Apex Starlink Install Timeline?

[Ben100014]

Hi all,

 

Just wondering if anyone recently on the Apex or 'in the know' might have heard when Apex is scheduled to get Starlink internet service installed? I know it is supposed to be getting it before the end of the year, and I am on a late November sailing for it. TIA!

[AlbertaCruisers]

There is a timeline on the page below.  It shows Apex as 11/12, which I believe means it is expected to go live on Apex on Nov 12.

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/ca/things-to-do-onboard/onboard-packages/internet-and-phone-packages

Edited September 27, 2022 by AlbertaCruisers

[Ben100014]

8 minutes ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

There is a timeline on the page below.  It shows Apex as 11/12, which I believe means it is expected to go live on Apex on Nov 12.

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/ca/things-to-do-onboard/onboard-packages/internet-and-phone-packages

Great find! I wonder why Infinity isn't scheduled to get it until Jan. 2024.

[canderson]

17 minutes ago, Ben100014 said:

Great find! I wonder why Infinity isn't scheduled to get it until Jan. 2024.

"Revolution" IT infrastructure to be completed first, perhaps.

[ROYALBOY]

3 hours ago, Ben100014 said:

Great find! I wonder why Infinity isn't scheduled to get it until Jan. 2024.

That’s the day we get off the TA…maybe they will introduce it🤞🏼🤞🏼

[grandgeezer]

3 hours ago, Ben100014 said:

Great find! I wonder why Infinity isn't scheduled to get it until Jan. 2024.

Not counting the new build, the Infinity isn’t scheduled for a year after the last one. Maybe they figure the Infinity will be long gone before then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WorkerBee74]

Weird, I can't see the schedule on that page - what about Edge?

[AlbertaCruisers]

12 minutes ago, WorkerBee74 said:

Weird, I can't see the schedule on that page - what about Edge?

Funny, I should have taken a screen shot, it is now gone. I think the Edge was just before the Apex by a few days. 

[prmssk]

17 minutes ago, WorkerBee74 said:

Weird, I can't see the schedule on that page - what about Edge?

[WorkerBee74]

8 minutes ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

Funny, I should have taken a screen shot, it is now gone. I think the Edge was just before the Apex by a few days. 

 

Must be our Canadian internet or something.  😄  Thanks for the screenshot @prmssk

[carolina_yankee]

4 hours ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

There is a timeline on the page below.  It shows Apex as 11/12, which I believe means it is expected to go live on Apex on Nov 12.

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/ca/things-to-do-onboard/onboard-packages/internet-and-phone-packages

We will be on that sailing and have the basic internet in our package. Awesome! We may not need to upgrade.

[Cruise Gopher]

Does the basic Wi-Fi get high speeds via this Starlink service? Or is it still going to be slowed down to entice people to upgrade to the premium?

[LGW59]

32 minutes ago, prmssk said:

Interesting EDGE is 11/1 which is one week into the TA starting on 10/24.  I’ll be very interested to see if I can notice the difference halfway through the cruise.

[Jim_Iain]

25 minutes ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Does the basic Wi-Fi get high speeds via this Starlink service? Or is it still going to be slowed down to entice people to upgrade to the premium?

Pricing has not been mentioned yet but I would at the least believe basic will still be a slowed down product.    I have heard a  number of people question if they will offer the Starlink at a price over the existing High Speed.    Only time will tell.

[Cruise Gopher]

1 minute ago, Jim_Iain said:

Pricing has not been mentioned yet but I would at the least believe basic will still be a slowed down product.    I have heard a  number of people question if they will offer the Starlink at a price over the existing High Speed.    Only time will tell.

But isn’t it already installed on Beyond? Don’t we have any reports from cruisers there yet?

[grandgeezer]

10 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Pricing has not been mentioned yet but I would at the least believe basic will still be a slowed down product.    I have heard a  number of people question if they will offer the Starlink at a price over the existing High Speed.    Only time will tell.

Pricing is in post #11. Regular 20 p.p. per day, fast is $35 p.p. per day.

