sunday. I won't be able to call tomorrow but was thinking of trying Thursday. Is that too close to the sailing to make any changes? I called a week ago and my wife and I were debating. They had several option at that time. Assuming they have some left, can they make a change that close?

one thing to note, thought may/may-not be relevant in your case, we recently did an upsell for our sailing this Saturday on the Jade and they said that sometimes on the Friday before they "sell" the rooms to CAS for them to use. I would think that might be more for suites, but not really sure. It's all based on availability and they do start moving people around i think for upgrades too, so i would call every day and see what they have and what they are offering it upsell for.

when i called last week, the upsell price was much higher and it went down on monday and down again on tuesday, which finally accepted. they keep a record of each of your calls, but its really no hassle for them to check for you.

Also don't feel you can't negotiate, you can.. ask them to check with a supervisor if they can do better on the upsell amount.

I live in Houston and have taken a cruise out of the Bayport terminal. Your best bet is Hobby.

how far is the other airport.. seems that is where United likes to fly..

does anyone know what the preferred airport to fly in/out of for the houston port?

Depending on their ages (and interests), they might enjoy the Pirate Museum. Oh, who am I kidding... I enjoyed the Pirate Museum! :cool:

Thanks for the tip. Took the 4 kids there and walked through with them. They all enjoyed it. Was nice to have something different for a change.

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THANK GOODNESS!

 

 

 

I'm on the very next sailing leaving this coming weekend and your post freaked me the EFF out.

Glad they got it changed for you prior to your sailing.

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Thank for the coming back with an update despite the negative comments previously directed at you .

I guess some felt you were attacking a beloved institution .

Ha. I didn't even take the negative comments personally, so if they had so intended i hate to break it to them. I wasn't asking people's opinions on how to entertain my kids nor if they agreed with it or not ;-)

Today is another port day and the kids club is pretty empty. This is the last port day so I suspect the rest of the days will be more kids anyway.

Today will be a good day to mosey on down to the big pool so the kids can play on the water slide without the normal chaos before a quick walk around the port town in Nassau

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OK! Well that is certainly a step in the right direction!!! Thank you for pressing the issue and thanks to NCL for listening and reacting so quickly!!!

 

 

 

That said, I have two Alaska cruises on the Pearl this summer with my kids and COUNT on Splash Academy. I am happy to pay extra for it to guarantee a spot, like Priority Tender and such. I hope they add this option for people to whom it is extremely important.

Is that due to excursions and stuff?

So not really sure why my original thread was closed. I could probably guess but I didn't think it was going that wrong.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2213057

But as I said I would give an update when I got more info

So the good and the not as good.

Inquiries to corporate were heard and effective immediately in my gem sailing the old policy is back in place. The whole ticket system, lines and 76 kids max thing is gone effective today. Glad the kids club manager took the time to press the issue with them for me, much appreciated.

The "not as good" is they are saying there WILL BE a policy put back in effect for "high-season" sailings to implement "some form" of capacity control. That sounded like mid to late June effect and a new mail would be sent to staff describing the policy. It did not sound like the same exact policy we saw on the Gem per se, but from the sounds of the emails going out that I read about on the other posts here, maybe when there are such an excessively large number of kids they are just for warning some things might get full.

Now what that means in practicality during those sailings, I am not really sure. And what the dates considered "high season" I am not sure of either. I got the impression they knew the dates for high season though and it's not something arbitrary.

I don't know why either. It is an on-going issue. Maybe there was too much trash talking? I personally would like to know how far the new system will be taken, in terms of enforcement. I was just on the Sun less than 2 weeks ago and there was no sign about capacity and no ticket system, even though the new policy has purportedly been in effect since March. We just went in when we wanted. If the club was just opening, there was sometimes a line up at the door. The only significant wait we had was when their tablets went down and they couldn't scan everyone's key cards. People were getting angry and impatient even with a 15-minute wait.

I will start a new thread later tonight once I get to talk to the kids club again to hear what they heard back from corporate today as I do not want to steal someone else's thread :-). Today we were at GSC so didn't have a chance to get to the kids club

Not sure why they closed my other thread but here is some more info

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2213057

I wonder if the number of children allowed in will change depending upon how many kids club staff are onboard during each cruise. There may be 10 staff members onboard the Breakaway (just guessing) and if they are allocated 20 children per counselor, that is 200 children. Now what happens when a counselor is sick? The number of children allowed in will drop. It's not like they can just pull a staffer from another area. All Kids Club staffers are certified in child CPR, they usually have bachelor's degree in education, and a wealth of experience working with children.

I am pretty sure the breakaway would have a higher limit, the kids club manager basically told me that different ships have different room capacities, and some like the BA are multi floor so hold more.

