Carnival's Holland American Westerdam Internet. Bandwidth, download speed, ping rate.

[serialcruiser48]

Having good Internet is becoming more important theses days and Carnival has slightly improved their Internet on select ships. The Westerdam is one of those ships.

The big difference is download speed. In the past download speed was similar to dial up and proved frushstrating when purchased by the minute. Now, you purchase a package for an entire day or the entire cruise.

Cost for a 30 day cruise is as follows.

Social. A very limited plan, almost useless. $149

Enhanced. Most sites allowed, but speed is limited. $199

Premiere. Fastest possible speed. $299

I purchased the Premiere package since I must have the best possible performance. What I discovered about its performance is the following.

Ping rate. A very painful 900-1100 ms.

Download speed. Decent 5.74 Mbps.

Upload speed. Ok 251 Kbps.

The ping rate causes a long delay in requests, so the performance seems subpar and is typical of high orbit satellite. It is however an improvement over the past and the cost is a definite improvement compared to by the minute pricing. In my opinion, $10 a day for unlimited Internet is very reasonable. Also, VPN service works and needed if you need to bank online during a long cruise. Also, World of Tanks will not work due to high ping rates. But, the game will at least load so you can purchase a rare premium tank if one is offered duriung your voyage.

Low orbit satellite is the best possible solution for Internet at sea and is only available on select Royal Caribbean Ships. Their Ping rates are about 286 ms and download speeds of 25 Mbps is just like being at home.

Low orbit satellite is a smaller footprint and will not work for ships cruising the north and south hemispheres and is most likely the reason Carnival did not choose this service. They should reconsider, high orbit satellite is old school and outdated.

Edited April 3, 2016 by serialcruiser48

[Scrapnana]

I haven't a clue what a ping rate even is, but the Internet on Westerdam has been exceptionally (for a ship) good so far. My pictures upload quickly (11 in less than two minutes) to Picasa for my blog and Cruise Critic is loading fast as well (all that I have tried so far). I purchased the "Enhanced Plan" (the middle one).

[0bnxshs]

I haven't a clue what a ping rate even is, but the Internet on Westerdam has been exceptionally (for a ship) good so far. My pictures upload quickly (11 in less than two minutes) to Picasa for my blog and Cruise Critic is loading fast as well (all that I have tried so far). I purchased the "Enhanced Plan" (the middle one).

 

Kathi, you can liken "ping" rate to a radar ping. The longer it takes for a "ping" to return to the transmitter, the further away, or slower and longer the return, the "pinged" object is. In this case your computer would be the transmitter and a server someplace would be the object the signal is bounced and returned from.

[dakrewser]

At best all a ping rate can tell you is that somewhere among the many servers between you and the target there's a problem.

[serialcruiser48]

Ping rate is crucial to web page request performance. For example, today ping rate is testing at ~2,000 ms and and a web page reload takes about 2 minutes. I have an IPad Pro (13" model) with testing tools to test Internet performance.

[nschamp]

At best all a ping rate can tell you is that somewhere among the many servers between you and the target there's a problem.

 

 

Not quite.

 

The use of ping/? or tracert/? Gives you many options to use. Can be accessed from the cmd prompt.

[Clarea]

Having good Internet is becoming more important theses days and Carnival has slightly improved their Internet on select ships. The Westerdam is one of those ships.

The big difference is download speed. In the past download speed was similar to dial up and proved frushstrating when purchased by the minute. Now, you purchase a package for an entire day or the entire cruise.

Cost for a 30 day cruise is as follows.

Social. A very limited plan, almost useless. $149

Enhanced. Most sites allowed, but speed is limited. $199

Premiere. Fastest possible speed. $299

I purchased the Premiere package since I must have the best possible performance. What I discovered about its performance is the following.

Ping rate. A very painful 900-1100 ms.

Download speed. Decent 5.74 Mbps.

Upload speed. Ok 251 Kbps.

