Have to work during cruise! :( Help w/connectivity!

We are taking a 5 day, one night on the island, then a 7 day out of Galveston starting next week. For reasons I won’t get into, I am unexpectedly going to have to work pretty much full time for most of the 5 day cruise. I have two laptops and a work phone that I will need to use. I already bought the Premium Internet package, and one account, but I can switch that back and forth between devices, correct? Can I use the phone to make/receive WiFi calls? Has anyone else had to deal with this? Any advice, suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

I have had to work on a cruise also (not everyday, thankfully). I found the wifi acceptable but not nearly as reliable as land base connection. I am not sure about the wifi calling so hopefully someone can help with that. If you have AT&T, they now have a $100.00 package for unlimited calling and text. you can switch between devices but can only have one connected at a time.

I hope you can enjoy the cruise.

This just brought back so many memories from a cruise my DH & I were a few years ago, wherein he worked 5 of the 7 days....I felt so sorry for him! Stuck in the cabin almost all day.... Ironically, he was lead tech doing work on Carnival's (all the lines, actually) computer systems.

Anyway, my DH actually bought two packages (one in my name, one in his - they gave a credit after the cruise for one which was nice), one for his laptop and one for his phone so he didn't have to toggle back and forth. It took forever to do that (switch back and forth) as for some reason it took a little time (maybe 15mins) to log out/log in/switch devices. He did make wifi calls but the service connection took a while, so until you can determine speed make sure you allow time cush on the frontend if you have to be on time for conference calls.

They could have improved their services within the last 4 years, so it might work better now. Good luck!

You can bounce between devices, but my son, who had to work on a project for one of his college classes about lost his mind with how slow it was. Good luck!

WiFi calling might or might not work. In cabin calling is $1.99/minute and it’s more reliable than the WiFi. Your statement will give an exact usage for reimbursement.

Don’t feel bad. Last cruise DH brought his laptop, printer and scanner with him.

We sail West Coast and he didn’t have too many issues with the WiFi overall.

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I work on every single cruise I go on. I have no choice. It's a nightmare! The internet is horrible for work purposes. Luckily I don't have set hours, just need to get things done. If you work really early in the morning or very late at night, it's much better. During the day, all the kids are snap chatting away and trying to compete is next to impossible. Uploading and downloading is crazy if not next to impossible sometimes. But I will say, I do use my phone on wifi and have no problems at all with that. Biggest complaint is there's a delay in response so let the person know you're talking to when the conversation starts and it goes easier. Otherwise you both keep trying to talk at the same time with the delay. Good luck!

If the company work requires VPN, you’re SOL.

The connection speed and latency is slow enough on its own, the VPN won’t connect.

It didn’t for mind anyway.

I wish you luck. I had to work on the Victory in April. Impossible! I ended up working during all our port time due to the “premium” internet ineffectiveness. Ouch. Good luck!!

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Think about this... the ships use a Satellite connection. Horrible latency as the signal goes to a satellite 22k miles (22 thousand miles) up to a satellite and then 22000 miles back to earth. Even at speed of light the delay is terrible. Take the terrible already slow connection, then add 1000 to 2000 of your fellow cruisers using it and you are screwed. I pay for premium every cruise and it is just horrible. Making calls over wifi pretty much sucks. In 2015 I went on Disney and had to work some. Wifi calls were pretty good. You pay them 99 bux for 2 gigs. I had to pay twice for a 4 day cruise. Seriously... cant do much more than email, and check FB. The internet on ship should not be relied on for important work. I had a network share device that I set up for family, but that barely works too. Sorry about having to work... been there. I always have emails to check and respond too, but My business doesn't take much phone calling, so I am MIA on the cruise.

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If you are using the new Wifi (which the Horizon has and maybe the Vista), then you should be fine, granted you don't have to use a VPN. The old internet is too slow.

Thanks for all the feedback. I will sign up for that AT&T package as a backup. Just to make things interesting, my company has just instituted Multi Factor Authentication, so you HAVE to use two different devices to access content. :(

Might be better to do the work, write replies, save everything to a USB thumb device, then wait for a port to find a land based internet cafe and upload from there. If in doubt where a cafe is in a port, ask a crew member where they go, since many use them to contact home. A cheaper and infinitely faster way to stay in touch.

I'm glad I was able to cut the work cord when I was employed, now that I'm retired, it's become a moot point. Good luck to the OP!

If that happens I use Skyroam.com (worldwide). However it will not work far out at sea. It is celular based and will work as long as it has any celular network.

Used it in Southeast Asia, Japan, China, Singapore, Europe... pretty happy with it.

On our January cruise on a NCL ship, my son in law bought the internet package to keep in contact with his business, and found it so bad, he disconnected it and got refunded. It wasn’t strong enough for what he wanted, but maybe Carnival’s internet is better. I do know that my other son in law bought it for one day in February when they were on the Breeze because he had a paper to submit by midnight that night in his Masters program.

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We are taking a 5 day, one night on the island, then a 7 day out of Galveston starting next week. For reasons I won’t get into, I am unexpectedly going to have to work pretty much full time for most of the 5 day cruise. I have two laptops and a work phone that I will need to use. I already bought the Premium Internet package, and one account, but I can switch that back and forth between devices, correct? Can I use the phone to make/receive WiFi calls? Has anyone else had to deal with this? Any advice, suggestions are welcome.

 

Thanks,

Feel sorry that you have to work. We have never had to work or pay for internet or had anything to do with our jobs. Enjoy the second leg of your B2B.

On our January cruise on a NCL ship, my son in law bought the internet package to keep in contact with his business, and found it so bad, he disconnected it and got refunded. It wasn’t strong enough for what he wanted, but maybe Carnival’s internet is better. I do know that my other son in law bought it for one day in February when they were on the Breeze because he had a paper to submit by midnight that night in his Masters program.

 

 

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Ship’s WiFi works ok for document based stuff. Works horribly with things that required video streaming.

Thanks for all the feedback. I will sign up for that AT&T package as a backup. Just to make things interesting, my company has just instituted Multi Factor Authentication, so you HAVE to use two different devices to access content. :(

At least you’ll get reimbursed for the WiFi.

" Horrible latency as the signal goes to a satellite 22k miles (22 thousand miles) up to a satellite and then 22000 miles back to earth. Even at speed of light the delay is terrible."

This is just not true. We live in the mountains of Colorado. There are satellite companies like Hughes Net which supplies 25Mb of speed, which is plenty to do anything.

" Horrible latency as the signal goes to a satellite 22k miles (22 thousand miles) up to a satellite and then 22000 miles back to earth. Even at speed of light the delay is terrible."

This is just not true. We live in the mountains of Colorado. There are satellite companies like Hughes Net which supplies 25Mb of speed, which is plenty to do anything.

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