Internet speed/dependability--improved?

[bottomfeeder]

I have not sailed on Celebrity for a couple of years, and I know a number of cruise lines are working to improve internet speed and reliability for passengers (or say they are.) I wondered how Celebrity's ships, especially the Reflection, are on this front in recent months.

 

Reason I am asking is because my son would be interested in cruising with me but would need to have some of the days be workdays for him--and he needs reasonably fast/dependable internet (needs to use instant messaging and VPN, etc.)

 

Now that free unlimited internet is one of the big, better, best offers, does that mean things are even slower than before because lots of people are choosing that option?

 

Any info is appreciated--thanks!

[az_tchr]

Who knows? Internet speed depends on bandwidth. All cruise lines are upgrading here but bandwidth is also dependent on location. There is only limited satellite bandwidth available in certain areas such as the middle of Atlantic, Pacific and near Antarctica. Thus speeds are partially dependent on location.

 

You are certainly correct that offering "free" internet will also slow the process as if you cut the pie into say 1000 pieces it would not matter the size of the pie.

 

How much better is the new service? Who knows? Since it is a trial, it seems Celebrity does not know either. I can only predict that service would be similar to dialup. VOIP service would likely be spotty and impossible many places and times. If your son is doing document work there should be no problem if he has a bit of patience. You also need to be aware that internet say for an inside cabin on deck 3 is likely to be inferior to a higher cabin midships. Using a VPN for voice might not be so good.

[POA1]

I have not sailed on Celebrity for a couple of years, and I know a number of cruise lines are working to improve internet speed and reliability for passengers (or say they are.) I wondered how Celebrity's ships, especially the Reflection, are on this front in recent months.

 

Reason I am asking is because my son would be interested in cruising with me but would need to have some of the days be workdays for him--and he needs reasonably fast/dependable internet (needs to use instant messaging and VPN, etc.)

 

Now that free unlimited internet is one of the big, better, best offers, does that mean things are even slower than before because lots of people are choosing that option?

 

Any info is appreciated--thanks!

Royal Caribbean has been upgrading their infrastructure, and it's supposed to extend to Celebrity and Azamara. It really depends on the ship and the itinerary. High density areas - like the Caribbean, for instance - should see the biggest benefit. Where is your itinerary? Royal Caribbean has most of their efforts concentrated where the Oasis and her sisters sail.

[az_tchr]

Agree with POA1 but the infrastructure improvements for X are on the ships - not with the available satellites. RCI , X , and the other cruise lines are not putting up satellites. There is indeed more bandwidth from about the equator north to maybe 45 degrees latitude over the Caribbean, Mediterranean and of course land masses. There are more satellites now than a couple years ago and bandwidth is getting cheaper to buy. The cruise lines are putting in decent WiFi on the ships, but it has a long way to go.

[POA1]

Agree with POA1 but the infrastructure improvements for X are on the ships - not with the available satellites. RCI , X , and the other cruise lines are not putting up satellites. There is indeed more bandwidth from about the equator north to maybe 45 degrees latitude over the Caribbean, Mediterranean and of course land masses. There are more satellites now than a couple years ago and bandwidth is getting cheaper to buy. The cruise lines are putting in decent WiFi on the ships, but it has a long way to go.

 

It's also - and mostly - land-based improvements. There are new, long range WiFi technologies that happen to marry well with vessels at sea. (If you live in a rural area, it's akin to why your phone always works on the highway.)

 

If your cruise is in a busy area, like the Caribbean, you're in excellent shape. If you're on a transatlantic, you'll see some improvements, but nothing special. From a technology standpoint, it's pretty spectacular really.

[ceemacon]

I just got off a 15-day trans-Pacific cruise on the Millennium, and bought the unlimited Internet package. On that ship, on that cruise, the speed was about the same as I've encountered since cruise ships first started offering Internet - very slow. I found it okay for the web, since the meter wasn't running and I could queue up a bunch of pages at once instead of waiting for each one. Instant messaging was also fine.

 

WARNING: they block some pages that they think might include streaming audio or video. Sometimes the block pages they shouldn't, and sometimes they let some through that they'd probably prefer to block.

 

Instant messaging worked fine. However, I was never able to connect to my work VPN at all. I was also almost never able to log into remote servers using SSH (which is not something most people will ever need to do), and the few times I did connect, the connection dropped in a few minutes.

 

The upshot is that it's fairly iffy for serious work. You can stay in touch via web pages that don't require a VPN, but that's about all. I hear that some ships have an entirely new and different technology that works much better, but the Millennium doesn't yet.

 

Oh, and don't expect any technical help from the staff. They are quite clueless.

[Mr. Click]

We did 12 nights on the Silhouette last May/June, internet speeds still ranked as slow, like good dial up speed on a good day and even slower on sea days when everyone was on board. I found that if I needed to use it, late at night was the best time to get some decent speeds.

[beentothere]

I just got off a 15-day trans-Pacific cruise on the Millennium, and bought the unlimited Internet package. On that ship, on that cruise, the speed was about the same as I've encountered since cruise ships first started offering Internet - very slow. I found it okay for the web, since the meter wasn't running and I could queue up a bunch of pages at once instead of waiting for each one. Instant messaging was also fine.

 

WARNING: they block some pages that they think might include streaming audio or video. Sometimes the block pages they shouldn't, and sometimes they let some through that they'd probably prefer to block.

 

Instant messaging worked fine. However, I was never able to connect to my work VPN at all. I was also almost never able to log into remote servers using SSH (which is not something most people will ever need to do), and the few times I did connect, the connection dropped in a few minutes.

 

The upshot is that it's fairly iffy for serious work. You can stay in touch via web pages that don't require a VPN, but that's about all. I hear that some ships have an entirely new and different technology that works much better, but the Millennium doesn't yet.

 

Oh, and don't expect any technical help from the staff. They are quite clueless.

 

Same exact experience for me. Connections dropped frequently. Lots of blocked business processes....ftp...etc.

 

Food good, service good...requests usually not addressed but apologies abound.

[bottomfeeder]

If I'm understanding what I'm reading, it's only the Equinox that is doing the "trial" of the faster internet, correct? It also seems the big new RCCL ships (Allure, Oasis, etc.) have the faster internet already installed.

 

And I also think I understand that, even with the faster internet, it depends where you are sailing. In the Caribbean, you are likely to get pretty good speeds/dependability but certainly on a trans-oceanic cruise and other cruises to less-populated parts of the globe you are likely to not have great internet.

 

Did I misunderstand anything?

 

And thanks, all who replied!