Free NCL internet all I need for phone calls?

[hallux]

19 minutes ago, RRSeeker said:

hoping my cabin mates can connect to my phone using Bluetooth

You might want to test this before leaving.  I'm not familiar with this form of internet sharing, it may actually be slower than the ship's internet if it's possible at all.  Also - just because you have a "one device" plan, that doesn't mean ONLY one device, it just means one device at a time, so you could log out and then let a cabin mate log in for a bit if they want to check something.

Edited October 1, 2021 by hallux

[RRSeeker]

14 minutes ago, hallux said:

You might want to test this before leaving.  I'm not familiar with this form of internet sharing, it may actually be slower than the ship's internet if it's possible at all.  Also - just because you have a "one device" plan, that doesn't mean ONLY one device, it just means one device at a time, so you could log out and then let a cabin mate log in for a bit if they want to check something.

I am aware it is one device at a time signed on and I have no clue if the Bluetooth will work but it it does great, if not we will just all take our turns.  Having internet isn't all that important to me personally but I will have my 25 year old son and 23 year old nephew with me and it is more important to them.  They can sit in the cabin and stream netflix while my sister and I lose all our money in the casino trying to qualify for another free cruise from CAS.

[ALD18]

Another vote for the tiered internet approach on the ship.  If you have a cruise booked already look at the fine print of the freebie packages.  It basically says you have the free entry level wifi and it/you can only do certain activities with it.  For example, don't think you could sit in cabin and stream netflix.  You could, but would have to upgrade to at least second tier.  We always utilize email and wait to use physical phone calls on roaming package in port or when close to shore. 

[ChiefMateJRK]

3 minutes ago, ALD18 said:

For example, don't think you could sit in cabin and stream netflix.

Why would anybody do such a thing?

[aubreyc1988]

On my October 24th sailing, I will be testing out the premium wifi so that I can test our wifi calling as well as video conferencing, to see if it's even possible. I've got numerous apps downloaded and will be reviewing what is possible and what is not possible on the premium wifi. 

 

I also have 30 free minutes for my platinum, I will test a few things out on there to compare and contrast the two services. 

 

😄 

[aubreyc1988]

1 hour ago, RRSeeker said:

I am aware it is one device at a time signed on and I have no clue if the Bluetooth will work but it it does great, if not we will just all take our turns.  Having internet isn't all that important to me personally but I will have my 25 year old son and 23 year old nephew with me and it is more important to them.  They can sit in the cabin and stream netflix while my sister and I lose all our money in the casino trying to qualify for another free cruise from CAS.

with the "one device at atime", lets say I'm logged into it on my iphone, and my husband logs into it from his phone...it will kick me off vs telling him no. 

 

Also, you can KIND of text back and forth with only one device. 

 

Example: While playing in the casino, I'm logged in and I send my husband a text via FB messenger saying "i'm in the casino"

 

Husband, who is in the room and not logged in and has wifi turned off, will get a "ghost notification" of this. He cannot reply to me, but he will see the message. Then he can log in, kick me off, send a reply

 

 

 

Hope that makes sense and helps 🙂 I am not sure if everyone gets these "ghost notifications" but worked out pretty well for communications 😄 

[BirdTravels]

21 minutes ago, aubreyc1988 said:

On my October 24th sailing, I will be testing out the premium wifi so that I can test our wifi calling as well as video conferencing, to see if it's even possible. I've got numerous apps downloaded and will be reviewing what is possible and what is not possible on the premium wifi. 

 

I also have 30 free minutes for my platinum, I will test a few things out on there to compare and contrast the two services. 

 

😄

So,,, you know that your experience will be totally dependent on what your other shipmates are doing at that time. You share a satellite link with them and ship’s operations. 
 

If you try early in the morning before people wake up, better. Late at night, you may be competing with vloggers uploading a day’s worth of video. Sea days less good. Ship’s course causing blockages of the satellite antennas bad. Weather attenuation of the signal, especially if you have a low look angle like from Alaska bad. 
 

On our Encore cruise in August, I had morning zoom calls and it worked o.k.  Occasional drop out. At sea, I would normally call from the Observation lounge (coffee and pastries in hand). If we were in port, I would pick something with a scenic backdrop on the waterfront. I stayed on the ship’s Wi-Fi because the cell service in most Alaskan ports was really bad/non existent. 

[aubreyc1988]

6 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

So,,, you know that your experience will be totally dependent on what your other shipmates are doing at that time. You share a satellite link with them and ship’s operations. 
 

If you try early in the morning before people wake up, better. Late at night, you may be competing with vloggers uploading a day’s worth of video. Sea days less good. Ship’s course causing blockages of the satellite antennas bad. Weather attenuation of the signal, especially if you have a low look angle like from Alaska bad. 
 

