Eclipse - new internet connection?

[ezancor]

Hi all - I read somewhere that the Eclipse got new satellites or something back in Nov 2012 or so. The member mentioned the internet was terrible on the trip following this so-called "upgrade"

 

Have any of you experience this new internet since they worked out some bugs? How is it compared to previous generation ships?

 

Thank you.

[sddsddean]

Was on the Eclipse a month ago and its as bad as any other ship...expensive and painfully slow. Only good thing is there are routers all over the place, so you can normally get a signal nearly anywhere on the ship including in your cabin.

 

Simon

[ezancor]

Ah.. great "upgrade" Celebrity. :)

[gimletgal]

Hi all - I read somewhere that the Eclipse got new satellites or something back in Nov 2012 or so. The member mentioned the internet was terrible on the trip following this so-called "upgrade"

 

Have any of you experience this new internet since they worked out some bugs? How is it compared to previous generation ships?

 

Thank you.

 

I was on the Eclipse in Nov 2012 when the "techies" were on board "upgrading the system". When they were done - several days into the cruise - the internet was still sluggish, we just didn't get disconnected as often! I don't think ship internet will ever be anything like we are used to experiencing at home. :(

[ezancor]

I don't believe that - how is it possible an airplane traveling 500+ mph 30,000 feet in the air can get relatively decent high-speed access and a boat the size of a small city traveling 20 knots can't provide a reliable, semi-fast connection?

[jaspersmommy]

We sailed on Eclipse in April 2013. The internet service was horrific. I would hate to have seen it before the "upgrade". Given what Celebrity charges for it, it's a disgrace.

 

That was probably my only complaint about the cruise. Unfortunately, we both need internet service to keep in touch with work, so we have no choice but to put up with it. :mad:

[ezancor]

Jasper - same situation. I would cruise much more often if my access wasn't so limited. Listen up Celebrity!

 

Spend some money on infrastructure and you will get re-paid in higher bookings!

 

 

 

We sailed on Eclipse in April 2013. The internet service was horrific. I would hate to have seen it before the "upgrade". Given what Celebrity charges for it, it's a disgrace.

 

That was probably my only complaint about the cruise. Unfortunately, we both need internet service to keep in touch with work, so we have no choice but to put up with it. :mad:

[drarill]

Was on the Eclipse a month ago and its as bad as any other ship...expensive and painfully slow. Only good thing is there are routers all over the place, so you can normally get a signal nearly anywhere on the ship including in your cabin.

 

Simon

 

Same experience for us last month, but we used our Elite coupons and didn't have to pay for it. :)

[jcrandle]

I don't believe that - how is it possible an airplane traveling 500+ mph 30,000 feet in the air can get relatively decent high-speed access and a boat the size of a small city traveling 20 knots can't provide a reliable, semi-fast connection?

 

The ship uses satellite links, which have a latency of roughly 1/3 of a second to get a round trip from ship to satellite, to server and back to ship for a single interaction.

 

I don't know which specific airline wifi links you refer to, but I am only aware of of offerings over the continental USA, where the link to the server does not traverse a satellite, but goes to a ground station, so the round trip time is around an order of magnitude less.

 

Is anyone aware of wifi offering on a plane across the Atlantic or Pacific? If so, can you comment on the response time from these connections?

[ezancor]

Jim - you're incorrect, sorry.

 

Many international airlines offer this.

 

JAL offers in-flight Wifi from Japan to NYC, Paris.

 

Lufthansa offers Wifi on flights from Europe -> North America.

 

They are all approx $10-$30 for 24 hour usage.. pretty good considering some flights are 15 hours, etc.

[sddsddean]

Same experience for us last month, but we used our Elite coupons and didn't have to pay for it. :)

 

Same here,but the connection was so bad that I didn't use

one coupons worth, let alone the two coupons we had!

 

Simon

[uktog]

Sadly my experience on two cruises this year with celebrity is the Internet connection has got much worse, such that I have highlighted in my reviews and feedback forms if they don't sort it out, it is hard to see how we can cruise the number of times a year we do. We run out own business, and whilst we can have down time, we have to be able to keep in touch with key clients back home, just to keep things ticking over. A reliable Internet is as important as a nice pool for us.

 

Up to this year, that worked, but we have had two shockers now. Our next two trips are on Azamara so we will see how they cope. The joke on infinity is we were sailing in UK waters on two of the days, so all of the excuses about location did not wash, indeed I was able to switchback and use a back up UK provider with ease.

 

When we asked on Solstice what the issue was the very helpful Guest Relations Manager explained not only was the issue the supplier but more that Celebrity only purchase so many connections on their contract and the demand was far exceeding supply. We gave feedback by various methods that they need to look at this % of connections to guests, which might have been valid 5 years ago but needs to be ramped up a lot. Not the sort of feedback the bean counters like though

[jcrandle]

Jim - you're incorrect, sorry.

 

Many international airlines offer this.

 

JAL offers in-flight Wifi from Japan to NYC, Paris.

 

Lufthansa offers Wifi on flights from Europe -> North America.

 

They are all approx $10-$30 for 24 hour usage.. pretty good considering some flights are 15 hours, etc.

 

I sit corrected on availability. Can you comment on response time and thruput, as compared to satellite connectivity on a cruise ship? Thanks.