Premium WiFi Usage Results (Glory)

[webzila]

 

Just used the premium WiFi plan on the Glory for 7 days with excellent results. I was fully prepared for it not to work at all based on some older posts here but it was flawless (considering this is still the older system which hasn't been upgraded yet).

 

-WiFi signal was excellent throughout the entire ship. No issues anywhere.

-Connecting takes less than a minute. Just go to carnivalhub.com and it will ask for your folio # and birthday

-Speed was decent - ran few tests and it was around 6 Mbps on WiFi (up and down)

-I was able to use everything without any issues (Facebook, YouTube, YouTube Music, Google Photos, Gmail, Browsing, home automation apps, etc...)

Even Netflix worked!

-I was able to make and receive phone calls via WiFi Verizon

-SMS and MMS messages also worked via WiFi (using Google Messages app)

-Switching the connection from one device to another was quick and easy. I let my 7 yr old son connect his tablet few times to use YouTube and he even downloaded few Netflix movies to watch offline later. Only took few minutes.

 

Conclusion is that the Premium WiFi plan works and should be more than sufficient for 99% of the cruisers

 

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[jbethel11]

2 hours ago, webzila said:

 

Just used the premium WiFi plan on the Glory for 7 days with excellent results. I was fully prepared for it not to work at all based on some older posts here but it was flawless (considering this is still the older system which hasn't been upgraded yet).

 

-WiFi signal was excellent throughout the entire ship. No issues anywhere.

-Connecting takes less than a minute. Just go to carnivalhub.com and it will ask for your folio # and birthday

-Speed was decent - ran few tests and it was around 6 Mbps on WiFi (up and down)

-I was able to use everything without any issues (Facebook, YouTube, YouTube Music, Google Photos, Gmail, Browsing, home automation apps, etc...)

Even Netflix worked!

-I was able to make and receive phone calls via WiFi Verizon

-SMS and MMS messages also worked via WiFi (using Google Messages app)

-Switching the connection from one device to another was quick and easy. I let my 7 yr old son connect his tablet few times to use YouTube and he even downloaded few Netflix movies to watch offline later. Only took few minutes.

 

Conclusion is that the Premium WiFi plan works and should be more than sufficient for 99% of the cruisers

 

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Thanks! Good to know that even on older ships, the Premium WiFi is sufficient. 

[coevan]

They must have upgraded the Glory. The Conquest was pathetically slow, even the top speed.

[webzila]

They must have upgraded the Glory. The Conquest was pathetically slow, even the top speed.

Medallion Net will be the upgrade but it doesn't have that yet. Premium max speed is about 6 Mbps down tops. Upgraded internet should be 10x faster. I've used it on Caribbean Princess.

Still though, the current system was very usable even for Netflix.

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[Saint Greg]

Sounds great! Thanks!

[Sabalon]

1 hour ago, coevan said:

They must have upgraded the Glory. The Conquest was pathetically slow, even the top speed.

 

So may variables.  Just got off Conquest yesterday.  Usually the onboard stuff (hub app, pixels etc) was very fast, meaning the infrastructure on the ship isn't the issue.

 

I had the social plan and it was hit or miss - text was good, images not.  Guessing as it gets more popular the link gets saturated, especially as everyone is settling in for the night and going online.  6am it worked a lot better!   Could also be more people with premium getting priority on the bandwidth.  

 

But if you had premium and it was still crap, who knows. Overusage or bad uplink I guess. 

[Organized Chaos]

3 hours ago, webzila said:

Medallion Net will be the upgrade but it doesn't have that yet. Premium max speed is about 6 Mbps down tops. Upgraded internet should be 10x faster. I've used it on Caribbean Princess.

Still though, the current system was very usable even for Netflix.

 

They had to improve it in some way. We were on Glory last June and it was absolutely atrocious. We had the Value plan. The Hub app worked well enough, although we didn't try the chat feature. It took a good 2 minutes to simply load my email inbox. I tried to send a simple email, but gave up. I couldn't even get Carnival's website to load. It was like that the entire cruise, morning, noon, & night. That was the same experience people on here reported who cruised Glory shortly after us. A lot of people were getting refunds. So something has changed since then. It's not that Medallion Net you mentioned, but they were updating the fleet to be more comparable to the speeds of the Vista class.

[webzila]

While I'm not sure about upgrades and we can only speculate without official word from Carnival - I do know that they throttle the internet speeds and bandwidth between services.

