Starlink Internet Seems Like A Fail To Me. Why Is It So Slow?

[PTC DAWG]

I find myself loving not having internet on a cruise…

[Charles4515]

1 minute ago, DaKahuna said:

These are not the speeds I get at home but they are more than adequate for streaming Netflix. 
 

This was just testing while sitting on my balcony off the coast of Cuba on Celebrity Millennium 

 

It says Starlink but that download speed is not any better than speeds I got pre Starlink on Celebrity.  

[NutsAboutGolf]

9 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

I guess the YouTube algorithm knows I am not interested in Carnival. YouTube has never recomended his channel to me. I cruised on Carnival a couple of times. About fifteen years ago and then again ten years ago and did not care for either experience. The second time someone was adament they had improved. After being fooled into it the second time I never considered it again. 

 

The new ships are great, so many complimentary options.  With YT, I often find things but searching for a term then sorted by most viewed and also upload date

[markeb]

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

I don't mean the following in a disrespectful way, I'm just pointing out he has nearly a half-million subscribers, I believe he's the #1 cruise-specific youtuber; most likely because he used to be a radio DJ and has a very soothing voice;...100 people on here not watching won't have any affect

 

If we want X to survive long term, they have to attract the youngins that were dragged aboard by their parents and to do that they'll need fast internet

 

His overall point is X is overpromising fast internet yet underdelivering on the speed.  Other cruise lines use starlink and do not throttle it down to X's minimal speed.  With that being said, X's starlink is a huge improvement from Xcelerate or whatever they were using before as you often had problems with websites not even loading

And he could say that. Clicking ups his payback from YouTube. His post is essentially an ad that he could benefit from financially. I have no problem with others posting his content, but posting his content on this site when he could stand to benefit bothers me. 
 

I guess I need to reread our T&Cs wit Cruise Critic. I didn’t think that was allowed. Probably time to report it and see what happens. If it stays up it must be OK. 

[HERDFAN]

I'm so glad that when I cruise, my phone gets turned off and locked in the safe until the nite before debarkation, when I take it out to charge it up for the trip home. I don't even use the free time. If it wasn't for my 90 year old mother, I'd throw my phone in the river.

[prmssk]

13 minutes ago, markeb said:

And he could say that. Clicking ups his payback from YouTube. His post is essentially an ad that he could benefit from financially. I have no problem with others posting his content, but posting his content on this site when he could stand to benefit bothers me. 
 

I guess I need to reread our T&Cs wit Cruise Critic. I didn’t think that was allowed. Probably time to report it and see what happens. If it stays up it must be OK. 

I didn't think it was allowed either.  And he hasn't come back so it appears he didn't actually intend to engage in a conversation with cruisers which makes it look even more like just an ad.

[DaKahuna]

28 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

It says Starlink but that download speed is not any better than speeds I got pre Starlink on Celebrity.  

i cannot say the same.  Then again I am easy to please.  As long as I can use Cruise Critic I am happy.

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

9 minutes ago, HERDFAN said:

I'm so glad that when I cruise, my phone gets turned off and locked in the safe until the nite before debarkation, when I take it out to charge it up for the trip home. I don't even use the free time. If it wasn't for my 90 year old mother, I'd throw my phone in the river.

 

Anyone is welcome to vacation anyway they want, however, I do believe one should have their phone on them in case of an emergency and also, if you run into an issue you can take photos for proof

[mnocket]

WOW!  What a misleading comparison.  I'm finding it a bit hard to believe that this is anything other than an intentionally misleading post designed to drive clicks to his Youtube channel.  One thing's for sure....  I do watch numerous cruise-related channels on Youtube, but I'll be staying away from this guy's channel - not because I disagree with him, but because I can't trust him to present a fair assessment.

[phoenix_dream]

13 minutes ago, HERDFAN said:

I'm so glad that when I cruise, my phone gets turned off and locked in the safe until the nite before debarkation, when I take it out to charge it up for the trip home. I don't even use the free time. If it wasn't for my 90 year old mother, I'd throw my phone in the river.

