Internet on Escape - schoolwork

[Bibble]

Can anyone tell me if the internet/wifi on the Escape is a decent speed?

My daughter will need internet for schoolwork, but I'd like to know ahead of time if it will be more frustrating than useful, if it's really slow?

 

Is there a computer center, that might be faster by going on their computers rather than her laptop?

 

Thank you for any information!

[packer99]

I have heard the internet speed isn't very good.

[Bibble]

That's what I was afraid of.

 

I'm currently figuring out which online programs she can do on an ipad, in ports. (don't want to lug her laptop around unless we have to...) Yes, very poor planning on our part to take a cruise during school. But this is the first year she's had a lot of online stuff.

[mking8288]

Based on your Eastern Caribbean itinerary, you want to check with your home carrier on what kind of cellular data are included ... roaming, international or global data, as pay as you go (PAYG) or add-on bundle, and its speed.

 

While on the ship, you are captive for cruiseline's data plans and/or unlimited access, of which NCL has the reputation for being the priciest and slowest compared to RCI and CCL - the newer & 4X faster SpeedNet boost/cache or compression scheme is said to be done already, but there are very few solid & concrete statistics and benchmark that I've seen to validate ... as far as I am concerned, comments about it being "pretty slow" or "very good & fast enough" are meaningless.

 

What exactly is the need for schoolwork besides being able to surf the internet via satellite, on an iPad ?? Touch typing isn't the greatest so you should bring along an external keypad, bluetooth or wireless, along with a stylus (that's what I do along with a notebook PC as that's always more versatile in functions ... without bring those 17" power monster) Sitting under bright sun over WiFi - think sun-glare & reflections :cool:

 

I am not sure what brand/model of PC they are using on the Escape ... I've seen compact micro-desktop by Acer, with USB ports but don't recall if they are hard-wired over ethernet, which will always give you the advantage over WiFi with the given duplex losses by design, over an already slower connection & high latency. While in ports, NCL is said to be hooked up to land-based broadband and in theory, better & faster speed via its paid WiFi signal. The internet cafe on the ship is near/next to the atrium lobby area but should be among the first stop on embarkation day, speak to manager or staff on duty and test out the connectivity first before buying into the package ... the NCL website is always free to access and the "Google" online search function is said to be available as well.

 

While in ports, everyone that need/want/must/like to go online will be hunting for a free WiFi signal - joining the off-duty crews on shore to log-in, and if schooling is a priority for DD ... paid WiFi or cellular data should be considered as a serious option.

 

All of these, could, possibly, sum up to a relative pricey learning at sea while cruising experience. Good luck.

[nets33]

If it is possible to do the homework without being connected to wifi? If you can do that then just connect to upload homework. It would be your best option and will save you time and $ if using the ship service. My DH did that on our last cruise to turn in his homework.

 

I had a lengthy conversation on one ship with one of the internet team about how it works. Service is likely to be slower than what you're used to at home because it is served via NCL corporate office and bounces to the ships via satellite and then back out the same way.

[packer99]

Not sure how old your daughter is but my son is 11. We contacted all of his teachers and most of his work ahead of time. Math was done before we left. Most of his classed accepted a presentation of the trip as homework. So we tooks lots of pictures and wrote down some of the historic info we learned on tours so we could do a presentation. His reading and writing teacher told him to write about his trip.

 

One teacher even said, he was such a good student with grades and character, to not even worry about homework other than to show her the prezi he was making for another class.

 

So it was nice, he was free to enjoy his vacation and catching up when he got back was a breeze.

[AdoraBelle]

I haven't heard anything good about the Escape wifi. It was supposed to receive an upgrade but ...?

 

If you have Verizon as a cellular carrier and you're doing Eastern, remember your data and voice plan are covered/no extra charge in St Thomas. Tortola is either included or is at the $10/day Travel Pass (can't recall which).

 

Might even be worth getting an international Verizon hotspot for the trip for when you're in port.

[Saltney]

Can anyone tell me if the internet/wifi on the Escape is a decent speed?

My daughter will need internet for schoolwork, but I'd like to know ahead of time if it will be more frustrating than useful, if it's really slow?

 

Is there a computer center, that might be faster by going on their computers rather than her laptop?

 

Thank you for any information!

 

Internet is expensive and typically poor on board with exception to days in port where the crew and guests are off the ship and contention for the satellite connection is less. if you want unlimited access its $30 a day.

[BirdTravels]

A week of unlimited internet will run you $210.

 

We have been on the Escape twice. Most recently in May 2016. Both times, we had an unlimited internet package. Both times the service was the worst in the NCL Fleet.

 

We were on the Jewel last week. The Jewel has had both it's hardware upgrade about 4 months ago and it's cache server installed a few weeks ago. The service was pretty good. Definitely nowhere near being at home, but understanding the constraints of shared satellite service, the wifi was good. (good enough for homework).

 

I don't know when the Escape is schedule for upgrade.

 

You definitely do NOT want to be running around ports with a laptop trying to find some free wifi and spending your shore time doing homework.

