WiFi speed on Viking Ocean ships

does anybody know what the Wi-Fi speed is on board a Viking ship?

does anybody know what the Wi-Fi speed is on board a Viking ship?

I don't even know that for home but people quiet often remarked it was slow.

People have talked about wi-fi speed in subjective terms. For the most part, the answer is slower than you get at home but faster than it is on many other other ships --and its free and unlimited. Some people find the speeds acceptable and others complain because it is too slow. Speed depends on where the ship is and how many people are trying to use the bandwidth at the same time. Streaming is iffy but people have used it for Skype and VoIP. I'm in the group that says the speed was just fine for what I do, which is answer e-mail, post on Cruise Critic and even upload some photos to Shutterfly or Facebook. Oh, and to WhatsApp my husband if I want to meet him on board someplace.

I do remember one person who has presented actual stats for the speed and that was a while ago. You might be able to find the old post if you search this forum. That person had used some program or utility to measure it but I don't remember enough of the details to give you an idea of what word or words to use in a search..

 

I do remember one person who has presented actual stats for the speed and that was a while ago. You might be able to find the old post if you search this forum. That person had used some program or utility to measure it but I don't remember enough of the details to give you an idea of what word or words to use in a search..

That was probably me. While I was still in a bit of engineer/work mode before finally succumbing to vacation/who cares? mode I took measurements of the speed I got via wifi. I found it depended on whether we got Internet access via satellite or from being close enough to shore to get access from there. Also how good the shore based service was which could be awful. So, looking back at what I recorded (Mbps download/upload): 0.55/1.17 (docked at Bergen - the best of the 4 measurements I made), 0.56/.94 (docked Copenhagen), 0.15/0.31 (Talinn), 0.21/0.57 (sat link to ISP in Madrid). Adequate to do email and basic web search. Might be ok for Facebook or Skype video but probably painful. But it was sufficient to my needs.

Does this answer your question?

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Alas, If I turned on SpeedSmart, I've forgotten the speed, but last June on "Into The Midnight Sun" on the Sea, I was very surprised at the speed, even well away from port. Due to a minor crisis back home, we had several hour long video FaceTime calls that had no problems whatsoever. I also upload photos every day in 'raw' format - so up to 500Mb almost every night with no problems. There were a handful of blackout times when in remote areas.

I think I recall a discussion that the Star may be slower; that the later ships were upgraded. Perhaps someone else remembers the details?

Alas, If I turned on SpeedSmart, I've forgotten the speed, but last June on "Into The Midnight Sun" on the Sea, I was very surprised at the speed, even well away from port. Due to a minor crisis back home, we had several hour long video FaceTime calls that had no problems whatsoever. I also upload photos every day in 'raw' format - so up to 500Mb almost every night with no problems. There were a handful of blackout times when in remote areas.

 

 

 

I think I recall a discussion that the Star may be slower; that the later ships were upgraded. Perhaps someone else remembers the details?

Ah! Good point. I should have been more precise. I was on the Star last July. Also - fyi - unless you've wiped it - I'm quite sure SpeedSmart maintains a history/log. I use Ookla's Speedtest app on my iPhone. The speeds I cited last night came from there. (Good argument for not wiping them).

I was expecting that when we sail on the Sky next January, we'd see better speeds when close to shore (Miami will be zippy I'm sure) but it's also good to read that, even when we're in the open ocean, the Sky's wifi will help us do better than we did on the Star.

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I managed to download a library book from Canada while we were in Athens and was very impressed. I mostly do Facebook posts and emails, so was very pleased.

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I find - as I am on the ship posting this - that it is totally dependent on the time of day. Right now the speed is a little slow, but I am a very early riser and find the speed better very early. Now, we are 6PM and the speed is lacking for sure... I have been watching and waiting for a Facebook mini movie to upload for the last 10 minutes. You cannot complain when it is free and yes, better than most other lines and ships.

I find - as I am on the ship posting this - that it is totally dependent on the time of day. Right now the speed is a little slow, but I am a very early riser and find the speed better very early. Now, we are 6PM and the speed is lacking for sure... I have been watching and waiting for a Facebook mini movie to upload for the last 10 minutes. You cannot complain when it is free and yes, better than most other lines and ships.

I have heard other people commenting that 6pm seems to be the slow hour--even with everybody already lined up for dinner.

Currently on the Star, Venice to Athens, have had no wi-fi issues. I'm able to SKYPE family back in the US daily to check in, there is a delay but it works. As to emails etc, I find it's quicker to do things on my iPhone than iPad. Have been able to upload my photos to Shutterfly easily and quickly. No issues on this end for what I want to do tho I haven't tried streaming so can't comment on that. Overall I'm quite pleased wth the wi-fi, actually works much better than on Viking river cruises of which we've done 9.

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Internet connection

 

San Juan - Barcelona on Viking Star

Laptop

 

It was OK in San Juan and St.Thomas but slower than we normally have on other new cruise ships.

 

6 days between St.Thomas and Madeira - getting from slower to a complete loss of connection.

I couldn't work with websites intil Madeira where connection was spotty.

It was much better soon after Madeira.

Then it became reliable but still slower than we could expect from a new ship as we approached Spain.