The ping rate causes a long delay in requests, so the performance seems subpar and is typical of high orbit satellite. It is however an improvement over the past and the cost is a definite improvement compared to by the minute pricing. In my opinion, $10 a day for unlimited Internet is very reasonable. Also, VPN service works and needed if you need to bank online during a long cruise. Also, World of Tanks will not work due to high ping rates. But, the game will at least load so you can purchase a rare premium tank if one is offered duriung your voyage.

Low orbit satellite is the best possible solution for Internet at sea and is only available on select Royal Caribbean Ships. Their Ping rates are about 286 ms and download speeds of 25 Mbps is just like being at home.

Low orbit satellite is a smaller footprint and will not work for ships cruising the north and south hemispheres and is most likely the reason Carnival did not choose this service. They should reconsider, high orbit satellite is old school and outdated.

Thanks for the info. Significant that VPN works, which I've had no luck with on Royal Caribbean ships.

[rafinmd]

H<SNIP>

Low orbit satellite is a smaller footprint and will not work for ships cruising the north and south hemispheres and is most likely the reason Carnival did not choose this service. They should reconsider, high orbit satellite is old school and outdated.

 

I'm having trouble finding relevance in this. Westerdam is NOT the Oasis OTS with a worldwide range of less than a dozen ports. I expect internet on a HAL ship to work well WORLDWIDE, and have no interest in something specialized in a limited geography. That's not why I cruise.

 

Roy

[serialcruiser48]

Thanks for the info. Significant that VPN works, which I've had no luck with on Royal Caribbean ships.

 

I have 285 cruise nights on Royal and it does work on the ships I've sailed. Not all VPN protocols are supported and the supported protocols are line specific. Try using IPSec and your results will improve. Also, I use Witopia VPN service. Costs $50 a year and it's best to use a paid for service as your data flows through your VPN provider and you need to use a trusted service. If you use Crooks Inc, your data may be captured.

[dakrewser]

Not quite.

 

The use of ping/? or tracert/? Gives you many options to use. Can be accessed from the cmd prompt.

 

 

And how do you get to the command prompt on an iPad??

[nschamp]

At best all a ping rate can tell you is that somewhere among the many servers between you and the target there's a problem.

 

And how do you get to the command prompt on an iPad??

 

Don't own one Dave. You made the "ping rate" statement. :) Google it, there is plenty of info out there

Edited April 5, 2016 by nschamp

[dakrewser]

Don't own one Dave. You made the "ping rate" statement. :) Google it, there is plenty of info out there

 

Sorry, it was the OP who mentioned using an iPad. And I really have no need to Google it as I've been using ping (and other tools) for over 30 years...

[serialcruiser48]

iPad updates are taking forever...here's why.

https://**********/a/WARPe

Edited April 6, 2016 by serialcruiser48

[serialcruiser48]

The link above did not work so to continue ...

I noticed iPad updates were taking forever so I check my bandwidth usage graph and was surprised to see how the updates were being clipped. The image were tall peaks of download separated by no download activity, so the download speeds were reduced by about 80% I would guess.

[serialcruiser48]

After 11 days on the Westerdam I can say it's been one of my WORST Internet experiences. In the first week of the cruise the ships DNS server was down and I manually had to replace the ships DNS server with Googles 8.8.8.8 public server just to get service. Yesterday I used the ships computers so I could print out my RCL boarding pass and each page too about 7 minutes to load. Just to print out my boarding pass took about 45 minutes. So it does not matter weather you use the ships computer or your own device, the service sucks. The only good thing is, Internet is cheap. Only $299 for the Premium package for my 30 day cruise. The bad news, if I'm experiencing the ships best service , I can only imagine the horrible service for the lesser packages.

[kazu]

After 11 days on the Westerdam I can say it's been one of my WORST Internet experiences. In the first week of the cruise the ships DNS server was down and I manually had to replace the ships DNS server with Googles 8.8.8.8 public server just to get service. Yesterday I used the ships computers so I could print out my RCL boarding pass and each page too about 7 minutes to load. Just to print out my boarding pass took about 45 minutes. So it does not matter weather you use the ships computer or your own device, the service sucks. The only good thing is, Internet is cheap. Only $299 for the Premium package for my 30 day cruise. The bad news, if I'm experiencing the ships best service , I can only imagine the horrible service for the lesser packages.

