Ship's wifi

[joe6666]

I used the wifi on Fantasia last week.

It was very,very slow.

I was using an Ipad3 and the wifi would only work in the common area around the center of the ship. If I had a laptop, they said it would work in my stateroom with a cable they would provide.

 

When I got back home I connected to my regular provider and found 29 emails that I never saw when I was at sea.

Why? I don't know. But I received some emails during the cruise, but not those 29.

 

$15 for 100 minutes doesn't sound too bad unti you find that it takes forever to send anything.

 

The log in page has a little warning about how the wifi aboard ship is not as fast as we might be used to. I read that and thought they might be talking dial up speed....but no. This was a whole different snail's pace.

 

And then to find out that I wasn't getting all my mail?

 

Not good....

[Newcruiser35]

I don't do emails onboard but I've checked my phone and had no messages yet when I get back to home port and off the ship my inbox will be full.

 

I have international calling too which makes this confusing even walking around in ports the phone will say no messages. Yet after making a call then it will tell me I have atleast some but not always all of them.

 

Don't know when you were trying to get online but I was once told by someone at the internet cafe Wifi gets faster within an hour of when the ship is supposed to dock. Only time I use the internet onboard is for flight home check in.

[joe6666]

29 emails when I got home. These are emails I never saw when aboard ship.

Slow service.

Service that comes and goes.

Service that is expensive.

 

The cruise line has no business offering email service if that's the bast they can do.

Someone might think they can actually count on the email service, and no one should count on this service.

 

To tell the truth, the cruise line should be ashamed of themselves offering this.

[itravelalot]

I was having the same issues and finally learned the lesson that in my cabin, wifi only worked close to port... Yes it was very frustrating but it actually helped keep me off the laptop and checking all the time...

[joe6666]

My point is that someone might think that the ship actually does offer wifi that might be used for some important communication while at sea.

My experience shows that this is simply not true.

MSC warns that the wifi on the ship might be slower than at home.

I think they need to admit that it may not work at all for periods of time and may drop emails that may be important.

[PBC29]

Your in the middle of open water and you think wifi service will always be perfect Sorry Joe not gonna happen. Especially for people using updated equipment such as Ipads and Iphones on an older system.

 

"I think they need to admit that it may not work at all for periods of time" every cruise I've ever taken the staff working the internet areas has warned me of this before logging on from carnival, rcl, costa and msc

[joe6666]

Your in the middle of open water and you think wifi service will always be perfect Sorry Joe not gonna happen. Especially for people using updated equipment such as Ipads and Iphones on an older system.

 

"I think they need to admit that it may not work at all for periods of time" every cruise I've ever taken the staff working the internet areas has warned me of this before logging on from carnival, rcl, costa and msc

 

Show me where any cruise line warns that large numbers of emails will be dropped.

 

And please, tell me why there should be a difference between wifi availabe free in an airport and wifi available on a ship at sea?

[PBC29]

Show me where any cruise line warns that large numbers of emails will be dropped.

 

And please, tell me why there should be a difference between wifi availabe free in an airport and wifi available on a ship at sea?

 

I don't know of any that have to physically write it down its pretty common knowledge that wifi on a ship isn't perfect considering all thats involved with getting it to work with satellites. However if you go to the internet cafes onboard the staff will verbally tell you the best time to go online is in port or near port and not when out at sea.

 

As for wifi in an airport being free and on a ship its not: Airports make money from the airlines and the gov as well as the companies that lease the space to provide shopping and food among other things. The wifi at airports isn't actually free the only difference is you don't hand over $$ for however long you plan to use it, you pay for it in the form of taxes.

 

Ships on the other hand don't make much money from the sale of the cabin so they need to charge for pretty much everything under the sun just to make a profit and that includes wifi. They get the suckers who think they can always use it 24/7 to buy a plan for X amount of minutes then they can't and Sorry no refunds :D cruiseline makes more $$$$

 

Do some research next time before buying the internet minutes onboard - its almost always cheaper in ports and usually works just like at home.

[joe6666]

I don't know of any that have to physically write it down its pretty common knowledge that wifi on a ship isn't perfect considering all thats involved with getting it to work with satellites. However if you go to the internet cafes onboard the staff will verbally tell you the best time to go online is in port or near port and not when out at sea.

 

As for wifi in an airport being free and on a ship its not: Airports make money from the airlines and the gov as well as the companies that lease the space to provide shopping and food among other things. The wifi at airports isn't actually free the only difference is you don't hand over $$ for however long you plan to use it, you pay for it in the form of taxes.

