iService on Eclipse TA Oct. 27. My rant.

[Seenie]

We were on the Eclipse Oct 27 transatlantic. iServices were crazy! First of all, on a transatlantic we expect internet to be very slow, and maybe completely gone for several days. I get that. I'm not complaining about slow transmission. On this trip, it was slow, but never disappeared all together. The problem was a raft of other major iAnnoyances.

 

Access to the internet was difficult. Logging on took ages, and usually required multiple tries (meaning typing that u.n. and p.w., then waaaiiitttiiinnnggg, then nothing, then do it again. Failure. Do it all again. Repeat. Grrr. ) Once on, service was slow, as expected, not complaining about that. The worst thing, though, was logging off. Sometimes it took up to 10-15 minutes to log off, while the meter wa$ running. Then I'd have to go to the iLounge to get it straightened out. Next annoyance ...

 

The iLounge was closed because there was a class in progress. Or it was lunch time. Come back later. And then there was another class. Come back later. Next annoyance ...

 

EVERYBODY was coming back later because the iLounge was so often closed. Line up and wait. Next annoyance ...

 

The iStaff were really nice, fun iPeople, so dealing with them wasn't an annoyance, once you managed to get iFace-to-face. They were quick to refund the iMinutes, but the really grating thing was, the iCredit doesn't do you much good if you can't log on. Or if you can't log off and then you have to go through the whole iLine-up-and-get-'em-back iRoutine again.

 

I never got the straight goods on what the iSituation was, but apparently the problematic system access server was remote -- not on the ship -- which would explain why logging on and off was glacial and error-prone. Doesn't make iSense to me: why would they organize things so that logging on and off of the system would be handled by a slow and spotty satellite service? (Maybe one of you tekkies out there can clarify my tenuous understanding -- or misunderstanding -- of these things.)

 

I did hear comments from the iStaff about the very large number of people on this sailing who were using personal devices. (Yes, there were as many iPads as people on this sailing, or so it seemed.) That's not the passengers' problem, though: Celebrity's wifi system was obviously inadequate or malfunctioning and I got very substandard service for my very expensive wifi package.

 

If I'd bought a drinks package, and found that I couldn't get near the bars because of the unexpectedly high number of heavy drinkers on board, or if I found that they were running out of my favourite booze because of unexpected demand for gin on the sailing, I'd be really annoyed. And that's what happened with my wifi package. Celebrity really needs to improve their i-Offerings. JMHO.

[lj77346]

With internet service on ships generally being SLOW (and expensive), sometimes you just have to decide that there really is no need to have daily access to the internet. At home it's great, but if you're in the middle of the Atlantic and you find that something at home goes wrong, there's not much you can do about it. Call me irresponsible and/or selfish, but when I'm on vacation I try to enjoy myself and don't need to be connected to the outside world. In my opinion, at times being out of the loop is great.

[rosadilla]

With internet service on ships generally being SLOW (and expensive), sometimes you just have to decide that there really is no need to have daily access to the internet. At home it's great, but if you're in the middle of the Atlantic and you find that something at home goes wrong, there's not much you can do about it. Call me irresponsible and/or selfish, but when I'm on vacation I try to enjoy myself and don't need to be connected to the outside world. In my opinion, at times being out of the loop is great.

 

OH, goodie for you, it's your choice. But for those of us who chose to buy a package and stay connected, the point is not that there is "no need" or that aren't enjoying ourselves. The point is they are SELLING a service, and the service did not work. If I pay for a drink, I'd like that drink delivered, and I would not like to be charged extra just because the bartender was slow in delivering the drink to me. The problem with internet access on the Eclipse this cruise was NOT that it was slow; the problem was logging on and logging off, which is a local server problem and has nothing to do with being in the middle of the Atlantic. Even the people at the Captain's Club desk, who had WIRED internet connects, not wireless, had trouble logging on.

[Seenie]

I hear you, LJ. For other people, a vacation means getting away from hot water, electricity and a comfortable bed. I happen to like to stay in touch, and read newspapers when I'm on holiday. Celebrity offers hot water, electricity, comfortable beds and internet access onboard. What I'm saying is that they did not deliver on the latter.

[wwcruisers]

Yep, I'm in the "cruise to unplug" camp, myself -- but, I do understand that some folks have to stay connected, due to business or family obligations. And, it really IS frustrating to purchase something and not get your money's worth. Perhaps the OP should send an e-mail or snail-mail letter to Michael Bailey's office at corporate, detailing the problems she encountered. They might be able to help her resolve the matter to her satisfaction. :cool:

[rosadilla]

OK, here's my rant: This was absolutely a disaster! First, the user interface did not allow you to set up a login & password, you had to go to the iLounge and stand in line ... a line that was out the door, I might add. I can go to any hotel, any Starbucks, McDonald's, etc, and quickly and easily set up a login name & password without standing in line at the reception desk/counter.

