Volendam Internet speed?

The last time we were on a HAL ship (the Rotterdam in 2009) the Internet was just woeful, no matter where you were on the ship (even on their own PCs in the Internet Cafe). It was so bad that after trying to put up with it for a couple of days I asked for a refund on the package I bought.

So what about now, on the Volendam? I don't expect it to be blazing fast, like my home and office connections, but it would be nice if I didn't have go do laps of the sports deck while waiting for a web page to load! I mean it's 2018 for goodness sake!

Extensive improvements have been done to WiFi and internet since 2009. They are discussed here regularly. It is much faster. Definitely not faster than land based service. But fine for just about everything except perhaps video streaming and VOIP consistency.

I was on the Volendam in November when the ship was in Asia and I thought the internet speed was OK. I was able to stream live sport in the late evening without glitches or buffering.

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I was on the Volendam in November when the ship was in Asia and I thought the internet speed was OK. I was able to stream live sport in the late evening without glitches or buffering.

Sounds good. It's likely my usage, if I need it at all, would be late evenings while we're off Japan (9pm-1am JST). Still (feel) obliged to help fight fires at work while on vacation. Not ideal, I know, but I'm the only person who does what I do and the folks trying to provide coverage for me will no doubt come up short on occasion.

Sounds good. It's likely my usage, if I need it at all, would be late evenings while we're off Japan (9pm-1am JST). Still (feel) obliged to help fight fires at work while on vacation. Not ideal, I know, but I'm the only person who does what I do and the folks trying to provide coverage for me will no doubt come up short on occasion.

We were on Volendam last June at the tail end of an Alaska land-sea journey, and only used the PCs in the Explorations lounge the last night of the cruise to print our boarding passes for the next day. It took about 30 minutes (not the 5 or 10 I expected), and I would estimate that a dialup connection would have been faster. These were wired machines, not on wifi, so they should've been considerably faster. We did not have a wifi plan onboard, and paid for the time used.

My take is that since HAL charges for time, not amount downloaded, there's no incentive for them to provide a faster connection.

Good luck!

Well, the Internet hasn't been that bad. Yes, it's much slower than on land, but I've been able to do most of what I wanted to do with only a tiny bit of frustration when it comes to large uploads/downloads (photos and the like). Have even been able to stream video from YouTube!

Well, the Internet hasn't been that bad. Yes, it's much slower than on land, but I've been able to do most of what I wanted to do with only a tiny bit of frustration when it comes to large uploads/downloads (photos and the like). Have even been able to stream video from YouTube!

Thanks for the info! I'm boarding next week and am the only "fire fighter" for my company (no one can do what I do here which is why I've had to fight for this time off). I'm hoping if they ask for my availability they will pay for my internet ;)

Is it still by the minute packages on Volendam?

Thanks for the info! I'm boarding next week and am the only "fire fighter" for my company (no one can do what I do here which is why I've had to fight for this time off). I'm hoping if they ask for my availability they will pay for my internet ;)

Is it still by the minute packages on Volendam?

Not on this cruise, no. I bought the Audio/Video Streaming/500mb package, which was priced at $220 for our 14 day cruise and for which my company reimbursed me $200 (well, paid for $200 worth of OBC).

The other options were Email, News and Sports/300mb (no streaming) for $170 and Social/200mb for $120.

FYI, even though VPN is not supposed to work, the built-in Windows Server VPN back to my office worked fine, as did Remote Desktop back to my own workstation and the servers (just slow).

Sounds good. It's likely my usage, if I need it at all, would be late evenings while we're off Japan (9pm-1am JST). Still (feel) obliged to help fight fires at work while on vacation. Not ideal, I know, but I'm the only person who does what I do and the folks trying to provide coverage for me will no doubt come up short on occasion.

Can an internet plan be purchased in advance?

Can an internet plan be purchased in advance?

I doubt it, because you purchase it through the ship's app. I used my company credit card to purchase $200 worth of OBC instead.

I doubt it, because you purchase it through the ship's app. I used my company credit card to purchase $200 worth of OBC instead.

Okay, thanks.