outtoseacruise

It's the same way on Royal, some ships get incredible speed and others are not much better than before. Most people will think the throttled speed is an improvement. Those of us that need it to be able to work while onboard know better. Both Princess and Royal like to brag saying they have the fastest internet at sea when it really is throttled. In June I will be on MSC and Royal in the Western & Eastern Mediterranean and will see how it compares to Enchanted Princess in July.

Before the casino offers went away for July I booked 2 weeks in a balcony on Enchanted Princess yesterday. Since it is port intensive I will have my T-Mobile 15GB International Data Pass on my phone and hotspot if it is still on o3b/SES. Hopefully someone will post that it is active and how it is performing by then? If not I will update in July.

How did the disembarkation go on Majestic this weekend in Vancouver? When did the let the first well-off's disembark?

Dry dock isn't a requirement to add it as we have seen with most of Royal's ships getting it while cruising. It just makes it easier not having noise and constantly worried about trash and keeping the guest are clear and not disturbing them.

After looking at your pics of the install and expanding the images it appears they are doing a different type of install as seen on other ships. Those appear to be fixed (from bolts that you can clearly see on mount and antenna) and don't pivot or move like other mounts seen on other ships? The image I attached is a different mount that pivots that they have mounted on other ships.

Do you use an IP Phone App through your laptop or Wi-Fi Calling on your cell? If so how were your calls? What we are starting to see from the Princess installs is not what Starlink's potential is that I have seen on other installs on other brands of ships. The question would be are they throttling it or is it a problem with the intranet and equipment on these specific ships? I have seen some ships get it installed where the performance is where it should be with bandwidth an latency a lot better than what we are seeing on the Princess installs. It will be interesting to see how it performs as you continue north on your cruise.

It's a start and a lot better than o3b/SES. I have seen 2 ships where that has been the normal with the Starlink onboard. The attached images show the true potential Starlink has and is capable of at sea. I am not looking for perfection and I am happy with any of the below tests that allow me to work while onboard. The thing I haven't been able to figure out why 1 ship next to another in the same port can get the below results and the ship next to it gets results that are like what you have? From your results I feel it is the minimum I would need to be able to work without issues.

If you have any of the latency and bandwidth results can you please post? I was wondering if they added it in the Seattle drydock.

That is a good question, I presently have friends on a ship doing the transpacific that has Starlink and it hasn't been any better than old o3b from SES. Since September I have sailed on 5 ships with Starlink in the Bahamas and Caribbean. 3 of those ships performed great between bandwidth and latency. 2 of those ships continue to struggle to offer the old performance from o3b (SES). 3 of those ships I sail often since I can work on them. The other 2 ships I avoid at all costs.

I would appreciate if you can post your findings on performance once onboard and throughout the cruise. It will be interesting to see what you get while docked and a day or 2 after you leave port. Unfortunately based on both coverage maps it probably won't be the best coverage if it is active with Starlink.

Last week it looks like they flipped the switch on Discovery Princess and Starlink was spotted onboard. While I was on Grand Princess and Royal Princess last week I was able to confirm with officers the equipment to install was brought onboard last week and the install technicians were there to install it. What I was told on both ships is they expect to have it operational on these ships sometime this month. I would also assume that they are also in the process of installing it on other ships in the fleet in the next month +/-? If we could use this thread for those of us that need the Starlink to be able to work from sea and post the ship (Princess), latency, and bandwidth that others are finding onboard only please (not looking for what your getting at home or at your office). I know there are others like myself that need to know this type of information to determine if they can work on a specific ship in different locations.

Since last September here are some of the better latency and bandwidth test I have seen as well as the horrible one on Independence. The better ones are off of Mariner and Liberty. Locations have been pretty much the same either Port Canaveral, Port Everglades, CocoCay, or Nassau. 2 ships it's awesome on and 1 it's horrible on? Starting to get the idea with what's being seen on Discovery that this could be a ship by ship situation where one is better compared to the others in the fleet. You talk to the glorified Guest Services person that is handling the internet on the ship and this goes way over their head and they can't explain it. It will be interesting to see how it goes as more Princess ships roll it out.

Prior to COVID and Post COVID I add the T-Mobile 15GB International Data Pass to my hotspot and cell ($50 each per month) since it gives me the 15GB of international data on each plus calls and text international on the cell. This trip in Victoria I did have to force both devices a few times and manually select Rogers for the 5G. It's hit or miss in the Bahamas if I have to force it? Sometimes I wonder if BTC has me blacklisted so I have to force it because of my usage there every month?

I did walk off yesterday on Royal Princess and had no issues. With a cab ride I was at SEA around 8:45 AM. It did appear they had some sort of customs issue that was resolved by I think around 7:45 to 7:50. I saw one of the officers going off the ship with what appeared to be 4 or 5 passports in Ziplock bags. About 15 minutes later the ship was cleared. FWIW I also found the taxi was running cheaper to SEA from the port which was only $63. When I was looking at Lyft while waiting to disembark it was $70+.

What I have found from experiencing Starlink on Royal Caribbean is the speeds are totally inconsistent ship to ship in the same locations or next to each other when comparing it with friends docked next to each other in Nassau or CocoCay. I have also found that the newest ship in the fleet with the newest intranet technology also doesn't have the best bandwidth and latency compared to older ships? The best Starlink performing ships since Royal Caribbean rolled out Starlink that I have found are: Adventure, Liberty, & Mariner. The worst Starlink performing ships since Royal Caribbean rolled out Starlink that I have found are: Wonder (newest ship in the fleet) and Independence. From friends on the Ovation for the last month they are reporting horrible performance also. It will be interesting to see how it performs on Princess? I work from my cabin remotely during the day for a few hours and need reliable connectivity to be able to work. My guess is we will see some of the Princess ships that are winners and some that aren't. My plans were to do a B2B2B2B on Princess either in Alaska or the Mediterranean this summer. These 2 cruises were a test last week to see if I could work on Royal Princess or Grand Princess and both were horrible with the old SES o3b system. Most of the time I had to use my T-Mobile hotspot when I could get a cellular signal to work when we were in port or close to land. When Starlink on a ship works correctly it is incredible. When it doesn't it is just as bad as the old SES o3b. Once another ship or two have Starlink live on Princess lets probably start another thread and see what people are experiencing for latency and bandwidth? There are going to be some that think it's great when the numbers and performance show it isn't. The truth will be in those that use it for work into their corporate servers.

Just off Royal Princess this morning and Grand Princess last Monday. Both ships have the installation techs onboard and equipment. The officers I spoke with didn't know much more than they have been told it should be active by the end of the month.

While Sapphire was in drydock did they do the conversion to Starlink for the internet? If so how is the bandwidth and latency? I just got off Grand Princess this morning and while onboard was told that prior to leaving San Francisco the Starlink equipment and installers came onboard. No date was given to me when it would be live on Grand.

I submitted the renewal in the pilot program on 8/10 and it still shows processing 16 days later.

On 06/9/22 at approximately 1619 hrs. Alaska time while we were docked in Sitka on Quantum all of a sudden the ship shook, power went out, and an immediate Bravo Call was announced in engine compartment 2. The power was out for approximately 27 minutes and our departure from Sitka was delayed about 3 hours. They probably don't want to send the ship across until engine 2 is either repaired or replaced. Royal has been very quiet on this incident.

In all the cruises to Alaska I have never needed it. This year I have been there 3 times and never had an issue.

The box of 6 I received on Thursday expire 5/7/23.

This was on Discovery in the Vista Lounge on the 4 Day last week.