Cruise critic boards

[calliopecruiser]

I have been tossing around the thought of getting an IPad or Laptop for our long flight to Sydney next March, but once we start traveling it will sit around more then get used. Plus I would have to take some classes to learn how to us an IPad, heck I had trouble getting music unto my MP3 Player, so gave up and it now sits in the corner on my desk.:D

 

I agree that a tablet or small laptop would be a terrific thing to have for a long vacation, especially one involving long flights and waiting in airports, etc. Apple will give you free classes on using an iPad, but I'm less enthused about iPads because they don't really have much connectivity to other devices (i.e. don't accept USB or digital photo memory cards) - I like to have a computer with me to view and download some of my photos while on a trip. That said, I do have an Apple iPhone, which I use as my MP3 player (iPod) as well as for games that I use when waiting for buses or for my dinner companion in restaurants.

 

Tablets (whether Apple or Android) or a small computer will allow you so many options beyond email.......they can act as an e-book reader, movie player, and offer games and other pastimes to wile away the hours on a long flight, as well as being an MP3 player for your music or audiobooks (I love audiobooks). I'm actually shopping for a small laptop now, and I'm debating getting a tablet with an extra (external) keyboard instead. Either way, I won't travel without one or the other - I think they're essential for the long waiting times of travel these days.

[Nebr.cruiser]

No! I check the internet only to be sure everything is all right at home--we have elderly mothers--using Facebook, usually. Using the internet on board is too much of a hassle for much else, plus I don't want to spend my time on board that way.

 

We get free internet (with limits) when we cruise Princess and don't use all our minutes.

[olemissreb]

Usually no, but on this last vacation (land & cruise), I was supposed to be meeting someone from my Roll Call while we were in Denali. I had texted her and since I didn't get a response, I checked our Roll Call a couple times when we had wi-fi service (spotty at best in Denali!).

 

DH did bring an external hard drive and his laptop so he could dump our photos every night on the hard drive and then upload a few to Facebook when we could (land portion only). Once we got on the ship, he would still dump the photos on the hard drive and then upload some to his laptop, but only so we could see them on a bigger screen. Other than that, we were off the grid for the majority of our 2 weeks in Alaska.

[OCruisers]

Cruise Critic is more of a cruise substitute than a cruise enhancement while actually cruising.

 

Same here!

 

We get lots of free minutes when cruising on Princess and never use any of them.

 

LuLu

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[wwcruisers]

Nope -- as obsessed as I am with CC most of the time, DH and I have a strict policy to "unplug", once we cross that gangway. We do check in at home several times during the cruise, but that's it. :cool:

 

There was recently a thread on the X boards from a poster, documenting his cruise "live". From what I could read, he was having a miserable time -- complaining about everything from the food to the weather. I just had to shake my head and think: "Maybe if he'd just step away from the computer, he'd actually have some fun." (But then, maybe not...:rolleyes:)

[travlnblueberries]

The only time we are online is to confirm flights, other then that we are enjoying the port or the ship.:D

[luvscruising2007]

Phone is turned off and remains in the safe. Laptop stays at home. Do not own a smart phone, Kindle or Ipad. I enjoy being unplugged and out of touch for the time we are on our cruise.

We are the elderly parents so no one to check on.:)

[tm32561]

We turn our phones OFF to avoid any data charges when the ship is about to leave the port. I too, am grateful nobody can call me for a few days. That's a vacation in and of itself! However this time we would like to call back home and check on the grand baby. Should we just make that call from a pay phone in the port? I thought about buying one of those international pay phone cards at wal mart before we leave. What do you think?

