Remote Work on a Transatlantic?

[kayjaypea42]

Hey y'all! So just thinking of cruises for next year, I am considering doing a transatlantic cruise, (Specifically, I'm eyeing the Oasis and Anthem for their April sailings next year), but the only way I could do that is if I was sure I could work remotely on the weekdays at Sea. And by that I mean, decent enough wifi to operate a Salesforce page and participate reasonably well in a Google Meets meeting. Has anyone successfully worked from a transatlantic cruise before? Any advice (even if the advice is to not try it...) Thanks!!

[Bromma16872]

Don’t work in the Atlantic. Internet will be “bad” or maybe not working at all. 
 

if you should send some email it’s maybe will work, but meetings with video and sound, don’t expect it will work flawlessly. 

[Biker19]

5 hours ago, kayjaypea42 said:

And by that I mean, decent enough wifi to operate a Salesforce page and participate reasonably well in a Google Meets meeting.

While most report Voom working most of the time, you'd have to ask yourself - how many meetings can I miss before I get into trouble at work and chance it? It's not even the fact that it's a TA, the reliability of a sat internet connection anywhere is lower than a land based one.

[DirtyDawg]

The whole fleet is scheduled to have Starlink by the end of 2023 so the internet should be better than in the past.

Here's a review https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/06/28/i-tried-elon-musks-starlink-internet-royal-caribbean-cruise-ship

 

 

 

[Cigar King]

FWIW, I would make sure work knows that you're on vacation, and you'll do the best you can.  

 

That being said, Starlink is an improvement, but it's far from ideal.  The network is still slow, overcrowded and suffers from weak signal coverage.

 

If my job depended on it, I would not cruise.

[kayjaypea42]

 

9 minutes ago, Cigar King said:

FWIW, I would make sure work knows that you're on vacation, and you'll do the best you can.  

 

Yeah.  I'd have to ask my boss if it would be a viable option.  In theory, we get "Unlimited PTO" but taking off 2+ weeks like that isn't very common.  Ideally, I'd like to take a couple extra days to explore the destination port before flying home, too.  I dunno.  Worth considering but it's probably not a great idea right now.

[Scotty G]

Check Starlink coverage. Most ocean coverage is just off shore of covered countries. Recent voyages to Mexico and Honduras out of Florida we had sporadic coverage from North of Havana until getting near a port of call.

Edited April 23, 2023 by Scotty G

[topnole]

Recently did the Symphony TA.  It was starlink.   Internet was quite variable.   I certainly wouldn’t plan on video meetings

working well all the time or even most of the time.  Now if you can turn off your camera and just listen (and no need to speak during a meeting) maybe you’d be ok.  Otherwise, I would assume your work and meetings will be significantly disrupted.  I did work, but mostly email and file downloading/uploading.  It was very slow at times.   Other times it was fine.  
 

 

[twangster]

I've worked on transatlantic cruises.   Not all work is compatible with cruising.  If your work load can be time shifted its doable.  If you need to participate on a lot of conference calls or video meetings then you are likely to find the satellite internet goes out exactly when you need it most. 

 

I would schedule meetings and calls for port days so I had cellular for backup.  I often used it too. 

 

If you are hoping no one will know you aren't at home it's not likely to work out that way.  

 

Cabin wifi can be weak and it can be hard to find quiet spots on the ship where they don't have background music playing.  PA announcements for bingo, t-shirt sales and art auctions always come at the least opportune time. 

[Biker19]

3 hours ago, Scotty G said:

Most ocean coverage is just off shore of covered countries.

While there were a few outages, folks reported Starlink being available all the way across on the Symphony TA last month.

[topnole]

44 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

While there were a few outages, folks reported Starlink being available all the way across on the Symphony TA last month.

Yes.  But it definitely varied in speed.  There were times that it was very slow for basic tasks, and not always when one would assume crew times would spike.   It just seemed to vary.  Overall, it worked about as I expected, but I certainly wouldn’t rely on it for work video calls if that was required and I cared about my job. 

[Another_Critic]

First thing would be to check with your corporate IT department to see if they restrict access to their network outside of the US.  IIRC, Voom IP is US, but ports would be foreign. 

[CynBeth6]

I would talk to your manager to see if you can take whatever amount of days this trip is without having to do work this should be a vacation for you to enjoy and not miss ports and if not find a different cruise that works better around the time you would be allowed to be off.

Edited April 23, 2023 by CynBeth6

[crzndeb]

Some think Starlink may be a fix all, but it’s not. While it may be better in some instances, TP’s and TA’s aren’t always the greatest. I’m on the Ovation TP right now and while it’s pretty good, there are still many drop offs, which may not bode well for calls.

[akke29]

I plan to work remotely as Quantum crosses the Pacific from Hawaii to Vancouver, starting next week.  Hopefully Starlink works out.

