How long cell service available when we sail

[kcdancerkc]

on Escape from Manhattan....one hour or less?

 

That is when I can tell my adult kids, no communication :cool:

Thanks!

[txagfan]

Are they asking about this for a cruise that's a year away? [emoji23]

 

Some of the questions on here crack me up. Tell them you're gone when you leave your hometown.

 

 

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[garycarla]

Tell them when it no longer works, it no longer works.

[NMLady]

on Escape from Manhattan....one hour or less?

 

That is when I can tell my adult kids, no communication :cool:

Thanks!

 

Less. As soon as sailaway starts the ship's cell tower satellite is on and you'll be charged roaming rates by your phone server (Verizon is $2.49 a minute) because the call will be connected through the ship's tower.

 

So tell your adult kids your scheduled departure time, and turn off your phone by that time.

[BirdTravels]

on Escape from Manhattan....one hour or less?

 

That is when I can tell my adult kids, no communication :cool:

Thanks!

That's about right. When you get about 2 miles off shore. It takes about 50 minutes to get to the Verrazono Bridge and you will have cell service for another 20-30 minutes after that. You need to be able to see land (i.e. not buried on the inside of the ship as you get out to sea).

[mking8288]

It's also location-specific ...

Inside Staterooms, lucky to get a 2G/Edge signal, adequate for voice call once onboard a NCL ship sailing out of NY terminal.

 

Oceanviews, Balcony & outdoor locations, depending on the carrier (VZW has strongest signal near MCT/Pier 88 & 90) followed by AT&T, T-Mo & Sprint ... Fwd thru Midship, not so good depending on your whereabout AFT (that's nearly 1/5 mile into the Hudson River)

 

Once the ship backed out, turn around & sail down the Hudson River - you will maintain at least a 3G/data signal, usable sailing toward SOL on the balconies & outdoors ... cellular signals bouncing off & reflected off the water.

 

Once it sailed under the VZ Bridge and head away from Lower Bay into sea, expect to begin losing the cellular signal ... regardless of whether the ship's cellular roaming tower is ON or not. Depending on harbor traffic & ship's speed, this is typically anywhere from 45 minutes to 75 minutes. Suffice to say, you will have no more than 15 minutes once passing underneath the VZB to maintain even a usable voice signal, data services begin to fade in & out before this, dropping down to 2G/Edge speed ... time to stop browsing, FB or other internet browsing, unless you have & switched over to ship's WiFi inTERnet data.

 

WiFi inTRAnet stayed on while in port and as ship gets underway, regardless ... as that is needed to support various free iConcierge functions, like specialty dining reservations.

 

That's basically true for current NCL ships sailing from/into NY harbor ... your guess is as good as mine for the Escape, really - in 2018. With the "promised" better & faster satellite internet, there's always a chance that carriers like VZW and AT&T, etc. would roll out the next generation ... 5G technologies & implement those standards. ;p

 

Of course, that's assuming the hardware on the end user's side has to be compliant, compatible and current, i.e. get those iPhone 8's and Google Pixel devices (and, Samsung 9's ... :rolleyes: ready)

[GamblingMommy]

We have Verizon and have sailed out of Manhattan 7 times. Our rule is all phones off once we go under the bridge. Haven't had any problems with this guideline and our family.

 

 

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[ClevelandCruisin]

Once you leave

 

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[Bitterman]

That's about right. When you get about 2 miles off shore. It takes about 50 minutes to get to the Verrazono Bridge and you will have cell service for another 20-30 minutes after that. You need to be able to see land (i.e. not buried on the inside of the ship as you get out to sea).

^ This!

 

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[kcdancerkc]

Thank you all! None of our cruises have left from NY. I don't know what the next few months bring, as much as I love travel, I am a mom and young grandma first. Lol

I am a self professed helicopter-ish mom....one of my adult kids is on the high end of the autism spectrum. It is hard for me to let worries go since my dad passed and used to check in with my adult kids when I leave the country with hubby. We work to travel. I don't need anything but the ships number for my daughter and her husband to have for emergencies now. I just like to know ahead of time, when I can tell them, phone is in the safe for the week :cool: They tell ME ...stop texting mom! Lol

[ray98]

General rule of pretty much every port I have been out of was 30 minutes after you enter open water.

[zqvol]

Less. As soon as sailaway starts the ship's cell tower satellite is on and you'll be charged roaming rates by your phone server (Verizon is $2.49 a minute) because the call will be connected through the ship's tower.

 

So tell your adult kids your scheduled departure time, and turn off your phone by that time.

 

Completely untrue. You have coverage until you are out of the harbor. The ships tower cannot be turned on until it is far enough away from land to not have any impact on people who are ashore.

[Bitterman]

Completely untrue. You have coverage until you are out of the harbor. The ships tower cannot be turned on until it is far enough away from land to not have any impact on people who are ashore.

Exactly! - All our cruises out of NY I've left my cell phone on well out into the mouth of NY harbor to post pictures, etc.

 

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Edited August 7, 2017 by Bitterman
Added more

[Crusin6]

Completely untrue. You have coverage until you are out of the harbor. The ships tower cannot be turned on until it is far enough away from land to not have any impact on people who are ashore.

