Bringing laptop onboard advice

[TootsieLou]

Our family is cruising on Caribbean Princess this summer.

My son has enrolled in an online class and he wants to bring his laptop so he can keep up with it.

On our previous cruises we have never used computer

or even cell phones so I never looked into the tech stuff.

I have read that internet will be slow.

When is best and where is best to use laptop on ship??

3 of us are platinum so we will get some minutes right?

Will he need special adaptor to plug in or anything?

Thanks.

[Sillyjilly]

On my last cruise the computer worked in my stateroom, but I got booted every 10 minutes or so. It's gonna be hard for him to get much done given the ups and downs of cruise ship internet. Sometimes it is beyond slow and unusable.

 

No adapter needed.

Edited April 3, 2014 by Sillyjilly

[Kmkub]

Last month on the Ruby with my cousin, who had her first free internet minutes. Just trying to email with her son, she'd click a button, look up and chat with us for awhile, look down and type for a minute, look up and chat with us...

 

The speed didn't bother her since she was chatting & drinking a beer while waiting for stuff to load/send. It might be very frustrating if trying to do school work.

 

Remember 14,400 modems? I hear it's like that. It sure looked like it.

[RNGALNG]

Our family is cruising on Caribbean Princess this summer.

My son has enrolled in an online class and he wants to bring his laptop so he can keep up with it.

On our previous cruises we have never used computer

or even cell phones so I never looked into the tech stuff.

I have read that internet will be slow.

When is best and where is best to use laptop on ship??

3 of us are platinum so we will get some minutes right?

Will he need special adaptor to plug in or anything?

Thanks.

 

I have taken my MacBook Pro on our last three cruises. I bring my cord so I can charge it up and that's about it.

 

Computer time can run slow. It depends on the time of day you are trying to log on.

 

I would suggest going to the internet cafe once onboard and checking with the tech on duty. They will be able to tell you where the hot spots are. (Each ship seems to have different spots where you have better chances of getting online.)

 

I have been on the Coral, Sapphire and Crown and had good 'reception' in my room on each.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

And when he is done with each session, be sure to log out all the way or you will loose the minutes you do have!

[Colo Cruiser]

You will use alot of minutes! Be prepared.

The free minutes won't last long.

And additional are very expensive.

On the Sapphire the wifi was so bad that we gave up after 40 minutes and never used the rest. Its probably the worst wifi experience for us yet on Princess. :(

Edited April 3, 2014 by Colo Cruiser

[Sillyjilly]

You will use alot of minutes! Be prepared.

The free minutes won't last long.

And additional are very expensive.

On the Sapphire the wifi was so bad that we gave up after 40 minutes and never used the rest. Its probably the worst wifi experience for us yet on Princess. :(

 

That's too funny as I've had the same experience on the Sapphire, however in March it was great. (Maybe they updated something for her new itinerary?)

[AZJerry]

We didn't have much luck with the Wifi in our cabin on the Sapphire a couple of weeks ago. We could do what we needed much faster (less minutes) using the computers in the internet cafe.

Edited April 3, 2014 by AZJerry

[Sillyjilly]

We didn't have much luck with the Wifi in our cabin on the Sapphire a couple of weeks ago. We could do what we needed much faster (less minutes) using the computers in the internet cafe.

 

I guess it's just hit and miss with the Satellite. :confused:

[Colo Cruiser]

Our family is cruising on Caribbean Princess this summer.

My son has enrolled in an online class and he wants to bring his laptop so he can keep up with it.

On our previous cruises we have never used computer

or even cell phones so I never looked into the tech stuff.

I have read that internet will be slow.

When is best and where is best to use laptop on ship??

3 of us are platinum so we will get some minutes right?

Will he need special adaptor to plug in or anything?

Thanks.

 

The laptop can be used anywhere including the cabin.

No special plug required, just search for the ships wifi signal and follow the prompts. For each persons free minutes they each need sign up for the first time.

[chengkp75]

The WiFi and internet available to passengers is basically piggybacked on the ship's bandwidth. The ship's systems are online 24/7 to headquarters for everything from engine room maintenance programs to inventory programs to personnel to POS transactions (that's right, every time someone's S&S card is used, it gets transmitted to the head office), to surveillance videos, to company e-mails. So what is left over can be very small bandwidth, hence painfully slow and frequent drops in signal. I really wouldn't count on doing any intensive on-line work on the ship. He may be able to find a hotspot ashore and use that, but that would be the only real way he could get by.

