Internet on Amplified Oasis of the Seas

[mstarner]

Hello, all! We have just finished our first cruise on the Oasis of the Seas since she underwent “amplification” and I thought I’d post my experience with the current Internet situation. I looked for this sort of information before the cruise, so hopefully someone will find this post useful.

 

This cruise was always going to be a working vacation for me, and I needed to be able to make calls, work online, and host WebEx meetings while onboard. I found speed test results for other Oasis-class ships that another cruiser posted last year and decided to take the risk. It paid off, but there are a couple of caveats.

 

First, the raw speeds. Using the Surf and Stream package, speed tests were getting latency mostly in the 100 – 200 ms range (though it occasionally got a helluva lot higher), and ~2 Mbps up and down. The upload speed was very stable at right around 2, but the download speeds occasionally dropped as low as .5 or worse. Happily, these drops were short-lived and did not interfere with my ability to work. 

 

I was able to make VOIP calls from my laptop normally, and both attended and hosted WebEx meetings. One of the meetings I ran was a technical demonstration of an online platform, so I was logged into both that platform and WebEx, using Internet audio through WebEx, while out of sight of land. This was a sea day, so lots of people logged into the ship’s WiFi. Everything went smoothly, with my presentation being seen in real time by the attendees with minimal lag, and I was told the sound quality was like I was standing next to them. So far so good.

 

However, when I tried to do certain basic things like share photos and videos with family I ran into issues. Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive all appear to be blocked by the RCI network. I tried both the native apps and the web interfaces for all three services on both Windows 10 and the current Android OS, and nothing worked. I logged into my home machine via Google Remote Access and tried uploading files that way, and this avenue was blocked, as well.

 

Everything Facebook did work normally, however, whether posting pictures or sending them through FB Messenger. Attaching pictures to individual emails in Gmail and Outlook also worked normally. Some web-based file transfer services worked, as well. 

 

To use the blocked services I just hopped behind a VPN—which made all of the above problems disappear. (That they do disappear behind a VPN is also a pretty strong indication that they are being intentionally blocked, and that this was not a fluke.) If you don’t have access to a VPN, Google “best personal VPN 2019” and choose whichever highly-rated provider catches your eye. Most will give you a week to a month as a free trial, so you will likely not have to incur additional expense if you plan ahead.

 

So, the short version is that if you just “surf and stream,” you will be good to go. If you are planning to work, especially if you are planning to work behind a VPN, you should be good to go. If you plan on sharing photos or videos through some of the most commonly-used services, you will be good to go if you hop behind a VPN first. 

 

Happy cruising! 
 

[Clarea]

Thanks for the detailed feedback.

[vacationlover_mn]

Thanks for the review 🙂

[southeastsun]

This sounds good for those of you who are really good at tech.. us average dinosaurs 

are lost. oh, did you try to print anything? Good luck as there are no computers or printers for 

customer use.  The diamond lounge has a built in area for 2 computers and a printer with

electrical all hooked up---no equipment. DL looks nice seats 50. 

We were B/B and were not impressed with the changes. We will look elsewhere.

[Clarea]

7 minutes ago, southeastsun said:

This sounds good for those of you who are really good at tech.. us average dinosaurs 

are lost. oh, did you try to print anything? Good luck as there are no computers or printers for 

customer use.  The diamond lounge has a built in area for 2 computers and a printer with

electrical all hooked up---no equipment. DL looks nice seats 50. 

We were B/B and were not impressed with the changes. We will look elsewhere.

 

That brings up another question as to whether the newly amplified Oasis still has one or more guest computer areas with printers.  When we were last on Oasis, there was at least one guest computer area near one of the elevator/stair lobbies.  It was not well marked and was in an area that one would expect to find staterooms.  I wonder if that is (or those are) still there?

[southeastsun]

NO. there are no computers or printers anywhere for guests!!!

Customer service may assist if its a priority that needs to be done but do not 

rely on this.

[Clarea]

5 minutes ago, southeastsun said:

NO. there are no computers or printers anywhere for guests!!!

Customer service may assist if its a priority that needs to be done but do not 

rely on this.

 

Very disappointing, but thanks for the update.

[airbus_guy]

This post was very helpful. I am sailing on the Oasis in March - and I am anticipating having to do some work while on board.

VPN will be setup and working...so thanks for the hint/tip/hack!

 

 

[lhook]

Do you know how much the internet was on the Oasis?  We are diamond and I am trying to determine if the discounts ahead of time are the better deal.

 

Thanks for any insight!