Internet reception on QM2 transatlantic

We are travelling on QM2 in August on transatlantic Roundtrip. What is the internet WiFi like

Wifi connection has much improved since the 2016 refit. The satellite internet speed once you do sign on is worse than dialup at any hour of the day or night. At least that was my B2B experience last December. This thread may be of interest, especially post #15:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2614994

Sad to report that it's just plain bad. You will be able to perform simple functions such as reading and responding to email, but very slowly with significant delays. You will not be able to do anything that requires band width. And there is nothing you can do to improve the speed and functionality. Not good.

I've not often experienced poor wifi on board QM2, as long as I remember to log on to send and receive emails during quiet periods (very early in the morning for example).

I think the issues occur when everyone on board tries to log on at the same time (after breakfast, early evening before dinner etc). If you think "oh, I'll just check emails/FB"; that is probably the very same time everyone else on board is having exactly the same thought.

One of the joys of ocean travel, to me at least, is that I am out of contact with the world for much of the day. I don't waste my time head down staring at a 'phone screen checking FB etc oblivious to enjoying one of life's great experiences.

I find there is so much to see, so many interesting people to chat with, and so many things to do on board (even if it is just "reading a book with my eyes closed" whilst sat on the promenade), that I don't need constant access. Once/twice a day to connect with family via email keeps them and me happy.

Another negative for Cunard which refuses to come into the 21 century in so many ways. It’s a shame since they have no problem charging the highest prices possible for traveling on a mass market ship in the grillls. Why oh why do all you folks continue to RAVE about this line.

I've never had a problem logging into Cruise Critic !!:D:D:D:D

I've never had a problem logging into Cruise Critic !!:D:D:D:D

Was it a TA and may I ask what time of the day or night it was when you could log on here with no problem? That sweet spot of internet availability would be helpful. I gave up on doing "live from..." logs as it became difficult to impossible to get in.

Was it a TA and may I ask what time of the day or night it was when you could log on here with no problem? That sweet spot of internet availability would be helpful. I gave up on doing "live from..." logs as it became difficult to impossible to get in.

TAs on QM2 and long cruises on the Elizabeth. Early morning or that point just as 1st sitting opens (we always do 2nd seating). Close to midnight seems to work as well.

Or it may be that I've simply just been lucky. Have never done much more than emails and the occasional surfing - need to keep up with the football results!!

I've not often experienced poor wifi on board QM2, as long as I remember to log on to send and receive emails during quiet periods (very early in the morning for example).

I think the issues occur when everyone on board tries to log on at the same time (after breakfast, early evening before dinner etc). If you think "oh, I'll just check emails/FB"; that is probably the very same time everyone else on board is having exactly the same thought.

 

One of the joys of ocean travel, to me at least, is that I am out of contact with the world for much of the day. I don't waste my time head down staring at a 'phone screen checking FB etc oblivious to enjoying one of life's great experiences.

I find there is so much to see, so many interesting people to chat with, and so many things to do on board (even if it is just "reading a book with my eyes closed" whilst sat on the promenade), that I don't need constant access. Once/twice a day to connect with family via email keeps them and me happy.

Same here Pepperrn.

Bit like using the Laundrette really.

The early bird catches the worm.

What kind of prices are we talking about for this wonderfully reliable service?

See here for the answer to your previous question

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2642318

I've had excellent internet experiences on all 3 "Q's" all over the world. I choose a 'down' time, like 6 pm..... or late at night, and access and speeds are just fine.

I'm referring to simple e mails, and I never tried to download the complete Library Of Congress.

I'm with those who say "" stay home if endless internet time is essential"".

I know this is an old thread, but giving it a bump to ask a very specific question re internet.  I need to be in touch with good frequency with my elderly mom.  We most typically use wifi to exchange brief texts during the course of a day - both of us on apple devices, so iMessage works just fine over wifi.  We can also exchange emails if basic, short emailing works better than text over wifi.

How likely, in your collective experience, is it that I would be able to touch base with her 3-4 times/day on a westbound to eastbound crossing?  Each interaction might last no more than 2-5 minutes.

You should be fine in the public rooms, maybe not from your cabin.

I am posting this from my cabin on the QM2, currently in the North Atlantic, and I have had no problems at all connecting throughout the whole of the trip so far. Reasonable speed for a ship and certainly good enough for iMessage or emails although my preferred messaging has been through WhatsApp which has allowed pictures to be shared with no problems at all.

Thanks very much for both of these replies.  It does put my mind at ease!