On our Encore cruise in August, I had morning zoom calls and it worked o.k.  Occasional drop out. At sea, I would normally call from the Observation lounge (coffee and pastries in hand). If we were in port, I would pick something with a scenic backdrop on the waterfront. I stayed on the ship’s Wi-Fi because the cell service in most Alaskan ports was really bad/non existent. 

Crossing my fingers there won't be too many vloggers. I am testing this out because my husband would like to (in the future) work a few hours remotely throughout the cruise, probably early morning-early afternoon.  He is primarily looking for audio microsoft teams testing. 

 

 

[BirdTravels]

Audio Teams should work fine. 

 

The problem that I have is that nowadays people don't give a second thought about emailing very large files. And if you get one of those puppies syncing with your laptop email, you could be toast. I have had to shut down my Outlook and start using webmail to selectively look at attachments. 

[caitlynambrai]

@mking8288 can travel routers work on a cruise? 

[oteixeira]

Sorry, disregard, I misunderstood how you wanted to use the internet.

Edited October 2, 2021 by oteixeira

[spookyuk]

hi every one i plan to upgrade to Unlimited Wi-Fi on Norwegian Epic would i be able to use Twitter spaces voice chat to speak to friends and would i be able to use whats app voice calls on this or facebook  messenger for voice calls 

[mking8288]

7 hours ago, caitlynambrai said:

@mking8288 can travel routers work on a cruise? 

"Travel routers" as in those portable WiFi or MiFi hotspots, standalone or otherwise, can work - but, you might need to deal possible firewall blocks and using alternate http "ports" in the event that ship's servers limit or throttle data traffic on port 8080, etc. as default configured.  However, since NCL's satellite are, as best as I know, high orbiting & technologies deployed are different than those on RCL or Carnival (low orbits, faster and more available bandwidth, etc.) - duplexing to share among devices, once you get it connected to relay the data signal, it will be even slower - which should still be fine for basic web browsing, checking news & email, text messaging, etc.  But, it likely won't be useful for zoom or video intensive surfing or streaming, especially during periods of peak usage on sea days and when most folks are onboard.  

 

My travel Sony Viao notebook has built-in hotspot functions that rebroadcast WiFi signals - and, it is fine with FiOS and/or fast cable broadband connections while traveling on land, not so much while at seas as it reduced the usable data traffic to 3G and/or 2G/Edge speed.  Same is true on certain mobile devices, smartphone or tablet that has such functionalities - 4G/LTE data signal as relayed to broadcast and share are good & usable, not reliable nor usable - in my opinion and prior experience onboard, when connected & logged into ship's WiFi signal.  I've read/seen others on NCL's premium, unlimited streaming package options that they're able to enable their WiFi/MiFi and/or hotspot sharing functions - but, the success stories did not seem to be a consistent & reliable indicator.

 

Satellite signals and access are still relatively expensive and the I.T. administrator(s) know exactly how much data was carried and used, and the capabilities to analyze and breakdown how it was used ... going thru the onboard server(s) & hardware they manage, dynamically shared & meter cached among all users - I would not be surprised that since the beginning of 2020, that additional changes were made & in place to further tighten up those "leaks" & restrict the maximum bandwidth per logged in account.  

 

Last time we're docked at the pier in Mexico, I just fired up my Google Pixel's hotspot function while on a solid 4G/LTE signal, and it was good for 2 smartphones plus DW's iPad for gaming purposes - net cost for the few hours of usage was under $5 USD for those sessions.  But, the same isn't valid if I were to connect to ship's WiFi ... 

[mking8288]

7 hours ago, caitlynambrai said:

@mking8288 can travel routers work on a cruise? 

"Travel routers" as in those portable WiFi or MiFi hotspots, standalone or otherwise, can work - but, you might need to deal possible firewall blocks and using alternate http "ports" in the event that ship's servers limit or throttle data traffic on port 8080, etc. as default configured.  However, since NCL's satellite are, as best as I know, high orbiting & technologies deployed are different than those on RCL or Carnival (low orbits, faster and more available bandwidth, etc.) - duplexing to share among devices, once you get it connected to relay the data signal, it will be even slower - which should still be fine for basic web browsing, checking news & email, text messaging, etc.  But, it likely won't be useful for zoom or video intensive surfing or streaming, especially during periods of peak usage on sea days and when most folks are onboard.  