[cdn_tbird]

5 hours ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

There is a timeline on the page below.  It shows Apex as 11/12, which I believe means it is expected to go live on Apex on Nov 12.

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/ca/things-to-do-onboard/onboard-packages/internet-and-phone-packages

Fingers crossed as we're on the Nov. 12th sailing.

[sbcs5390]

I think the press release suggested Starlink would be covered as part of the premium. Of course prices can change.

 

I think basic will be faster than before but Celebrity will continue to block services like Facebook images, wifi calling, etc. to entice the upgrade. 
 

So happy to see the schedule but bummed I’ll just miss it on each of my upcoming cruises. Solstice in October, Anthem OTS in January (have to check?), Millennium in February, and Equinox in March!

[Ben100014]

1 hour ago, sbcs5390 said:

I think the press release suggested Starlink would be covered as part of the premium. Of course prices can change.

 

I think basic will be faster than before but Celebrity will continue to block services like Facebook images, wifi calling, etc. to entice the upgrade. 
 

So happy to see the schedule but bummed I’ll just miss it on each of my upcoming cruises. Solstice in October, Anthem OTS in January (have to check?), Millennium in February, and Equinox in March!

This is true, they could just block the 'ports' for certain services, as some airlines do to prevent high bandwidth services such as Zoom or YouTube from being used. I don't think they would go this route, however, as it is easier to just throttle the overall speeds. 

[sbcs5390]

2 minutes ago, Ben100014 said:

This is true, they could just block the 'ports' for certain services, as some airlines do to prevent high bandwidth services such as Zoom or YouTube from being used. I don't think they would go this route, however, as it is easier to just throttle the overall speeds. 

I think they will keep it as is - blocking ports - in part because it’s easier to leave it as is and because a lot of people will pay for the upgrade to get the unblocked functions. My experience on Silhouette and Millennium was that you could not do wifi calling on an iPhone but Microsoft Teams worked fine, for instance, before upgrading. It doesn’t take much bandwidth to do an audio only wifi call but that limitation sells a ton of upgrades especially onboard even though the speed is fine. 

[Ben100014]

3 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

Not counting the new build, the Infinity isn’t scheduled for a year after the last one. Maybe they figure the Infinity will be long gone before then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I suspect this as well. It's far too of a gap between that and the other ships, and there's no logistical hurdle I see that could warrant this big of a lapse. Seems we will be saying goodbye to Infinity soon. My guess is they will be transferring it to another line, which would line up with holding off on a Starlink upgrade until the drydock is complete for that refit. 

[Ben100014]

3 minutes ago, sbcs5390 said:

I think they will keep it as is - blocking ports - in part because it’s easier to leave it as is and because a lot of people will pay for the upgrade to get the unblocked functions. My experience on Silhouette and Millennium was that you could not do wifi calling on an iPhone but Microsoft Teams worked fine, for instance, before upgrading. It doesn’t take much bandwidth to do an audio only wifi call but that limitation sells a ton of upgrades especially onboard even though the speed is fine. 

For sure. I'm not certain how they're really going to readjust the pricing. I was able to access just about anything on the basic plan onboard EQ this past November, it was just very slow to use. Wifi calling worked fine as I used it to call other members of my party. 

[sbcs5390]

12 hours ago, Ben100014 said:

For sure. I'm not certain how they're really going to readjust the pricing. I was able to access just about anything on the basic plan onboard EQ this past November, it was just very slow to use. Wifi calling worked fine as I used it to call other members of my party. 

Very interesting. ML and SI wholesale block WiFi calling on iPhones. Another example of Celebrity consistency 😉

[darknitecruiser]

Hi,

Has starlink been added to the Apex yet? I heard they were working on it this week

[TommyD3]

32 minutes ago, darknitecruiser said:

Hi,

Has starlink been added to the Apex yet? I heard they were working on it this week

We were onboard last week. Talked to the IT director about it. They are still installing all the upgrades including upgrades to the internal ships network. Plan to start testing on Christmas day. He was really unsure when it would go live replacing the existing internet.