Laptop question

Is it worth while to bring our laptop with us when we take our first cruise next week? I have heard cell phones don't always work, and we need a place for relatives to stay in touch with us, so we figured facebook would work fine. Can we get on-line? not really worried about cost, but if we can't get on-line then I need to figure out another avenuve.

Thanks

Murph

Murph, most cruise lines have computer rooms where you can use their equipment but I prefer to bring my own laptop. You can give them your e mail address as well and check that.

I also move my pictures onto my lap top.

Have a wonderful time on the cruise.

Keith

Is it worth while to bring our laptop with us when we take our first cruise next week? I have heard cell phones don't always work, and we need a place for relatives to stay in touch with us, so we figured facebook would work fine. Can we get on-line? not really worried about cost, but if we can't get on-line then I need to figure out another avenuve.

Thanks

Murph

There are computer access on most cruises, or you can bring your own. Be aware that on most cruises, you will need to purchase an internet package to gain access to the internet. and it's v-e-r-y s-s-l-l-o-o-w-w!

(even slower than dial-up in most cases).

:)

By using your own laptop, you can compose mail off line and only pay the internet charges to connect and send

You will have bow to stern internet access (for a fee) on Fascination. EM

Thanks for the help.

Murph

Is it worth while to bring our laptop with us when we take our first cruise next week? I have heard cell phones don't always work, and we need a place for relatives to stay in touch with us, so we figured facebook would work fine. Can we get on-line? not really worried about cost, but if we can't get on-line then I need to figure out another avenuve.

Thanks

Murph

Due to my elderly mother's declining health, I always carry my netbook on cruises in case someone needs to get in contact with me.

I can usually get a signal in my cabin. But every once in a while, I have to go out to one of the public areas (or internet cafe) to access the internet. This seems to be more of a common occurrence on Carnival ships.

Besides paying that activation fee and selecting an internet plan -- and the systems being slow no matter whether you use your own laptop or the ship's computers -- there are times when the systems go down and you can get on the internet at all.

Besides paying that activation fee and selecting an internet plan -- and the systems being slow no matter whether you use your own laptop or the ship's computers -- there are times when the systems go down and you can get on the internet at all.

There are also areas where there is no satelite coverage.

Cruise lines do not guarentee internet access.

Besides paying that activation fee and selecting an internet plan -- and the systems being slow no matter whether you use your own laptop or the ship's computers -- there are times when the systems go down and you can get on the internet at all.

There are also areas where there is no satelite coverage.

Cruise lines do not guarentee internet access.

Definitely bring your laptop. Also bring your card reader for your camera's memory card, so you can download your photos to your computer. My camera takes two different types of memory cards and I use the largest capacity cards in each slot, yet I once filled up both cards in Costa Rica and Panama, in only two days. Now I'll grant that I later deleted most of those images, since I always bracket and over-shoot. But if you don't have your computer, you can't offload your photos from your camera, to make room for more.

But I would also suggest that you bring a standard laptop security cable. That's because most room safes aren't large enough for anything much larger than a MacBook Air. But in most staterooms, there are several places where you can attach a steel security cable. I have always been able to find a place to attach the cable, close to a drawer, so I place the laptop in the drawer, out of sight, with the cable attached to something fixed, outside the drawer. A loose shirt or something will usually cover the security cable.

Just remember that on-board a ship, your Internet speed is not much better than an old 56K modem and sometimes not even that good. Skype won't work. But the advantage to bringing your own computer, as someone else said, is that you can login and immediately download your email, check your Facebook page and then immediately logoff. Then, while you are not paying for connect time, you can compose the responses to your emails and Facebook comments.

If you are going to make several Facebook comments, open a text editor and type in the text of each comment in the text editor and leave the text editor open, when you reconnect. Then reconnect to the Internet and immediately send out all of the emails that you composed, while offline. Go to your Facebook page and then cut and paste the text from your open text editor, into Facebook. This saves typing, while you are paying for Internet connect time. Then check your email one last time and logoff of the Internet.

Since this is your first cruise, you might want to check out the Kindle eBook, "Cruise Secrets of Seasoned Cruisers". It's quite thorough, considering the small price. You don't need a Kindle to read it. You can download the Kindle software to you PC, Mac or iPad.