That's great for you but for people who want it and pay a very large premium for it, it should deliver what it promises. Surely you agree with that?

[mnocket]

2 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

I don't mean the following in a disrespectful way, I'm just pointing out he has nearly a half-million subscribers, I believe he's the #1 cruise-specific youtuber; most likely because he used to be a radio DJ and has a very soothing voice;...100 people on here not watching won't have any affect

 

If we want X to survive long term, they have to attract the youngins that were dragged aboard by their parents and to do that they'll need fast internet

 

His overall point is X is overpromising fast internet yet underdelivering on the speed.  Other cruise lines use starlink and do not throttle it down to X's minimal speed.  With that being said, X's starlink is a huge improvement from Xcelerate or whatever they were using before as you often had problems with websites not even loading

No, it was very clear that he was questioning the trend of many cruise lines moving to Starlink.  His comments were not specific to X. 

[Charles4515]

39 minutes ago, HERDFAN said:

I'm so glad that when I cruise, my phone gets turned off and locked in the safe until the nite before debarkation, when I take it out to charge it up for the trip home. I don't even use the free time. If it wasn't for my 90 year old mother, I'd throw my phone in the river.

Why come here and post that your phone is turned off? It just makes you look silly. 

[RichYak]

2 hours ago, prmssk said:

Your expectations of both ships can be the same and maybe should be the same.  I get your point there.  But it is not the same cost and time when it comes to retrofitting an old ship vs. putting good internet to start with on a new ship.  And we are still in the rollout process so there hasn't been a lot of time yet since RCG started putting Starlink on their ships.

The rollout is complete on Celebrity and uses all the same routers and extenders that already exist on each ship. For Celebrity to provide an inferior product to Carnival as it relates to wifi has nothing to do with technical limitations on older vessels. It should be clear that they're throttling speeds to save on data costs. 

 

Edit to add: The speeds that @DaKahuna posted upthread are not unlike speeds I was getting on Millennium last month. While nowhere near the full potential of Starlink, those speeds were perfectly adequate for my needs.

Edited April 22, 2023 by RichYak

[Charles4515]

42 minutes ago, prmssk said:

I didn't think it was allowed either.  And he hasn't come back so it appears he didn't actually intend to engage in a conversation with cruisers which makes it look even more like just an ad.

It does look like he did not come to engage. Just cut and run. Really if there is no Cruise Critic rule against it there should be. I won't click on any further links from him if he is not going to engage. 

[Charles4515]

2 minutes ago, RichYak said:

The rollout is complete on Celebrity and uses all the same routers and extenders that already exist on each ship. For Celebrity to provide an inferior product to Carnival as it relates to wifi has nothing to do with technical limitations on older vessels. It should be clear that they're throttling speeds to save on data costs. 

What has always burned me up about Celebrity internet is that they have always charged significantly higher for internet service that is the same as or inferior than the competition charges. 

[prmssk]

3 minutes ago, RichYak said:

The rollout is complete on Celebrity and uses all the same routers and extenders that already exist on each ship. For Celebrity to provide an inferior product to Carnival as it relates to wifi has nothing to do with technical limitations on older vessels. It should be clear that they're throttling speeds to save on data costs. 

Is it complete?  I know the original goal was by the end of quarter 1 2023 but then the rollout schedule I saw went well into 2023, with one ship in 2024.  I can't find that schedule I remember seeing though.  I haven't been following which ships might be left.

 

And older Carnival ships absolutely have technical limitations.  The Carnival cruise I took last September had internet that only worked some of the time when it did, there was very little you could access.  When it did work download speeds were under 1 with upload speeds almost 0.  In my opinion a fair comparison would be the Beyond or the Apex to the Celebration.  (And speeds I have seen for the Beyond and the Apex are all over the map with some amazingly fast and others much slower.)

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Celebrity is throttling speeds but I think there also are technical limitations yet on older ships.

[RichYak]

1 minute ago, prmssk said:

Is it complete?

Yes. All X ships have Starlink as of a couple months ago.