I'm not been as lucky as Fireflyuk.  I'm typing this from one of the hard wired terminals in Conexxions.  I suspect the so-called "improved" service is a matter of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" where internet through the ship's wifi is capped to allow more bandwidth for the kiosks.  None of my earlier tips have worked and the speed has been worst than dialup even at 1:30 in the morning.

I suggest that you establish an email account that can be reached through the web.  It will go faster than if you depend on using Outlook on your personal tablet or laptop.  Having to use the kiosks is a real disadvantage for those who depend on email systems that won't work on public computers or one doesn't remember their webmail login credentials.

So, to be sure I understand the suggestion, BlueRiband, if I have a gmail account, is that one that can be accessed vis the web?  In other words, it’s a personal account not connected to any work systems, etc.  Is that what you mean, or something different than that?

Actually, an Outlook-type account allows you to read and compose offline with the clock not running, while a webmail account makes it harder to read multiple messages offline. You can configure email programs not to download images which, which further reduces the data and time required to download your new messages.

I'd be interested in hearing BlueRiband's rationale for recommending a web-based email account over a standalone program (but with the higher data speeds now available I actually just use webmail now).

1 hour ago, Underwatr said:

Actually, an Outlook-type account allows you to read and compose offline with the clock not running,

I was going to recommend the same thing. You can configure Outlook to only download the message Headers. You can then flag which messages you want to download, saving some online time. Then you can disconnect, compose your replies, reconnect and upload the responses.

FWIW, we were just in 5009. There was not a wisp of wifi signal to be had in the cabin. I attribute it to having been so far forward (we were practically in the bow). I'm assuming the wifi repeater must have been a bit more centrally located.

You can easily see the WiFi points in the ceiling of the passageways, but I've also seen signal vary significantly depending on which stateroom you're in. 

On 7/23/2019 at 3:20 PM, Underwatr said:

Actually, an Outlook-type account allows you to read and compose offline with the clock not running, while a webmail account makes it harder to read multiple messages offline. You can configure email programs not to download images which, which further reduces the data and time required to download your new messages.

 

I'd be interested in hearing BlueRiband's rationale for recommending a web-based email account over a standalone program (but with the higher data speeds now available I actually just use webmail now).

I type this from the Corner Brook port wifi. 

My old trick on board QM2 was to download emails in Outlook then log off.  Reading and composing replies was done off line.  Then I’d log back on to send any replies.  That no longer works for me because of the difficulties in using my own machine on the ship’s wifi network - anywhere on the ship.  My old travel laptop was a Windows98 machine and I attributed the difficulty to obsolete hardware and software.  But now I use a Windows10 machine.   I’m getting a 4-5 bar wifi signal but the internet through that signal is so slow.  In the past I avoided after breakfast and before dinner but even at 1:30 in the morning it's not improved.  One would think that after 6PM would be good as most of the ship is at first sitting dinner.  Nope.

It’s going much better through the Connexxions or library kiosks.  Using the ship kiosks means that I’m not using my personal machine.  The kiosks have no other functionality than internet browsing, thus the need to use web-based email.

Slow internet was one reason why I stopped posting “live from” blogs from on board.  The other reason was that they weren’t good enough.  One member asked, “Menus please” which expects one to spend internet time trying to upload images.  “If only someone could give us real information” meant there wasn’t enough detail to suit somebody.
 

If somebody has no difficulty getting reasonably decent internet speed on a personal laptop or tablet it would be appreciated if you would share your hints and tricks with the rest of us.

Using a Windows 10 laptop, assuming I have a wifi signal, my speeds have been tolerable. The kiosks most likely (just my assumption) use a wired ethernet connection, so I'd expect a bit of a performance gain that way. 

In my very recent experience the speeds are much improved but the latency due to the round-trip satellite transmission is appreciable. I saw this as a delay of several seconds before web pages began loading, although once the loading began the ages fully rendered quickly.

3 hours ago, BlueRiband said:

If somebody has no difficulty getting reasonably decent internet speed on a personal laptop or tablet it would be appreciated if you would share your hints and tricks with the rest of us.

 

One tip that is possible on Windows 10 is after connecting to the wifi, click on the wifi icon in the task bar, click on 'Properties' for the connected wifi session, scroll about halfway down the list of options that come up, and enable 'Set as metered connection' to ON.

This will stop windows trying to check and download system and app updates etc in the background which can have a significant impact on low speed connections.

Also opening up Task Manager, under the process tab you can see which apps and processes are using the network bandwidth and quit any that you don't need.