Laptop Questions - Should I take it?

[philv]

Are there any ports where you can get a free WiFi signal while on the ship?

 

Don't know about on the ship but I noticed crew taking their laptops to nearest available wifi hotspot in port probably to keep in touch with folks back home. Lots had headsets and were doing internet phone calls. Probably saves a ton for crew members.

[Shelbyjane56]

We also take my netbook too, wouldnt dream of taking one of our laptops...too heavy!! Never had any problems, use it to download pictures. Havent ever taken the time to worry about getting on the net, if we need to call home we do that its a vacation for goodness sakes!! Some people are so addictive to their computers its quite funny at times..when you are home..be addictive, I am of sorts...but on vacation take it easy thats what a vacation is for :)

[paul929207]

Wifi is the same cost as the internet cafe. There is a $3.95 setup charge and a charge for time you use. You can either pay 75 cents per minute or purchase a package. Packages are

 

$55 = 100 minutes

$75 = 150

$100 = 250

$175 = 500

 

If you purchase a package in advance or on the first day of the cruise, you usually get extra minutes. I believe the bonus is biggest if you purchase before boarding.

[pablo222]

Don't know about on the ship but I noticed crew taking their laptops to nearest available wifi hotspot in port probably to keep in touch with folks back home. Lots had headsets and were doing internet phone calls. Probably saves a ton for crew members.

 

Not all the wi-fi is free. For instance, in Crown Bay, where you will

see lots of crew using laptops, it's $5 for one-day access.

[1 HappyCruiser]

I think this is a biggest benefit. We travel for longer periods of time, and the in-cabin TV selections get pretty grating (how many times can you watch Captain Stubing as Santa Claus without losing a few brain cells?).

 

I used to take a laptop to download photos (remember when camera memory was so expensive and limited?), but that's no longer an issue. I used to take a laptop to keep up with emails, but my iPhone replaces that. But I think we will take something next cruise to have some DVDs to watch.

 

The Itouch is great to watch a movie when waiting for the show to start & for quick emails and some internet use. There is also an option to feed the flat screen TV's in the cabin with video if you wanted to watch it on a larger screen. Anything else than that can wait till I get home.

[angelsbaby1]

We take a different approach--when we cruise, we don't bring a laptop, we don't use the computers in the internet cafe, we don't send emails, we don't phone anybody--nothing. When we're gone--we're gone--we want to escape--totally. If there's some kind of real emergency, people know how to contact us through the ship. Or--maybe I'm just a Luddite(!).

 

Yes--we have family, yes, we have kids, and I realize that some might find the approach 'cold', or 'unfeeling', but it works well for us. We go away--we come back--and everything's fine. Besides, I've always wondered, who has the time for all that? :)

 

Kevin

 

Well Kevin, I sorta feel the same way! On past cruises, right after sailaway, we would turn our cell phones off and that would be that! :rolleyes: No internet cafe to check emails and we had no need for a laptop at the time so that wasn't a concern either.

 

We purchased a laptop last weekend for the distinct purpose of either posting live from the ship or writing a detailed review and also to download our pics. We really enjoy reading those "live" posts and thought it would be fun to do one ourselves! :p I even started a thread to find out about possibly renting a laptop but quickly decided it would be better to have one of our own.

 

Wish us luck on the "live" as this will be our first attempt!

 

Happy sailing everyone!

 

Angel :)

[addygirl216]

I can't decide if I should take the laptop? Should I leave it home. I would only use it for emails back to the kids at home. I was wondering. Where do you keep your laptop while you are out of the cabin? Anyone ever have it missing? How's the internet connection in the cabin on the Emerald Princess? Does having to watch it become a pain?

 

What about the Itouch? Should I buy one just so I can keep it in the safe. Does it work well for email in the cabin?

 

Took mine on the Emerald Princess last week - had great connection in my room and on my balcony - left if on my desk every day and had no problems at all! :)

 

Smiles

Nic

[stunnedinva]

I can't decide if I should take the laptop? Should I leave it home. I would only use it for emails back to the kids at home. I was wondering. Where do you keep your laptop while you are out of the cabin? Anyone ever have it missing? How's the internet connection in the cabin on the Emerald Princess? Does having to watch it become a pain?