[pcakes122]

I haven't been on the Escape yet, but in reading NCL WiFi reviews I always wonder if perhaps the location on the ship impacts performance.

 

I cruise pretty frequently on the Breakaway and Gem and (unfortunately) am ALWAYS working (full laptop connected 8-9 hours/day to my corporate network - constantly instant messaging, sharing files, sending emails, surfing web, etc.) I always get the unlimited WiFi plan - and I can honestly say I've never had even one blip or connectivity issue. I also use my cell phone constantly as well - and that has *sometimes* had some connectivity issues in the middle of the ocean - but also not frequently.

 

99% of the time I book aft balconies/minis/suites. Is this maybe why I don't run into the connectivity issues others seem to frequently experience?

[juksing]

Just got off Escape this weekend, the internet speed was really bad, even checking things lime gmail took long page load times.

[Maddysdaddy]

Sailed on the Escape back in April, and found no difference in speed or connectivity between using my laptop and phone in my cabin, or using one of the ship's computers in the internet lounge.

 

Straight email was reasonable, downloading attachments was like watching paint dry, and trying to connect to my office through Citrix was virtually impossible - and I was trying to work late at night and early in the morning, when presumably fewer people would be trying to connect.

 

Saw more than one fellow passenger in tears in the lounge because they needed to connect for work and couldn't. One individual who I took to be a realtor (based on her yelling/crying/hyperventilation), apparently lost a significant sale because of an inability to get the proper paperwork dealt with online.

 

Most of the anger that I saw from people was from those who appeared to be sitting at the computers watching their minutes tick down while staring at the little blue circle of death on the screen.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Maddysdaddy

[AdoraBelle]

Haven't mentioned this before because it was the GA, not Escape, and Escape was allegedly receiving an upgrade, but ...

 

In June on GA, the entire system was unusable/offline so often that I got a partial refund on my unlimited package. (I mean you couldn't even log into the portal.)

[Daghis]

If you have Verizon as a cellular carrier and you're doing Eastern, remember your data and voice plan are covered/no extra charge in St Thomas. Tortola is either included or is at the $10/day Travel Pass (can't recall which).

Tortola isn't included in the domestic packages as it is a foreign country. It is available for the $10/day TravelPass.

 

Note that if TravelPass is of interest, you do need to sign up for it first. (The default international plan is "PAYG", pay as you go, i.e., per minute/message/KB rates.)

 

I've used TravelPass a few times and it's worked very well for me. I like knowing that for a flat fee of $2/day (Canada and Mexico) or $10/day (many other countries — note: Bahamas is not available for TravelPass, it's PAYG only there), I get my domestic allowance of unlimited calling, texting, and my existing data allotment.

[mking8288]

I haven't been on the Escape yet, but in reading NCL WiFi reviews I always wonder if perhaps the location on the ship impacts performance ... I cruise pretty frequently on the Breakaway and Gem and (unfortunately) am ALWAYS working ... 99% of the time I book aft balconies/minis/suites. Is this maybe why I don't run into the connectivity issues others seem to frequently experience?

No, as far as from I saw - did not used the GEM's slow internet as that's been a while but used Breakaway's WiFi in 2014, 2015 and earlier this May - from iPad/tablet, internet cafe's Acer computer and from traveling Sony Viao, which is running W10Pro & optimized with tweated Chrome & Firefox settings, etc. BA is known to have the "faster" speed within the fleet of NCL ships floating around the world, so it is not a surprise - despite that, other users on the BA still reported of "poor" connections & troublesome issues with the iConcierge App, which partially reflected the network's infrastructure ... and, perhaps, excessive load with all the "free" WiFi giveaway packages.

 

If one is able to make an Ethernet connection via hard wired, the speed improvement would be noticeable - also, use the available 5 GHz band that's generally less congested, as long as you find that sweet spot with a solid signal ("bars" on the iPhone or Androids are meaningless itself ;) )

 

Ships are providing WiFi signals with multiple routers over non-overlapping channels on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands; and, it's directly related to XXX number of users over the shared bandwidth. Under DHCP, there's a practical limit as to how many users can be connected without slowing everyone down significantly to make uploads & downloads timing out. Chrome's mobile browser has a relatively new feature, known as "Data Saver" under Settings, enable that & it will cache & compressed data transfer - and it is very useful over slower connections. That would help the typical user, regardless of which ship s/he is cruising on.

 

LOL on the fairy tales about upper categories of staterooms getting better & faster satellite broadband access :D and for NCLH's entire fleet, given the current charges for this claimed SpeedNet cache & compression upgrade scheme. Satellite technology is what it is now and it is simply foolish to depend on NCL while at sea to maintain that connectivity without having contingency & backup plans.

 

We no longer "must" stay connected at sea (in crisis mode due to frail elderly parents) and once we docked somewhere, I already know (well, almost) what options I have before going online again - and, not waste time in the ports looking for that packed, crowded & congested WiFi signal nearby ... not with 2 or 3 dozens others holding up their devices to try to log-in. There should be a Plan B just in case and to us, having a Plan C is a "must".

