Wifi on board - Voom Surf - or Surf & Stream

[moonltnite]

Hi, all - 

How necessary is the Voom Surf & Stream - versus just getting Surf?  We're sailing on the OASIS in March. 

We wouldn't be live streaming any movies or anything (we're on a cruise!).  We do want to be able to text our daughter - who will be staying at our house to dogsit for us. Being able to check email is necessary and get/make phone calls if necessary.  A "nice to have" would be access to social media (i.e., Facebook). We are on AT&T - both have iPhones.   

 

Thanks!

[TheBucketLister]

I have found VOOM speeds/reliability pretty horrendous since the restart.  For example I was on Freedom and I had the Surf and Stream and I was not getting more than 3 Mbps (usually around 2.4 Mbps) download and a little less than 1 Mbps upload.  While this may be ok for basic web browsing, it still took a very long time to load pages, longer than the speeds should allow for.  Plus multiple connection issues, where I had to constantly logout and then log back in to the service.  So unless you are going to stream at all, save the money and get the basic surf package.  It cant be any worse...or can it?!? 😉

Edited October 10, 2021 by TheBucketLister

[robtulipe]

24 minutes ago, moonltnite said:

We do want to be able to text . Being able to check email is necessary and get/make phone calls if necessary.  A "nice to have" would be access to social media (i.e., Facebook).

That's basically what we use the ship's internet for and Zoom surf only works well for us using either our laptop or smart phone.

[Ashland]

Check the price difference between the two....Voom Surf-n-Stream will be a bit faster "usually".

[YankeesFan4Life]

We bundled the Surf and Stream with the Drink Package.  Never at one time did we feel any issues with connectivity.  We were constantly checking FB, FB Msgr, iMessage and even phone calls via WiFi.  Definitely worth it to us, especially with teenage kids and one driving...

[Rogueperson]

You probably will not be able to make voice to voice phone call over surf easily.  Surf and Stream is already slow coupled with huge ping times.  Oasis has the new system so its "better", but only from what it was.  Facebook and web surfing will be available albeit slow.  If you're looking to save a couple bucks, you could do it here, but the frustration over the already slow system coupled by a further throttled systems using just Surf will probably not be worth the money you saved.  However, that's up to you.

I've also noticed that with the slow speeds, some sites (like Cruise critic) tend to glitch.  Can't speak for other sites, and this is with Surf and Stream.

 

 

[Biker19]

On 10/10/2021 at 6:47 PM, moonltnite said:

How necessary is the Voom Surf & Stream - versus just getting Surf?  We're sailing on the OASIS in March. 

Yu can do all that you listed, make voice calls, post whore on Cruise Critic and other things all with just Surf.

Edited October 12, 2021 by Biker19

[Biker19]

21 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

You probably will not be able to make voice to voice phone call over surf easily.  Surf and Stream is already slow coupled with huge ping times. 

Voice calls work just fine, most of the time. Ping times are only huge compared to land based performance, but the O3B on Oasis is fine for most uses.

[Moonarino]

On 10/10/2021 at 6:47 PM, moonltnite said:

... We wouldn't be live streaming any movies or anything...

 

Basic Surf will get you everything but streaming, in my experience. Social media, email etc are all "just another" thing. Usually I can even stream youtube song videos without a hitch. But keep in mind, even the best plan's performance will probably be less than ideal during peak hours. Here's the thing: RC's main Internet pipe (on-&-off the ship as a whole) might be huge, but Oasis class might have thousands of people trying to hit the Internet at any given time, many users connecting to many various access points. Long story short, imagine LA or NYC at rush hour with major streets converging into freeway, etc etc etc, all dumping onto I-95. Been there, nightmare right? Be aware 🙂 and don't waste your money.

Edited October 14, 2021 by Moonarino

[Ozark_Kid]

If you have speed problems it may be phone settings.  The wifi help desk on the ship can help.  On Symphony last week they had two at the deck. One was more experienced  with android phones the other iPhones. 

[twangster]

As biker said Surf works for voice calls. 

 

Surf is just slow.  You can text like a champ.  If you want to send a picture or video clip in a text, forget it.  Loading a webpage will seem to take forever but it will load or timeout.  

 

So many web designers these days load up on media rich content or have ads with video that has to load.  At home on land internet it just happens.  It's not bad on Surf & Stream but those sites will take forever to load using Surf.  

 

Email that is largely words will work fine on Surf.  Email with attachments and large files will not work well.  

 

FB works but there is a lot of picture and video content on FB that won't load well using Surf.

Edited October 15, 2021 by twangster

[Davielee8]

Was just on Oasis of the Seas, which charged a$$tronomical amounts for Internet  

 

—$125 ($17 a day) for basic package (emails)
—$160 (over $20 a day) for “streaming package)

 

I started with “basic”—

I couldn’t even load a Wikipedia article about the next port.

So I upgraded to the “Streaming”— which was only 2% better. Don’t even think of streaming even a 20 second cat video off YouTube. Good luck.

 

so essentially for the equivalent of a $650 A MONTH INTERNET BILL, speeds slower than the beeping netzero dialup I used when I was 7.

[Biker19]

3 minutes ago, Davielee8 said:

so essentially for the equivalent of a $650 A MONTH INTERNET BILL, speeds slower than the beeping netzero dialup I used when I was 7.

Sat internet service is expensive and slow -that's the norm on cruise ships - to expect land-based prices and performance is unrealistic.

 

Biker, who misses Voom rant threads.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Biker19

[crzndeb]

Since I get a discount, I had Surf and Stream on Ovation in October. I was shocked when I could actually stream my shows on YoutubeTV.

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, crzndeb said:

I was shocked when I could actually stream my shows on YoutubeTV.

That is normal with O3B internet, when the ship is not in Alaska.

[lovesthebeach2]

We’ve done 4 cruises since the restart and used what we get for D+ Which is Surf. I had no problem with email, FB, FB messenger and FB messenger videos. 

[Ashland]

We were just on Navigator. Had the one device Voom Surf/Stream and had no problem watching on our laptop...no buffering or problems connecting. We finished a show we were watching on Paramount +.