Internet service on the Zuiderdam

[ranchette]

Do we have to bring our laptop or are there computers on the ship?

[RuthC]

All HAL ships have a computer center with several computers, as well as hot-spots for your use.
The cost is $3.95 to set up an account plus:
$0.75 per minute or
$55.00 for 100 minutes or
$100 for 250 minutes

If you sign up the first day there will be bonus minutes if you purchase a plan. On my last cruise the bonus minutes were also given when you renewed a plan.

[kenish]

I took my laptop on a recent Alaska cruise. FYI the connection speed was very slooooow, it caused me to have a mental "flashback" to the dial-up days! The computers on the ship had similar speeds.

Since the connection goes through a satellite, and signal quality is poor at northern latitudes such as Alaska, that might have been a cause of the low speed connection. But I've seen similar comments in other threads on this board.

I recommend testing QoS (Quality of Service) before you buy connection time. After connecting to the ship's WiFi, you can access HAL and NY Times websites for free and that will let you know what to expect.

[Krazy Kruizers]

The internet speed on ALL HAL ships is slow!!! No matter where you are.

[Culater]

Well the internet isn't broadband, and sometimes it is faster than other times. If you have your laptop, at least you can write messages off line and then copy and paste into an email message. I don't think you can do that on the ship's computers, but maybe I'm wrong as I have never used them. If the service is extremely slow, log off, go have some fun and try again later. At least you won't waste too many minutes waiting.

[jtl513]

If you have your laptop, at least you can write messages off line and then copy and paste into an email message.
If you use Outlook Express you can click Send Later after writing each message. Then later when you connect you simply Send All without any copy-and-paste.
I don't think you can do that on the ship's computers, but maybe I'm wrong as I have never used them.
That's correct.
If the service is extremely slow, log off, go have some fun and try again later. At least you won't waste too many minutes waiting.You can also test service quality before logging on by going to the free HAL or NYTimes sites.