Star Princess Wireless Internet

[SPI_Rick]

We are getting ready to leave on a 17-day Star Princess Transatlantic Cruise B2B with 10-day Baltic Cruise at the end of the week. Since we will be gone for nearly a month, I am planning to use my laptop to keep up with emails and to post trip updates. I was wondering what the current process is for using a laptop to make a wireless connection to the internet? On my prior cruises we purchased a 30-minute wireless card from the Pursers Desk to use the internet. I understand that the process has changed. So what do you do to get wireless interent access? Where do you purchase the wireless access card or package?

 

If anyone is freshly off of the Star Princess I would appreciate knowing what the current process is.

[Katrinamp]

We gave this a try. We wanted to do the same thing - prewrite our stories of the trip, sign on and paste them into an email to save money. But it didn't quite work out as planned. The wireless signal was so low, it would barely connect. If you were in the atrium when we tried this out, you would have seen us walking around all over the place with the laptop trying to find a signal. We looked lost and confused, I'm sure. :) We finally got enough of a signal to sign on by sitting on one of the chairs near the excursions desk and propping the laptop on the back of the chair and sitting backwards. haha... after that, we gave up and just used the internet cafe. Hopefully when you go, they will have fixed that a bit. To sign up for wireless, you go to the internet cafe first, sign onto a computer with your card and there is a link to sign up for a wireless account. You will then be given an account number and password that you use to sign onto the wireless network on your laptop from that point on. It was $.55 a minute, as opposed to the cafe's $.75. Good luck!

[SPI_Rick]

Katrinamp, thanks for the information. Now I know that I don't have to go stand in line at the Purser's Desk to get a wireless account. I am sorry to hear about the poor wireless speed that you experienced. On a previous Star Princess cruise (in 2005) the connection was fairly slow, but it was always tolerable.....and it was just $0.35 per minute. I hope this isn't a situation where the price goes up and the quality goes down.

[Katrinamp]

Give it a try. I think the lack of a wireless signal was less of a satellite coverage problem and more of a technical glitch in their wireless equipment. I saw others having the same problem but the regular computers in the internet cafe were connecting to the internet fine. They will probably have a technition on board to fix the wireless systems before you board, but just in case be ready if it is the same!