Wifi Question

[Katbird93]

Is it worth it to purchase the Wifi on Caribbean sailings on SeaDream?

Thanks!

[TrapperZimmy]

Hi, Katbird.  There are several factors to consider in answer to your question.  First, I will tell you that we both bought wifi for our phones on the Cuban cruise.  For the 7-day portion, we paid $99.  I think it was about $125 for the 9-day portion.  The daily fee was $35.  They place the wifi password on the device, and it is not transferable between devices.  For Cuba, wifi was our only means of communication.  And it only works on the ship, but it is the only means of communication when you are at sea away from cell service.  So your first question is going to be what devices do you want to use with the wifi.  We chose phones, although we prefer using iPads for email and browsing, because we wanted telephone access.  We just kept the iPads in airplane mode.

 

We have the AT&T international plan, which is free phone, text and data service in Mexico and Canada, and $10/24-hour period pretty much anywhere else in the world.  No fee for the plan, and you only pay if you use it.  But you also pay the daily fee for each device you use.  And this only works where there is cell service, and it does not work in Cuba.  BTW, in Cuba Zimmy got a text from AT&T that she could use the phone and pay roaming charges.  Elected to ignore that.

 

It really comes down to what type of communication you need, and when you are going to need it.  We haven't used it until this trip because we are satisfied to use the AT&T option when we are in port, which is most of our waking time, and are comfortable with having no service at night when we are sailing.

 

Although we have heard stories about SD wifi being poor, I really experienced no problem with it.  It worked all the time and was fast enough for my purposes.

[Katbird93]

Thanks very much for the reply.  We also have ATT and have the international $10 per day.  We are on this Saturday from SJU to STT, so I think we’ll be ok with that.  We may opt for one phone with WiFi.  Having a 92 year old mil that we need to be able to keep tabs on is important.  Figure off the ship there will be restaurants/bars with free WiFi?!  Enjoyed hearing about your Cuba trip.  

[floridaag]

SD's WIFI is the worst I have every encountered at sea.  First, most ships I have been on do not limit you to one device per package - only that 1 device can be logged on at once.  On SD, if you want to use 2 devices, phone/tablet/laptop, you would need to pay twice.  Really bad.

 

Even worse at least on our cruise, access to an exchange server/outlook was barred.  It was simply impossible to access my work VPN or even just cloud emails through Outlook web-mail.   From my dealings with staff, it did not seem to be the first time it was a major problem for a guest.  

 

I did not have major speed issues as noted above, but had to have my office re-route all my mail to a personal email account -

 

Other than the device issue, for personal use, I think it works fine though

[TrapperZimmy]

I agree that it doesn't make sense to charge per device.  I accept that you can use only one device at a time, but charging by device is unnecessary.  OTOH, $99/week is not going to break me.  Since I am primarily concerned with getting business email and calling in for voice mail (I have a one-person office), I consider it a business expense.  As I mentioned, the decision to use the wifi must take into consideration why you want to do it.  I don't use a VPN, although Zimmy does.  I don't think she really wanted to do that much work.  I, on the other hand, brought my notebook computer and a flash drive, so I had all of my office on board.

[Jim Avery]

SeaDream wi-fi has long been a sore point with me.  Last time I payed $99 I basically could not use it.  Maybe checked emails twice.  At SeaDream's price point wi-fi should be good quality and included in the fare.  You want good wi-fi on a ship try Viking Ocean's included wifi.  We had 2 iPhones, iPad , and MacBook all in use as we chose.  Able to do everything but streaming.  SeaDream should do much better in this area.

[Skysurfr]

On the Cuba voyage, American cell phones were very expensive to use (Sprint).  Thus, many were purchasing WiFi and using it on the ship. Throw in that the crew uses it too and all the bandwidth get eaten up and it's slow. It's faster during dinner when everyone is eating and the full crew is busy. 

 

Also, WiFi in Cuba isn't free anywhere. It's cheap, $1 per hour but you need a cuban wifi access card to sign in anywhere including private wifi spots. 

 

I stayed disconnected for a week. 

 

Finally, those with Wifi tended to sit staring at their devices rather than striking up a conversation, enjoying a sunset, or just plain relaxing. 

 

 

[TrapperZimmy]

1 hour ago, Skysurfr said:

On the Cuba voyage, American cell phones were very expensive to use (Sprint).  Thus, many were purchasing WiFi and using it on the ship. Throw in that the crew uses it too and all the bandwidth get eaten up and it's slow. It's faster during dinner when everyone is eating and the full crew is busy. 

 

Also, WiFi in Cuba isn't free anywhere. It's cheap, $1 per hour but you need a cuban wifi access card to sign in anywhere including private wifi spots. 

 

I stayed disconnected for a week. 

 

Finally, those with Wifi tended to sit staring at their devices rather than striking up a conversation, enjoying a sunset, or just plain relaxing. 

 

 

I agree with you Skysurfr, that striking up a conversation, enjoying a sunset, or just plain relaxing is what SeaDream is all about.  And I'd love to be disconnected for a week, but this trip was 18 days for us with the B2B cruise, and Zimmy and I needed to maintain contact for business purposes.  That's what pays for the cruises.

[Katbird93]

We ended up not getting wifi and occasionally connected on shore.  It was perfect. Enjoyed being disconnected for the week.