Zaandam Premium Wifi Question

[yuhu]

Hi everyone! I am considering sailing on the Zaandam during one of the upcoming Canada/New England itineraries and was wondering if anyone has first hand experience with the premium wifi package. I will need to take some video meetings during the week and it is crucial that the wifi is usable for that purpose. I would appreciate any anecdotes or speed tests relating to using Zaandam's onboard wifi for work purposes. Thanks!

[Moriah]

I feel you.  For many, many years I worked on all "vacations" including over 40 cruises on HAL on all ship types. It was always a source of stress for me "will the wifi really work?"... I have found, and I know you're not going to want to hear this... that you have to allow for at least the possibility that you will not be able to take one or more of those meetings.  The wifi might be absolutely stellar and fast as lightning on one day, and non-existent the next.  Testimonials from people saying "wifi on Zaandam is great" or "wifi on Zaandam is terrible" are actually meaningless, since there is no way to predict how it will be behaving on the day and time of your meeting.  All that said, overall, wifi on all the ships is really pretty good.  I'd say you have a very good chance of being able to take those video meetings and all being fine.  I'm just saying be aware there is no guarantee.  Also, the entire fleet is going over to Starlink internet, which will be a whole new world of great as far as connectivity at sea.  Perhaps someone knows when Zaandam will be connected and can comment.  Good luck! I'm also going on Zaandam to Canada in a couple of weeks and really looking forward to it.  Now that I'm retired, that whole internet question is behind me, but as said, I definitely feel you...

[Mary229]

For that journey the WiFi should be decent, as there is good  coverage, but more importantly you will have plenty of access to your own cellular data with the ample time in port.  I don’t even buy WiFi for that journey. 

Edited April 23, 2023 by Mary229

[yuhu]

19 hours ago, Moriah said:

I feel you.  For many, many years I worked on all "vacations" including over 40 cruises on HAL on all ship types. It was always a source of stress for me "will the wifi really work?"... I have found, and I know you're not going to want to hear this... that you have to allow for at least the possibility that you will not be able to take one or more of those meetings.  The wifi might be absolutely stellar and fast as lightning on one day, and non-existent the next.  Testimonials from people saying "wifi on Zaandam is great" or "wifi on Zaandam is terrible" are actually meaningless, since there is no way to predict how it will be behaving on the day and time of your meeting.  All that said, overall, wifi on all the ships is really pretty good.  I'd say you have a very good chance of being able to take those video meetings and all being fine.  I'm just saying be aware there is no guarantee.  Also, the entire fleet is going over to Starlink internet, which will be a whole new world of great as far as connectivity at sea.  Perhaps someone knows when Zaandam will be connected and can comment.  Good luck! I'm also going on Zaandam to Canada in a couple of weeks and really looking forward to it.  Now that I'm retired, that whole internet question is behind me, but as said, I definitely feel you...

Thank you for a very relatable and realistic take on the issue. I did read about the Starlink internet being planned at some point but it doesn't seem like any hard date is set on the horizon. I'll probably just have to take the plunge and hope the internet is consistent during some hours of the day.

 

19 hours ago, Mary229 said:

For that journey the WiFi should be decent, as there is good  coverage, but more importantly you will have plenty of access to your own cellular data with the ample time in port.  I don’t even buy WiFi for that journey. 

Thank you for the tip! I did see that the itinerary is pretty much right along the coastal area hugging land as the ship travels. Will double check scheduled port docking times and hope they line up with my work times. 

[CruiserBruce]

I would definitely not count on ship's internet (not WiFi...that is simply the signal getting from  your computer to the router) for work needs. It is too dependent on available bandwidth, which is affected by how many others are trying to use it at the time.

[Kiko1984tx]

I’m on the Zaandam now (Canada/New England Cruise) and the WiFi is horrendously slow. If you’re planning on doing any video calls or streaming of any kind I wouldn’t rely on it at all. I’m fact sometime my phone will just disconnect from WiFi and switch to my phone’s data. We still have terrestrial coverage since we haven’t gotten to open ocean, but if this is any indication of the speeds I’ll be getting then paying for the premium plan was a waste of money. 

[BigMattT]

I will second that the premium wifi was a waste of money. Last month on Zaandam, there were so many outages (supposedly due to fog) that we mostly relied on shoreside cell signal when we were near enough to the coasts. Fortunately, that was a great deal of our itinerary.

 

When it was working, mornings tended to be the worst for bandwidth, and evenings at dinner were the best times to connect.

[Mosaic]

Often could barely send an email on the ship 3 months ago.....

[Kiko1984tx]

It’s terrible and don’t even think about trying to use a VPN, won’t connect. 

[Mary229]

52 minutes ago, Kiko1984tx said:

It’s terrible and don’t even think about trying to use a VPN, won’t connect. 

No HAL ship allows VPNs.  Supposedly it is about security.  
 

 

[crystalspin]

To @yuhu -- you should pre-pay for Premium. Then it costs a scant bit more than Surf. The speed is the same, but the date caps are more and blockages are less. I think Premium is necessary for video anything.  

[lissie]

46 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

To @yuhu -- you should pre-pay for Premium. Then it costs a scant bit more than Surf. The speed is the same, but the date caps are more and blockages are less. I think Premium is necessary for video anything.  

From the website - there are no data caps for any plan - your chance of using video out at sea are minimal at best