 

What about the Itouch? Should I buy one just so I can keep it in the safe. Does it work well for email in the cabin?

 

We took a laptop for the first time on our cruise to South America, and we'll never go without an international phone (for emergencies) and a laptop (for convenience) again. They were both godsends when we were dealing with the aftermath of the Chilean earthquake.

I think the instructions for log-in on the Star said that if your reception doesn't show at least 3 bars on your laptop when you turn it on in your cabin, you won't be able to use it there.

[Oi]

Wifi is the same cost as the internet cafe. There is a $3.95 setup charge and a charge for time you use. You can either pay 75 cents per minute or purchase a package. Packages are

 

$55 = 100 minutes

$75 = 150

$100 = 250

$175 = 500

 

If you purchase a package in advance or on the first day of the cruise, you usually get extra minutes. I believe the bonus is biggest if you purchase before boarding.

 

Thank you! Good info!!

[pklein9747]

If you have your own laptop, can you use Skype while on the ship?

[paul929207]

If you have your own laptop, can you use Skype while on the ship?

Maybe. I have met people who have been able to use it some of the time. The connection speed is very slow.

[chasetf]

While I have had a laptop, I have dragged it on all my cruises. My first use is backing up my photos. A always take enough camera memory so I do not have to over-write, but I like the safety of having a backup. Then I can also check to see how they are coming out and even review the day's activities with a slide show.

 

Now having to go down and wait for a computer in the Internet cafe is a plus. And as mentioned, you can connect, disconnect, compose and reconnect to send email.

 

I got my wife a netbook and those are ideal for traveling. They are real light, easy to carry and still have the power / memory / disk sufficient for the photo storage and emailing.

[alaskamt]

I have been curious since I will be in Croatia for at least 10 days prior to the TA crossing on the Ruby in October. I had a flash that I might be able to use the ITouch for all that travel for internet access, email, etc. I hate to have to drag my MacBook all that way. I am really trying to go light on this trip. I have lots of memory cards for my camera, so I don't need to download pictures. I have a Kindle for my books. I prefer to stay wiht an Apple product rather than getting a netbook. Is an ITouch a good substitute for a laptop? Has anyone used one in Europe? Can you actually go online and book hotels, etc with it? Thanks for info.

[janina]

I take my mini. I have had a problem in Asia with the internet, it would not log off. They did credit me back my minutes no problem. I love my mini it fits easy in my purse and in the room safe, just in case.:)

[billet]

We take our laptop on every cruise. It is so much easier to send emails from the room than to trek down to the Internet Cafe.

 

We also download our photos daily and edit them as we go along and update our trip report each evening on the laptop. It is a must for us.

 

We have never had a problem with security of our laptops. We leave it on the desk in the room. Who would bother with it?

 

P&J

 

I agree with you completely!

[CTGirl]

[quote name='alaskamt']I have been curious since I will be in Croatia for at least 10 days prior to the TA crossing on the Ruby in October. I had a flash that I might be able to use the ITouch for all that travel for internet access, email, etc. I hate to have to drag my MacBook all that way. I am really trying to go light on this trip. I have lots of memory cards for my camera, so I don't need to download pictures. I have a Kindle for my books. I prefer to stay wiht an Apple product rather than getting a netbook. Is an ITouch a good substitute for a laptop? Has anyone used one in Europe? Can you actually go online and book hotels, etc with it? Thanks for info.[/quote]I used my IPod Touch in Rome and in Guernsey just to get emails. I always take it ashore with me. I find it fun to find free hotspots. I'm sure you could use it to book hotels but I'm not sure I would want to do that. It is slightly to small and cumbersome to use for specialty tasks (at least for me). I have to make the printing a bit larger because now that I'm getting older I can't read the fine print anymore. Once I make the printing larger more of the webpage is off screen. I would prefer to do something like that on a bigger screen.

