Do you work while cruising? WiFi fast enough?

[zanydoc]

Hi All!  We were thinking of taking an extended cruise, but my DH would have to work for part of it if we do. He is a software developer. Does anyone else do this and is the WiFi sufficient enough to do it? We usually power down while cruising, so I have no idea if this is feasible.  Is the WiFi better on some ships than others and certain locations than others? Can the WiFi be boosted somehow? Thank you!

[soremekun]

The wifi is ok on the newer ships.  You can use YouTube and wifi calling.  I'm not sure how large the code is he is working with but I'm assuming he'll be ok.  On some ships, wifi in the room isn't so great but coverage is more than adequate in public areas.

[Biker19]

10 minutes ago, zanydoc said:

 Is the WiFi better on some ships than others and certain locations than others?

Yes, try to choose one of the ships with O3B internet (Oasis, Quantum, Freedom class + Majesty, Enchantment).

[aring75]

23 minutes ago, soremekun said:

On some ships, wifi in the room isn't so great but coverage is more than adequate in public areas.

 

This is what we have found, even on the newer ships. If the connection/speed isn’t great in your stateroom, try another area. 

 

However, if it is absolutely critical that he be connected, it’s important to understand that you can’t always count on it to be great onboard no matter what ship you’re on. You may have to find an Internet cafe in port if necessary. 

[cruiseguy1016]

I work while on cruises but probably not to the extent that your husband will. I have found the Wi-Fi to be, while not super fast, sufficient for what I do. I have not been on a ship with the newer O3B internet.

[dodgestang]

While I didn't want to do it....I was able to work just fine last outing on one day.  Work consisted of SKYPE style calls (audio, no video) and email with attachments.  No VPN log ins, just access to WWW available resources like webmail, Jira, Slack.

 

I was also able to facetime with Family with no issue...so I would assume video would have work for work too....I just didn't want to do it

 

I did see some serious lag when I wanted to upload to youtube some reaction videos we had shot with it taking almost an hour to send up a 5 minute video....so if you have to work with large file sizes....you might not be happy.

Edited September 27, 2019 by dodgestang

[fscool]

VOIP-based calling and maintaining VPN connections for programming were very unreliable at times for me.  I had to keep reconnecting more frequently than I thought I would have to.  This was on Anthem in my cabin.  My feeling is that for anything that needs a stable connection like programming you have to be very careful because unlike regular browsing you are sort of maintaining a direct connection back to the servers.  If he can pull down the code and work locally and then upload it back, that would be ideal.  

[Clarea]

59 minutes ago, zanydoc said:

Hi All!  We were thinking of taking an extended cruise, but my DH would have to work for part of it if we do. He is a software developer. Does anyone else do this and is the WiFi sufficient enough to do it? We usually power down while cruising, so I have no idea if this is feasible.  Is the WiFi better on some ships than others and certain locations than others? Can the WiFi be boosted somehow? Thank you!

 

No "boosting" will have any effect.

 

Without knowing exactly (technical details) work is required, there's no way to answer your question about "sufficient".

[Esprit]

Prior to a cruise I inform my clients of my vacation and when I'll return to my CPA practice. So definitely no work is done or even a check on emails.

I work to live; not live for work!

[cruisegal40]

I used it last week on the Allure.  Was not bad.

[mark290]

5 minutes ago, Esprit said:

Prior to a cruise I inform my clients of my vacation and when I'll return to my CPA practice. So definitely no work is done or even a check on emails.

I work to live; not live for work!

Good to know.

[blackshirt]

1 hour ago, zanydoc said:

Hi All!  We were thinking of taking an extended cruise, but my DH would have to work for part of it if we do. He is a software developer. Does anyone else do this and is the WiFi sufficient enough to do it? We usually power down while cruising, so I have no idea if this is feasible.  Is the WiFi better on some ships than others and certain locations than others? Can the WiFi be boosted somehow? Thank you!

 

42 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

No "boosting" will have any effect.

 

Without knowing exactly (technical details) work is required, there's no way to answer your question about "sufficient".

Agree, without knowing his network requirements to do his work, no way to tell you if the ship's internet will suffice or not. If he has to log into a remote software development system, maybe not. If all he has to do is upload and download files, then probably yes. 