New ship or old - even with the best network infrastructure onboard the ship - if their ISP connection (eg MARISAT) is poor it won't matter. Your service is only as good as the weakest link.

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Interesting observations.

1 - Close or far from shore has no bearing on the speed. They use a satellite.

2 - Time of day has no particular bearing. What is impacted is certain times when most people are either online or doing other things. So, 6pm one day would be good, but bad on another day.

3 - There is no "set speed". It is impacted largely by the number of people using the service at one time. Any quoted speed can be misleading. I did run speedtests from time to time. Slow.

4 - It works fine for getting email or sending messages.

5 - It works less fine for those people that still actually log into their email and read each message one at a time vs those that download their email to their phone/tablet/computer.

6 - Forget streaming movies.

Sounds like they're running everybody thru the same data pipe. The more folks are on, the worse it gets. The difference between running a data hub (one shared data pipe) as opposed to a network switch (independent ports each getting full speed). Oh well.

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Sounds like they're running everybody thru the same data pipe. The more folks are on, the worse it gets. The difference between running a data hub (one shared data pipe) as opposed to a network switch (independent ports each getting full speed). Oh well.

 

 

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The limiting factor is the satellite link which is shared by everyone. Network switch ports would not help.

Email, some web surfing, texting fine.

No way in heaven can you stream anything.

Sounds like they're running everybody thru the same data pipe. The more folks are on, the worse it gets. The difference between running a data hub (one shared data pipe) as opposed to a network switch (independent ports each getting full speed). Oh well.

 

 

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How would they do a network switch giving each port full speed when everybody goes through the uplink to the satellite?

How would they do a network switch giving each port full speed when everybody goes through the uplink to the satellite?

I was only using switch vs hub as a way to illustrate my point. However, nobody goes directly to the satellite. The ship is served by a number of wireless access points (WAPs) (boxes) enough to provide coverage to the whole ship. Their number and placement depends on their power, range, and their ability to handle intervening walls. Each one is connected via ethernet cables that run through the ship back to a set of network switches that then connect to the satellite via one or more connectors similar to the cable modems you use at home to get broadband. I don't know exactly what they use but assume they're more powerful than anything we use at home. How everything is connected and configured, the quality of the equipment used (compliant with the latest Internet standards?), along with the kind of service contracted for with the satellite or onshore ISP, affects the speed each mobile device onboard the ship gets.

As an example, here at home we pay for 100/100 Mbps service from Verizon that we receive thru their fastest Gateway Router, which handles cable TV, Internet, and wifi. It sits up on our third floor/attic. If I'm standing right next to it, I am able to get the full 100/100 wifi. As I move around the house thru intervening floors and walls, that performance drops. Alot. Which is why we purchased an extender for our den (1st floor, opposite side of the house) that borroows from the cable connection to the TV so we can get the full wifi speed. Without it, we'd be reduced by a good 30% or more. If I was still using our older "HiSpeed " Gateway Router or the device we got when we first got FIOS, our wifi performance even standing next to it would be nowhere near 100/100. Never mind 2 floors away.

Now think back to a ship and its scale. Not only the size of the ship, the number of decks, the number of cabins, the number of passengers but also the quality/age of the equipment installed and the cleverness of its configuration. All these things affect wifi performance within the ship. And then lay on top of that the quality of the ISP.

So before I get much further, I'll just leave it at that. Probably done enough damage for one day. Eh?

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The limiting factor is the satellite link which is shared by everyone. Network switch ports would not help.

Email, some web surfing, texting fine.

No way in heaven can you stream anything.

Agree. If the outside link (sat or whatever) is terrible, the best most modern onboard network equipment will make no difference. Also - let's not forget each person's own device. Some still contain the older slower wifi components. My iPadMini is older than my iPhone7 by at least 3 yrs and does not do wifi as well as my iPhone.

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My signal onboard did vary depending on where we were in relation to the closest router/WAP. The wifi signal sometimes showed full strength - at least to the router/WAP. But just like any hotel or any ship, when a few hundred people are then trying to use the one single "pipe" connected to the internet, it will slow down.

Pretty much like a 5 lane interstate highway. At 3am, you can fly along at 80mph. At 5:15 the next day, you might be down to 20 mph or less when it is full. The size of the road is fixed just like the pipe to the satellite.

...I was expecting that when we sail on the Sky next January, we'd see better speeds when close to shore (Miami will be zippy I'm sure) but it's also good to read that, even when we're in the open ocean, ...

Not sure what being close to the shore has to do with this. The ship uses a satellite for internet. Hundreds of miles from shore does not matter to satellite.

Individual users MIGHT be using their cellular signal to get internet when very close to shore. Just make sure you do not grab the onboard cellular tower as those data rates can a be very high.

Good comments (WAPs) and advice. I'm an internet engineering guy.

Not sure what being close to the shore has to do with this. The ship uses a satellite for internet. Hundreds of miles from shore does not matter to satellite.

 

Not always. When I ran various Speedtests, I could see when we were connected to satellite (server in Madrid) and when we were using the national/local ISP. The latter was when we were docked. But it's also possible it does use sat link and the sat link seeks the closest ISP. If at sea, defaults to Madrid; close to shore, uses the closest site ashore.

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Good comments (WAPs) and advice. I'm an internet engineering guy.

Thanks!

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