 

Second, Seenie was misinformed about the servers. The login servers were right on the ship -- they were not remote. I talked to the head of IT several times, (more about him later) and he admitted that the 2 local servers ON THE SHIP were having problems and weren't up to the task of logging people in and out. Yes, once you were logged in you were dealing with issues of slowness, but what Seenie (and I) are p.o.'d about is that the local servers could not handle the traffic -- and time of day (or night) made no difference. 7, 8, 9 tries just to login. Then it wouldn't log you out, so it's eating your $$expensive minutes. Then stand in line (along with all the other mokes) to get it straightened out. Even the crew had problems logging in and they were on a WIRED connection, not wireless.

 

Third, hours of (non)operation and lack of staff for the iLounge were criminal. They were closed most of the time, so for the few hours they were open, EVERYONE was there. Then there would only be one person on duty. I went once to get help and was standing in line in the hallway (yes, it was out the door), and the person that was supposed to be on duty was 15 minutes late. Guess what, the line only got longer during that 15 minutes.

 

Fourth, the "classes" they gave. I did not attend, but talked to several people who did, and heard only complaints about the class leader and how full of himself he was. They complained he spent most of the time bragging about his portfolio, how rich he was, and how smart he was rather that actually teaching anything. PLUS, you gotta ask, with a zillion people trying to use the internet on board, didn't holding daily classes only make things worse?

 

Now, to the head of IT. What a pompous, condescending so-&-so! I have a Master's degree in Computer Science and worked for Intel for many years before retiring. While he was still a first-class jerk, he couldn't blow smoke up my pant leg, which is how I found out that the 2 local servers were having problems, the user interface was a poor design (as if I needed someone to tell me that) and that it was "Celebrity Corporate's" fault that they were understaffed. Believe me, he made sure I knew nothing was HIS fault.

 

About the number of people using the system ... one of my dinner companions observed that if they didn't have the capacity for that number of people, they shouldn't be selling the service. And to add to Seenie's bar example -- it's not only that they were out of her favorite booze and there was a crowd of people around the bar, but the bartender wasn't there and would only be on duty certain times a day for a couple of hours!

 

Celebrity Corporate & the Eclipse IT team should not only be ashamed of themselves, they should be fired!

[Seenie]

Yep, I'm in the "cruise to unplug" camp, myself -- but, I do understand that some folks have to stay connected, due to business or family obligations. And, it really IS frustrating to purchase something and not get your money's worth. Perhaps the OP should send an e-mail or snail-mail letter to Michael Bailey's office at corporate, detailing the problems she encountered. They might be able to help her resolve the matter to her satisfaction. :cool:

 

Oh I will. :rolleyes:

[BMT]

I have complained many times to HQ in Miami about access to the iLounge!! Keep promising that things will change - never do!! More and more lessons, so less and less access to the Lounge.

 

Many frustrated passengers - why they can't install some monitors in the Library, I have no idea - plenty of room on Deck 11. Or in the Earth place - waste of space anyway.:D

 

Selling expensive packages with no access is unjustifiable. Of course, it is Apple....................:eek::D I suppose they are trying to push us into purchasing an iPad - no thanks, don't want one.

[sfcp1978]

I just posted a thread noting that it appears that new equipment is being installed today on Eclipse. Perhaps this new equipment will resolve some of the problems you reported...

[ghstudio]

we were on the same TA on the eclipse. We only use the internet to retreive mail, we process it offline and then we sign on again to send out notes out. We actually had few problems...and due to situations at home, we were doing the mail thing three times a day. The only slowness was logging in. Once connected we could update quicken and send/receive mail in a reasonable time. We did have trouble signing off, however their system seemed to know we weren't there, unlike previous cruises when the meter kept running. I kept track of the minutes.

 

Agreed that the sign up process is terrible, the on ship support is terrible...but we did find that service was slow, but actually reliable....likely we were just lucky.

 

Finally, unlike previous cruises, we weren't offered or given an extra 10-20% by signing up the first day....not sure if this is a change in policy or the manager just decided not to offer it.

[wwcruisers]

Oh I will. :rolleyes:

 

 

Even though we get some free internet minutes as Elites, we rarely go to the trouble of signing up to use them. The one exception was when we needed to do on-line check-in and print boarding passes for our flight home. That was a major headache, and used up most of our 'free' internet minutes (not to mention an hour of our precious cruising time). And I do understand that bandwidth on a ship is limited, and has to be prioritized (DS is an IT in the Navy) -- but, why go out of your way to sell a product, knowing that you can't deliver it? :confused:

[lj77346]

Hi Seenie,

I now fully understand the problem you had. Celebrity sold you a service and they didn't deliver. From the other posts, it also appears that their support and customer service was lacking as well. All good reasons for a rant. I'm sorry if I offended you or anyone else who responded to your post. Cheers!

