Internet

[pax2]

Hi all sorry to be asking this as I am sure it has been done many times before so please forgive me.

My question is: since internet is so slow and expensive on board how many of you choose to use international roaming on your ipad. Don't need internet allot just to check emails ebay etc. Would it be cheaper to use the roaming or the ships internet?. What do most cruisers prefer?.

[cynalan]

international roaming is not going to help you on the ship. The reason internet access is slow is that they use a satellite link. There are limits on speed. I use the ship's internet access for time sensitive stuff, e.g. printing my airline boarding passes, however most of my internet use is restricted to wi-fi in the ports we visit.

[Clarea]

Hi all sorry to be asking this as I am sure it has been done many times before so please forgive me.

My question is: since internet is so slow and expensive on board how many of you choose to use international roaming on your ipad. Don't need internet allot just to check emails ebay etc. Would it be cheaper to use the roaming or the ships internet?. What do most cruisers prefer?.

Hard to answer because roaming charges are billed by the cell carrier, not by the ship, so the cost is different for each carrier. Roaming charges are also billed by the amount of data, while the ship charges are billed by connection time. You would have to experiment to see how much data you use per session vs how much time it would take to do the same thing on 50 to 200Kbit ship connection. I'm just estimating the ship speed, but it might give you a general idea.

[cruisenfever]

Hi all sorry to be asking this as I am sure it has been done many times before so please forgive me.

My question is: since internet is so slow and expensive on board how many of you choose to use international roaming on your ipad. Don't need internet allot just to check emails ebay etc. Would it be cheaper to use the roaming or the ships internet?. What do most cruisers prefer?.

After a little investigative work, I see your upcoming cruise is on Radiance.:) Radiance has WiFi in all cabins now and the speed is significantly faster than it was when there were just hot spots around the ship. We took our laptop with us and when we did our b2b2b on Radiance last fall over in your neighborhood we had no problems. We would download all emails and then read/respond off line. We also tried to find internet cafe's when we were in the various ports.

 

Here is the breakdown of internet charges........ The current fee is $.65 per minute

 

Pre-Paid Internet Packages:

$ 35 = 60 minutes or 58 cents a minute

$ 55 = 100 minutes or 55 cents a minute

$ 75 = 150 minutes or 50 cents a minute

$100 = 250 minutes or 40 cents a minute

$150 = 500 minutes or 30 cents a minute

[pax2]

Many thanks to all of you.

Thanks for advice re Radiance sounds like it isn't too bad, I think I will just use the ships internet option at least that way I know exactly how much I am spending instead of fearing the next bill from my phone carrier ha ha.

[spookwife]

Hi all sorry to be asking this as I am sure it has been done many times before so please forgive me.

My question is: since internet is so slow and expensive on board how many of you choose to use international roaming on your ipad. Don't need internet allot just to check emails ebay etc. Would it be cheaper to use the roaming or the ships internet?. What do most cruisers prefer?.

 

still wont work as the only way to connect is via the ship's tower. and they don't give it away..

 

I don't connect at all.. no reason to.

[cb at sea]

For a few days, you can be "unconnected"...honestly..the world will NOT end! On the ship, there is no way to avoid paying for internet connectivity....you can use the ship's computers or wi-fi at a charge. Unless it's ABSOLUTELY necessary...just don't!

[Bookish Angel]

I go to where the crew and/or gamers go for fastest speed or to local public libraries for no-cost connections. I only need about 5 minutes time, if at all, so the cost is very small.

[Sequim88]

On Mariner last May right after the dry dock and they put in the cabin wi-fi I did notice it was faster (except for no service mid-Atlantic for a couple days). My employer requires me to check email daily and pays for the internet and this last cruise it actually worked pretty well. The couple days without out service were my true vacation. ;)

 

There was a thread a year or two ago with links and information about the new satellite system with higher overall data rates. Bandwidth is shared between ship systems and passenger access - probably on a VLAN with QoS bias to the ship operation requirements. I thought they are rolling the new system out as they convert to cabin wi-fi. So ships that have had Royal Advantage upgrades (or newer ships) should have better service.

[cruisenfever]

Here is the link to a post with picture that can be found on the Radiance Past-Present-Future thread that shows the new satellite being installed this past August.http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=35094672&postcount=323

[cottagemama]

crusinfever

this is a kind of dumb question but what do you mean by down loading to your e-mail. do you type your message in word then copy & paste to you e-mail?:confused:

[Clarea]

crusinfever

this is a kind of dumb question but what do you mean by down loading to your e-mail. do you type your message in word then copy & paste to you e-mail?:confused:

Some email programs allow you to download email, disconnect, compose responses to the email, then re-connect and upload responses. The advantage of this method is that you are not paying for connect time while you are reading and compising responses to email.

 

You would have to be using an email program, such as Outlook to do this. If your email is based on a web page, you can't do this.

[Jenn31708]

For a few days, you can be "unconnected"...honestly..the world will NOT end! On the ship, there is no way to avoid paying for internet connectivity....you can use the ship's computers or wi-fi at a charge. Unless it's ABSOLUTELY necessary...just don't!

 

No the world won't end, but some people need to stay connected to family etc. When I cruise in March, I will have to use the internet everyday to remotely log into work and do something everyday for about 15 minutes. It's unavoidable, but I'll have to do it.

[cruisenfever]

crusinfever

this is a kind of dumb question but what do you mean by down loading to your e-mail. do you type your message in word then copy & paste to you e-mail?:confused:

Not a dumb question at all. We have an Apple MacBook which we don't leave home without.:D I guess you could call it Apple's Mail System. We can download all emails once connected and then when that is completed, we sign off. We read and if we want to respond we can do so and the replies all go into the "draft" folder. Once we reconnect, the emails automatically are sent out.

 

My husband also has an iPod Touch and he can do the same thing on it as he can on the laptop.

[cottagemama]

Great. Thanks a lot. Will have to try it that way :)