Viking can’t seem to fix it’s on board App

[Heidi13]

10 hours ago, Paulchili said:

OK

I think you knew what I meant. When an average TV satellite is 36,000 KM above the earth and the ship moves a few feet in open sea, for the purposes of the location of the ship vs satellite the ship might as well not have moved an inch.

What I am saying is that the minimal movement of the ship while at anchor does not explain to me the loss of signal.

The height of a Geostationary Satellite in an Equatorial orbit does not mean the satellite has sufficient altitude all over the world for unrestricted signal reception, especially in coastal regions. In lower latitudes the satellites will have a high altitude in the sky, but as you gain Latitude, the altitude of the satellites are reduced. To visualise this, consider the location of the sun at Vernal Equinox (about March 21st) when the Sun is over the Equator. In the tropics the Sun is almost overhead at Noon, but at higher Latitudes it gains less of a maximum altitude in the sky.

 

Not sure of Orion's current position, but know she is heading up the Asia coast and across to the Alaska Panhandle. If your Latitude is already fairly high, the satellite's low altitude and azimuth to the Geostationary position can provide blocks to the signal from the shoreline.

 

In addition to atmospherics & precipitation, the signal can also be impacted by powerful transmitters, including radar signals from naval units.

 

We also use Satellite at home and experience signal degradation or loss on a regular basis.

[Paulchili]

6 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

We loose our Comcast signal here at home on a regular basis, and I am pretty sure our house doesn't move at all. Wireless service can be spotty anywhere.

I am sorry to hear that and I know I would be very unhappy if it was happening to me - probably would look for a different provider. Must be very annoying watching a program/movie/game and losing the signal - especially if this happens on a regular basis. Maybe your house should be moving searching for a signal .

We too have Comcast but fortunately no trouble at all with signal.

Edited May 11, 2019 by Paulchili

[just_dont]

 

according to those who've been around since the start, the signal was great with 1 ship but has steadily declined with the addition of others which leads to the belief that the source bandwidth is being divided across the expanding fleet which results in a degraded signal.  i'm no IT expert but it seems plausible, and i'm sure i'm not the only one who's experienced the dreaded buffering when trying to watch the in room TV...

 

That's just not how it works. At all.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

[Cyber Kat]

12 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

The height of a Geostationary Satellite in an Equatorial orbit does not mean the satellite has sufficient altitude all over the world for unrestricted signal reception, especially in coastal regions. In lower latitudes the satellites will have a high altitude in the sky, but as you gain Latitude, the altitude of the satellites are reduced. To visualise this, consider the location of the sun at Vernal Equinox (about March 21st) when the Sun is over the Equator. In the tropics the Sun is almost overhead at Noon, but at higher Latitudes it gains less of a maximum altitude in the sky.

 

Not sure of Orion's current position, but know she is heading up the Asia coast and across to the Alaska Panhandle. If your Latitude is already fairly high, the satellite's low altitude and azimuth to the Geostationary position can provide blocks to the signal from the shoreline.

 

In addition to atmospherics & precipitation, the signal can also be impacted by powerful transmitters, including radar signals from naval units.

 

We also use Satellite at home and experience signal degradation or loss on a regular basis.

 

Thank you for explaining that so much better than I ever could. I get the impression that some people think the satellite stays stationary above their ship in all locations. 😆

 

And then there are those who claim not to be an expert, but give their not expert opinions anyway!

Edited May 12, 2019 by Cyber Kat

[Cyber Kat]

On 5/10/2019 at 11:25 PM, Paulchili said:

TV movies (and lectures, etc) of course are not affected by satellite reception unlike live TV or wifi.

We are currently on Orion and on several occasions while watching “live” TV news the signal was lost while at anchor in port. You watch the news for some time and then the signal is lost (and I don’t mean for a minute or two) - all this while the ships hasn’t moved an inch. I’d love to hear the explanation for that.

Wifi has been reasonably good and reliable - I was even able to watch some live basketball games on my iPad.

 

We had the same issue on our recent Azamara cruise while anchored in Charleston, SC. No TV and very spotty Wifi. It’s apparently the nature of the beast - and we were paying for the Wifi on Azamara $20 a day!

