Accessing Cruise Critic from a HAL Ship: It isn't working!

[Spinner2]

This is a new issue; never has this problem arisen before.

 

We have been totally unable to access anything on Cruise Critic, other than the HOME page, since coming aboard the Eurodam. No problems in New York City, no problems in London or Dover, and above all, no problems today in Tallin Estonia where we had access to wi fi that isn't ship-based. For you people headed to Tallin you're in for a treat; at least today, lounge in your cabin and access the free port site!

 

So, no Cruise Critic page (all you get is the template with an "error" message in the center of the page) regardless of what browser we use (we have a bunch of them and we have 2 Mac Air laptops--George's isn't used much for Cruise Critic; it isn't a cache problem.)

 

The internet manager can get into the boards through his IE desktop machine but I believe it's wired to the internet differently than a wi fi access, although he denies it. I've sent a note to Host Walt asking for his help; I don't believe I can solve it from here.

 

I'm hearing about a lot of iPad issues too, just listening around the ship.

[ironin]

I had the same problem while aboard the Eurodam in September - couldn't access the boards. Never did figure it out, so I can't be any help. FWIW, had no such problem aboard the Zuiderdam earlier this month. As you know, others do "Live from..." threads from other ships all the time. You already did what I would have suggested: contact the IT manager aboard ship, because it sounds like it is unique to the Eurodam.

 

Then again, you are using a MacBook Air and that is what I use. And the other comments you report are also Apple products. Wonder if those using a Windows PC are having the same issues. Perhaps someone who has successfully accessed Cruise Critic from aboard the Eurodam will chime in here.

[sail7seas]

We've had five cruises on Eurodam and I was able to access CC/HAL on my netbook every cruise. I use IE.

 

[Mary Ellen]

For you people headed to Tallin you're in for a treat; at least today, lounge in your cabin and access the free port site!

:confused: You're advising others to skip this lovely port to stay in their cabin so they can access the internet instead???? :eek:

 

btw, I didn't have any problem checking in on the CC while on board our recent cruise. Seeing the 'advise' here is always good for more than a few chuckles. ;)

[Himself]

I had the same problem on the Eurodam in October and this was after I promised a live report. The first time I was able to do it was from an internet station on St. Thomas on Wednesday of the cruise. I thought "what is this?" Then in February I was on the Nieuw Amsterdam and I had no problem in this regard. It must be something about the Eurodam.

I say that because I had previously done this on the Rotterdam, the Zuiderdam and the Volendam with no problem at all.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Interesting -- I had problems a couple of years ago as well on the Eurodam and we were only in the Caribbean.

[ironin]

btw, I didn't have any problem checking in on the CC while on board our recent cruise. Seeing the 'advise' here is always good for more than a few chuckles. ;)

 

Were you on the Eurodam recently, Mary Ellen? If so, what type of computer are you using?

 

Glad you got a few chuckles out of our comments, btw.:p

 

Himself:

 

Now that you mention it, I DO remember reading you mentioning you were having a problem. By any chance, are you also using an Apple product?

 

Krazy Kruizers:

 

What kind of laptop are you lugging around?

[piscesgal223]

Yes! I had that problem when I was on the Eurodam in March. I tried to get on the boards and would get the error message several people have mentioned. I was on the ship's computers(though I did have my laptop-a Apple-with me)

[Himself]

I was using the computers that they had up in the Explorations Cafe and the only site I could not access was Cruise Critic.

 

It must be something about the Eurodam--good reason to go on the Nieuw Amsterdam!

[piscesgal223]

Yeah-I'm planning to go on a either Southern or Westen Carrbean cruise late next year and it'll be interesting to see if Cruise Critic works on another ship-apparently it's a Eurodam issue-well... it didn't affect my cruise at all so it's all good!

[parrotfeathers]

Same thing happened to me on Eurodam last November.

I could access it through AOL but no other way.

[Seacucumber]

I think internet is too slow in all the ships. We get free internet on CUNARD, Princess. Just log in takes 5-10 minutes. We are 3*** in HAL, but I don't think we get any free internet. Haven't cruise in HAL for the past few years. In Nov.2011 we are going from Val-Rio on Veendam. I find it is faster and cheaper to do browse from the shore.

[piscesgal223]

Shipboard internet is a dialup(remember that?) internet connection on the high seas!

[RetiredMustang]

The best connection to the internet and CC I've encountered on cruise was on Eurodam -- transatlantic in 2009 via Iceland, Greenland and the Canadian Maritimes. I had great, fast connections even while in the fjords of Greenland. OK, it's a single data point almost two years old, but I had no problems on Eurodam then.

 

I experienced slow connections off the west coast of Mexico, Costa Rica, etc. on a Panama Canal transit in 2007, but that affected everything, not just CC; probably a small pipe from the shore. But, on Noordam in the Caribbean (eastern and southern) in Feb/Mar 2010, I had very frustrating problems connecting with CC, even though I could easily connect to everything else. I never did figure out why.

 

Maybe this latest problem is related to the problems we've had with CC itself lately; that is, it may be a CC problem and not a ship connection issue?

 

Dave

[DutchByAssociation]

Shipboard internet is a dialup(remember that?) internet connection on the high seas!

 

Not sure if this was a joke or not...? :confused:

 

It is actually via satellite and subject to atmospheric and geographic interference, and so forth

[piscesgal223]

Yes, I know it's satellite. The dialup comment is because the shipboard connection is so slow at times. Not using up all your internet minutes waiting for pages to load is definitely a challenge.

[jtl513]

Shipboard internet is a dialup(remember that?) internet connection on the high seas!

 

Not sure if this was a joke or not...?

Actually there are (or maybe I should say were?) dial-up ports in every cabin on the Vista ships which can/could be used to connect to the ship server. I used one on the Westerdam in '05 because it was more reliable (and not too much slower) than the wi-fi from the cabin we had. There was an extension number that you dialed to use it.

 

On the Noordam in '06 the dial-up capability was disabled because of a billing problem, and I haven't tried since because I now have a netbook with no dial-up port.

 

Next time you are on a Vista, see if there is still a "data" jack next to the telephone connection jack. :)