Question on Celebrity Basic Wi-Fi

[Raxter54]

We have booked our first ever Celebrity cruise (Apex, Feb 2024) for our 50th anniversary, so I will be posting alot of questions between now and then 🙂  First up is about the basic Wi-Fi package. For our cruises, I usually set up a social media page on the "site-that-shall-not-be-named", so our family can keep in touch during our trip. The description of the basic Wi-Fi package says "please note that you won’t be able to email large files, share photos or videos, use streaming apps, access social media, or make video calls." I was hoping that didn't include the "site-that-shall-not-be-named", so I thought I would ask if anyone knows?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[ISABELLA]

If it is anything like FB - you would not be able to post pictures, videos, etc. Connection on some ships is not even strong for emails.

[Raxter54]

Yes, it is very very much like FB 😄 Thanks for the information. Guess we will have to just rely on Messenger instead....

[JamieLogical]

You can always pay the difference to upgrade to the Premium wifi. I will tell you that the Basic Wifi is exactly like 90's dial-up that is down half the time. It's just enough internet access to give you hope and leave you disappointed.

[cangelmd]

Since your cruise is not until 2024, I would keep eyes peeled for sales on upgrades and upgrade pkgs. Perhaps some not so subtle hints to friends and family about a good 50 wedding anniversary gift ahead of time 😁. Anyway, the basic wi-fi is pretty lame and seems to get worse now that almost every guest has some degree of wi-fi. I wouldnt rely on it for anything but the most basic functions, better performed in the middle of the night.

Where are you sailing? Many ports, especially Caribbean with give you access to cheap or free wi-fi which may enough to stay in touch if you plan ahead. St. Thomas and San Juan are of course, the USA, so if you sail there you will have your normal cell service.

All the upgrades are technically add-ons, but for a special trip like a 50th (congratulations by the way) I would at least want upgraded wi-fi if you comfortable with sharing on social media, pre-paid tips and some sort of drink pkg and at least one or two specialty dining evenings. Who knows what it will be like in 2024, but if you were sailing now, you could let them that this is a special occasion and you would get a cake, choco strawberries or other goodies just as part of the service.

[hrhdhd]

You can name Facebook. You just can't direct people over there for a roll call or other purposes.

[Raxter54]

9 minutes ago, hrhdhd said:

You can name Facebook. You just can't direct people over there for a roll call or other purposes.

I wasn't sure. At one time FB was persona non grata on Cruise Critic....

[Raxter54]

18 hours ago, cangelmd said:

Who knows what it will be like in 2024, but if you were sailing now, you could let them that this is a special occasion and you would get a cake, choco strawberries or other goodies just as part of the service.

When we sailed on Carnival, I would get on John Heald's FB page and ask him to help us get a table for 2 in the MDR. He was good at helping us with that. And when we boarded the ship and got to our cabin, there was always a ship-on-a-stick, a bottle of champagne,  and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries with a note from him. Wonder who I would talk to at Celebrity to get the cake or strawberries  🍓🍰?

Edited June 7, 2022 by Raxter54

[lexmiller]

23 hours ago, Raxter54 said:

We have booked our first ever Celebrity cruise (Apex, Feb 2024) for our 50th anniversary, so I will be posting alot of questions between now and then 🙂  First up is about the basic Wi-Fi package. For our cruises, I usually set up a social media page on the "site-that-shall-not-be-named", so our family can keep in touch during our trip. The description of the basic Wi-Fi package says "please note that you won’t be able to email large files, share photos or videos, use streaming apps, access social media, or make video calls." I was hoping that didn't include the "site-that-shall-not-be-named", so I thought I would ask if anyone knows?

 

Thanks!

 

 

We have discovered that the basic wifi on the Edge class ships is vastly better than the wifi on the M or S class ships - probably because they are indeed new ships and have been purpose built to be more or less up to date/state of the art, electronically.  We actually had a repeater in our room.  I was in fact, using the basic wifi on both Edge and Apex, to upload photos to FB - not in a large batch, no, but singly.  And ditto, able to text photos on the basic wifi.  We are elite plus so we get a few hundred free minutes of the "fancy wifi" as I liked to refer to it to my husband throughout the voyages - which we used to upload larger batches of photos and of course to take the dreaded covid test to fly back home, which absolutely needs the "fancy wifi" in order to hold the connection.  

[cangelmd]

1 hour ago, Raxter54 said:

When we sailed on Carnival, I would get on John Heald's FB page and ask him to help us get a table for 2 in the MDR. He was good at helping us with that. And when we boarded the ship and got to our cabin, there was always a ship-on-a-stick, a bottle of champagne,  and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries with a note from him. Wonder who I would talk to at Celebrity to get the cake or strawberries  🍓🍰?

I get from your original post that you aren’t in a suite. We celebrated our 40th anniversary on Celeb, belatedly (our actual anniversary was June 2021, just prior to restart). We were asked at some point if we were celebrating anything special and answered yes, 40th, and got a dozen roses, plus chocolate strawberries, no cake, but we were in a Sky Suite and it was likely the shoreside concierge. It was totally a surprise, but when the lady brought them, she had a cart with a couple more plates of strawberries and bouquets of flowers. Do you have a TA? Are you in a suite?

[Raxter54]

3 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

I get from your original post that you aren’t in a suite. We celebrated our 40th anniversary on Celeb, belatedly (our actual anniversary was June 2021, just prior to restart). We were asked at some point if we were celebrating anything special and answered yes, 40th, and got a dozen roses, plus chocolate strawberries, no cake, but we were in a Sky Suite and it was likely the shoreside concierge. It was totally a surprise, but when the lady brought them, she had a cart with a couple more plates of strawberries and bouquets of flowers. Do you have a TA? Are you in a suite?

No, just a Sunset Verandah. Our TA is good at getting us any extras she can get for us. Have to remind her about the anniversary 🙂

 

[Fly and Sail]

Basic Internet is complete garbage and even the premium Xcelerate Stream rarely holds up to what I'd consider stream quality by any measure.