Laptop Use

[Gramsk]

Does the Westerdam have wireless connection? Can Laptop be used at

anytime, cruising late May to Alaska?

[fridayeyes]

I can't vouch for the W-dam personally, but I am pretty certain that all HAL ships now offer wi-fi in certain locations, usually the internet cafe, the forward observation loune and perhaps one or two other public places. Wi-fi in your cabin will be entirely determined by proximity to the aforementioned lounges. Dial-up is available in all cabins, though

 

The connection tends to be slow and spotty, stalling out or going up and down at the whim of the satellite. On my most recent cruise, I lost the connection maybe once very other session - a minor annoyance. On the cruise prior to that, the satellite link was lost halfway through the cruise never to return and my time package was refunded. Both of these were San Diego to Vancouver runs.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Friday

[richcrow]

Another laptop question. What do you do to secure your laptop when you are not in your stateroom? I read on one of these boards where someone claimed to have had there's stolen, and I don't think that they will fit in the stateroom safe.

 

Richard

[bellebaby]

We usually place ours in the locking drawer of the nightstand.

 

B

[Sparticus]

The Vista Class Ships (Zuiderdam, Westerdam, Noordam, & Oosterdam) have BOTH in-room Internet Access (all cabins) and Wifi in certain areas.

 

You can see the full list of hotspot areas at:

 

http://www.mtnsat.com/digitalseas/hal.htm

 

NOTE: If you're planning on doing in-room access, beat a path to the Internet Cafe as soon as you board. You'll need a special cable to connect your modem to the room phone.

 

From experience, both the WiFi and the dial up are about the same speed. Expect somewhere between 28.8 kbps and 48 kbps with occasional drops down to 14.4 and 19.2. (Yep, slow dial-up.)

 

In my experience, the in-room connections were somewhat better than the WiFi ones.

[Sparticus]

We've always left our laptop out in the open.

 

However we always set a hardware power-on password. Most every laptop made in the past decade has a Kensington cable lock slot. You can buy a locking cable and secure your PC to a table leg or other fixture.

 

The lock slot is usually in the side of your PC, typically toward the back.

[RevNeal]

NOTE: If you're planning on doing in-room access, beat a path to the Internet Cafe as soon as you board. You'll need a special cable to connect your modem to the room phone.

 

What kind of cable does it need? Is it just a standard ethernet cable?