Verizon Coverage on Alaska Cruise?

Hi All,

We are off to Alaska on the Star this weekend and I planned on taking my iPad for communication while on the ship. My iPad uses verizon and was curious if the coverage was any good. Thanks.

Hi All,

 

We are off to Alaska on the Star this weekend and I planned on taking my iPad for communication while on the ship. My iPad uses verizon and was curious if the coverage was any good. Thanks.

All I can say is: Don't. Turn the Verizon wireless function off.

Why? You will be using the cell phone service on the ship when you are at sea, which is very expensive. You'll be paying Verizon for roaming data rates, and you'll be paying the ship for use of the their satellite cell phone relay system.

The only time you should turn on the Verizon wireless function on your iPad is when you are docked in port. At that time, you will connecting to shore based cell phone systems. You may still, of course, be paying Verizon roaming data rates if you cannot find a Verizon system.

To better use your iPad on the ship, if you want to use the internet on it, purchase an internet package from the ship, and use the wifi connectivity on your iPad to connect to the ship's wifi internet service. Still not cheap, but way less expensive that doing the same thing over cell phone access.

Here's the relevant pages from NCL.com showing the costs of both.

http://www2.ncl.com/about/staying-connected-sea-internet-access

http://www2.ncl.com/about/staying-connected-sea-cellular-phone-service-texting

Hi All,

 

We are off to Alaska on the Star this weekend and I planned on taking my iPad for communication while on the ship. My iPad uses verizon and was curious if the coverage was any good. Thanks.

Here is a link for the Verizon Wireless coverage area. You just need a city and state, so I put in Juneau, AK.

Seems they have digital service in Alaska, so you should be fine.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/CoverageLocatorController

Listen to the above advice.. Only in Port ;)

Last week in all three ports our phones were only getting 1xrtt coverage. My mifi was in roam mode and was getting slow data connections - possibly both due to 1xrtt and number of people in port. The last US port, Skagway, it kept dropping mifi and wasn't working well at all.

I should add these are all Verizon devices.

One other thing - Prince Rupert had it free in the terminal but when I got back on the ship I think I found the site but didn't have the SSID which must have been posted in the terminal. There were several crew members with laptops out on the "spare anchor" deck when it was dark so you could see the glow of their screens.

You should be on the side closest to the terminal so I'd think you'd probably get a signal.

We also have Verizon for our internet coverage, and also cell phone. And we used our cell phones on our Alaska cruise, but only in port since, as others have said, if you use Verizon while aboard the ship you will incur a $2.49 per minute charge for cell phone (I don't know what the per minute charge would be for internet usage). Make sure you use it only in port and only while passengers can be ashore since that is when the ship's satellite is turned off.

Alaska has good Verizon coverage in the various ports.

Thanks everyone.

Hi All,

 

We are off to Alaska on the Star this weekend and I planned on taking my iPad for communication while on the ship. My iPad uses verizon and was curious if the coverage was any good. Thanks.

Coverage is quiet good. You will always have coverage in port and often you are sailing close enough to land that the ships network is not turned on. Version is very good, they will send you a message if you are not on their network or the extended network.

Just be aware that if you cannot see land you will be on the ships tower.