SpaceX-Starlink

[Silver Spectre]

So where is the much adored BM in all this, and who on earth is the President of SS?

[Randyk47]

8 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

So where is the much adored BM in all this, and who on earth is the President of SS?

Not sure I understand your question.  Barbara Muckermann is the President and CEO of Silversea Cruise Line.  Last she posted about StarLink was that she expected it to be implemented fleet wide by May of this year.  I don’t recall her doing a ship by ship rollout announcement so I don’t know if that is the plan or if they magically are going to turn the whole fleet on the same day.   Since the Endeavour apparently is up and running StarLink it is safe to say they have some experience but maybe Endeavour came StarLink capable from Crystal day one so it wasn’t a new install and easier to implement.

[Silver Spectre]

6 hours ago, Randyk47 said:

Not sure I understand your question.  Barbara Muckermann is the President and CEO of Silversea Cruise Line.  Last she posted about StarLink was that she expected it to be implemented fleet wide by May of this year.  I don’t recall her doing a ship by ship rollout announcement so I don’t know if that is the plan or if they magically are going to turn the whole fleet on the same day.   Since the Endeavour apparently is up and running StarLink it is safe to say they have some experience but maybe Endeavour came StarLink capable from Crystal day one so it wasn’t a new install and easier to implement.

My bad, I had forgotten that she had both titles and thought that some, unknown person was the President. You may have forgotten that StarLink was promised for the Shadow and the WC, and it’s not been delivered.

[Randyk47]

3 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

My bad, I had forgotten that she had both titles and thought that some, unknown person was the President. You may have forgotten that StarLink was promised for the Shadow and the WC, and it’s not been delivered.

Actually I hadn’t forgotten about the Shadow and certainly it is a shame they didn’t make StarLink work for the WC.  Having fielded three major computer systems for the government, which is a challenge in and of itself, I can say from experience be careful what you promise when it comes to automation, computers, software, etc.   

[turtlemichael]

11 hours ago, Randyk47 said:

Actually I hadn’t forgotten about the Shadow and certainly it is a shame they didn’t make StarLink work for the WC.  Having fielded three major computer systems for the government, which is a challenge in and of itself, I can say from experience be careful what you promise when it comes to automation, computers, software, etc.   

To my mind it is not just StarLink. I recall a meeting in an overflowing Panorama Lounge on Whisper during the 2019 World Cruise promising improvement. As well, compensation was provided to world cruisers. On Shadow now it is worse than it was four years ago on Whisper. It is worse than any other cruise line I've been on. Cut the gushing apologies and the breast beating and just get on with it.

Edited February 27, 2023 by turtlemichael

[turtlemichael]

On 2/27/2023 at 5:33 PM, turtlemichael said:

To my mind it is not just StarLink. I recall a meeting in an overflowing Panorama Lounge on Whisper during the 2019 World Cruise promising improvement. As well, compensation was provided to world cruisers. On Shadow now it is worse than it was four years ago on Whisper. It is worse than any other cruise line I've been on. Cut the gushing apologies and the breast beating and just get on with it.

No announcement yet but it appears Starlink is operating on Shadow this morning. Top notch internet! It may be being tested of course. Watch this space. 

[turtlemichael]

Yesterday, in the first day of StarLink operation on Shadow, we achieved speeds of 2.5mbps. Thats a long way from brilliant but is more than 10 times the speed we regularly achieved pre-StarLink. Most things, including watching a video, could be done. Today, the speed has dropped back to 1.1kbps.  Not much use for most things. I guess everyone is ringing home! I'll see how it goes later today.

[sea bright]

We were on the Muse from 2/22 to 2/28. The worst premium internet in years. For 2 days we had  no internet at all. It improved the last week, but was still very inconsistent - sometimes quite fast (could download a newspaper instantly-  never tried streaming a movie), but other times impossible to load even a website. I was told that Starlink was installed and being used on the cruise for at least the last week, but at "reduced capacity" and with some issues. The rollout is definitely  not as smooth as they expected!

 

[turtlemichael]

Shadow's Starlink is working satisfactorily at about 3 mbps.

[Silver Spectre]

10 minutes ago, turtlemichael said:

Shadow's Starlink is working satisfactorily at about 3 mbps.

Is that standard or premium Wifi?

[turtlemichael]

2 minutes ago, Silver Spectre said:

Is that standard or premium Wifi?

Premium (or rather, what Silversea calls premium) - allows me to do the things I want to do. Emails and websites, videos. Others I know are using zoom etc satisfactorily. Compared with a week ago it's chalk and cheese.

[Stumblefoot]

5 hours ago, turtlemichael said:

Shadow's Starlink is working satisfactorily at about 3 mbps.

Yikes!  Is that the upload speed?

 

I believe the FCC here in the U.S. defined broadband as 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up.

[Daveywavey70]

6 hours ago, turtlemichael said:

Shadow's Starlink is working satisfactorily at about 3 mbps.

Needs more coal!

[les37b]

It’s super fast this starlink.

 

Only took an hour to post this. (Silver Dawn)

 

Its genuinely the worst internet I’ve had on any SS sailing.

 

[Randyk47]

24 minutes ago, les37b said:

It’s super fast this starlink.

