Does Startlink work decent on transatlantic routes

[Bteam]

The subject says it all. 🙂

 

We will be in the April 22nd sailing from Port Carnival to Amsterdam transatlantic on jewel of the seas. Was wondering if the star link (if the ship has it operational ) has coverage for the whole cruise? 
 

Thanks in advance! Bill 

[long4acruise]

We did the EB transatlantic (Miami- Amsterdam) May 2022 and the internet was good. Honestly don't remember if she had Starlink then, but we had great reception. I used my phone quite often as lots of friends were joining us in Amsterdam for the following chartered sailing and we were coordinating lots of "stuff".

Hope service is great for you in Apr!

[Tolkmit]

I'm about 95% sure there haven't been any crossings on Royal ships with Starlink yet. Not with passengers on board anyways. None of the ships that crossed last fall had Starlink prior to doing so.

 

Symphony does a crossing in a couple weeks, and I believe has Starlink; so bumping this post mid-March might get you some answers.

[cruiseboy89130]

29 minutes ago, Tolkmit said:

I'm about 95% sure there haven't been any crossings on Royal ships with Starlink yet. Not with passengers on board anyways. None of the ships that crossed last fall had Starlink prior to doing so.

 

Symphony does a crossing in a couple weeks, and I believe has Starlink; so bumping this post mid-March might get you some answers.

Exactly!

[ARandomTraveler]

4 hours ago, Tolkmit said:

I'm about 95% sure there haven't been any crossings on Royal ships with Starlink yet. Not with passengers on board anyways. None of the ships that crossed last fall had Starlink prior to doing so.

 

Symphony does a crossing in a couple weeks, and I believe has Starlink; so bumping this post mid-March might get you some answers.

Symphony definitely has starlink, I used it in November and it worked great!!

[twangster]

Starlink very recently updated their maritime coverage map to indicate global coverage. 

 

Despite that Starlink isn't finished.  User experience is not going to be consistent for some time yet.  

 

Please return after your TA and post your experience.

[cruiseboy89130]

52 minutes ago, twangster said:

Starlink very recently updated their maritime coverage map to indicate global coverage. 

 

Despite that Starlink isn't finished.  User experience is not going to be consistent for some time yet.  

 

Please return after your TA and post your experience.

From what I have researched they might have problems with the middle of the Atlantic as they are behind schedule and the updated map is just smoke and mirrors as with most of Musk's projects 🙄

[taglovestocruise]

11 hours ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

From what I have researched they might have problems with the middle of the Atlantic as they are behind schedule and the updated map is just smoke and mirrors as with most of Musk's projects 🙄

But it will still put a few billion in his pocket. 

[twangster]

12 hours ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

From what I have researched they might have problems with the middle of the Atlantic as they are behind schedule and the updated map is just smoke and mirrors as with most of Musk's projects 🙄

 

Most definitely.  It will be all of a year before it gets closer to where it should be globally on the water.  

 

Of course if Starship starts flying that will help a lot.  It can lift more and into a higher orbit so they get into service faster.  Starship is the key to the needed bump in maritime coverage and performance.  

[BirdTravels]

15 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

Symphony definitely has starlink, I used it in November and it worked great!!

Starlink will work great for a while. I give it a year. But as more and more people start using it (e.g., all of those cruise lines signing up), all of that data has to move from the satellite constellation to the real internet on land. That point where Musk meets Al Gore, the interfaces from Starlink to the real internet, will be come the choke points on the system. 

[njkruzer]

22 hours ago, long4acruise said:

We did the EB transatlantic (Miami- Amsterdam) May 2022 and the internet was good. Honestly don't remember if she had Starlink then, but we had great reception. I used my phone quite often as lots of friends were joining us in Amsterdam for the following chartered sailing and we were coordinating lots of "stuff".

Hope service is great for you in Apr!

It wasn't Starlimk.  Not sure what crossing you were on but on our May Jewel crossing after we made the left turn to Bermuda,  unplanned,  internet went downhill for us.  Probably didn't realign with a new satellite when we changed course.

[taglovestocruise]

2 hours ago, twangster said:

 

Most definitely.  It will be all of a year before it gets closer to where it should be globally on the water.  