[bigandlil]

We found that the time of day made an incredible difference on the Caribbean Princess last month. My DH said that when he used the Internet in the middle of the night (2 am) it was as fast as our cable service at home.

 

Not ideal timing, but fast service!

[Colo Cruiser]

We found that the time of day made an incredible difference on the Caribbean Princess last month. My DH said that when he used the Internet in the middle of the night (2 am) it was as fast as our cable service at home.

 

Not ideal timing, but fast service!

 

Thats because the crew are sleeping. ;)

[Protirees]

Our family is cruising on Caribbean Princess this summer.

My son has enrolled in an online class and he wants to bring his laptop so he can keep up with it.

On our previous cruises we have never used computer

or even cell phones so I never looked into the tech stuff.

I have read that internet will be slow.

When is best and where is best to use laptop on ship??

3 of us are platinum so we will get some minutes right?

Will he need special adaptor to plug in or anything?

Thanks.

 

I teach an online course and just returned from a cruise last week where I had to access my course often. Most people have answered your questions already. I will add that the time of day does make a huge difference. Early in the morning (e.g., 5 - 6 am) worked best for me. Others talked about late at night working also for them. My online course management software is a huge site and difficult to access at the best of times. It depends on what course management software your son has to access. Many profs ask that students only e-mail them within the course directly. I would ask if he could e-mail outside of the course, if that is the case, during the cruise so that he can compose e-mail offline. Much faster to download and send e-mail than to access course sites.

 

It can be done. He should let his professor know that he may have limited access to the Internet during the cruise. And if online assignments need to be done, he may need to attempt them early.

 

It also depends on where you are cruising how good the Internet coverage is. You don't say where or for how long. I was on a cruise for a month so I had no choice but to use the Internet when I could to manage my course. Finally, I always went onshore and found WiFi (even if I had to pay for it although cafe's often have free WiFi) where it was easier to find more bandwidth and a faster connection (and saved my Platinum cruise Internet minutes for when I needed them).

 

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any other questions your son may have.

Edited April 3, 2014 by Protirees

[Pam in CA]

Internet connection is never guaranteed and depends on the location, ship direction and where the ship is within the satellite reception area. Kind of like cell phones years ago when there weren't as many towers and you'd lose signal as you reached the limits of one tower but weren't within the next tower's range.

 

I've found that the best times are before 7:30pm and between 6-8pm when crew are mostly working and passengers are having drinks or dinner. Late at night isn't as good because the crew often use that time to email family. After midnight is good.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Thats because the crew are sleeping. ;)

This is so true. Many crew members video call home. I've found internet the slowest about 10:30pm-midnight, when many of them are done working, and it's daytime in the Philippines.

[Colo Cruiser]

This is so true. Many crew members video call home. I've found internet the slowest about 10:30pm-midnight, when many of them are done working, and it's daytime in the Philippines.

 

 

Just talked to HW Antonio, he just got home on Tuesday. :)

[PescadoAmarillo]

Emailed him already, too. Sent him a photo of the weather at home; told him I wished we were still on the EP.

[caribill]

i've found that the best times are before 7:30pm and between 6-8pm when crew are mostly working and passengers are having drinks or dinner.

 

am?

[pablo222]

I teach an online course and just returned from a cruise last week where I had to access my course often. Most people have answered your questions already. I will add that the time of day does make a huge difference. Early in the morning (e.g., 5 - 6 am) worked best for me.

 

I agree 4-6 am is good.

 

Around 8 pm can be good as well -- crew on duty, pax eating

or watching show.

 

Best speed I ever had was during crew drill (in some port I don't

remember). Every crew member at their emergency station.

Most pax off the ship.

 

Just me and the satellite. Excellent.

 

On my last cruise, I had a skype appointment every night at 6:30pm.

Worked fine. Did other things on the open connection, while skyping.

 

The only problem was that I had to leave the cabin door open to have

wi-fi in the cabin. That made me feel like I was 'on display', as

everyone who passed by would look in.

