Has anyone experience with going without WiFi on board?

[napria]

Do I really need to pay for internet for a 5-night cruise from Quebec to Brooklyn? While traveling from Quebec to Sydney NS might I be able to pick up AT&T signal anyway?  If not, can I really be without internet for less than a week?  
 

I’m quite old enough to have grown up without cellphones and internet and honestly would love to be free of it for some time.

[rakkor]

Unless there's a need for you to be in contact with the outside world, then no, you don't need WiFi. The app offers nothing that you can't get from other sources, like the printed Daily Programme or talking to a human the the Pursers'/Concierges' desks. There is plenty of entertainment throughout the day to keep you occupied and the library has books available if you need something to read.

[JimDee363636]

@napria

If you're looking for permission (or encouragement) to go totally offline while on a cruise, I'll give it to you. My wife and I recently took a 14-night QA cruise, plus a total of three hotel nights before and after, without once going on e-mail or the internet. We didn't miss it. We've done the same with all our cruises, including a 30-night one. In an emergency our daughter always has a way to reach us through the particular cruise line, but thankfully she's never had to.

 

Disengage from the outside world. It will still be there when you get home.

 

Jim

[Pushpit]

I actually suspect it's more common than may come across here in this board, since everyone here is going to be an internet user. A lot of Cunarders are no longer in their first flush of youth and have far too much to do onboard to have time to play with the interweb. I do know of people at the other extreme, including someone who appeared to have spent 4 or 5 hours every day on Teams working remotely in their stateroom. I do wonder if the people he was talking to had any idea he was mid Atlantic.

 

What you do notice is that when land is about 50 miles off some people go out on deck to get a bit of signal. I think you may be a bit too far off after leaving NS, by the time you run parallel to NB you are typically too far off the last Canadian cell networks.

 

There's also a maritime cellular system - usually it's silly expensive but if it's just a few SMS text messages it may be cheaper than a package.

[Lakesregion]

One must consider that I function on shore very well with a flip phone that can receive texts but does not ciprecate. Having set the stage, I have enjoyed a world cruise and numerous 14 day to 30 cruises with nary a need to reach out to anyone. If htere is an on shor emergency, they can call the ship and I can respond. Othewise it is blissful not to one pay for and to use te wi fi.

[2Oldpeopleinlove]

Both of us enjoy being offline almost all the time onboard. Having taught online for years and then having had to use the internet for restaurant review writing, I find being untethered wonderful. But then, my cell phone lives on the kitchen counter at home. I hate being leashed!

[shippmates]

I do not purchase the internet when I am on a ship.  I will get on the free internet in ports just to let my family know that I am good.  I enjoy being unleashed.

[david,Mississauga]

I have not connected to wi-fi until my recent cruise on the QE.  I wouldn't use the internet at all if it wasn't free as a perk for our loyalty. I confess to reading the CBC news and checking e-mails from time to time but I do so on the ships' computer terminals. I don't have a smartphone but travel with a small tablet on which it is not convenient to send e-mails. 

 

On previous voyages I tried to get the "my voyage" system to work and when it did not I gave up with it.  The stateroom telephone worked and the staff at the purser's  office or, when we are in the Grills, the concierge provided me with good service. A few weeks ago I tried it on my tablet and it worked for the first time.  So I occasionally checked my on-board account.  That was it.

 

As for the frequent complaint of the lack of USB ports, I couldn't care less.  My camera can be charged by plugging it into the mains (either the North American or UK ones) with the adapter that came with it.

[Bell Boy]

9 hours ago, napria said:

Do I really need to pay for internet for a 5-night cruise from Quebec to Brooklyn? While traveling from Quebec to Sydney NS might I be able to pick up AT&T signal anyway?  If not, can I really be without internet for less than a week?  
 

I’m quite old enough to have grown up without cellphones and internet and honestly would love to be free of it for some time.

Yes of course you can , you have just answered your own question 🤦‍♂️

[Victoria2]

I  suppose I could live without wi fi.

Do I want to live without it?

No.

 

The implementation of Starlink has revolutionised the wi fi connection and has made it so easy to keep in touch with family and any 'stuff' which needs attending to.

[david63]

42 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

I  suppose I could live without wi fi

But not for more that 10 minutes😄

 

Accessing the Internet is part of life (well at least my life) these days. We have family scattered literally all over the world and is the main mode of keeping in touch. Also I have been using the Internet for well over 35 years but that does not mean that I spend all day accessing it.

[ElmaLee]

Fot us it is easy to do without wifi at sea.  We never buy wifi packages.  As we have discovered in the past, in real emergency situations family at home can contact the ship and vice versa.

I dont need to see everyone's Facebook and X messages on a constant basis.  I can catch up on news etc when shore.

[david63]

Surely this question can be turned around. If you can manage without Wi-Fi (or to be more precise Internet) when on board then why can you not manage without it when not on board?

