How's the internet?

[iluvncl]

Thinking of booking a 35 day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise on Koningsdam, but I need internet access daily for work. (Can't take a vacation from my own business, lol). Anyway, can anyone speak to the reliability? I know it could be dreadfully slow and even inaccessible at certain points on any given day, but is it reasonable to expect I could respond to emails and check on things daily?

[CruiserBruce]

I think you pretty much answered your own questions. Answering e mails and the like should be pretty dependable. Beyond that, it can always be sketchy, but the new Starlink system has improved it considerably.

[REOVA]

Haven't tried Starlink but before you would have drop spots in the S Pacific, more so further South you go. You may have to delay responding to emails one day. Also you may find that you you cannot get connection in your room (depending on location) so finding where the boosters and routers are placed to get close to may be necessary. Also time of day may cause issues if everyone is using the bandwidth at same time so finding when use is less busy might help (not necessarily early or late as everyone has the same idea). 

[crystalspin]

19 minutes ago, iluvncl said:

Thinking of booking a 35 day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise on Koningsdam, but I need internet access daily for work.... Anyway, can anyone speak to the reliability? I know it could be dreadfully slow and even inaccessible at certain points on any given day, but is it reasonable to expect I could respond to emails and check on things daily?

I believe K'dam was the first of the fleet to get Starlink (all HAL ships will have it by end of year). Like REOVA, I haven't yet sailed with Starlink, but it should be very reliable with far fewer dead zones. Here is a discussion:

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

 

[boulders]

I sailed on Noordam last month as she traveled from San Diego to Sydney, through Hawaii and French Polynesia. They were installing Starlink in San Diego and delayed sailing because they couldn't quite get it to work. The internet was off and on, even for the ship's operations, until Hawaii. Rumor has it that one person debarked in Hawaii because they were so frustrated with the internet. Once we got it fixed, it was fine. Email and most websites loaded quickly, but not as quick as at home. There were no dead zones, even though we were days away from the next port.

 

Cons: Video through Apple TV was frustrating and frequently required reloading. Logging into some websites was a problem as they could determine my location wasn't at home and they wanted to send a verification code, but the texts they sent didn't get received over wifi. So, no Black Friday shopping on Amazon for me. 

 

The internet was a significant improvement over the last time I sailed, around Antarctica, in 2013. There were a lot of dead spots and very slow connection speeds on that cruise. 

 

 

[kazu]

When we did that cruise we had huge internet issues.  Dead in Hawaii and some locations in the Pacific.  I think the IT guy didn’t know how to aim the satellite thing 😉   It was so bad, they refunded part of the cost.  This was BEFORE Starlink.

 

When I was on the Koningsdam and subsequently the Rotterdam I found the internet worked quite well (and Rotterdam was a transatlantic).  I did notice my emails would not work for my regular email and had to use the web based version to check them - I am not sure on why that was and still haven’t gotten to the bottom of it.  But email worked and my apple email worked fine without resorting to the web based route.  I think with Starlink you should be ok most days.

 

[kirkc]

Currently on Rotterdam and the Starlink is great. Neptune lounge concierge told me that since they have switched to it complaints have dropped from 3 or 4 per day to one per cruise. 

[tiller]

I thought it worked well on the Koningsdam over Thanksgiving. My only gripe was I didn't realize I couldn't download podcasts on the Surf package--didn't realize that was considered streaming. So I did that when in port.

[FlyingCruiser2]

18 hours ago, kazu said:

When we did that cruise we had huge internet issues.  Dead in Hawaii and some locations in the Pacific.  I think the IT guy didn’t know how to aim the satellite thing 😉   It was so bad, they refunded part of the cost.  This was BEFORE Starlink.

 

When I was on the Koningsdam and subsequently the Rotterdam I found the internet worked quite well (and Rotterdam was a transatlantic).  I did notice my emails would not work for my regular email and had to use the web based version to check them - I am not sure on why that was and still haven’t gotten to the bottom of it.  But email worked and my apple email worked fine without resorting to the web based route.  I think with Starlink you should be ok most days.

 

They likely were blocking the IP port your email client uses (smtp).  Web mail uses regular http/https port that are always open.  

[kazu]

24 minutes ago, FlyingCruiser2 said:

They likely were blocking the IP port your email client uses (smtp).  Web mail uses regular http/https port that are always open.  

 

Thanks.  Seemed strange and it hadn’t happened in the past.  Maybe it’s part of the Starlink system?

 

Appreciate the explanation.  I’ll be prepared next time.

[FlyingCruiser2]

9 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

Thanks.  Seemed strange and it hadn’t happened in the past.  Maybe it’s part of the Starlink system?

 

Appreciate the explanation.  I’ll be prepared next time.

We are on Rotterdam right now, and I had the same thing for first two days.  Then all of a sudden I started getting notifications from my email client and it has worked fine since then.  So maybe they’re tweaking starlink still.  Have to say though that with the enhanced internet upgrade speeds are surprisingly fast.

[kazu]

14 minutes ago, FlyingCruiser2 said:

We are on Rotterdam right now, and I had the same thing for first two days.  Then all of a sudden I started getting notifications from my email client and it has worked fine since then.  So maybe they’re tweaking starlink still.  Have to say though that with the enhanced internet upgrade speeds are surprisingly fast.

 

Thanks!  Maybe they are still tweaking it 🤞. Other than my email, I thought the internet was quite decent when I was on.

[ROUS]

There's two connections to think about.  One is the satellite to the ship, then there is the ship to your cabin.  If your connection is too slow, and if the nature of your work allows it, you might move around to different spots around the ship to test speeds.  This has helped me a time or two when I download files or when I need to send up something.

[FlyingCruiser2]

21 hours ago, ROUS said:

There's two connections to think about.  One is the satellite to the ship, then there is the ship to your cabin.  If your connection is too slow, and if the nature of your work allows it, you might move around to different spots around the ship to test speeds.  This has helped me a time or two when I download files or when I need to send up something.

This is while inside the cabin.  Deck 7, outside, just aft of forward elevators.  Better than most hotels I’ve stayed at while working.  
 

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by FlyingCruiser2

[antsp]

They are fitting Starlink on the Amsterdam this week 

[terrydtx]

We upgraded to the premium Wi-Fi last month on the Koingsdam and the new Starlink was fantastic.  We were able to stream on our laptops football games we couldn't get on our cabin TV. We also could make video calls on our phones without any issues.

[PointsNerd]

On the Rotterdam currently and it's fantastic... at least compared to Disney ships