 

Only took an hour to post this. (Silver Dawn)

 

Its genuinely the worst internet I’ve had on any SS sailing.

 

That is pitiful and disappointing. 

[Solitarycruiser]

Sorry to hear that.  Joining you on the 23rd. 

[les37b]

17 hours ago, Solitarycruiser said:

Sorry to hear that.  Joining you on the 23rd. 

We get off on the 23rd.

 

I had typed out a reply, but been unable to post,… hopefully today will be better.

 

Knowing how WiFi works I did ask at GS where the best locations would be for their repeaters.

 

I was told it is fine throughout the ship. I was told SS internet has never been better.

 

Red rag. I was hoping for a straight answer.

 

Today we got an email about the internet suggesting it won’t be like your BB at home which is obviously correct. The email however stated it was because the radio waves had to send a signal 22000 miles into space and make a return journey.

 

Wrong. Starllink is 342 miles in space.

 

Whilst my thoughts might be semantics, this “information” for the reasons is just blatantly not right. Starlink satellites are in low earth orbit.

 

Anyway, it doesn’t change the fact its poor and I certainly disagree with the GS statement it’s never been better.

 

I did do a further test shoreside while waiting for an excursion and surprisingly I got up to 1.5Mb, still not great but 3 times faster than all results to date.

 

I was going to post an account of my sailing which I often do, but it would be impossible to do. However I will comment my meal in SALT last night for our second evening was a shambles. The chicken skewer starter was stone cold. I did check with the waiter and he confirmed it was meant to be hot. We both swapped for something else. For my main I had sirloin steak and asked for well done. (Yes not to everyone’s liking I know, but prefer my food not to have a pulse when served! lol) It arrived, looked good, but on starting to eat, it was luke warm. But worse, was the blood that came dripping out. In all my sailings, I’ve never once returned a meal. Tonight 2 plates were sent back in one sitting. I was offered a replacement, but decided I’d go without. Luckily the dessert was nice.

 

And I missed triv today as our tour got back too late. I did hear the answers though but too late to join. The questions were reasonable. Hopefully can join in later going forward. 

[dougburns]

Les; Don't mean to highjack the thread, but if you have time and the internet cooperates could you tell me who the Captain, Hotel Director and Cruise Director will be for the TA starting 23 March. Thanks

[les37b]

Biography of Silver Dawn Officers.pdf

 

We didn’t make a fuss or complain regarding yesterdays food. In the restaurant they repeatedly apologised and requested we returned again which we said we would and not to worry.

 

Yesterday we got a card requesting to meet the food and beverages manager and head chef, which we did. Seemed a bit over the top, but they were both apologetic and admitted there had been lots of problems of this nature yesterday and thanked me for the feedback.

 

The triv team I joined when I said I had a meeting in a couple of minutes, commented they’d heard of several people complaining about cold food in SALT and Atlantide, which confirms what the SS staff told us.

 

it was refreshing to be fair that they did accept there was a problem and that it would be addressed.

 

Certainly the formal night meal in Atlantide was excellent…. Hot… and steak cooked as requested.

 

 

[cruiseej]

3 hours ago, les37b said:

it was refreshing to be fair that they did accept there was a problem and that it would be addressed.

 

Well, the proof will be in the pudding. And the chicken. And the steak. 🤣

[Host Jazzbeau]

5 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

Well, the proof will be in the pudding. And the chicken. And the steak. 🤣

Dinner eaten in the correct order!  You never know if the world will end before the final course!

[turtlemichael]

Treat the information as you wish to but word on the street, not from any official source, is that there will be two levels of access, as there are now. Standard, up to 2 Mbps, and included in fares, and premium, up to 10 Mbps and yours for the current price of USD29 per day. On Shadow we are consistently achieving 10 mbps  when the thing is operating and, nothing higher. The WC includes premium internet.

[turtlemichael]

Two days ago, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, I got an unexpected phone call from my bank.  After all the security checks I was satisfied that I was actually speaking to my bank.  15 minutes before I had made a banking transaction online. Starlink was operating at the time. The bank informed me that there was possibly suspicious activity on my account and asked if I had just accessed my account from Nigeria?  As a precaution they had blocked access to my account.

 

The most likely explanation was that Starlink was using a server in Lagos at the time. The bank had picked this up and had taken precautions. The block was lifted straight away and I'm not concerned at what my bank did. But it seems that this might be an issue with Starlink. I am a long way from being computer literate but I thought I'd pass on the story to others who could find similar issues. There is another guest I know of on this world cruise also having issues with their bank after doing some online transactions. If anyone thinks I have misunderstood or got the wrong and of the stick, please let me know.

[Randyk47]

Thanks Turtlemichael for the warning.  Mrs K does most of our banking in line but typically not on a cruise or actually away from home for that matter.  We do have an upcoming 19-day cruise at the end of the year and that might an issue.  

[turtlemichael]

1 hour ago, Randyk47 said:

Thanks Turtlemichael for the warning.  Mrs K does most of our banking in line but typically not on a cruise or actually away from home for that matter.  We do have an upcoming 19-day cruise at the end of the year and that might an issue.  

I’d think it a good idea to make sure your bank knows exactly what you are doing.