 

My travel Sony Viao notebook has built-in hotspot functions that rebroadcast WiFi signals - and, it is fine with FiOS and/or fast cable broadband connections while traveling on land, not so much while at seas as it reduced the usable data traffic to 3G and/or 2G/Edge speed.  Same is true on certain mobile devices, smartphone or tablet that has such functionalities - 4G/LTE data signal as relayed to broadcast and share are good & usable, not reliable nor usable - in my opinion and prior experience onboard, when connected & logged into ship's WiFi signal.  I've read/seen others on NCL's premium, unlimited streaming package options that they're able to enable their WiFi/MiFi and/or hotspot sharing functions - but, the success stories did not seem to be a consistent & reliable indicator.

 

Satellite signals and access are still relatively expensive and the I.T. administrator(s) know exactly how much data was carried and used, and the capabilities to analyze and breakdown how it was used ... going thru the onboard server(s) & hardware they manage, dynamically shared & meter cached among all users - I would not be surprised that since the beginning of 2020, that additional changes were made & in place to further tighten up those "leaks" & restrict the maximum bandwidth per logged in account.  

 

Last time we're docked at the pier in Mexico, I just fired up my Google Pixel's hotspot function while on a solid 4G/LTE signal, and it was good for 2 smartphones plus DW's iPad for gaming purposes - net cost for the few hours of usage was under $5 USD for those sessions.  But, the same isn't valid if I were to connect to ship's WiFi ... 

[ALD18]

If making phone calls is so important while sailing maybe look into a satellite phone.  Eliminate the whole internet connectivity, speed, and costing all together.  Not sure if you can use it as a wifi hotspot to hook your laptop/tablet for web acess   Satellite phones aren't cheap, but over the long run maybe a prudent purchase/investment if you sail a lot to meet your communication needs. 

[tinkr2]

On 10/1/2021 at 2:47 PM, RRSeeker said:

I am aware it is one device at a time signed on and I have no clue if the Bluetooth will work but it it does great, if not we will just all take our turns.  Having internet isn't all that important to me personally but I will have my 25 year old son and 23 year old nephew with me and it is more important to them.  They can sit in the cabin and stream netflix while my sister and I lose all our money in the casino trying to qualify for another free cruise from CAS.

You will be unable to hotspot . It doesn't work . But you can sign off and he can sign on . It will be ok , 

[RRSeeker]

20 minutes ago, tinkr2 said:

You will be unable to hotspot . It doesn't work . But you can sign off and he can sign on . It will be ok , 

I am really not worried. All I want as far as communicating is to call my husband and I can do that when we are in a port.  I have T-Mobile and it is not expensive. I upgraded for my son and nephew. It wouldn’t hurt anyone to unplug for a little while and I definitely don’t want to check my work emails.

[reeinaz]

I have AT&T and was able to make/receive calls using WiFi on the cruise I left today. I had the upgraded streaming package and WiFi calling enabled on my phone. 

[ctkathchick]

On 9/29/2021 at 9:26 PM, ChiefMateJRK said:

Thank you very much!!  Yes, I'm aware of the risk that some would fact of forgetting to log out and having their 250 minutes gone by dinner.  Let's just say that I'm not that type of person...  Can I send and receive SMS/text messages using WiFi calling in lieu of a cellular connection?  That would certainly make things very simple.

I just got off the Breakaway and was able to text home all week using my Iphone. I was only sometimes able to use facebook to facetime and sometimes messenger.

[Candy Apple 12]

7 hours ago, ctkathchick said:

I just got off the Breakaway and was able to text home all week using my Iphone. I was only sometimes able to use facebook to facetime and sometimes messenger.

Which plan did you have?

[hallux]

21 minutes ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

Which plan did you have?

Keep in mind that people with iPhones MAY consider using iMessage to communicate with other iPhone people "texting".  It's the same app.  iMessage (or Messages) would work for messaging using the included minutes from FAS.

[graphicguy]

Using WiFi calling on board the Encore now.  But, I upgraded to their top tier unlimited plan to do so.

[BirdTravels]

On 10/2/2021 at 5:00 PM, ALD18 said:

If making phone calls is so important while sailing maybe look into a satellite phone.  Eliminate the whole internet connectivity, speed, and costing all together.  Not sure if you can use it as a wifi hotspot to hook your laptop/tablet for web acess   Satellite phones aren't cheap, but over the long run maybe a prudent purchase/investment if you sail a lot to meet your communication needs. 

 

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[Turtles06]

On 9/29/2021 at 8:34 PM, BirdTravels said:

WiFi calling works on the ship. But you need streaming service vs. regular internet service. I believe that you need to purchase an upgrade to the unlimited streaming service to do what you are talking about. 

 

We use wifi calling all the time to call into meetings, etc. while on "vacation". 

It is also my recollection that WiFi calling will only work if you have the streaming plan. It has something to do with NCL blocking certain ports. 

[MoCruiseFan]

Did you ever hear of this cool new invention called email?  It cab easily be accessed with the ship's internet packages!