Laptop: To bring, or not to bring?

[Complex Carb]

Disclaimer: Yes, I know it's a vacation! However, my husband doesn't. He is aware that Internet is very expensive on the ship, but he still feels he needs to bring his laptop in the event of a work emergency back home.

 

I feel that since we won't be surfing for pleasure (the Internet, at least), he could just bring some of his files and get onto a ship computer if the office had something that just HAD to be done.

 

Could anyone give us some perspective? We're taking a cruise for my parents' 50th in March (Crown Princess). Thanks!

[VaBeachCruisers897]

This one is easy... leave it at home!

[Northshorecruisers]

We will be bringing ours on our next cruise but not for work reasons. On our last cruise our friends had brought theirs and it's a good think they did. We had downloaded all our pictures to their laptop. When we got home my husband had lost the card with the majority of our pictures on it. Since we had already downloaded to our friends, all they needed to do was send us the file.

Plus, I'll watch a DVD on it while on the plane.

[Philob]

Some internet cafes have the cpu locked away so that you can only use the monitor, keyboard, and mouse; meaning you can't insert a USB flash memory (or floppy disk) to up/down your files.

[cruiserbryce]

we bring ours for one reason...to download our pics as the vacation goes on...my wife takes a lot of pictures...

[kitty9]

If he wants to use wifi, it's not only expensive but it's extremely difficult to find a hot spot. And download times are very slow, sometimes taking over 2 minutes just to download one internet page.

[Frecklezchick]

I'm bringing mine... for a few reasons

1. to upload pics...I take so many, I want to be able to free up my camera memory

 

2. keep me occupied during waits - airport, cruiseport, etc.

 

3. keeping a 'journal' of our vacation - I type a lot better than I handwrite, so it's easier for me to record all the stuff going on with my laptop than a pen and paper would be.

 

However, DH is NOT allowed to check in w/work or do anything work-related. : )

[Desert star]

My husband brings his laptop for what he tells me is to download our pictures.

But little did I know that in port all his emails from work come in on his Blackberry. :eek:

 

[jollycruise]

We went back and forth on this delima for our first cruise and then decided to leave it at home.

 

We were very happy that we did. We have high memory card capacity with our digital so that wasn't a problem.

 

Being isolated away from all the at home worries is one of the best parts of a cruise.

 

We will continue to leave it at home on all future cruises :) :) :)

[jollycruise]

duplicate cc posting so dang slow........

[ehfl]

Laptops can be useful for copying pictures/videos from your camera during the cruise. You can also watch movies, or keep a travel journal. If the weather is bad, they're great for watching movies. If you bring one, just make sure he's not on it all the time....get out and enjoy the cruise.

[cb at sea]

If he doesn't have it--no work! The world won't end, and the business won't fold! I swear--1 week without the office will do a world of good for your hubby, and his work will be there when he returns. There's really very little that can't wait 5 work days!

[aba555]

Disclaimer: Yes, I know it's a vacation! However, my husband doesn't. He is aware that Internet is very expensive on the ship, but he still feels he needs to bring his laptop in the event of a work emergency back home.

 

I feel that since we won't be surfing for pleasure (the Internet, at least), he could just bring some of his files and get onto a ship computer if the office had something that just HAD to be done.

 

Could anyone give us some perspective? We're taking a cruise for my parents' 50th in March (Crown Princess). Thanks!

 

My DH took his laptop, but never turned it on. His "Crackberry" did go off at 3am as we were getting close to New Orleans!! Started vibrating off the desk. I told him if he didn't get up and turn it off, it was going overboard!

 

BTW, I love your screen name!

[missty]

We don't bring our laptop any more for downloading pictures. We just bought a Wolverine MVP. MVP: Wolverine Data No more huge laptop!

 

It is a small handheld harddrive that holds a gazillion pictures. we just down load what we have taken for the day, and it takes about 5 minutes.

 

missty