 

 

Yup completely accurate

 

 

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[Crusin6]

Less. As soon as sailaway starts the ship's cell tower satellite is on and you'll be charged roaming rates by your phone server (Verizon is $2.49 a minute) because the call will be connected through the ship's tower.

 

 

 

So tell your adult kids your scheduled departure time, and turn off your phone by that time.

 

 

Not true.

 

 

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[newmexicoNita]

pretty much: Casino opens, cell phone reception closes or maybe even sooner. Regardless as to when, it is fine with me. I remember the days when ships didn't even have tvs, no way of getting any news and we did wonderfully well. These were the days of working hard and needing a break.

[carorules]

I hope it's not the wrong thread for it, I feel it's somewhat related. But I saw articles where NCL was trying new internet plans on 2 ships back in March. Any idea if it's been rolled on all ships? I supposed not since their website still show their crappy and super pricy internet plans. I was hoping for a social media package like most cruise lines offer nowadays.

 

Anybody got info on it?

 

Sailing from Boston to Bermuda in Sept and was hoping to be able to stay in touch with a few people but I'm unsure it's gonna be possible.

[Bitterman]

I hope it's not the wrong thread for it, I feel it's somewhat related. But I saw articles where NCL was trying new internet plans on 2 ships back in March. Any idea if it's been rolled on all ships? I supposed not since their website still show their crappy and super pricy internet plans. I was hoping for a social media package like most cruise lines offer nowadays.

 

Anybody got info on it?

 

Sailing from Boston to Bermuda in Sept and was hoping to be able to stay in touch with a few people but I'm unsure it's gonna be possible.

Not to get to off topic but I have not heard anything since March either. Verizon and other cell phone providers have plans that let you use your existing cell phone plan while in a foreign country for a daily fee. It's $10 a day while in Bermuda with Verizon. You might want to consider that instead of spending a lot of money on an internet package. Just use your cell phone for the two and a half days or so you're in Bermuda.

 

This is the info from a shipping news site about the new wifi. It's from March as well and doesn't have any dates but I don't think there's much info out there:

 

Global Eagle Entertainment has signed a multi-year strategic partnership agreement with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) to provide internet and entertainment services across its Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) brand’s fleet of 14 ships.

 

Under the agreement, Global Eagle is implementing packages to offer Wi-Fi, texting and video on board, with guests expected in the near future to be able to use their own devices to access an integrated portal that includes TV programming, on-demand movies, games, and special event telecasts.

Monitoring of usage and dynamically adjusted bandwidth provision for each ship based on real-time demand will also be part of the system.

“Under this new agreement with Global Eagle, we’re looking to expand our onboard communication and entertainment experience for our guests,” said Ross Henderson, NCL’s vice president of onboard revenue.

“In addition, Global Eagle’s portal will enable us to manage our onboard revenue-producing services, entertainment and information more efficiently.”

Global Eagle has recently improved its at-sea web browsing capabilities by upgrading its SpeedNet system with Application Performance Enhancement Technology (APET), designed to improve the internet quality of experience (QoE) for passengers on board.

First introduced in 2012, SpeedNet uses predictive algorithms to automatically download the most popular websites to the ship’s local server, so they can be accessed simultaneously by multiple users. In side-by-side tests, this has been demonstrated to provide up to five times faster download speeds when accessing sites like Yahoo, BBC News, CNN News and ESPN over a satellite connection, the company says.

APET further optimises performance through dynamic intelligent bandwidth management. Data buffers are prioritised and tuned automatically based on bandwidth availability and the applications being used.

“When large numbers of passengers return to the ship after a port call, there is a tremendous surge in internet usage,” said Ole Kristian Sivertsen, president of Global Eagle’s cruise, ferry and yacht services.

“SpeedNet APET helps to manage these periods of high demand and ensure the best-possible user experience by automatically prioritising so as to provide the fastest speeds for the most important applications.”

“Protections are built into APET to provide the best QoE for users without compromising their security and privacy.”

[NMLady]

Completely untrue. You have coverage until you are out of the harbor. The ships tower cannot be turned on until it is far enough away from land to not have any impact on people who are ashore.

 

Interesting since in two other US ports, near land towers, as soon as anchors were lifted and ship started moving, we were charged roaming rates by carrier. We had coverage all right, but it was evidently ship's.

We had thought, mistakenly, that since we were near land we could still use the land tower.

[perditax]

I hope it's not the wrong thread for it, I feel it's somewhat related. But I saw articles where NCL was trying new internet plans on 2 ships back in March. Any idea if it's been rolled on all ships? I supposed not since their website still show their crappy and super pricy internet plans. I was hoping for a social media package like most cruise lines offer nowadays.

 

Anybody got info on it?

 

Sailing from Boston to Bermuda in Sept and was hoping to be able to stay in touch with a few people but I'm unsure it's gonna be possible.

 

I was on GA in April and the internet was more stable/usable, if still very slow. But it at least stayed online. They had the tiered pricing scheme, but unfortunately I don't know what the lower-tier price was (I was buying the 'stream' package, which to be fair did actually work ... at about $250 for the week).