 

 

3013 Sept Carnival Ecstacy

2011 Dec Carnival Fascination

2010 Sept Carnival Elation

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Waterloomarc]

I guess it depends on the cruise line but on NCL the cabin phone was only $2 a minute. Cheap enough to use and avoid the hassle of calling from port and calling cards and such IMO. Of course I didn't have a grand baby to check on so your conversations might be longer than ours!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mitsugirly]

Nope. I'm pretty regular on here and I do not get on while I'm cruising. I do get on the internet and update my facebook with those envious Caribbean cruise pictures, but don't get on cc. :)

 

But once I return...the never ending long journey of our cruise review comes....and comes...and comes...and they probably wished I would go back on a cruise so I would shut up. (Yes, my reviews get longer and longer with each cruise). :D

[mikewrit]

Heretofore the shipboard wifi has been too slow and expensive to use it to follow CC threads, which, as navyankerteacher observed above, is really just a substitute for actual cruising. Now, however, I have my first smartphone, an Android Razer, and one of the first apps I grabbed was the cc thread follower. I'm likely to try it out next year when we hit the internet cafes in Venice, Naples, Rome and Barcelona.

[NMLady]

Nope. I'm pretty regular on here and I do not get on while I'm cruising. I do get on the internet and update my facebook with those envious Caribbean cruise pictures, but don't get on cc. :)

 

But once I return...the never ending long journey of our cruise review comes....and comes...and comes...and they probably wished I would go back on a cruise so I would shut up. (Yes, my reviews get longer and longer with each cruise). :D

 

Do you put the photos on Facebook using the ship's Internet? If so, about how many minutes does it take? We're taking our iPad and will use it to take some photos for posting later on hubby's Facebook page. We hadn't planned to do it aboard ship because we thought posting photo would take too long. But if not we'd love to post them occasionally for family and friends.

We'll have an Internet package anyway for checking email -- we have lots of sea days to do that.

[mitsugirly]

Do you put the photos on Facebook using the ship's Internet? If so, about how many minutes does it take? We're taking our iPad and will use it to take some photos for posting later on hubby's Facebook page. We hadn't planned to do it aboard ship because we thought posting photo would take too long. But if not we'd love to post them occasionally for family and friends.

We'll have an Internet package anyway for checking email -- we have lots of sea days to do that.

 

I have never used the ships internet. I have always heard it's very slow and very aggravating. People have compared it to worse than the old dial up and the last thing I want is to be aggravated during vacation. :p

 

I have always updated while I'm in port at whatever place I have been to. I find out prior to going whether or not they have free wifi and if they do, I take my extremely small 10" laptop with me. :)

[navybankerteacher]

Internet time on a ship is expensive and frustratingly slow. Virtually every port has a free wi-fi location, so a small laptop or I-pad is all you need.

[NMLady]

I have never used the ships internet. I have always heard it's very slow and very aggravating. People have compared it to worse than the old dial up and the last thing I want is to be aggravated during vacation. :p

 

I have always updated while I'm in port at whatever place I have been to. I find out prior to going whether or not they have free wifi and if they do, I take my extremely small 10" laptop with me. :)

 

Thank you for your quick reply. Port wifi is what we'd planned to use but since it is a ta I'd hoped maybe we could post a photo or two on Facebook while aboard ship. I guess we'll wait.

[calliopecruiser]

I have never used the ships internet. I have always heard it's very slow and very aggravating. People have compared it to worse than the old dial up and the last thing I want is to be aggravated during vacation. :p

 

I have always updated while I'm in port at whatever place I have been to. I find out prior to going whether or not they have free wifi and if they do, I take my extremely small 10" laptop with me. :)

 

I found it not that slow at all, though I was prepared to be frustrated by it, it was just fine. I usually sent a photo a day in my emails home to family, and I still used only about 4 or 5 minutes a day to do so (wrote my emails in advance, then just cut and pasted them). I was on a transatlantic so no ports to use WiFi, and didn't use the hour of internet time I bought......however, I didn't do any web browsing, just sent a "travel log" type of email back to family.

[sparks1093]

Just wondering if any of the daily readers and posters here follow the boards when they are on a cruise. Obviously I know those who post "live" are on, but what about the others?

 

I do not pay for internet on board. On my last cruise, I was happy to get to port so I could go online to read what was happening here. Seems kind of silly that I'm on a cruise, but wondering what I'm missing on Cruise Critic... :eek:

 

Nope, don't give it a thought. I travel to get away from it all, not to bring it all with me;).