So if they are doing a staff to kid ratio they better start hiring. Also they seem more fixated on the size of the room than the number of kids. So not sure even hiring more people will actually fix the "issue" as they are operating.

A little earlier? Do the math: if they'll only take 76 kids, and there are 400-600 kids on an average sailing, how early would you need to show up to get a spot? 8am? 7am? Are parents supposed to spend every morning of their vacation getting up at the crack of dawn and lining up at the kids club door, like those lines for new iPhones that wrap around the block?

 

 

 

Actually, I don't have any kids yet but this information would be very useful for me in planning a future cruise. The reason I read NCL boards is because every year I'm tempted to book a cruise with NCL because of all their promotions. But every time I read the reviews and look at what they're offering and I just keep thinking to myself, "that doesn't seem like fun". Now, apparently, if I decide to go on NCL, I'll have to deal with droves of kids all around the ship because NCL decided to cut kids club staff just as they pushed KSF to encourage more families with kids onboard. Good to know.

I don't get the impression staff was cut. I don't think there are any more or less visible staff. At least not as compared to my previous sailings on the jewel line.

And i guess my "not for those without kids" was more about the "watch your own darn kids" comments, not really the "audience" I was speaking to :-)

I'm sorry because many will disagree with me, but I think that 25 children per staff member is WAY too many children for 1 person. I think at maximum one staff member can safely handle 10 children. I can understand that they have limited room and safety trumps convenience, even if that means I cannot go see an adult only show or go out to a dinner with my husband because we were shut out of kids club.

 

I've seen the size of the clubs and with too many children there would be no room to play.

 

Again, just my opinion.

I agree they need to figure out the right ratio. I am not in the line of business but would think there is some kind of standard.

I 100% agree safety above all else, especially for my own kids. I do think however they need to figure out some sort of diversification so kids can attend different events, while maintain safety.

The kids programs are just too front and center for a cruise line to only support 76 kids at a time. Even 150 kids I might say the same thing.

But 100% agree cramming all the kids in the club is a bad bad idea, but on previous sailings they never did that either and we never ran into this issue and those were even on busier sailings.

Ncl just has to figure "something" out. The current model just isn't good for anyone.

There still seems to be some condradictions as to what is really the rules on the number of kids.As for eventually a pay for care system being put into place. I have been expecting that for a lont time, not just since NCL has a new CEO. In fact I think all liens will implement some form of pay for care. How many vacation locations offer free child care? None that I know of. We did have a free nanny situation many years ago in Jamaica but only during certain hours. That has been maybe, 20 years ago.

I think there is a fine line between calling it child care and just being a coordinated kids event. My son wants to play basketball when other kids will be there, or other activities, should I have to pay for that above the cruise fare? I sure don't think so.

Not saying they won't eventually go there but..

T

 

 

 

Thanks, Jon, for sharing all this info. Do you know how this affects the ability of kids (I think 10 and above) to sign themselves in and out of the club? That was one of our tricks to avoid the lines, but it certainly doesn't sound like it would work with this new system.

 

Have you noticed lots of children being turned away? Again, I am wondering if this is a new limit amount, or if for the first time the limit that has always been in place is being posted. There was never a discussion of what the limit was previously (at least that I was told), but we were warned that space was limited via email on both our cruises.

For 10+ they can still sign themselves in/out, only issue is at "shift" closings it's hectic and they are trying to process the kids out, so my son was standing their trying to sign out but they wouldn't let him with the bit of chaos going on (since they were trying to get the kids whose parents were in line to pickup and kept trying to clear the area inside so they kept telling him to go away from the door area and he couldn't leave) So I walked up to the front and had them let him swipe out. I sort of understand the issue so not complaining just tell your kids to sign out 5-10 min earlier than when the shift closes and all is fine.

I have seen a few kids on the wait list. It seems also that people are not wanting to deal with the lines so they are forgoing the kids program. The first day was trauma to most people and I think it turned them off from using it. We are at port today so I assume it will be light in the club anyway

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I don't consider people with legit concerns about this to be self righteous. Who wants to wait in line for an unlimited time only to be turned away or wait until another kid leaves in order to get their child in the club. Considering the limited times the club is actually opened during the day...that's a lot of waiting around.

 

It would work better if they extend the times the club is open and not close it so often during the day.

Let me sort of clarify something on the line part. The line is to get a ticket about 30 min prior to opening (so let's say 830am for the 9am session) and they start handing out tickets. Your kid does not need to be in line again with you until 9am when they actually open. After ticket #76 they have a clipboard sign up sheet where you put your name/room number and they will call you when a spot opens up. With this system I always get there 830-835 so I don't have to worry about it.

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