[exlondoner]

37 minutes ago, david63 said:

Surely this question can be turned around. If you can manage without Wi-Fi (or to be more precise Internet) when on board then why can you not manage without it when not on board?

Work?

[IB2]

The answer to the second part of the question is obviously a personal matter and every person’s experience and preference will be different.

 

I wouldn’t, however, recommend trying to roam for the internet from land while on a large ship. It’s best to turn roaming and mobile data off, and use WIFi only.

[david63]

14 minutes ago, IB2 said:

I wouldn’t, however, recommend trying to roam for the internet from land while on a large ship. It’s best to turn roaming and mobile data off, and use WIFi only

That would only be applicable if using a mobile phone and even then it would be dependant on which country you are in and the package that you have.

[david63]

26 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Work?

Ah yes I had forgotten about that - the curse of the drinking classes (Oscar Wilde)

[exlondoner]

53 minutes ago, david63 said:

Ah yes I had forgotten about that - the curse of the drinking classes (Oscar Wilde)

Having said which, I could easily do without wine for five days, but would miss it eventually.

[d9704011]

7 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Having said which, I could easily do without wine for five days, but would miss it eventually.

For sure.  A week or two on a cruise ship doesn't provide a very good example of the other 51 or 50 weeks of the year we have to spend doing our real-life things.

Edited September 1 by d9704011

[*Miss G*]

16 hours ago, napria said:

Do I really need to pay for internet for a 5-night cruise from Quebec to Brooklyn? While traveling from Quebec to Sydney NS might I be able to pick up AT&T signal anyway?  If not, can I really be without internet for less than a week?  
 

I’m quite old enough to have grown up without cellphones and internet and honestly would love to be free of it for some time.

 

The only times I have purchased ship internet was due to work obligations, and I was a bit resentful!  😂

 

On my June TA, I chose to disconnect.  My thinking was that there was nothing I needed to know and nothing that I could do about it anyway.  Except fret.

 

Yes, you may be able to pick up an AT&T signal on the St Lawrence.  Then, again, you may just pick up a Canadian service provider.  It all depends which signal is strongest at the time.  

 

If you want to see if you have service, turn airplane mode off then check to see which provider pops up.  If it says Cellular at Sea, or something other than LTE/3/4/5G/AT&T, turn airplane mode back on to disconnect.

[Pushpit]

13 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

If you want to see if you have service, turn airplane mode off then check to see which provider pops up.  If it says Cellular at Sea, or something other than LTE/3/4/5G/AT&T, turn airplane mode back on to disconnect.

This signal may well dominate over the cell mast signal some distance away, so it's some times necessary to play about with the network settings to inhibit or downgrade the selection / access to the Maritime cellular network, which in the case of Cunard (and most cruise companies) is provided by Telenor.

 

However depending on either your cell provider, or by buying an e-sim package, Telenor Maritime is a cost-effective way of 

- staying in touch for emergency purposes only

- sending a few text messages to friends / family if anything urgent crops up

- on some packages MMS photo charges aren't too high.

 

So let's say you are going to disconnect from wifi. Your neighbours are looking after Fido the dog, but Fido has decided to go on a hunger strike because they weren't allowed onboard. Neighbour text ship "Fido isn't eating, what do we do?"  Ship texts neighbour "Crispy bacon will resolve this issue". Neighbour: "Oh yes, so it does!" 

 

That exchange on my plan with my provider (EE) would cost £3.09 including VAT. Which is much cheaper than a single day of the Essential package. Even a 2 minute call would cost £6.15, which sounds extortionate, but Mr. Musk charges more than that and Fido is delighted.

[napria]

Pushpit, that’s the true reason I was wondering if I could disconnect.  Our two little boys (Dogs to everyone else), will be watched by our neighbor the first few days of the trip till our daughter can get here and pick them up and take them to our house to watch. But can I send emails from the ship’s “computer lab” to check to make sure the handoff happened and make sure any issues are addressed?  If so, great.  
 

And how does one contact the ship to send a message to me?

[david63]

18 minutes ago, napria said:

can I send emails from the ship’s “computer lab”

Only if you buy the Internet package for at least one 24 hour period.

[D&N]

8 hours ago, david63 said:

Surely this question can be turned around. If you can manage without Wi-Fi (or to be more precise Internet) when on board then why can you not manage without it when not on board?

I've tried to think about this for several hours. The implications would just be so horrendous that I gave up thinking about it. We have a main bank branch over a thousand miles away, and virtually all revenue in another country. Our local bank doesn't have any physical branches. Dealing with everything by phone or by post wouldn't be impossible but totally impractical.

[NE John]

There is a unique feeling of freedom, during a week-long TA, that there is nothing we can do if anything happens outside of QM2. If we can get over FOMO, I’d like to try no comms at all for a week. 🤔