Edited April 4, 2014 by pablo222

[worldtraveller]

Also you might want to email the port authority office and see if they offer free wi-fi at the dock. Some do.

[derdejoh]

Good luck convincing your college student to get up at 4:00 am -- while on vacation -- to do classwork! :D More likely he'll be staying up after Skywalkers closes to do some work before heading to bed.

 

Depending upon your ports of call and what excursions you have planned, finding internet access in port may be your best option. You can deposit him at a Starbucks or some other cafe with free and/or cheap internet while you go off and do some shopping. ;)

[USAF Retired]

Skype really??? That is the biggest band with hog of all time. I would have your son go by the Internet Café and see how many people are in there. I have used their computers or gone back to my cabin and used my IPad and had no problems when only a couple of people are using the ship computers. Slower than cable but you can get times where it is not as bad as 14400 modem days. Most times you can get good band width on port days when most people are off the ship or even sea days around 9:00 AM as a lot of people like to sleep in during vacation. Good luck and enjoy your cruise.

[ashley@cruisecritic]

Our family is cruising on Caribbean Princess this summer.

My son has enrolled in an online class and he wants to bring his laptop so he can keep up with it.

On our previous cruises we have never used computer

or even cell phones so I never looked into the tech stuff.

I have read that internet will be slow.

When is best and where is best to use laptop on ship??

3 of us are platinum so we will get some minutes right?

Will he need special adaptor to plug in or anything?

Thanks.

 

Hi there,

 

I work for Cruise Critic, so most of the cruises I take are for work, which means I always take my laptop. You won't need any special adapters; the standard power cord should be just fine. While Internet at sea is never as efficient as it is on land, I've never had problems getting things done while onboard. I've found some ways to be smarter about how I use minutes, though. I check email and do any online surfing in the early morning (before breakfast) or at night (before bed).

 

If your son has online reading to do, I'd suggest he bring up everything he needs in a separate window and then log off to avoid wasting minutes while he's doing the actual reading. If he's got writing to do, he should bring up any research tools he needs and then do the same thing -- log off while he's doing the actual writing. If there's something I don't know when I'm writing, I'll insert brackets and highlight them throughout the document. That way, when I'm finished, I know exactly what I have to go back and look up, and I can do it much more quickly when I go back online instead of wasting minutes looking through the document.

 

As for submitting assignments, I've never had much of a problem sending text-based emails or ones that have a couple of Word documents attached. It will take forever, though, if he needs to send photos or larger projects that contain graphics. If he has to go that route, he might want to try compressing everything into a zip file or waiting until he gets to port to use free Wi-Fi.

 

You should get some free minutes, but they do go quickly. If you run out, be sure to check on prices for packages of minutes. The per-minute price is often significantly less if you purchase a package instead of going minute-by-minute. (On a recent cruise I took, the price dropped from 89 cents to 25 cents per minute because I bought a package.)

 

Finally, as a side note, if you have a balcony, I find that it's a very peaceful place to get work done -- minimal distractions and nice view -- and the Internet works just as well out there as it will anywhere else on the ship. :)

[ReturnCruiser]

I agree 4-6 am is good.

 

 

Agreed, early morning Internet speeds are quite reasonable. You can often see the WiFi access points in the cabin hallways, near the ceilings (white box with antennae). We noticed that the further away your cabin is from the access point, connectivity improved by propping the cabin door open. Too much metal surrounding the cabin seems to reduce connectivity. Propping the door open (with the garbage can) helped, as well as sitting closer to the open cabin door.

 

Bob

[pablo222]

Agreed, early morning Internet speeds are quite reasonable. You can often see the WiFi access points in the cabin hallways, near the ceilings (white box with antennae). We noticed that the further away your cabin is from the access point, connectivity improved by propping the cabin door open. Too much metal surrounding the cabin seems to reduce connectivity. Propping the door open (with the garbage can) helped, as well as sitting closer to the open cabin door.

 

Agree with everything you said. My cabin (on coral) was right

at a jog in the hallway. Everyone who came around the corner

looked right into my cabin. Somehow, the open door was an

invitation to look in.

 

I was next to an electrical closet. Something there was causing interference, as I would have good

signal, and then it would instantly go to zero.

Edited April 5, 2014 by pablo222