There are also lots of other cheap cruise travel books on Kindle. Just be careful of the public domain books that are duplicates of each other, most often, right down to the cover. They usually aren't worth even a dollar, let alone, whatever price they place on it.

Enjoy your cruise.

We normally use the internet cafe on board but last time DH brought a laptop. While it's slow, it's never seemed that bad to us (and yes, we have high speed at home)...and I don't recall not having access too many times...sometimes maybe, but usually it's pretty good. You will definitely be able to keep in contact with family. Also in some ports there are internet cafes, so you can check Facebook there too.

But I would also suggest that you bring a standard laptop security cable. That's because most room safes aren't large enough for anything much larger than a MacBook Air. But in most staterooms, there are several places where you can attach a steel security cable. I have always been able to find a place to attach the cable, close to a drawer, so I place the laptop in the drawer, out of sight, with the cable attached to something fixed, outside the drawer. A loose shirt or something will usually cover the security cable.

 

Absolutely ridiculous.:eek:

Just leave the laptop on your dresser and don't worry about it.

It will be fine.

Absolutely ridiculous.:eek:

 

Just leave the laptop on your dresser and don't worry about it.

 

It will be fine.

I also leave the laptop on the table in the cabin and have never had a problem.

If you use the ship's Internet Café, you will usually end up paying more for internet access than if you bring your own laptop and follow the procedures that I outlined in an earlier post. In the Internet Café, you pay for the whole time that you are on the computer. If you type really fast, maybe you can save money in the Internet Café. But for most people, it's probably less expensive to bring your own computer and use the Internet connection for only the few seconds that it takes to send/receive mail.

It's also more convenient. In the early days of on-board Internet, the only connections were often in the atrium area. I could compose my emails in the stateroom and hit send. The emails would set in the outbox, till I connected to the Internet. I would then go to the atrium area and login to the Internet. As soon as the connection was made, the email in the outbox would be sent and new email would be received. There were times when I sent five or six emails, but was online for less than two minutes. As long as you remember to compose offline and only use the Internet as necessary, you can end up spending considerably less on Internet services with your own computer, than using the Internet Café. Also, since the movie offering on the planes is never worth watching, I use my computer for watching my own choice of movies on the plane.

Just remember to bring a laptop security cable, since your laptop will likely not fit into the safe. I keep just the key to that cable in the safe.

Just remember to bring a laptop security cable, since your laptop will likely not fit into the safe. I keep just the key to that cable in the safe.

Or as others have done, skip this step. Your laptop is uinlikely to be stolen!

WE live out in the country in East Texas and the only "HS" internet we have access to, is Satellite. While it is slow compared to DSL, it is way faster than the dial-up we had. We are expecting about the same on board in 13 days so we are bringing our Laptop to stay in touch and download pics.

I always bring my own laptop. I do not use public computers that can have programs that collect your keystrokes and passwords and account access. You do not know what is on the public machines. On Princess the Internet Cafe speed is fast enough to do video on Skype, and on our ship it is free. Check with your ship to see what they have. Things have gotten faster on the ships in the last 2 years and all lines are playing catchup with their competetors.

I wouldn't bother locking up my laptop...but I would stick it in a drawer or out of sight when not in use. Your cabin attendant does NOT have time to mess with your things.

You can also use the ship's computers to keep in touch...the cost for internet is the same, whether it's your computer or theirs!

If you have WiFi on your phone us that

While the cost is the same, there are things you can do with a laptop to reduce the number of internet minutes used.

You can save incoming mail to your laptop, and then read off line.

You can compose emails offline and then just connect to send.

And it is slow, would take 15 minutes to download 300 emails every other day.

And there are some times-like early in the am, when I like to work--that it was shutdown because they had not made adjustments during the night to receive signal as they travelled.

No question, it is slow, but I don't download 300 every other day. It takes a minute or two to download my daily mail.

I have never had a problem with "making adjustments during the night".

i dont think the last post was that the guest didnt make the adjustments. I think he meant the crew had not made the changes to adjust to the ship having moved positions overnight.

i dont think the last post was that the guest didnt make the adjustments. I think he meant the crew had not made the changes to adjust to the ship having moved positions overnight.

Yes, I think that is what was meant. But I have never had a problem because the staff did not make an adjustment.