Ship's WiFi on South America/Antarctica cruise

[mpat]

My husband and I will be on a South America/Antarctica cruise next month. We have a package that includes $400pp OBC plus $250 in Carnival stock credit, prepaid gratuities, and 2 nights of specialty dining. We have booked independent excursions, so I won't be doing Holland excursions. So, I was wondering how to use my OBC. We're really not interested in spa treatments.  I was considering purchasing a WiFi package with the onboard credit. Does anyone have experience with WiFi on a South America Cruise? Does it work well? 

[GeorgeCharlie]

We recently returned from a 31-day SA cruise on the Oosterdam, which I believe is the ship you are going to be on for your cruise.

 

Most likely when you are mentioning purchasing Wi-Fi, you are referring to purchasing an Internet package. The Wi-Fi available on the ship is provided free of charge and used primarily by HALs Navigator app for information access on the ship, plus it provides your connection to the Internet.

 

We had pre-purchased the Premium Internet package prior to sailing with the hopes of being able to do a 'Live' review of the cruise. You can find my "Somewhat Live' review here and you will notice my feelings regarding the Internet from my opening comments - along with other comments throughout my postings.😠😠

 

Overall, the Internet was somewhat usable for basic email functions, but generally useless for sending any amount of data (i.e. pictures). One of the people we were travelling with tried communicating through Whatsapp and his experience was no better then I had with the apps I was using.

 

 

[mpat]

1 hour ago, GeorgeCharlie said:

We recently returned from a 31-day SA cruise on the Oosterdam, which I believe is the ship you are going to be on for your cruise.

 

Most likely when you are mentioning purchasing Wi-Fi, you are referring to purchasing an Internet package. The Wi-Fi available on the ship is provided free of charge and used primarily by HALs Navigator app for information access on the ship, plus it provides your connection to the Internet.

 

We had pre-purchased the Premium Internet package prior to sailing with the hopes of being able to do a 'Live' review of the cruise. You can find my "Somewhat Live' review here and you will notice my feelings regarding the Internet from my opening comments - along with other comments throughout my postings.😠😠

 

Overall, the Internet was somewhat usable for basic email functions, but generally useless for sending any amount of data (i.e. pictures). One of the people we were travelling with tried communicating through Whatsapp and his experience was no better then I had with the apps I was using.

 

 

Thank you for that information. I was intending to use it  to communicate with family through texting, since we have so many sea days.

[Lojay2]

20 hours ago, mpat said:

Thank you for that information. I was intending to use it  to communicate with family through texting, since we have so many sea days.

texting works, use Whats Ap.  Streaming (movies etc) is not good 

[mpat]

7 hours ago, Lojay2 said:

texting works, use Whats Ap.  Streaming (movies etc) is not good 

Thanks for that information!

 

[Domergirl1]

So, for those with experience on the Oosterdam for Antarctica cruises, is working from laptop on sea days a pipe dream? It would be nice to be able to join Teams calls and send/receive documents. Thoughts?

[Torquer]

We were on the Oceania Marina in Antarctica in March 2024.  This was before the ship had been fitted with Starlink satellite internet.  Internet was essentially unusable for anything, even checking email, when we were more than 50 degrees south latitude...about the Falkland Islands.  Now I do know that Oosterdam, and all HAL ships, now have Starlink installed.  Since Starlink satellites are not in geosynchronous orbit but instead have orbits that take each one both north and south of the equator, theoretically, you should have much better internet at extreme latitudes such as Antarctica.  Hopefully, someone who has been on Oosterdam to Antarctica in 2024 can provide a definitive statement.

 

BTW, I certainly hope you are not working on your computer on "sea days" while in Antarctica waters.  There is far too much to see outside the ship.  It is, by far, the best scenic cruising we have ever experienced.