[shoreham01]

Even though we get some free internet minutes as Elites, we rarely go to the trouble of signing up to use them. The one exception was when we needed to do on-line check-in and print boarding passes for our flight home. That was a major headache, and used up most of our 'free' internet minutes (not to mention an hour of our precious cruising time). And I do understand that bandwidth on a ship is limited, and has to be prioritized (DS is an IT in the Navy) -- but, why go out of your way to sell a product, knowing that you can't deliver it? :confused:

So did they actually have a printer available for customers use? They did not have one when we were on Eclipse in June.

[Kevnzworld]

I just posted a thread noting that it appears that new equipment is being installed today on Eclipse. Perhaps this new equipment will resolve some of the problems you reported...

 

I sure hope so, I'm sailing on the Eclipse in December.

MR Bayley promised a whole new Internet system to be installed fleet wide by spring, with speed 7-10 times faster, we can only hope.

This isn't 1998 when Internet was a luxury, it's 2012 most of us have devices that we rely on to stay connected. Hopefully Celebrity will lead the industry and not just follow reluctantly. It is supposed to be " Modern " luxury afterall!

[Xcruiser]

We were on the Eclipse Oct 27 transatlantic. iServices were crazy! First of all, on a transatlantic we expect internet to be very slow, and maybe completely gone for several days. I get that. I'm not complaining about slow transmission. On this trip, it was slow, but never disappeared all together. The problem was a raft of other major iAnnoyances.

 

Access to the internet was difficult. Logging on took ages, and usually required multiple tries (meaning typing that u.n. and p.w., then waaaiiitttiiinnnggg, then nothing, then do it again. Failure. Do it all again. Repeat. Grrr. ) Once on, service was slow, as expected, not complaining about that. The worst thing, though, was logging off. Sometimes it took up to 10-15 minutes to log off, while the meter wa$ running. Then I'd have to go to the iLounge to get it straightened out. Next annoyance ...

 

The iLounge was closed because there was a class in progress. Or it was lunch time. Come back later. And then there was another class. Come back later. Next annoyance ...

 

EVERYBODY was coming back later because the iLounge was so often closed. Line up and wait. Next annoyance ...

 

The iStaff were really nice, fun iPeople, so dealing with them wasn't an annoyance, once you managed to get iFace-to-face. They were quick to refund the iMinutes, but the really grating thing was, the iCredit doesn't do you much good if you can't log on. Or if you can't log off and then you have to go through the whole iLine-up-and-get-'em-back iRoutine again.

 

I never got the straight goods on what the iSituation was, but apparently the problematic system access server was remote -- not on the ship -- which would explain why logging on and off was glacial and error-prone. Doesn't make iSense to me: why would they organize things so that logging on and off of the system would be handled by a slow and spotty satellite service? (Maybe one of you tekkies out there can clarify my tenuous understanding -- or misunderstanding -- of these things.)

 

I did hear comments from the iStaff about the very large number of people on this sailing who were using personal devices. (Yes, there were as many iPads as people on this sailing, or so it seemed.) That's not the passengers' problem, though: Celebrity's wifi system was obviously inadequate or malfunctioning and I got very substandard service for my very expensive wifi package.

 

If I'd bought a drinks package, and found that I couldn't get near the bars because of the unexpectedly high number of heavy drinkers on board, or if I found that they were running out of my favourite booze because of unexpected demand for gin on the sailing, I'd be really annoyed. And that's what happened with my wifi package. Celebrity really needs to improve their i-Offerings. JMHO.

 

iAgree! :o

[Seenie]

iAgree! :o

 

Great response, Xcruiser!

 

And LJ, thanks for the response. I kind of felt like you were criticizing my iAddiction. :rolleyes: LOL

 

I hope, as one of the previous posters suggested, that X is looking into the problem. This aspect of their service really didn't meet Xpectactions.

[4774Papa]

We were on the Eclipse Oct 27 transatlantic. iServices were crazy! First of all, on a transatlantic we expect internet to be very slow, and maybe completely gone for several days. I get that. I'm not complaining about slow transmission. On this trip, it was slow, but never disappeared all together. The problem was a raft of other major iAnnoyances.

 

Access to the internet was difficult. Logging on took ages, and usually required multiple tries (meaning typing that u.n. and p.w., then waaaiiitttiiinnnggg, then nothing, then do it again. Failure. Do it all again. Repeat. Grrr. ) Once on, service was slow, as expected, not complaining about that. The worst thing, though, was logging off. Sometimes it took up to 10-15 minutes to log off, while the meter wa$ running. Then I'd have to go to the iLounge to get it straightened out. Next annoyance ...

 

The iLounge was closed because there was a class in progress. Or it was lunch time. Come back later. And then there was another class. Come back later. Next annoyance ...