[azdrydock]

On 5/10/2019 at 10:41 PM, Paulchili said:

Sorry but I am not buying that.

The satellite is thousands of miles above and the ship moves 20 feet or so in an otherwise unobstructed area at open sea and this accounts for loss of signal? I can see this being the case as the ship moves in a fjord where moving even a small distance can possibly block the signal but not in our case.

Besides, this also happened while docked in Otaru without any movement whatsoever.

The antennas on the ship are always pointing at the satellite which is seldom directly overhead. As the ship moves to the edge of the "pattern" the antennas points closer to the horizon. At sea this is not a problem but when you are in port there are buildings and other obstructions that raise the visible horizon. A very slight movement may change a usable signal to no signal (same as your cell phone you have to move a few feet for service). There are also issues with interference from other signals in the port. There are a few ports where some ships can connect to the land based internet but this is rare.

Been on several cruise ships over the past year and the Viking internet is well above the rest (free or paid).  We had a reception problem in our cabin on  the Sky and they traced it to a bad access point behind the TV and it was promptly fixed...... Glass mostly full

 

 

 

[Zouave]

On 5/10/2019 at 10:13 AM, Zouave said:

On Viking Orion Tokyo to Vancouver.  Ever since boarding the Viking itinerary app has listed the stop in Petropavlovsk as Petra, Jordan.  We’ve mentioned it to staff several times but it never gets corrected.  Important because you need weather information for the cruise port.

I guess Viking corporate read the posts . Yesterday the app finally was changed! 

[Paulchili]

On 5/11/2019 at 6:53 PM, Heidi13 said:

I was not commenting on the impairment of satellite signals, as that has so many variables - latitude of the ship in relation to the position of the satellite, location of the dish on the ship, surrounding land, etc.

 

I was correcting your erroneous statement that while at anchor the ship did not move an inch.

OK - here is an update.

We are DOCKED in Seward. As I wake up I turn on the news and watch for about 30 minutes - no problem. I go to breakfast and when I return I continue to watch for another 10 minutes or so and then suddenly - there is no signal.

This time we are docked for over an hour and truly motionless.

What is the explanation for this?

[Heidi13]

6 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

OK - here is an update.

We are DOCKED in Seward. As I wake up I turn on the news and watch for about 30 minutes - no problem. I go to breakfast and when I return I continue to watch for another 10 minutes or so and then suddenly - there is no signal.

This time we are docked for over an hour and truly motionless.

What is the explanation for this?

Could be many reasons - not the least being the high Latitude results in the satellite being at a low altitude in the sky. Then again it could be similar to the reasons why we lose satellite reception at home.

[azdrydock]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

OK - here is an update.

We are DOCKED in Seward. As I wake up I turn on the news and watch for about 30 minutes - no problem. I go to breakfast and when I return I continue to watch for another 10 minutes or so and then suddenly - there is no signal.

This time we are docked for over an hour and truly motionless.

What is the explanation for this?

You are never truly motionless. Even something as minor as a tidal change can make a big difference. As mentioned, at that location you are at the fringe of the pattern. You can also add a nearby radar or weather 100 miles to your south as possible loss of signal reasons. Because of land based interference including reflections you can have much worse reception then at the same latitude at sea .

[stretchcruz]

Paulchili we were on the Orion Auckland to Bali. On occasion we got the "no signal". I forget what we did, I think we hit the Home button and reset? Can't remember, but we called the front desk, they sent someone (who turned out to be our room steward!) and he showed us how to fix it. We had assumed for a day that the whole ship signal was down. Nope, it was our TV and there was an easy fix.

[azdrydock]

6 minutes ago, stretchcruz said:

Paulchili we were on the Orion Auckland to Bali. On occasion we got the "no signal". I forget what we did, I think we hit the Home button and reset? Can't remember, but we called the front desk, they sent someone (who turned out to be our room steward!) and he showed us how to fix it. We had assumed for a day that the whole ship signal was down. Nope, it was our TV and there was an easy fix.

We were on the Sky and had a similar problem that also included the internet being barely usable. They sent a tech up and he told us it was an easy fix but they have to take the TV off the wall to access the "box" behind it. He asked when we would be out of the cabin because it was a two man job. Looks like they might have made it easier. How do you like your cruise? We will probably do the Sydney to Bali next year.