 

[RichYak]

10 minutes ago, prmssk said:

And older Carnival ships absolutely have technical limitations.  The Carnival cruise I took last September had internet that only worked some of the time when it did, there was very little you could access.

That's not a technical limitation. That's just Carnival offering crappy internet on that particular ship. It's a budgetary limitation, not a technical one. An old ship can see the same satellites that a new one can.

[NutsAboutGolf]

49 minutes ago, mnocket said:

No, it was very clear that he was questioning the trend of many cruise lines moving to Starlink.  His comments were not specific to X. 

 

Valid but its a bit more complex...In his video, the only Starlink sailing he called out by name was the Celebrity Solstice at sub-5mbps.  Yet he then INCORRECTLY claims that Carnivals newest ship, the Celebration did NOT have Starlink, but it was indeed deployed with Starlink, it was just that Carnival, for whatever reason, wasn't yet ready to make the Starlink is going fleet-wide announcement until a couple of months after the Celebration began sailing.  His premise that the Carnival Celebration can get fast internet of around 60mbps without Starlink is already misinformation.  At the end of the day we just want fast internet, no one cares if from Starlink or another company.  Even those who are on team lock my phone in a safe will want fast internet if there's a some kind of emergency where most passengers are force to update their travel plans at the same time

 

Edit to add, due to throttling, not all lines use Starlink equality; we know for sure X is possibly the greatest offender of this as they GREATLY throttles their speeds down presumably to save bandwidth and therefore $$$

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by NutsAboutGolf

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, mnocket said:

WOW!  What a misleading comparison.  I'm finding it a bit hard to believe that this is anything other than an intentionally misleading post designed to drive clicks to his Youtube channel.  One thing's for sure....  I do watch numerous cruise-related channels on Youtube, but I'll be staying away from this guy's channel - not because I disagree with him, but because I can't trust him to present a fair assessment.

 

This is what he does, post without engaging...Idk what to tell you, perhaps you'd be happier if you blocked him?

[prmssk]

17 minutes ago, RichYak said:

An old ship can see the same satellites that a new one can.

Of course they can and do.  But once that internet reaches the ship from the satellite, it has to pass through cables, routers, and various other IT equipment beyond my basic understanding before it gets to the end user.  If you want the same experience as a brand new ship with the newest router and infrastructure technology when on an older ship, you have to actually upgrade that equipment on the ship.

 

I'm not disputing that throttling is happening.  I'm just saying that older ships have additional challenges in addition to any intentional throttling X is doing.  That is the reason I don't think it is fair to compare an old ship to a new one.  Whether we think the cruise line should take the time and money to invest in upgrading the infrastructure on older ships is a different issue.  I have my doubts Carnival will be investing much in upgrading their infrastructure on older ships.

[mnocket]

34 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Valid but its a bit more complex...In his video, the only Starlink sailing he called out by name was the Celebrity Solstice at sub-5mbps.  Yet he then INCORRECTLY claims that the Carnivals newest ship the Celebration did NOT have Starlink, but it was indeed deployed with starlink, it was just that Carnival wasn't yet ready to make the announcement.  So his premise that the Carnival Celebration can get fast internet of around 60mbps without Starlink is already misinformation.  At the end of the day we just want fast internet, no one cares if from Starlink or another company.  Even those who are on team lock my phone in a safe will want fast internet if there's a some kind of emergency where most passengers are force to update their travel plans at the same time

 

Great catch!

 

His whole presentation came across to me as a hit job on Starlink.  Maybe he's a Musk hater?  Who knows?

 

The undeniable truth is that Starlink offers a significant step forward to internet service on cruise ships.  Whether or not cruise lines choosing to implement Starlink actually achieve the potential improvements Starlink offers is largely up to them - not Starlink.

 

Starlink offers much improved internet to the ship.  How the ship then distributes that service to the end user is up to them - not Starlink.  Fundamentally, cruise lines can opt to leverage Starlink to significantly improve service to their customers, or they can opt to use Starlink to provide the same old service to customers but at a significant savings to the cruise line.  There are many implementation choices that cruise lines make that ultimately determine the user experience.  Such as...  Do they throttle the bandwidth available to end users and how much?  Do they upgrade their infrastructure to enable the benefits of Starlink to reach the end users?  That is, it really doesn't matter how fast the connection between the ship and the satellite is if the infrastructure isn't upgraded to handle it (e.g. switches, routers, access points, etc.).  If your sitting in an area with a poor wifi connection or an overloaded switch, that's not Starlink's fault. 