They say that premium (which is what I had) is up to 3x faster than value. This is a huge difference when premium only gets up to about 5 Mbps (maybe 6 max) down. With speed that low, cutting it by 3 is like going from broadband to dial up or 4G to 1X (phones)

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[jlabs03]

I was on the Glory in March and had the premium package and it was horrible.  Facebook was so slow and loading webpages took forever if they even loaded.  Sending texts via iMessage took a long time even with no photos, I could not send photos through iMessage it would just time out.  We did go during spring break so the amount of people could have played a role in the slow speeds and not working often. So if they have not upgraded/fixed something I would bet not many people where using the internet.  

[Ak4n3]

I hope the premium internet would be ok on my Alaska cruise on the Legend.  I need to go online for my classes (I didn't know at the time that I would be taking any classes at all)... ahhh, school...why do you break my heart!

[jbethel11]

15 minutes ago, Ak4n3 said:

ahhh, school...why do you break my heart!

Trust me, I KNOW that feeling!

[Organized Chaos]

11 hours ago, webzila said:

While I'm not sure about upgrades and we can only speculate without official word from Carnival - I do know that they throttle the internet speeds and bandwidth between services.

They say that premium (which is what I had) is up to 3x faster than value. This is a huge difference when premium only gets up to about 5 Mbps (maybe 6 max) down. With speed that low, cutting it by 3 is like going from broadband to dial up or 4G to 1X (phones)

 

Carnival's official word was that they were working to upgrade the whole fleet (not meaning the Medallion tech). It used to say it on their FAQ's, but I don't see it anymore. They worded it in such a way that implied they had completed a wifi upgrade on the entire fleet, but I seriously doubt that. It's true that some were upgraded. I think they started with the Dream class. The Vista & Horizon have been fitted with many more access points than older ships to improve signal throughout the ship. That's not something that can easily be done to older ships without a lot of work. But it seems as if they were at least working to improve speeds.

 

Reports from a CC member who was on the Horizon this past April was that he was getting between 7-8 Mbps with the Premium plan. So if you were getting 5-6 on Glory, I'd say that's pretty darn good.

Edited July 1, 2019 by Organized Chaos

[cruisegus]

Question about Glory and premium WiFi.  Just logged into my cruise manager for my Xmas cruise and ran through the purchase process steps till I get to the part that says

The following restrictions apply: 

•  Does not include access to music streaming and video streaming (Spotify, Pandora, Hulu, Netflix, Facetime, iMessage)

So my question is "Will we not be able to Facetime?"

seems odd they say you can Skype (which we don't use) but not facetime.

[Saint Greg]

47 minutes ago, cruisegus said:

Question about Glory and premium WiFi.  Just logged into my cruise manager for my Xmas cruise and ran through the purchase process steps till I get to the part that says

The following restrictions apply: 

•  Does not include access to music streaming and video streaming (Spotify, Pandora, Hulu, Netflix, Facetime, iMessage)

So my question is "Will we not be able to Facetime?"

seems odd they say you can Skype (which we don't use) but not facetime.

 

Just because it says it doesn't include it doesn't mean that's the case. I've been using iMessage on the premium wifi for 9 cruises. I was able to stream YouTubeTV and TuneInRadio on Vista. I'll find out about Glory in about seven weeks.

[cruisegus]

 @ Saint Greg

Thanks for the quick response I have 2 cruises planed on Glory over Xmas and then in Jan again.  Guess for $100 I'll just get the premium plan on the first cruise and see how it works. Am really hoping to Facetime the grandkids on Xmas day this year, next year it wont mater as they will be on a cruise with us.

 

Appreciate all your info on NOLA sailings, enjoy your upcoming cruise, will watch for your review.

[Organized Chaos]

2 hours ago, cruisegus said:

Question about Glory and premium WiFi.  Just logged into my cruise manager for my Xmas cruise and ran through the purchase process steps till I get to the part that says

The following restrictions apply: 

•  Does not include access to music streaming and video streaming (Spotify, Pandora, Hulu, Netflix, Facetime, iMessage)

So my question is "Will we not be able to Facetime?"

seems odd they say you can Skype (which we don't use) but not facetime.

 

I think their official policy to say a lot of those services aren't supported is just to cover their rear. If anyone has trouble getting some of those services to work, Carnival doesn't want a bunch of complaints or refund requests, so it's easier just to say they aren't supported. Just my theory. Netflix is the only one they officially support on the Vista, Horizon, & Sunrise. As Saint Greg said, he's used YouTube and that's supposedly not supported. Others have reporting using YouTube as well. I've seen some say they were able to successfully use other streaming services, like the HBO and ESPN apps. Of course, it's all going to depend on the quality of the wifi on that particular ship. As much as they've claimed to improve wifi service on at least some of their older ships, experiences still vary. I wish you good luck on your Glory internet experience. Last June it was unusable.

[webzila]

Recap from my original post. Last week on the Glory, Netflix was usable both for downloading offline and streaming. Verizon WiFi calling was working fine as well.

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