[dswallow]

I'm a software developer, and I've worked from the ship on Grandeur, Explorer, Anthem, Allure, Harmony and Liberty so far. Different experiences, sometimes different experiences during the same cruise, but I've always managed to get to some usable point. Sometimes I've had to do odd things because it wasn't so much an internet problem as a WiFi-from-the-cabin problem, but I'm pretty well versed in sorting it all out now (usually I just use my phone and share WiFi over WiFi from it -- Samsung Galaxy can do that; iPhone's can only share cellular data over WiFi, and sometimes in my cabin to maintain a decent reliable signal I've had to position the phone in odd places so that my laptop is usable with reasonable decent connectivity). Be it using VPN's (RCCL really tries to block those, but there's really only so many approaches they can take, so creativity usually lets you find ways they couldn't block), using remote desktop and similar services, multi-person video conferencing, or just working locally with occasional need for email or updating files from version control servers. The biggest impact is usually if there's a decent 1080P TV in the cabin to use as a second screen; it's kinda annoying when it's a tiny LCD that's 720P or worse. If you have any software that can't handle longer ping times (750ms or more which can happen) you might have a problem, but those would generally be unique applications not basic common things.

 

Edited September 27, 2019 by dswallow

[FLACRUISER99]

This is what I got on Allure and the internet was great.

[zanydoc]

Thank you all for your replies! So, you’re sayin’ there’s a chance! 😁 I think we’ll do a “mock trial” on our upcoming Christmas Adventure cruise and see what happens. Does anyone know if the Diamond Lounge gets a good WiFi signal? Usually pretty quiet around there during the day...

Edited September 28, 2019 by zanydoc

[Clarea]

10 minutes ago, zanydoc said:

Thank you all for your replies! So, you’re sayin’ there’s a chance! 😁 I think we’ll do a “mock trial” on our upcoming Christmas Adventure cruise and see what happens. Does anyone know if the Diamond Lounge gets a good WiFi signal? Usually pretty around there during the day...

 

We've had no problem with WiFI in the DL.

[zanydoc]

Thanks, Bob! Will give it a try.

[FLACRUISER99]

16 minutes ago, zanydoc said:

Thank you all for your replies! So, you’re sayin’ there’s a chance! 😁 I think we’ll do a “mock trial” on our upcoming Christmas Adventure cruise and see what happens. Does anyone know if the Diamond Lounge gets a good WiFi signal? Usually pretty quiet around there during the day...

Best WiFi vary early in the morning or very late at night.

[AlanF65]

20 hours ago, zanydoc said:

Hi All!  We were thinking of taking an extended cruise, but my DH would have to work for part of it if we do. He is a software developer. Does anyone else do this and is the WiFi sufficient enough to do it? We usually power down while cruising, so I have no idea if this is feasible.  Is the WiFi better on some ships than others and certain locations than others? Can the WiFi be boosted somehow? Thank you!

It also depends on ship location, going north in Alaska can be brutal.  I took me an hour to do a 5 minute task that had to be done in May on Ovation. You may want to search VPN in this forum for VPN that is know to work.

[sjb317]

Currently finishing a B2B on Harmony, WiFi has been terribly slow at times and I often get kicked off and have to log in again.  During our port days when I have had phone service,  I have used my phone to connect and that has been so much faster than the ship’s WiFi.

 

Sherri🙂

[Cinders411]

I use to work on most of my cruises. Internet was fine most of the time. I am an early riser though and generally did my work early in the morning.

[Bead Pirate]

Lots of good advice above, I have to work every day of the cruise for a few hours. VPN blocking can indeed be "worked around". I also recommend downloading large files early or late (the only band width competition is the crew). Once you have the file downloaded you are free to work (albeit from a balcony with a bloody mary at hand)!

[iWillSailAway]

It’s been fast enough for my work, which can be data intensive at times.  I try to do the downloading late at night. 

 

The main issue for me is occasionally the ship goes into remote areas with no signal whatsoever.  Happened in Alaska. 

[lenquixote66]

22 hours ago, Esprit said:

Prior to a cruise I inform my clients of my vacation and when I'll return to my CPA practice. So definitely no work is done or even a check on emails.

I work to live; not live for work!

Excellent attitude.I am retired but when I worked it was work in my office only.When I was cruising or on a land vacation it was zero work.

 

[dswallow]

I've learned to use Resilio Sync (torrents) to move files between land-based servers and my laptop on the ship; then I don't really have to oversee it; it makes it soon enough without any further intervention. The nonsense of transfers failing and having to start things over is gone. But you do need a land-side server you can reach remotely, VPN from the ship so as to permit connections to the various sites in the sync group, but once it's working, it's pretty seamless for transfers in both directions.