Warning: UniWorld SS Maria Theresa Internet Restrictions

Spotty, less than full, sometimes slow internet access on a river cruise vacation. One more first-world problem to add to the growing list. :rolleyes:

I listen to Leo Laporte the tech guy, and he stated he was on this cruise, perhaps he could you sort this out. He very friendly and knowledgeable.

Actually this is suggested as a "best practice." It takes two weeks for embezzlement and other shenanigans to surface. Sorry if you thought they were looking out for your R&R well-being! ;)

Exactly right :)

I always take steps to enforce vacation time on any of my employees who refuse to take it willingly. Also any manager under me who claims they can't take time off as the department can't run without them gets advised to improve their training and delegation skills as they are clearly not doing it right :)

Another favorite of mine is reminding people that if they want to be considered for promotion they first have to make sure they are not critical to the department they are already in ... :)

All that said, if you directly run a small business with virtually no staff then I do understand the need to stay in touch as it is either that or no time off at all.

Spotty, less than full, sometimes slow internet access on a river cruise vacation. One more first-world problem to add to the growing list. :rolleyes:

It may feel like that for some, but for others it really is the difference between being able to choose a particular vacation or not...

I'm sure some do 'protest too much' but others really, genuinely do need the access or the real 'cost' of the holiday could be a severe drop in revenue.

 

All that said, if you directly run a small business with virtually no staff then I do understand the need to stay in touch as it is either that or no time off at all.

Exactly. I will take the time and work as needed in order to do so.

It may feel like that for some, but for others it really is the difference between being able to choose a particular vacation or not...

 

I'm sure some do 'protest too much' but others really, genuinely do need the access or the real 'cost' of the holiday could be a severe drop in revenue.

In which case, you don't rake a river cruise holiday.

None of them have good, consistent internet access as you migt expect to get in a land based hotel with a fixed line.

And that is inevitable given the fact they are moving through varying coverage, and often with obstacles such as deep locks to affect it further.

So if consistent and fast internet access isiessential to you (and I quite understand it is for many), then this holiday is not suitable - no matter which company.

In which case, you don't rake a river cruise holiday.

 

None of them have good, consistent internet access as you migt expect to get in a land based hotel with a fixed line.

 

And that is inevitable given the fact they are moving through varying coverage, and often with obstacles such as deep locks to affect it further.

 

So if consistent and fast internet access isiessential to you (and I quite understand it is for many), then this holiday is not suitable - no matter which company.

I disagree.

I've taken 9 river cruises and have two more booked. I have been able to manage very well by doing most of my work VERY early in the morning or when connection is best. And I have my iphone that I can take to a local hotspot and get work done if needed.

I've reserved a TEP Wireless hotspot ($10/day) to share between 3 couples for an upcoming river cruise. The TEP hotspot features "unlimited data" (throttled for the rest of the day after 300 MB in a 24 hour period). I'll report on the TEP after I return in mid-August.

FuelScience

http://www.tepwireless.com/

I listen to Leo Laporte the tech guy, and he stated he was on this cruise, perhaps he could you sort this out. He very friendly and knowledgeable.

Alex:

I love Leo La Porte and listen every Saturday on KFI 640. I think he is on the Rhine right now and what we are hearing has been pre-recorded. He may be back tomorrow and we can call in or he will probably mention lots of things about his cruise, including the internet. ;)

Jazz;

I very well versed on why the company has the vacation requirements, and it's not just the employees they have in mind. ;)

In some respects river boats are like cruise ships. Some companies handle matters differently. The problems typically surround any number of passengers trying to upload or manage massive files. An example is when a couple of passengers decide they must upload 200-300 pictures to the cloud while on the boat in Timbuktu. Two things typically happen, (1) it brings the entire system to its knees and speeds through out the ship go to a snail's pace; or (2) the ship's computers reads it is a massive file and manages it accordingly (which may mean it gets blocked). It never ceases to amaze me watching people on different cruise ships (or boats), on vacation in theory, trying to manipulate huge data files, and then bitching about boat internet speeds.

Neither river boats, nor cruise ships, are large floating computer data centers. If one feels they must test the system to its max, best results are often found between 2300 and 0500 hours. ;)

I disagree.

 

I've taken 9 river cruises and have two more booked. I have been able to manage very well by doing most of my work VERY early in the morning or when connection is best. And I have my iphone that I can take to a local hotspot and get work done if needed.

I don't know from the rest of your post why you disagree?

You are saying that you manage around the fact that the internet access is not consistent and fast.

Which means it isn't (quite) essential for you to have that.

Funny thing, the world survived for ions without constant instant communications and people still traveled then!

...and traveled better, too!

Update:

1) My VoIP port was unblocked after about 24 hrs. So right now, everything I reported has been blocked.

2) I also hired my son in law - so I could keep up with my heavy cruise schedule :)

3) Coral: No I don't run Ubiquiti Networks (Wish I did!) but am associated with them.

Readers: It seems that these ports are unblocked:

• *:25 (any address, port 25 = email)
  
• *:80 (any address, port 80 = http = web pages)
  
• *:443 (any address, port 443 = https = secure web pages)
  

But if you need to connect to some other port at (e.g.) your office or home, you need to give the cruise reception the following for each destination:

• <name>:<port>
  

• e.g. mailserver.mycompany.com:1234
  

Correction...in the above I meant to say:

So right now, everything I reported has been un-blocked.

Oh, good! Glad to hear it. I'm one of those that must work while on vacation and must have email access. I try to limit the work as much as possible and most of my clients are very, very understanding and will wait until I'm back in the office, but it never fails - I'll get that one pain-INA client that absolutely has to have help right before I leave or while on I'm vacation. :mad:

Good to know about the websites being blocked. If I run into that problem, I'll know why it's happening now. ;)

Correction...in the above I meant to say:

 

So right now, everything I reported has been un-blocked.

So glad they responded to your requests! Enjoy the rest of your trip!

I've reserved a TEP Wireless hotspot ($10/day) to share between 3 couples for an upcoming river cruise. The TEP hotspot features "unlimited data" (throttled for the rest of the day after 300 MB in a 24 hour period). I'll report on the TEP after I return in mid-August.

 

FuelScience

 

http://www.tepwireless.com/

Thank you for sharing this. I will be using this. DH and I will both be finishing up college classes on this trip and will need access. I'll be following your posts :)