What's the difference between internet packages?

[rachelfran]

I'm sailing Anthem on April 20 with my teenager.

What's the difference between the two options? 

 

Thanks,

[ggtjr]

Voom allows social media---facebook, email, even searching internet

Streaming allows Neetflix, etc.

My husband and I both got Boom on our last cruise on Liberty. We set our phones on airplane mode and WiFi call. We were able to text or call each other when not together on the ship. We also were able to call friends and family at home. All this with phones is airplane mode.

[blackshirt]

The difference between the two is download speed. The slower one, surf, is normally too slow for streaming video but is sufficient for everything else. 

Edited March 11, 2019 by blackshirt

[FLASHINGLIGHTS83]

12 minutes ago, ggtjr said:

Voom allows social media---facebook, email, even searching internet

Streaming allows Neetflix, etc.

My husband and I both got Boom on our last cruise on Liberty. We set our phones on airplane mode and WiFi call. We were able to text or call each other when not together on the ship. We also were able to call friends and family at home. All this with phones is airplane mode.

My wife will use Whatsapp Messenger to stay in contact with our parents who are watching our son for us.   VOOM should work for this, correct?   

[ggtjr]

1 hour ago, FLASHINGLIGHTS83 said:

My wife will use Whatsapp Messenger to stay in contact with our parents who are watching our son for us.   VOOM should work for this, correct?   

At least it worked for us. We have Samsung 9s. I am not familiar with Whatsapp and how to use it. For us, phone on airplane mode with WiFi worked

[Clarea]

1 hour ago, FLASHINGLIGHTS83 said:

My wife will use Whatsapp Messenger to stay in contact with our parents who are watching our son for us.   VOOM should work for this, correct?   

Correct.

[John&LaLa]

Those decent speeds only apply to some ships.😉

Mainly the newer ones and a few that were retrofitted for O3B

[mcatmcat]

I never purchase a package when im onoard but got a free day for my diamond status I dont know which one is it but it was superrrrr slow omg IM glad it was free anyways

[John&LaLa]

33 minutes ago, mcatmcat said:

I never purchase a package when im onoard but got a free day for my diamond status I dont know which one is it but it was superrrrr slow omg IM glad it was free anyways

 

Which ship?

Adventure was awful, pretty sure Serenade won't be any better

[mcatmcat]

Just now, John&LaLa said:

 

Which ship?

Adventure was awful, pretty sure Serenade won't be any better

Symphony I used my pass on day 3 my GF on day 5 both days were super slow Iphone x

[John&LaLa]

3 minutes ago, mcatmcat said:

Symphony I used my pass on day 3 my GF on day 5 both days were super slow Iphone x

 

Pretty sure Diamond just gets Surf. Pins get Stream, which is good on O3B ships, but lousy on conventional satellite 

[h20skibum]

Surf speeds on Indy



Stream speeds on Harmony



Both have O3b



Past Reviews post 184

Edited March 12, 2019 by h20skibum

[ramja96]

I had similar speeds on Allure this past December.

 

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by ramja96

[SRF]

Surf is advertised at 0.5 mbps.  Surf and Stream is 5 mbps.

 

Notice the ping times in the screen shots above.  Almost 1/4 second.

 

This is what makes it seem SO SLOW when loading pages.  Some pages (Amazon for one) have MANY calls for data, and each one takes 1/4 second.

 

WOW, just looked at the screenshots about, one has a 640 ms ping, that is well over 1/2 second response time for a data request.

[ShillyShally]

I was glad the one with Key was surf & stream on Indy as that seemed decent albeit slow on some days but I know son and GF used it to stream netflix too so it worked for that.  But I stayed as connected as I wanted to without issue (which wasn't hugely connected but did respond to some work emails).

[h20skibum]

I was glad the one with Key was surf & stream on Indy as that seemed decent albeit slow on some days

Indy is one of the ships that have O3b



Past Reviews post 184

[ShillyShally]

2 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Indy is one of the ships that have O3b
 

Will all ships be retrofitted to this?  I used to love completely disconnecting on cruises but now that we'll be taking more with family back on land or our dog sitter and our jobs of course, I've found I have a better transition knowing I can check when needed and having Voom made that something I didn't have to think of or ever find the onboard internet cafe!  But the 03b was definitely useful with surf & stream so I'd like to plan on this option going forward.

[h20skibum]

Will all ships be retrofitted to this? 

From what I have read, I don’t think the older ones will get O3b. It got too expensive for them.



Past Reviews post 184

[ShillyShally]

1 minute ago, h20skibum said:

From what I have read, I don’t think the older ones will get O3b. It got too expensive for them.
 

Thank you!  That makes sense!