Starlink rolling out, please post ship, latency, and bandwidth you are seeing.

[Steelers36]

4 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said:

I would bet dollars to donuts that Princess division of CCL; has NO “IT” staff in FTE status and just does piece-meal work as needed.

and the “onboard” IT staff..unfortunately less knowledgeable than your local GeekSquad.

Sad times.

I was referring to on board staff and not home office staff.

[KarmaCruisers]

24 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

I was referring to on board staff and not home office staff.

Either place; almost no large companies want to have USA “IT” folks anymore, India and Philippines will do it for Pennies on the dollar. (But unfortunately is also actually WORTH the same..pennies)

Edited July 13, 2023 by KarmaCruisers

[outtoseacruise]

Th meeting this morning went very well and I think we both understood each other. There were 2 Officer's that I met with. The IT Manager and also someone I later learned was from shoreside. I do feel that the Officer from shoreside will be able to relay the concerns that those of us have when we work from sea onboard. She also has the power I believe to get these changes done. 

 

Those of us that work from sea are an entirely new demographic for Princess compared to their guests of the past. I did explain that when I remoted into my home office computer to get a contract yesterday for a call it took 5 minutes to download the 22 MB file onboard. Yes, I understand we are at sea and this isn't Spectrum. I also showed the IT Manager some of the results I have seen on the 15 other Starlink equipped ships I have been on. Some of those results were almost like being at home while some were about 3x or 4x faster than what we are seeing on Enchanted Princess. 

 

The way Princess has their network setup the best you will probably see on bandwidth is 3 mbps with probably the best latency of about 90-100 ms. I was then asked what I thought would be acceptable as a minimum to be able to work from sea. My response was bandwidth between 6 to 9 or 10 with the 90 - 100 ms latency has been sufficient and was sufficient a few weeks ago on Virgin with their SES even with a little higher latency.   

 

I even suggested that for a little extra bandwidth matched with this latency, I would even be open to paying an extra $10 per day which is what Virgin does. Virgin also credits you back depending on your status with them and makes it free. Which Princess could also determine if they would do this with their Elite Members?

 

At the end of the meeting I did get the feeling that once these finding are brought to the table at Princess Corporate there could eventually be some changes that will make Princess an easier place to work from sea while you cruise. 

 

On the topic of how SES was still being broadcast up until yesterday I let that go. I explained to them 8 years ago when I ran IT for my company one of our vendors installed a new IP Phone system at one of our offices which they wired in the rack incorrectly and caused an IP conflict between the 2. I had to completely pull all the wires out of both racks and wire the networks correctly. It can happen and there is no way of knowing really who or when it was done. It's in the past.

 

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by outtoseacruise
.

[Coffeeluvr05]

14 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Don’t be too excited; it’s StarLink in name only..they didn’t pay for enough bandwidth to satisfy all ships needs.

imagine upgrading to a cable modem, capable of speeds up to 10Gig!…but you paid for their cheapest package..10Mbps (yes, 1000x slower)…that’s what princess has done..Paid for the StarLink name..but they’re absolute cheapest offering possible. 
times are tough; those shareholders demand results! (We want our CCL back to $40 a share!)

Yes, shareholder here as well.  From the looks of their marketing and the latest in ship designs, they are looking to attract more cruisers than they have in the past and in order to do that they are really going to have to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak.  I mean, we sure are in higher prices! 

[kywildcatfanone]

I'm not happy they are switching honestly.  We always had good internet on all our previous cruises with Princess. Celebrity has starlink, and it's been poor to below average most of the time.  

 

This is not hard.  Provide enough bandwidth to the ship to handle the needs of it's employees and customers.  Don't throttle just to save some cost.  You are charging an arm and a leg now for internet, give people what they need to function.

[KarmaCruisers]

The real problem is covid hurt SES BAAAAAD; but reading news, hopefully by 2024 they’ll get 6/11 birds in the sky workin; and that’s what it takes to enable their new MEO system.

[Bgwest]

8 hours ago, outtoseacruise said:

Th meeting this morning went very well and I think we both understood each other. There were 2 Officer's that I met with. The IT Manager and also someone I later learned was from shoreside. I do feel that the Officer from shoreside will be able to relay the concerns that those of us have when we work from sea onboard. She also has the power I believe to get these changes done. 

 

Those of us that work from sea are an entirely new demographic for Princess compared to their guests of the past. I did explain that when I remoted into my home office computer to get a contract yesterday for a call it took 5 minutes to download the 22 MB file onboard. Yes, I understand we are at sea and this isn't Spectrum. I also showed the IT Manager some of the results I have seen on the 15 other Starlink equipped ships I have been on. Some of those results were almost like being at home while some were about 3x or 4x faster than what we are seeing on Enchanted Princess. 

 

The way Princess has their network setup the best you will probably see on bandwidth is 3 mbps with probably the best latency of about 90-100 ms. I was then asked what I thought would be acceptable as a minimum to be able to work from sea. My response was bandwidth between 6 to 9 or 10 with the 90 - 100 ms latency has been sufficient and was sufficient a few weeks ago on Virgin with their SES even with a little higher latency.   

