toolworker

The Regent info page instructions say "After placing your phone in Flight/Airplane Mode, open the app." So will the app block sending and receiving texts? I need that to coordinate with others in our group.

There's a poll on that here.

We used something similar to Smartguide on a Scenic river cruise a year ago. I'm wondering if it's been improved.

Oops - my bad. I read the press release too quickly. It's not vital; it's just one of the factors to weigh. So you're on Splendor? One of the couples in our Zoom group is on there too. We've had good Zooms with them the past couple of weeks - over an hour, with only an occasional video/audio freeze for a second or two. If it's the same system as Viking, maybe the problem is that twice as many pax are sharing it ... Did you use Teams from an app or a browser? And did you need to get the upgrade to access it? So we'll see if there's any improvement when she comes out next month. One of the two sessions is at Harvest Caye, Belize. It's an NCL island so no cellular there, but it's a mile off the mainland and T-Mobile's map shows 4G coverage. So it might work. In port I do use the hotspot. Our T-Mobile plan now includes 5Gb of international 4G/5G per month and free texting. We used to pay $50 for a month of that plus free calling.

Unfortunately, these two events are helping to facilitate workshops. So video is required. Audio only might be helpful at other times. Does that generally work well?

I see. So the system blocks sites like YouTube, Zoom, Skype, etc., and the $10 gets us access to them - but at speeds that make them useless? I wonder if the latest refurbishment will improve the wifi. (A phone agent told me it wouldn't, but he told me some other stuff that was wrong.) Marina left drydock a few days ago; I posted this question in the Roll Call. We were on Viking ocean last month, and had no trouble on our weekly zoom. Another couple in the zoom did fine this month from a Regent ship.

Does that mean that standard wifi has a speed limit, and the paid upgrade only raises that limit? Or are there hotspot channels that the upgrade makes available? But if I understand you, in either case we are competing with everyone else for a slice of the same pie. So if there is capacity available when everyone's at the standard limit, we can exeed that limit, but if there isn't then we slow down the same as everyone else?

How well does Oceania's wifi work for Zoom, with the paid speed upgrade? We will be on Riviera and are hoping to participate in Zoom meetings on two days, between 12:30 and 6:30 pm. One day is a sea day; the other is docked at Harvest Caye, Belize. Does anyone know if the refurbishment will improve the wifi? We could also use cellular data at Harvest Caye, if it's available. T-Mobile shows 4G service up to the mainland shore, which is a bit less than a mile from where the ship will dock. Has anyone used cellular there?

An Oceania phone agent confirmed this - but only after putting me on hold and checking. She and the other agent I talked to had both told me that it was still continental breakfast only in steerage. But they were wrong. A complaint from a prior guest had seared the continental breakfast into her memory - but the complaint was from last year.

Did they starch your shoes, or just fold them?

Are there limits on the free laundry service? We took a river cruise (Scenic) a while back with "free laundry service." IIRC the rule, once onboard, was supposed to be one 2 kg bag. But in practice it was all you could cram into a smallish laundry bag, which turned out to be plenty to get us through the 11 day cruise.