 

There should be no question that Starlink offers the OPPORTUNITY for cruise lines to greatly improve internet service to customers.  The operative question is...  do cruise lines choose to implement Starlink to do so or do they opt to use it to simply save money?

Edited April 22, 2023 by mnocket

[mnocket]

5 minutes ago, prmssk said:

Of course they can and do.  But once that internet reaches the ship from the satellite, it has to pass through cables, routers, and various other IT equipment beyond my basic understanding before it gets to the end user.  If you want the same experience as a brand new ship with the newest router and infrastructure technology when on an older ship, you have to actually upgrade that equipment on the ship.

 

I'm not disputing that throttling is happening.  I'm just saying that older ships have additional challenges in addition to any intentional throttling X is doing.  That is the reason I don't think it is fair to compare an old ship to a new one.  Whether we think the cruise line should take the time and money to invest in upgrading the infrastructure on older ships is a different issue.  I have my doubts Carnival will be investing much in upgrading their infrastructure on older ships.

Very astute observation.  Yes, a ship's existing infrastructure will likely need to be upgraded if the cruise line wishes to deliver the full benefits of Starlink to its customers.  

[HERDFAN]

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

Why come here and post that your phone is turned off? It just makes you look silly. 

I have a pc.

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 minute ago, prmssk said:

Of course they can and do.  But once that internet reaches the ship from the satellite, it has to pass through cables, routers, and various other IT equipment beyond my basic understanding before it gets to the end user.  If you want the same experience as a brand new ship with the newest router and infrastructure technology when on an older ship, you have to actually upgrade that equipment on the ship.

 

I'm not disputing that throttling is happening.  I'm just saying that older ships have additional challenges in addition to any intentional throttling X is doing.  That is the reason I don't think it is fair to compare an old ship to a new one.  Whether we think the cruise line should take the time and money to invest in upgrading the infrastructure on older ships is a different issue.  I have my doubts Carnival will be investing much in upgrading their infrastructure on older ships.

 

That may also get replaced

10 minutes ago, mnocket said:

Great catch!

 

His whole presentation came across to me as a hit job on Starlink.  Maybe he's a Musk hater?  Who knows?

 

The undeniable truth is that Starlink offers a significant step forward to internet service on cruise ships.  Whether or not cruise lines choosing to implement Starlink actually achieve the potential improvements Starlink offers is largely up to them - not Starlink.

 

Starlink offers much improved internet to the ship.  How the ship then distributes that service to the end user is up to them - not Starlink.  Fundamentally, cruise lines can opt to leverage Starlink to significantly improve service to their customers, or they can opt to use Starlink to provide the same old service to customers but at a significant savings to the cruise line.  There are many implementation choices that cruise lines make that ultimately determine the user experience.  Such as...  Do they throttle the bandwidth available to end users and how much?  Do they upgrade their infrastructure to enable the benefits of Starlink to reach the end users?  That is, it really doesn't matter how fast the connection between the ship and the satellite is if the infrastructure isn't upgraded to handle it (e.g. switches, routers, access points, etc.).  If your sitting in an area with a poor wifi connection or an overloaded switch, that's not Starlink's fault. 

 

There should be no question that Starlink offers the OPPORTUNITY for cruise lines to greatly improve their internet service to customers.  The operative question is...  do cruise lines choose to implement Starlink to do so or do they opt to use it to simply save money?

 

Just my WAG, he went on the Celebration which he wrongly assumed didn't have Starlink then went on the Solstice which did have Starlink and he was surprised that X's Starlink was15 times slower than on Carnival...Like most of us, he just prefers fast internet...We could alter his premise of saying something like "Cruise ship Starlink, due to throttling, doesn't necessary offer fast internet speeds"