[Paulchili]

Just now, stretchcruz said:

Paulchili we were on the Orion Auckland to Bali. On occasion we got the "no signal". I forget what we did, I think we hit the Home button and reset? Can't remember, but we called the front desk, they sent someone (who turned out to be our room steward!) and he showed us how to fix it. We had assumed for a day that the whole ship signal was down. Nope, it was our TV and there was an easy fix.

That is an excellent advice - thank you very much.

I too would have thought that this was a ship-wide problem and not just ours.

We had “no signal’ all afternoon and after reading your post I called the desk. They said that they would send the IT technician up. A few minutes later the signal returned - not sure if they reset something centrally or just a coincidence but now we have reception (without anyone visiting the cabin).

If this happens again, I will follow your advice again.

[CCWineLover]

12 hours ago, stretchcruz said:

Paulchili we were on the Orion Auckland to Bali. On occasion we got the "no signal". I forget what we did, I think we hit the Home button and reset? Can't remember, but we called the front desk, they sent someone (who turned out to be our room steward!) and he showed us how to fix it. We had assumed for a day that the whole ship signal was down. Nope, it was our TV and there was an easy fix.

Good to know this, Stretchcruz!   We will be on the Orion to Bali in the future.  Wonder if it is the Orion that has more issues?  We have been on the Sky, Sea, and Jupiter in Europe and Carribean and never had any problems with internet.   We'll connect, I see, on the Rome to Miami Viking Sky next year!

[CharTrav]

On 5/9/2019 at 7:36 PM, ropomo said:

 

You have a great idea, can we collaborate?  Maybe we could call it something like weather.com?  I think we could make a fortune.  Don't know about the "free wifi" idea though.  Seriously though, yes I agree that is something they should have a firm control over, keep questioning since its probably something controlled by someone just clicking the right button.

WiFi is free. Why are you saying it's not? It's true they've recently instituted a limit on how many devices can be logged into the WiFi network at the same time for each cabin.  Probably an approach to ensure that network service for all is not downgraded. Perhaps they need to upgrade the capacity of their internal system but even the fastest network within the ship can be throttled by whatever they connect to get to the internet outside the ship. 

Edited May 21, 2019 by CharTrav

[ropomo]

6 hours ago, CharTrav said:

WiFi is free. Why are you saying it's not?

 

You are kidding aren't you??  My statement was obviously sarcasm and no emojis were necessary to indicate so. 

[CharTrav]

24 minutes ago, ropomo said:

 

You are kidding aren't you??  My statement was obviously sarcasm and no emojis were necessary to indicate so. 

Ummmmm.  🙄. Sometimes I don't catch the sarcasm. Read things literally. Oops! Sorry. My bad. 

[Dauntless]

2 hours ago, CharTrav said:

Ummmmm.  🙄. Sometimes I don't catch the sarcasm. Read things literally. Oops! Sorry. My bad. 

 

I have a friend that tells me, "If they don't get you, they don't get you".

[Peregrina651]

3 hours ago, ropomo said:

 

You are kidding aren't you??  My statement was obviously sarcasm and no emojis were necessary to indicate so. 

 

No statement is ever obviously sarcastic to all readers. There are people who, with lack of prompts,  do not detect sarcasm or irony or any of those other literary devices that others may employ on a regular basis in online forums; they read only on a literal level. That is one of the reasons that emojis developed. That someone has misunderstood our words is no reason to embarrass them by pointing out that they have missed the point, rather; we should be apologizing to them that we have not been clear.

Edited May 21, 2019 by Peregrina651

[ropomo]

My sincere apologies to anyone that misinterpreted my original comment or was embarrassed/offended by my response

[Pushka]

Ok.  So now I’m onboard I can use the app and I think it’s really good. 

[CharTrav]

1 minute ago, Pushka said:

Ok.  So now I’m onboard I can use the app and I think it’s really good. 

Good to know. This app only works within the confines of a viking Ocean ship so even though I have it installed, I have no way to gauge just how good it is until either I'm onboard ship or via feedback from those who -like you - are already onboard. Thanks!