Regal Medallion Net is Slow

[MTNestr]

We’re currently on the Regal and MedallionNet is not what I expected.  Several of the access points are down including the International  Cafe.  Unlimited is free for Platinum and Elite.

 

It is better than the old WIFI but I did expect faster and more reliable.

[Host CJSKIDS]

I'm surprised to hear it's slow because that's not our experience.  Wonder what's going on.

 

If you get a chance, would you mind asking if they think the unlimited internet is going away soon.  There has been reports of Nov. 11th being the date that it goes away.

 

Hope you are enjoying your cruise even with the slower internet!

[shof515]

I wonder if the weather could be a factor. I noticed the ship was unable to dock at St John due to high winds. 

[nimiq]

Hope the free will last until my Xmas cruise.

[Coral]

Those are pathetic speeds!

[Colo Cruiser]

It would be interesting to see the comparison to the CB.

I thought the CB was lightning fast. It was flawless.

[Host CJSKIDS]

12 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

It would be interesting to see the comparison to the CB.

I thought the CB was lightning fast. It was flawless.

It was lighting fast in December 2017 for us and in February for our friends.  Those same friends were on the last roundtrip out of Copenhagen and then the recent TA and she was busy texting and giving me pictures throughout.  She said the internet was amazing.

 

They must be having some new issue. 

[Colo Cruiser]

1 minute ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

It was lighting fast in December 2017 for us and in February for our friends.  Those same friends were on the last roundtrip out of Copenhagen and then the recent TA and she was busy texting and giving me pictures throughout.  She said the internet was amazing.

 

They must be having some new issue. 

Gawd I hope not!   🤔

[Hlitner]

We were recently on the Regal when she crossed from Copenhagen to NYC and the Internet was always fast, even near the IC.  And our cruise did stop at Halifax and we never had an Internet problem.  Wonder if they are having some kind of systems malfunction?  

 

Hank

[Hoosier-Cruiser]

Well, you 're up in Canada. Maybe it's in metric units :)

[skennedy25]

17 hours ago, MTNestr said:

We’re currently on the Regal and MedallionNet is not what I expected.  Several of the access points are down including the International  Cafe.  Unlimited is free for Platinum and Elite.

 

It is better than the old WIFI but I did expect faster and more reliable.

also could be the server they are accessing.  Speedtest isn't really a good way to measure it.  goto google, type speedtest and a button will pop up

 

[MTNestr]

This morning it’s even slower. I was told by the Internet person that it’s 200 Mbps downstream which is shared by everyone and that my speed is determined by how many are online.  He was not surprised by my results.  Unlimited is Great!  I will ask about how long it’s going to remain free next time he’s at his desk.

[voljeep]

60 download, 15 upload on my home internet - Spectrm

[Hlitner]

I would appreciate if somebody who is on the Regal now, ask the Internet guy what has happened?  As I posted earlier, when we crossed over from Copenhagen our Internet service was fantastic and always fast.   I did not actually test the speed, it was certainly not what we get at home, but it was darn fast.  Now, a few short weeks later we hear that it sucks.  What has changed?  Speaking of home, I just checked and am getting 300 Mbps.  Even my slowest old computer (I have several) gets over 25Mbps using its ancient WiFi card.

 

Hank

[peety3]

At 400ms latency, it's going to be relatively hard for a speedtest to get a full picture of capacity. I also wouldn't be surprised if Princess uses some specific technologies to ensure that bandwidth is shared among _users_ rather than individual _flows_, and the only way for a speedtest to measure full bandwidth of the link at 400ms latency is a lot of parallel flows. Geekery aside, I would simply assume that you're not going to be able to measure the ship's internet feed for them, and move on. Most websites are highly optimized for lower-bandwidth connections, so the bigger factor (and one that's unavoidable with present satellite constellations) is the latency, which will slow down a lot of web things, particularly given that some browsers are driving people to think that every single web page needs to be secured (it doesn't).

[Colo Cruiser]

Yeah I knew that.

[MTNestr]

Even though the speed is slower than expected it’s not an issue except that a few access points were down.  I have been able to watch TV on my iPad using YouTube TV.

[MTNestr]

I have noticed that I can’t view my ship account if I use a VPN.  Speed was not affected using the VPN.

[Eagle_and_hawk]

You may have tried this, but sign off and power off what looks like an iPad. We are in the CB right now, and averaging 50mbps.  A couple times these past ten days, that has dropped as low as 8-16 down, and 25 up.  Signing out and back in had no effect, but powering off and back on cleared the problem and was back up to 50 down and 28 up. 

 

David

[MTNestr]

On 10/27/2018 at 7:40 AM, Eagle_and_hawk said:

You may have tried this, but sign off and power off what looks like an iPad. We are in the CB right now, and averaging 50mbps.  A couple times these past ten days, that has dropped as low as 8-16 down, and 25 up.  Signing out and back in had no effect, but powering off and back on cleared the problem and was back up to 50 down and 28 up. 

 

David

 

Didn’t help much.

 

i did watch a college football game yesterday without any issues.  It’s free so I’m not complaining!

[MTNestr]

Internet speed today is less than 1 Mbps.  Also Medallions aren’t opening doors.  They have taken ours yesterday to test and still haven’t returned them.

[MTNestr]

11 minutes ago, Haboob said:

 

The price of satellite uplinks are significantly (10x ?) higher north of Seattle / Southampton, so ships buy less

bandwidth ("speed") to pass on to passengers.

 

The unlimited-minutes phenomenon (MedallionNet / PrincessConnect / Voom / ...) was enabled by a constellation

of equatorial Medium Earth Orbit satellites that use steerable dishes on orbit to cut the price to ships tenfold(?).  The

catch is that MEOs orbit lower than geosynchronous satellites, and drop below the southern horizon at about 48º N.

 

 

We are currently off the coast of North Carolina headed south to the Caribbean.  When can I expect the Internet speed to increase?

[MTNestr]

Internet today is better today at 08:30 AM

[Colo Cruiser]

I boarded Thursday. It’s been working fine for me 24/7.  

[Colo Cruiser]

Seems to be an issue with connecting to Cruise Critic onboard right now.  Other sites FB etc are fine.