[Putterdude]

[SIZE=4]I am not a fan of the current Netbooks, they are just to limited in terms of speed and what you can do with them. I have a couple of lap tops, one I purchased just for cruising and traveling...throw it in a backpack and Bob's your uncle. I like it for emails, editing pictures and keeping a journal.[/SIZE]

[alaskamt]

As a follow-up to an earlier posting, I spent 2 weeks in Croatia followed by a 16 day Europe and transatlantic cruise. All of the hotels in Croatia and Europe had free wi-fi and I paid for the extremely slow satellite internet access on the ship. I took an IPad and it was perfect - I could download photos for fun slide shows, I put all my Kindle books on it, I had all of my music in the IPod app, I kept in touch with email. I typed emails and saved them as drafts, and sent them when I logged on, which used a lot less of the ship's slow expensive satellite internet time. I left the IPad charging in hotel rooms and the ship cabin and it was always there when I got back. It is light weight and easy to carry. It easily replaced a lot of electronics and made traveling easier.

[financialgrl]

Took a netbook with us this past summer for a European cruise b/c of the turmoil - volcanic ash and airline strikes. Thought we'd end up having to change flights at the last minute. We were able to use it in all pre and post cruise locations because all hotels had free wifi - used it to Skype from those hotels also.

A friend said to make sure we download photos each night from our camera. Niece felt it's not necessary. Then she lost her camera. We had the pics I took but she was so bummed. A camera you can replace, but pics taken up to the point before it's lost/stolen are gone forever.

I bought the 100 wifi minutes for $55 - unless things have dramatically changed in 6 months - it was so slow it was beyond pathetic - a total waste of money. I live very rural and until very recently only dialup was available and even that was faster - let that sink in. Regarding the Skype comment and using on the ship - I'd read here that there's not enough bandwidth (?) or something necessary for that - we tried from a few different places on the ship and never could get it to connect.

[Princess Chatterer]

[quote name='Richie2pies']Are there any ports where you can get a free WiFi signal while on the ship?[/quote]

There are lots of ports around the world with free wifi. You can get a better local signal from Horizon Court most of the time. I use a little Canary Wireless detector (google to find this cool device) to find the local wifi signals first before I lug my laptop or iPad up to the buffet area.

Like others I set up my laptop for email POP so I can log on, upload and download quickly and log off. I also keep a daily trip diary on my laptop.

BTW: Rarely does Princess permits Skype to complete a call using the ship Wifi but I did have success in St Petersburg. :) There are other laptop telephone products using different connection protocols out there that might work. Your mileage may vary.

[jewopaho]

We've sailed the Emerald Princess several times, and have had no problems with the Internet service in our stateroom. Once again, compose your e-mails off-line (we use Word), and simply copy/paste them into Outlook, or whatever you use.

One of the Captain's Circle perks is free Internet time once you reach Platinuim status (basically 5 seven-night cruises). Since both my wife and I qualify, we receive 4 1/2 hours on 7-night cruises and 10 hours on longer trips. Of all the incentives offered by the cruise lines, we find this one the most beneficial. In addition to contacting family, we need to stay in touch with home base, since we're Realtors, and usually have a transaction or two in the works. Of course, we don't use anywhere near all the free time ... but it's always nice to have.

[SeaTheWorldBySea]

[quote name='w0kie']
Like others I set up my laptop for email POP so I can log on, upload and download quickly and log off.[/quote]

How would a computer illiterate go about doing this? I use yahoo e-mail.

[mikewrit]

I carried a laptop to the Caribbean, Med and Baltic capitals, then left it home for Panama passage and used only the internet cafe for email. I'm shopping for a netbook to take to the Med (including Alexandria) a year from now so that I can take advantage of the free wifi in and around most ports rather than pay the stiff price for a slow connection aboard. (I don't know other lines, but on NCL ships the internet cafe is most readily available in the early morning.)

[croozluv]

Ever used Blurb? It's a program that you download to your laptop/netbook/desktop and make Photobooks with. Once you download the program, you don't have to connect to the internet until you are ready to order your book.

This is the only reason I'll be taking my laptop on our Carnival Cruise. Anytime we vacation, I upload our photos from that day into my Blurb Application and spend about a half hour dragging photos onto a page. When I get home, my photo book is ready to order.

Also is a lifesaver if you lose your camera - like we did in the Bahamas. Even if you don't use a Photo Book Applications, you can easily upload your photos on a daily basis WITHOUT connecting to the internet. That alone is enough reason for me to take my laptop, not just on a cruise, but on any vacation we take.