[Daghis]

Can anyone tell me if the internet/wifi on the Escape is a decent speed?

My daughter will need internet for schoolwork, but I'd like to know ahead of time if it will be more frustrating than useful, if it's really slow?

It will likely be quite frustrating.

 

We were on Escape at the end of July and encountered numerous problems with inability to connect and extremely slow loading of emails and web pages. Attempting to read a single email message took a minute or two.

 

The promised upgrades are likely to provide slight improvements for commonly used web sites like Facebook, but will probably provide no benefit to a school site that may be accessed onboard solely by your daughter.

[SMerritt]

Not sure how old your daughter is but my son is 11. We contacted all of his teachers and most of his work ahead of time. Math was done before we left. Most of his classed accepted a presentation of the trip as homework. So we tooks lots of pictures and wrote down some of the historic info we learned on tours so we could do a presentation. His reading and writing teacher told him to write about his trip.

 

One teacher even said, he was such a good student with grades and character, to not even worry about homework other than to show her the prezi he was making for another class.

 

So it was nice, he was free to enjoy his vacation and catching up when he got back was a breeze.

 

Exactly what I was thinking - our sons teachers did almost the same thing as packer99 posted!

 

I have experienced slow internet speeds on ALL Cruise Lines -

 

If need be, work offline, then send.

 

We have our own business and have to be online daily * Get the unlimited plan so you are not freaking out watching the minutes. Do the work offline, then connect & send. Even though we have a high-end laptop, I feel things move faster and more efficient in the internet center, try to go early in the morning or during the main dinner hours.

 

He wrote his trip presentation on the flight home:D

[AdoraBelle]

Tortola isn't included in the domestic packages as it is a foreign country. It is available for the $10/day TravelPass.

 

Note that if TravelPass is of interest, you do need to sign up for it first. (The default international plan is "PAYG", pay as you go, i.e., per minute/message/KB rates.)

 

I've used TravelPass a few times and it's worked very well for me. I like knowing that for a flat fee of $2/day (Canada and Mexico) or $10/day (many other countries — note: Bahamas is not available for TravelPass, it's PAYG only there), I get my domestic allowance of unlimited calling, texting, and my existing data allotment.

 

I got the sense from another thread on the topic that you'll receive some kind of text when your cell connection hits the towers in the TravelPass area, offering to enroll.

 

If this isn't true, do you happen to know how I would enroll in advance for a day on a cruise I know I'll be in Tortola? Especially since it doesn't look like (from this thread) I'll be able to connect to my verizon webpage while I'm on the ship proper. :)

[Daghis]

You don't sign up for TravelPass on a per-day basis like that. You do need to have your account with Verizon Wireless set up to use TravelPass, so that you may want to take care of now. The friendly folks at Verizon can help enable that for you. (It may also be necessary to enable international services if you haven't done that already, but again, they can help you with that.)

 

Once you have TravelPass enabled on your account, then it's simply a matter of using your phone normally in a foreign country. There is no charge until you actually use the phone at which point Verizon will charge the $10 to your account.

 

What I've done is have TravelPass on my phone, but leave it in "Airplane Mode". Then, when I'm in the foreign country, if I decide I need to use my phone, I turn off "Airplane Mode" and let it connect to the local cellular service. I'll then get a text message from Verizon confirming my TravelPass plan:

 

Use your Talk, Text and Data plan allowances while in NETHERLANDS ANTILLES for an add'l $10/day. For details visit vzw.com/intltrvl

 

Free VZW Msg: Welcome to NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. Dial +1 & 10-digit# to call US. For Int'l Support call +1-908-559-4899 or visit http://www.vzw.com/intltrvl.

 

Remember to re-enable "Airplane Mode" before setting sail so that you won't inadvertently roam internationally onto the ship's cellular network (that gets re-enabled after the ship departs from port) in order to avoid costly per-minute/message/KB charges. (The ship is PAYG.)

[AdoraBelle]

Thank you!

[Bibble]

Thank you all for your responses!!!

 

We had thought to do the 100 minute plan, but with the stress that gave her about not being enough, we opted for the unlimited plan.

 

She has an online class (It's called "blended", as the classroom is a computer lab guided by the teacher) that she will have to do at least 4 separate assignments in. Two other classes do require periodic online assignments.

 

We have done a week with her before missing school, but she was younger. She "did what she could", and we basically sequestered ourselves at home the weekend we got back. Unfortunately this year it would be way too much.

The majority of her teachers would allow a few extra days to get things turned in, but she doesn't want to do that. (She's an 8th grade perfectionist honor student taking 3 high school classes).

 

This cruise was not an optimum plan, but I actually won it, and this was the best week of the choices I had. (Yup, those 9th callers on the radio are legitimate!!).

And this will most likely be the last year we can fathom taking her out of school for a week, so "here we go!"

 

At least with the unlimited plan, it won't be an added stress of using up minutes when things take time to load.

 

(we've chalked the expense up to collateral damage of having a studious child. That, and hey, if we can do the drink package, she can have the internet package - LOL!)