[bob brown]

So we have heard several opinion's of internet speed and usefulness at sea. I am wondering if there is a difference form line to line, or even from ship to ship as to upload/download speed? Perhaps newer ships have greater bandwidth? And I suppose it also depends on how many others aboard happen to be using it at the same time...could make a difference?

[delily]

Nope. I'm too busy to sit on my computer. I write my own cruise diary at night or on sea days but I don't pay for the internet.

[NMLady]

I found it not that slow at all, though I was prepared to be frustrated by it, it was just fine. I usually sent a photo a day in my emails home to family, and I still used only about 4 or 5 minutes a day to do so (wrote my emails in advance, then just cut and pasted them). I was on a transatlantic so no ports to use WiFi, and didn't use the hour of internet time I bought......however, I didn't do any web browsing, just sent a "travel log" type of email back to family.

 

Thank you for sharing your experience. Since we're on ta with no port for several days, and I'll have Internet package, I'll try posting a photo on Facebook and see how long it takes.

[ntvsdgrl]

I agree that a tablet or small laptop would be a terrific thing to have for a long vacation, especially one involving long flights and waiting in airports, etc. Apple will give you free classes on using an iPad, but I'm less enthused about iPads because they don't really have much connectivity to other devices (i.e. don't accept USB or digital photo memory cards) - I like to have a computer with me to view and download some of my photos while on a trip. That said, I do have an Apple iPhone, which I use as my MP3 player (iPod) as well as for games that I use when waiting for buses or for my dinner companion in restaurants.

 

Actually there is an attachment that allows you to download your photos from your camera on to you iPad. It comes with two adapters, one for a USB plug from your camera that plugs into your charging port or another attachment that allows you to upload from your memory card. I bought it for my upcoming trip and tested it and it works great.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-iPad-Camera-Connection-MC531ZM/dp/B003K1EYM6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374352245&sr=8-1&keywords=Apple+iPad+Camera+Connection+Kit+%28MC531ZM%2FA%29

[labeachcomber]

So we have heard several opinion's of internet speed and usefulness at sea. I am wondering if there is a difference form line to line, or even from ship to ship as to upload/download speed? Perhaps newer ships have greater bandwidth? And I suppose it also depends on how many others aboard happen to be using it at the same time...could make a difference?

 

On Oasis it was probably functioning like an average dial-up if you can remember the days. Checking and writing two quick emails cost me $6 at 75 cents a minute.

 

The only way I would ever check Cruise Critic would be if I had an unlimited package (would never consider), it is a sea day, it is pouring and thunder storming, and the DW is taking a nap. When you're paying for a cruise, the last thing you want to be doing is sitting on the computer talking about cruising, you want to be actually enjoying it.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[calliopecruiser]

Checking and writing two quick emails cost me $6 at 75 cents a minute.

 

Writing the email off line first, then cutting and pasting it into the email program will save some bucks -- then you're really only paying for the transmission time, not the time it takes to write it.

[labeachcomber]

Writing the email off line first, then cutting and pasting it into the email program will save some bucks -- then you're really only paying for the transmission time, not the time it takes to write it.

 

Yes, but if you're not on Wifi and using one of the ship computers, this isn't really an option as in order to get to Yahoo, Gmail, etc., you need to swipe the seapass card and the clock starts running.

[calliopecruiser]

Yes, but if you're not on Wifi and using one of the ship computers, this isn't really an option as in order to get to Yahoo, Gmail, etc., you need to swipe the seapass card and the clock starts running.

 

Can't you use the ship's computers without using the internet? I was able to use the computer to compose my letters off line (with Word, or Notepad), then signed in to start the clock when I was ready to use the internet. In fact, I could have used the ships computers to play solitaire, if I'd wanted, without signing in and starting my internet fees. Of course I didn't want to play solitaire, but you get the idea.......I guess that's a variance between ships/lines?