Internet for dog boarding videos

[browning1396]

Hello! First time cruiser here. I've tried scouring these forums and went back as far as I could go. I'm sailing with Carnival Horizon next month to the Caribbean. My mom and I have dogs we are going to be boarding while we are away, and they offer the ability to live-stream your pets as they are in the kennels (basically a way to watch your dogs while you're away.) Not that we're going to be consistently on our phone watching them, just to check up on them since they're like our kids! My main question is, has anyone been in a similar situation and know what internet package to purchase? I know there are 24 hour access to computers on board, would this be supported on there to avoid having to purchase the premium wifi plan? 

 

(Also if this has been answered before, please forgive me!)

[VentureMan_2000]

I was thinking... could you do this on your phone while in port -- or perhaps the phone charges would be too much ? 

[Organized Chaos]

Even if you use the ship's computers at the internet cafe onboard, you'd still need to purchase an internet plan. Those computers require you to logon to a plan. Horizon has some of the best internet service in the fleet, so the ship shouldn't be a problem. People have talked about webcams and security cams in the past. I know they've been able to view them using the Premium internet plan, but I can't remember if they've said the Value plan worked. The Value and Premium plans are available to be purchased on a 24-hour basis, so that would be one option. You could purchase the Premium plan ($25 for 24 hours) throughout your cruise if you wanted to avoid the whole expense. Even though many people have done it, just keep in mind that Carnival doesn't officially support the viewing of security cams and such, so there's always a chance that your kennel's site could be blocked. Probably not, but a possibility.

 

As VentureMan touched on, you could also look for wifi services at your ports of call. Many businesses near the ports have wifi, some free and some for a small fee. You can talk to some of the ship's crew to find out the best places because many of them use wifi in port.

Edited February 10, 2020 by Organized Chaos

[Kudos2Fly]

My husband and I now always get the internet plan, mainly to check email. But last time we got the top plan for streaming for our grandkids who where in Russia visiting their great grandmother. It was a bit rough. Meaning connection was not that great. But for checking email or watching Netflix it was fine. So you can get it, but thing it being great like at home, not so much. 

[riviera]

We were on Pride last month and only purchased the value plan and we were able to get alerts from our home security cameras then view the live “action”
This was our experience, not sure if it is the same as your situation. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tapi]

If your only reason to get an internet plan is to watch the live cam a couple of times during the cruise, then I also recommend waiting until you're in port and getting a free wifi signal. 

 

The person we use to board our dogs runs a Facebook page and he posts videos of the dogs he's caring for throughout the day. We purchased the most basic, social media plan and were able to log in to Facebook and watch the videos without a problem. 

[browning1396]

Thank you all for your wonderful replies! I'm going to wait and see about getting WiFi in the ports and see how that works, and if not I'll try the single day wifi plan day by day and see if that works too. Thanks for your help!