 

EVERYBODY was coming back later because the iLounge was so often closed. Line up and wait. Next annoyance ...

 

The iStaff were really nice, fun iPeople, so dealing with them wasn't an annoyance, once you managed to get iFace-to-face. They were quick to refund the iMinutes, but the really grating thing was, the iCredit doesn't do you much good if you can't log on. Or if you can't log off and then you have to go through the whole iLine-up-and-get-'em-back iRoutine again.

 

I never got the straight goods on what the iSituation was, but apparently the problematic system access server was remote -- not on the ship -- which would explain why logging on and off was glacial and error-prone. Doesn't make iSense to me: why would they organize things so that logging on and off of the system would be handled by a slow and spotty satellite service? (Maybe one of you tekkies out there can clarify my tenuous understanding -- or misunderstanding -- of these things.)

 

I did hear comments from the iStaff about the very large number of people on this sailing who were using personal devices. (Yes, there were as many iPads as people on this sailing, or so it seemed.) That's not the passengers' problem, though: Celebrity's wifi system was obviously inadequate or malfunctioning and I got very substandard service for my very expensive wifi package.

 

If I'd bought a drinks package, and found that I couldn't get near the bars because of the unexpectedly high number of heavy drinkers on board, or if I found that they were running out of my favourite booze because of unexpected demand for gin on the sailing, I'd be really annoyed. And that's what happened with my wifi package. Celebrity really needs to improve their i-Offerings. JMHO.

Sorry you had problems with the Internet. Personally, I find it refreshing to escape from the Internet during a cruise. It is much more relaxing.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Instead of selling minutes they should be selling gigabits

[Caribbean Chris]

We had no problems on the first Eclipse transatlantic two years ago, so it sounds like it was a situation beyond their control onboard...plus the fact that demand has mushroomed since the ship was designed...and all ships are struggling to keep up. Land hotels have been facing the same problems, with everyone tapping in at the same time.

 

I recall our Eclipse ease of use specifically because we had a delayed real estate closing going on with a lot of critical emails needing responses while we were on board. (So much for the "forget about it, you're on vacation" idea, which I plan to embrace on our March Hawaii sailing.)

 

I've also kept up with deadline work while on other TAs on HAL, requiring downloading a lot of PDF files, and it was frustrating when slow but I got it done. It's a little risky to rely on the onboard Internet.

 

To me, it is still almost miraculous to be able to have Internet out in the middle of the ocean. When I worked in the industry in the 70s and 80s, your only option was extremely expensive phone calls.

 

So I try to cut the onboard staff some slack...it's not like they are doing it on purpose.

[bigbenboys]

We were on the Eclipse in Sept/Oct. BMT said it much better than I could. Here is a quote from BMT from another thread.

"Yes, just back from the Eclipse also. On sea days there were three lessons and it was closed for about 4.5 hours during the day. Everytime I went there and it was closed, there were other frustrated guests also.

It is a design fault that there are no other terminals around the ship. On the Indie there are two in the Diamond Lounge and some in the Coffee Shop."

 

As you can see this is a on going problem. I was one of those frustrated guests. Richard:eek:

[Jade13]

 

Agreed that the sign up process is terrible, the on ship support is terrible...but we did find that service was slow, but actually reliable....likely we were just lucky.

 

Finally, unlike previous cruises, we weren't offered or given an extra 10-20% by signing up the first day....not sure if this is a change in policy or the manager just decided not to offer it.

 

If you have your own computer can't you sign up in your stateroom? On HAL you can. They also have a sheet they give out with directions, so you don't have to wait for anyone.

[Kevnzworld]

If you have your own computer can't you sign up in your stateroom? On HAL you can. They also have a sheet they give out with directions, so you don't have to wait for anyone.

 

You have to do the signup in the Ilounge with celebrity. The computers there have the room card swipe function for identification.

I looked at a HAL cruise next year on the Epic. I noticed that the largest Internet package on HAL is 50% more expensive per minute than Celebrity.

[CI66774]

Rosadilla - with all due respect - lack of consistent internet is not a "disaster!" Nor is it "criminal!" It may be irritating or annoying and you probably should get your money back but let's not be overly-dramatic, please.

[wwcruisers]

So did they actually have a printer available for customers use? They did not have one when we were on Eclipse in June.

 

That's bizarre -- especially since lots of folks use that service for printing their airline boarding passes. Last time we used the on-board internet service was Solstice, a couple of years ago. There was only one printer for the whole group of computers, though. Maybe the one on Eclipse broke, and they didn't have a back-up. :confused:

[rosadilla]

rosadilla - with all due respect - lack of consistent internet is not a "disaster!" nor is it "criminal!" it may be irritating or annoying and you probably should get your money back but let's not be overly-dramatic, please.

 

fraud = criminal.