 

Of course if Starship starts flying that will help a lot.  It can lift more and into a higher orbit so they get into service faster.  Starship is the key to the needed bump in maritime coverage and performance.  

Space X just started launching V2 into low orbit. They are 10x faster and hold 4x the data, they are a temporary fix and will be brought down when Starship starts regular flights.  21 satellites per launch with a near term goal of 210 in super low orbit by June 2023. FAA needs to fast track Starship launch permits.

[twangster]

32 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Space X just started launching V2 into low orbit. They are 10x faster and hold 4x the data, they are a temporary fix and will be brought down when Starship starts regular flights.  21 satellites per launch with a near term goal of 210 in super low orbit by June 2023. FAA needs to fast track Starship launch permits.

 

They started launching v2 mini as a stop gap realizing that Starship in regular and routine service is still a while away. 

 

The full size v2 can't fit on Falcon 9.  

[long4acruise]

13 hours ago, njkruzer said:

It wasn't Starlimk.  Not sure what crossing you were on but on our May Jewel crossing after we made the left turn to Bermuda,  unplanned,  internet went downhill for us.  Probably didn't realign with a new satellite when we changed course.

We were on the Jewel TA (Apr 29-May 13) and logged in using our phones and my tablet. Surprisingly we had great connections as I did several Zoom meetings and a memorial service online! We were in a GS right next to the RS - midship. 

The 2nd leg (a music charter) of the B2B was great for most of us also. 

[njkruzer]

7 minutes ago, long4acruise said:

We were on the Jewel TA (Apr 29-May 13) and logged in using our phones and my tablet. Surprisingly we had great connections as I did several Zoom meetings and a memorial service online! We were in a GS right next to the RS - midship. 

The 2nd leg (a music charter) of the B2B was great for most of us also. 

You were lucky.

[taglovestocruise]

19 hours ago, twangster said:

 

They started launching v2 mini as a stop gap realizing that Starship in regular and routine service is still a while away. 

 

The full size v2 can't fit on Falcon 9.  

Good catch, I forgot to say mini. 

[Bteam]

Thanks folks for the feedback. I’d hate to purchase the full cruise and find out that once yes are out to sea it stops working or gets worst. I suspect they won’t give me credit or refund if it wasn’t working well.  
 

I noticed that the price went up another $40 for the cruise since I waited. I better either buy it and deal with what it is or forget it. 
 

take care! 

[Teeara]

Not sure what we had on Wonder for the Fall 2022 WB TA, but it was fantastic.  There were a few dropped signals at times, but we always got it back fast.  We were very happy.

[celly]

We have been on Symphony for a few weeks now and internet connection has been spotty, unreliable and slow more than often. Do not see any improvement over the old Voom. Tomorrow we will start the Transatlantic. Do not feel very confident after the past weeks experience.

[cruiseboy89130]

3 hours ago, Teeara said:

Not sure what we had on Wonder for the Fall 2022 WB TA, but it was fantastic.  There were a few dropped signals at times, but we always got it back fast.  We were very happy.

That was not starlink!

[Teeara]

8 minutes ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

That was not starlink!

Then Starlink will be awesome.  Again, whatever we had it was fantastic.  

[pretzlaff]

We are on the Symphony now and about half way across the Atlantic. 
 

starlink is not good. Near Florida it seemed ok, but it is almost unusable now. 
 

speedtest says a latency of 179, download 0.38 (with dips to 0.00 during the test), and uploads of 2.86. It took 5 seconds to load cruisecritic after twice not finding the server. 
 

i was really looking forward to it, but at best it has only been as good as the old system and now seems worse. 

Edited March 14, 2023 by pretzlaff

[resetjet]

Just because starlink is on the ship,  does not mean they have the satellites overhead yet.  Especially in an ocean.

[pretzlaff]

Things have improved this morning. I notice on speed test that we are now bouncing to a server in Madrid, no longer Miami. 
 

ping is 181, down is 9.00, up is 3.00. 

[SE fla]

They have always changed satellites mid way. They do it in the middle of the night as not to disrupt everyone using the Wi-Fi during prim time hours. Hopefully for the symphony that does the trick for you all.