 

 

I am on the Westerdam right now as well. I have the medium package. I asked about the premium package and it is NOT faster than the medium. Ok, it might be such a smidge faster than it is not worth talking about. What it does let you do is use SKYPE and those types of applications.

 

My internet is as good as roll call members who are on the premium package. When my internet wasn't working, neither was theirs.

 

I have been uploading pics on my live thread. Yes, sometimes it doesn't work, but most times it does. It's a ship and with the unlimited package, there is no worry when it doesn't that you have burned minutes and $ away.

 

The rate that you are paying for the 30 day cruise is the same for our 33 day cruise.

 

Like Kathi, I have been successful using it most of the time. We are in the South Seas in the middle of nowhere so I think all things considered it's pretty dam good.

 

Of course it's not the speed of my wifi at home, but it is certainly doing the trick.

[iancal]

IIt is so poor that we never bother with on board internet except for the times when we get it free because of our cruise line status. We don't really need it and can easily wait until we reach a land based internet spot.

This is our experience on all of the other mass market cruise lines.

 

Why pay for substandard service when we do not really need it?

 

From our perspective, HAL's entire customer IT systems from web to on board customer information systems, are from the dark ages and non existent respectively. As old and tired as some of their ships.

Celebrity is tied at the bottom with HAL when it comes to web defined/performance.

Edited April 13, 2016 by iancal

[serialcruiser48]

I consider myself an experienced cruiser with most cruise lines and do like the Westerdam. Good food, entertainment and most important NO CROWDS. Lots of public space most of the time and have been able to find a table on Lido deck at 12pm lunchtime. Most other cruise lines are too crowded during lunchtime and there are no tables available.

If this ship had Internet service from 03b it would be a great cruise ship. For 90% of the folks who travel on HA ships Internet is not important, but techies are the next generation of cruisers and HA needs to adapt or become the next Blockbuster.

[kazu]

I consider myself an experienced cruiser with most cruise lines and do like the Westerdam. Good food, entertainment and most important NO CROWDS. Lots of public space most of the time and have been able to find a table on Lido deck at 12pm lunchtime. Most other cruise lines are too crowded during lunchtime and there are no tables available.

If this ship had Internet service from 03b it would be a great cruise ship. For 90% of the folks who travel on HA ships Internet is not important, but techies are the next generation of cruisers and HA needs to adapt or become the next Blockbuster.

 

 

I meant to post this warning and forgot. If you don't like Internet on the Westerdam DO NOT sail on Oceania Riviera. I have never seen such bad internet. It would take me 20 minutes to get on when I could. It was a real struggle and VERY frustrating.

 

It was deplorable and not worth the dollars they were charging. Mine was given as a perk and it was a dam good thing. Of course, at the rate Oceania listens, they wouldn't have listened to that complaint either. LOL.

 

It took forever to post a pic and I had to do most of them in ports. Really poor. So, having experienced that, I guess I have a different view point. Cheers :)

 

P.s. We have another meet and greet if you want to join us ;). We've been having a lot of fun on this cruise.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[serialcruiser48]

Meet&greet sounds good. When and where?

[kazu]

Meet&greet sounds good. When and where?

 

 

April 29th at 3:30 - Culinary Arts Centre/Queen's Lounge.

 

Also doing cabin crawl, poker run on the 26th. Meet in Pinnacle Bar for 2:15 p.m. If you can see signatures - details are on the PDF version of the spread sheet in my signature. (1st link to click).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[serialcruiser48]

April 29th at 3:30 - Culinary Arts Centre/Queen's Lounge.

 

Also doing cabin crawl, poker run on the 26th. Meet in Pinnacle Bar for 2:15 p.m. If you can see signatures - details are on the PDF version of the spread sheet in my signature. (1st link to click).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Sounds good. See you then.