 

Ships on the other hand don't make much money from the sale of the cabin so they need to charge for pretty much everything under the sun just to make a profit and that includes wifi. They get the suckers who think they can always use it 24/7 to buy a plan for X amount of minutes then they can't and Sorry no refunds :D cruiseline makes more $$$$

 

Do some research next time before buying the internet minutes onboard - its almost always cheaper in ports and usually works just like at home.

A big time operation like a giant cruise ship should have a wifi system that can handle the desires of all those who are likely to use the system.

I suspect that these ships haven't upgraded since they started offering wifi.

 

You should stop making excuses for the cruise line. These days , people expect to be able to use wifi connection to the internet. A few years ago that wasn't the case. McDonalds has a free wifi connection. Free, good quality wifi is common. Expecting that is not out of order.

 

I actually don't expect free wifi on a cruise ship, but I do expect it to work, and if I pay 15 euros for 100 minutes I shouldn't have to use 10 minutes to send one email.

[electro]

You should stop making excuses for the cruise line. These days , people expect to be able to use wifi connection to the internet. A few years ago that wasn't the case. McDonalds has a free wifi connection. Free, good quality wifi is common. Expecting that is not out of order.

 

You do realize that places like McDonalds have their internet hard wired to the building through DSL, cable or Fiber optics which is relitively cheap and very fast, while ships get their internet through satellite which is very expensive and very slow?

The wifi can not be better than the internet connection it is using.

 

Lois

[joe6666]

You do realize that places like McDonalds have their internet hard wired to the building through DSL, cable or Fiber optics which is relitively cheap and very fast, while ships get their internet through satellite which is very expensive and very slow?

The wifi can not be better than the internet connection it is using.

 

Lois

 

Thousands of people on the ship want to use the internet. The ship can be equiped with a system that will handle that kind of demand.

You think it has to be expensive and slow?

No, that's not true.

 

Actually, I have no problem with 15 Euros for 100 minutes. The problem is their service.

 

In today's world, who would carry a cell phone the size of a brick with a fishing pole antenna?

There is no excuse for not having up to date internet service on a modern cruise ship.

[electro]

Thousands of people on the ship want to use the internet. The ship can be equiped with a system that will handle that kind of demand.

You think it has to be expensive and slow?

No, that's not true.

 

Actually, I have no problem with 15 Euros for 100 minutes. The problem is their service.

 

In today's world, who would carry a cell phone the size of a brick with a fishing pole antenna?

There is no excuse for not having up to date internet service on a modern cruise ship.

So what type of technology should the ships use for their internet connection that is faster than the current satellite system and can be used in the middle of the ocean?

 

Lois

[joe6666]

So what type of technology should the ships use for their internet connection that is faster than the current satellite system and can be used in the middle of the ocean?

 

Lois

 

They need to upgrade what they have.

No new technology is required, just a more modern higher capacity version of what they already have.

They will upgrade. Their customers will demand it and they will give the customers what they want. It’s simply a matter of time.

Making excuses for the service they supply right now is not the way to get up to date wifi on your cruise ship.

Customers should let their disappointment be known.

[Newcruiser35]

They need to upgrade what they have.

No new technology is required, just a more modern higher capacity version of what they already have.

 

They will upgrade. Their customers will demand it and they will give the customers what they want. It’s simply a matter of time.

Making excuses for the service they supply right now is not the way to get up to date wifi on your cruise ship.

 

Customers should let their disappointment be known.

 

Joe

 

The shorter distance a wireless signal has to travel, the higher the data transfer rate will be.

 

Please tell us how you would fix this????

 

From my own limited experience: customers do let their disappointment known, by not bothering to buy the internet service onboard in the first place and wait until a port to gain internet access when its faster and in some cases cheaper.

 

Just check out all the threads posted all over this site dealing with internet onboard - in 99% you will read "wait until you get into port" or something to that effect.

If the ability to fix the problem is so simple why haven't any of the companies done it?????

[joe6666]

Joe

 

The shorter distance a wireless signal has to travel, the higher the data transfer rate will be.

 

Please tell us how you would fix this????

 

From my own limited experience: customers do let their disappointment known, by not bothering to buy the internet service onboard in the first place and wait until a port to gain internet access when its faster and in some cases cheaper.

 

Just check out all the threads posted all over this site dealing with internet onboard - in 99% you will read "wait until you get into port" or something to that effect.

If the ability to fix the problem is so simple why haven't any of the companies done it?????

 

"The shorter distance a wireless signal has to travel, the higher the data transfer rate will be. "

 

That’s simply not true. If the ship is 40 miles from land or 1000 miles from land, the data rate is going to be the same. The ship’s system sends its signal to a satellite.

The ship’s position on the face of the Earth has nothing to do with the path loss to the satellite.