[Sunshine3601]

19 hours ago, kayjaypea42 said:

Hey y'all! So just thinking of cruises for next year, I am considering doing a transatlantic cruise, (Specifically, I'm eyeing the Oasis and Anthem for their April sailings next year), but the only way I could do that is if I was sure I could work remotely on the weekdays at Sea. And by that I mean, decent enough wifi to operate a Salesforce page and participate reasonably well in a Google Meets meeting. Has anyone successfully worked from a transatlantic cruise before? Any advice (even if the advice is to not try it...) Thanks!!

Anthem is scheduled to do their TA in coming weeks.   Starlink is currently up and running on Anthem.   Maybe jump on their roll call and ask if anyone getting the voom pkg can report back to you.

[twangster]

Keep in mind Starlink is roughly 10% complete and the much needed v2 satellites required to really make the maritime service perform well haven't launched yet.  

 

They have some v2 mini satellites that should enter service in a couple of months.  These will help but Starlink desperately needs the full size v2  satellites to make coverage away from land work well. 

 

What was experienced recently on a crossing is relevant but once the future satellites are working it will be much better.   We are currently in an interim period where user experience will not be consistent.  Gradually over the next year or two Starlink will get better. 

[jean87510]

On 4/23/2023 at 1:36 AM, kayjaypea42 said:

Hey y'all! So just thinking of cruises for next year, I am considering doing a transatlantic cruise, (Specifically, I'm eyeing the Oasis and Anthem for their April sailings next year), but the only way I could do that is if I was sure I could work remotely on the weekdays at Sea. And by that I mean, decent enough wifi to operate a Salesforce page and participate reasonably well in a Google Meets meeting. Has anyone successfully worked from a transatlantic cruise before? Any advice (even if the advice is to not try it...) Thanks!!

a few variables.  How far ahead are you in the time zone?  Because early am by my past history usage on a TA has been decent pre starlink.  

[cruiseboy89130]

On 4/23/2023 at 5:55 AM, Bromma16872 said:

Don’t work in the Atlantic. Internet will be “bad” or maybe not working at all. 
 

if you should send some email it’s maybe will work, but meetings with video and sound, don’t expect it will work flawlessly. 

+1 Internet is awful on Odyssey TA!

[Bteam]

On the Jewel right now about 1500 miles into the crossing and the Voom internet has been 80%. Most of the time it's decent but there have been times where it's not good at all. 

 

When it's bad it could be an hour or half of the day. Also the coverage within the ship is spotty. 

 

Bill

[Pratique]

Weather is also a factor. When sailing through the rain, forget about it.

[TheMastodon]

"Remote work"

 

 

[akke29]

Just following up with my experience with StarLink on Quantum.  It worked very well, which enabled me to conduct meetings with the camera on, had clear phone calls and enabled me to yes, work remotely. I'd not hesitate to do this again.

 

Not internet related, but working remotely related... Another great feature was that the desk was movable off the wall, enabling me to set up a comfortable work space at the couch.  When I was done working, it all went back on the wall.  

 

 

[Ourusualbeach]

43 minutes ago, akke29 said:

Just following up with my experience with StarLink on Quantum.  It worked very well, which enabled me to conduct meetings with the camera on, had clear phone calls and enabled me to yes, work remotely. I'd not hesitate to do this again.

 

Not internet related, but working remotely related... Another great feature was that the desk was movable off the wall, enabling me to set up a comfortable work space at the couch.  When I was done working, it all went back on the wall.  

 

 

I had the same experience on Ovation HNL to YVR last week.  Great reception in my cabin, a couple areas of the ship not so great but overall worked fine for me.  I know that others on our sailing had difficulties in their cabins.

[topnole]

47 minutes ago, akke29 said:

Just following up with my experience with StarLink on Quantum.  It worked very well, which enabled me to conduct meetings with the camera on, had clear phone calls and enabled me to yes, work remotely. I'd not hesitate to do this again.

 

Not internet related, but working remotely related... Another great feature was that the desk was movable off the wall, enabling me to set up a comfortable work space at the couch.  When I was done working, it all went back on the wall.  

 

 

Glad it worked well for you.  We did the recent Symphony TA and I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do video calls with any type of reliability.  
 

Experiences will certainly be different based on many variables like weather, ship infrastructure, and how many people are using said infrastructure at a given time.  
 

I don’t want anyone think your situation is necessarily the norm.  I think it is more the exception than the norm based on other comments I’ve read, but I can’t say that with any certainty.    
 

My advice to anyone is to assume internet will be spotty off and on and probably don’t do a TA if reliable high speed connection is needed at specific times (and important to your job).  Just my two cents.  Glad I didn’t have to attend, or in particular, lead any meetings (that wouldn’t have ended well) on our cruise.