WiFi on Solstice?

[seaproponent]

We will be boarding the Solstice tomorrow for the transpacific leg from Hawaii to Australia. When on a sister ship transatlantic crossing last year, the Ship's WiFi didn't work most of the time. Anyone on the current Vancouver to Hawaii leg of this cruise (or anyone with recent "crossing' experience on Solstice class ships) -- is WiFi operable when we'll out to sea, or should we expect to be out of touch again?

[kitty9]

I've done this crossing before, and wifi was slower and spotty at times. If I remember correctly, we went for hours on some days without any wifi.

[az_tchr]

seaproponent - Suggest you check the threads on WiFi as Celebrity is rolling out a completely new system. Am guessing it will be very slow as your cruise is now.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2263391&highlight=wifi See post #6 for a person just off the Millenium.

 

The timing is unknown as is the cost and it certainly seems the Transpacific and Transatlantic cruises will have challenges to provide first rate service.

Edited October 1, 2015 by az_tchr
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[Lsimon]

The availability of Wi-Fi on a ship is going to be dependant on the satellite signal which in turn will depend on what satellites in the system the ship subscribes to are within range of the ship given the ships current position and atmospheric conditions. So the availability of wi-fi on an atlantic crossing and at different spots across the pacific may be very different from time to time.

[Kartgv]

On the Solstice last year from LA>Hawaii>S.Pacific>LA, we had very sporadic internet service - even when it was available, it was extremely slow. On the return trip, we had about 4 days where we gave up completely on accessing the internet until we got close to LA. The manager of the internet café was completely overwhelmed with complaints and didn't seem to have a clue what was going on. One excuse we heard was that the ship was outside of the normal satellite 'path' because we had to divert to a small French Polynesian island because of an ill crew member. That excuse might be valid for a short period of time, but not 4 days!

[az_tchr]

Kart - Satellites are put up where they have lots of demand. The older satellites have much less bandwidth and Celebrity signed a contract(s) that is currently expiring for a system that today is very limited. There is only limited service in most of the transits in the oceans - particularly once one gets in the Southern Hemisphere. Very simple - on TP and TA cruises service even with a new system is likely to be limited and at times nonexistent. The Med, Caribbean, North Atlantic and anyplace within about 300 miles of land will be fine as there is more ship traffic.

 

Should the internet person be more informed - absolutely YES. Is it in the power of anyone on board Celebrity to say why the service is slow or zero? - NO. Unless there is something available that is new in the last year or there are newer satellites - service in the neither regions is likely to be poor.

 

Does anyone out there have a comment or what there is that is new in the less traveled oceans of the World.