 

I even suggested that for a little extra bandwidth matched with this latency, I would even be open to paying an extra $10 per day which is what Virgin does. Virgin also credits you back depending on your status with them and makes it free. Which Princess could also determine if they would do this with their Elite Members?

 

At the end of the meeting I did get the feeling that once these finding are brought to the table at Princess Corporate there could eventually be some changes that will make Princess an easier place to work from sea while you cruise. 

 

On the topic of how SES was still being broadcast up until yesterday I let that go. I explained to them 8 years ago when I ran IT for my company one of our vendors installed a new IP Phone system at one of our offices which they wired in the rack incorrectly and caused an IP conflict between the 2. I had to completely pull all the wires out of both racks and wire the networks correctly. It can happen and there is no way of knowing really who or when it was done. It's in the past.

 

 

Thank you for all of your time and energy spent championing this effort. I’m encouraged by your summary. 
Now if Princess will just follow through. 

[Baires]

Caribbean Princess, Starlink, 3mbps down, 1 mbps up, 60ms ping. 

[antsp]

Currently on the Sky, Baltic cruise, to be honest you forget you are a sea when on the Internet, speeds are. More than adequate 

[Ken the cruiser]

We’re currently on the Diamond Princess cruising around Japan and just found out they switched over to Starlink yesterday. Even though they’re still tweaking things out, the service definitely seems much quicker. 😁
 

[PescadoAmarillo]

interesting article about Starlink in the latest Travel Age West.  
 

https://www.travelagewest.com/Travel/Cruise/wifi-on-cruise-ships

[cruisequeen4ever]

Though I didn’t run a speed test, I can say that the Enchanted had by far the best shipboard internet of any ship I’ve been on. I was able to pretty much do whatever I wanted. Some video calls cut out, though, and I should have but didn’t test out Zoom. 

[Eli_6]

Anyone here when Crown Princess might get it? Trying to talk my husband into doing a 36 day segment of the world cruise, but he has to be able to have really good internet. 

[blizzard44ca]

1 minute ago, Eli_6 said:

Anyone here when Crown Princess might get it? Trying to talk my husband into doing a 36 day segment of the world cruise, but he has to be able to have really good internet. 

Replied on your other thread… Crown P has Starlink.

[dides]

I know this it the purpose of this thread but thought it useful to collate all feedback on which ship has Starlink up and running:

 

 

Anyone know if Coral and Grand have been updated?

 

 

 

[dides]

Confirmed that all the fleet now have Starlink up and running, with Coral Princess being rolled out during this current cruise

[Bgwest]

Can anyone offer input on Starlink speeds/performance on the newer ships, e.g., Sky vs the older ships, e.g., CB?

[BeachBum777]

Scanning this thread quickly i would agree that the speeds you can exspect are 2.9mbps and 1.0 and less mbps uploads. Once in a while much faster but not often. Fjords on sky a few weeks back was the same.@ $50 a week for some customers it is the best price at sea.

 

Will test South Pacific next month

Edited September 19, 2023 by BeachBum777

[BeachBum777]

X

Edited September 19, 2023 by BeachBum777

[TorontoTL]

Any thoughts on how well the internet will work while at sea on a TA cruise?  I’m not sure if it is worthwhile getting it or not.

[BamaVol]

Sept 6, 3:00 PM Sapphire Princess inside passage.

[karatemom2]

Just off the Sky Princess for our Med cruise out of Southampton and I must say the Internet was fantastic. Best connectivity and speed we have ever had on any Princess ship. I was able to stay connected to work as needed and manage my emails with great ease as opposed to last year on the Emerald for our British Isles cruise when it was much more difficult. It seems a big improvement!

[BeachBum777]

Grand Princess just south of Honolulu headed for Tahiti

 

multiple tests shows similar results no matter what time of day or night. certainly better than the old days and good enough but considerably slower than land-based lines.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2023 by BeachBum777

[outtoseacruise]

37 minutes ago, BeachBum777 said:

Grand Princess just south of Honolulu headed for Tahiti

 

multiple tests shows similar results no matter what time of day or night. certainly better than the old days and good enough but considerably slower than land-based lines.

 

 

 

 

Sad numbers, Starlink onboard is capable of more. The problem is Princess or should I say Carnival Corp has the policy to throttle is what I was told on Enchanted this summer. I have 2 upcoming Princess Cruises in the next 60 days and will probably do a Vlog on it. It won't be pretty comparing the Princess Starlink Network against the ones onboard Royal and Virgin. Even Royal worst preforming ship is a lot better than the best Princess ship.

[Honolulu Blue]

38 minutes ago, BeachBum777 said:

Grand Princess just south of Honolulu headed for Tahiti

 

multiple tests shows similar results no matter what time of day or night. certainly better than the old days and good enough but considerably slower than land-based lines.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing.  I'm especially interested in this as I plan to do a similar route next year on a non-Princess ship that has Starlink.  I would especially be interested in one that's midway between Honolulu and Fiji.  That's traditionally been a bit of a dead zone for Internet service.