Is Premium Wi-fi on board Infinity good enough for business use?

[Literary Lynne]

Hi All,

My DH is due to give a Zoom lecture to UK participants whilst we are on board Infinity at the end of November. It is due to take place on a sea day, off the Spanish coast. Does anyone have experience of using the premium wi-fi on board for business use please?

 

Thank you

Lynne 🙂

[DBaines30]

I have worked onboard both round the med and a transatlantic.

 

I think Infinity is an older ship and may not yet have Starlink, I was on the Silhouette without Starlink during transatlantic and while in the Med section Teams calls were okay.

 

On the Beyond things were better, coding was fine and Teams calls okay. This was with Starlink in place.

 

What I would say though is the latency is pretty bad. Two way conversations on both ships were difficult due to lag.

 

In a lecture where it's more broadcast it should be better.

 

[DBaines30]

Just now, DBaines30 said:

I have worked onboard both round the med and a transatlantic.

 

I think Infinity is an older ship and may not yet have Starlink, I was on the Silhouette without Starlink during transatlantic and while in the Med section Teams calls were okay.

 

On the Beyond things were better, coding was fine and Teams calls okay. This was with Starlink in place.

 

What I would say though is the latency is pretty bad. Two way conversations on both ships were difficult due to lag.

 

In a lecture where it's more broadcast it should be better.

 

Also on the Silhouette the wifi signal around the ship was naff beyond belief. I found the only way to get a regular signal was at the actual tech bar. Can't remember the name.

 

One side effect was that I was an honorary member of the tech support team while working there as the queue filtered past the desk I was working at.

[Jim_Iain]

I have done Zoom calls on M S and E class ships with Starlink and had no problems.  

 

Some have mentioned having bad experience and I have to admit I was only using it in CS and above suites and most of the time they have a router in the ceiling of the room.   Speeds and reliability will be dependent on where the router is located in relation to where you are using the internet.

 

My experience has been that Celebrity has throttled the internet to speeds of approximately 5meg  Up and 3 down.

 

I will admit at times there are certain areas where the satellite will be dropped for a couple minutes to a couple hours.  If I recall correctly the internet was pretty solid off the coast of Spain.

[Jim_Iain]

24 minutes ago, DBaines30 said:

Also on the Silhouette the wifi signal around the ship was naff beyond belief. I found the only way to get a regular signal was at the actual tech bar. Can't remember the name.

 

One side effect was that I was an honorary member of the tech support team while working there as the queue filtered past the desk I was working at.

 

Curious if you had the Basic or Premium Wifi?    

[kywildcatfanone]

If it's working properly, yes 

[DBaines30]

22 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Curious if you had the Basic or Premium Wifi?    

Just Premium, I don't think basic will allow any kind of Teams connection.

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, Literary Lynne said:

Hi All,

My DH is due to give a Zoom lecture to UK participants whilst we are on board Infinity at the end of November. It is due to take place on a sea day, off the Spanish coast. Does anyone have experience of using the premium wi-fi on board for business use please?

 

Thank you

Lynne 🙂

 

It should be as I have been on Zoom calls and have streamed YouTube and Netflix without issue. 

I would recommend he set up a test call as early as possible in the cruise to ensure that he has a good signal in the room.  If he does not, have him visit Guest Relations and get assistance.  We had excellent signals on our Deck 6 mid-ship cabin as the Wireless Access Point was in the passageway ceiling just outside our cabin door.  There were a lot of them along that passageway too. 

 

[marco491]

Surely this will depend on where you are at any given time. Stationary in a port it should work well, assuming no throttling. A port day where you stay on board would be even better. Steaming (and streaming) across the middle of the Med on a sea day... less reliable. This is not Netflix where you don't really need immediacy as long as the buffer is big enough.

Edited October 18, 2023 by marco491

[Literary Lynne]

Thank you for your replies. All very useful information. We are not in a suite Jim_Ian, just a concierge room. We will do as you suggest, John, and set up a test call early on and go from there. Infinity does have Starlink, which should really help.

 

Lynne 🙂

[Jim_Iain]

While I regularly use Zoom with little problem,  I think I would really be nervous if I was the sole Teacher (presenter) to a classroom without a designated backup that can take over if the OP were to loose connectivity.  I would definitely have a backup plan in place even if it is a per-recored presentation someone could flip on. 

 

I had a problem once when my boss was anxiously waiting for my final financial consolidation for the Board of Directors meeting that was an hour away.   The Internet went down and I had no way to contact them.   Luckily it came back up with 5 minutes to spare -  I almost had a heart attack.

[1025cruise]

I'm sorry, but I would not rely on being able to do the Zoom while on the ship. While there might not be any issue, what if there is?

[NutsAboutGolf]

Will there be consequences if you experience hiccups, get disconnected, and cannot reconnect?

 

For most sailings, I use MS Teams for work meetings where I am NOT the presenter, they share their screens and we don't use cameras.  I've had perfect meetings and in one meeting I got the boot and couldn't get back on.  The majority of the meetings, I have freezes/hiccups where often they come in waves, the screen may free and the audio will produce a steady "ah" sound for five seconds or less

[Jim_Iain]

On 10/18/2023 at 10:15 AM, marco491 said:

Surely this will depend on where you are at any given time. Stationary in a port it should work well, assuming no throttling. A port day where you stay on board would be even better. Steaming (and streaming) across the middle of the Med on a sea day... less reliable. This is not Netflix where you don't really need immediacy as long as the buffer is big enough.

 

I had the same assumption but in many ports the signal is blocked for whatever reason.  A couple ports I've noticed this is Encinada and had to use my TMobile connection instead.   Another that was surprising was when we were tendered at Catalina Island.   Even with Long Beach in sight and 29 miles away had neither ship WiFi (Starlink) nor Telephone reception for the entire day.

 

Personal experience and may be different than other have never had connectivity issues with StarLink or the Satellite prior in the Med and only occasional disconnects doing Transatlantic. 

[keesar]

23 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

I'm sorry, but I would not rely on being able to do the Zoom while on the ship. While there might not be any issue, what if there is?

 

I would not rely on the Premium connection for an important communication.  Service was sporadic on our cruise even with Starlink.  Very disappointing and I went to different locations on the ship.  Some days it worked fine but for the most part, it was not reliable.

[Literary Lynne]

On 10/18/2023 at 9:57 PM, Jim_Iain said:

While I regularly use Zoom with little problem,  I think I would really be nervous if I was the sole Teacher (presenter) to a classroom without a designated backup that can take over if the OP were to loose connectivity.  I would definitely have a backup plan in place even if it is a per-recored presentation someone could flip on. 

 

I had a problem once when my boss was anxiously waiting for my final financial consolidation for the Board of Directors meeting that was an hour away.   The Internet went down and I had no way to contact them.   Luckily it came back up with 5 minutes to spare -  I almost had a heart attack.

I rang Celebrity yesterday and was advised that once on board we should contact the IT team and they would help by telling us the most effective place (presumably close to a router). But, we have taken your advice and pre-recorded the lecture, just in case!  Thank you for all your help.

Lynne