Wifi calling on the Emerald Princess

[iriemon]

We are on the Emerald Princess in Nov going through the Panama Canal. While on the cruise there are some calls that I have to make. I have the internet pkg and was wondering if I could use the WiFi calling to accomplish this. Has anyone used it?  Was the quality good?  Thanks

[KreinKrunker]

17 minutes ago, iriemon said:

 Has anyone used it?  Was the quality good?  

We have used both What's App & Facetime on the ship with good results.  The quality depends on the wifi connection, and the number of users on at the same time.  The last few months there have been alot of complaints about the wifi.

[Rick&Jeannie]

Have used wifi calling on several occasions as well as WhatsApp.  (Actually have used WhatsApp more often.)  As @KreinKrunkerstates...it all depends on how well wifi is working on your particular cruise.  If you have an "International Day Pass" (AT&T) plan (or the equivalent from other carriers) you could always just plan your calls for a port day.  If by chance it had to be on the day you are actually transiting the Canal you most likely could still get a shore signal...at least at one or the other ends.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I was on the Emerald Princess going through the Panama Canal last October. At that time, the WiFi speed was excellent and I regularly streamed video and made calls over WiFi.  But we had 700 guests or so on the ship. I also think WiFi quality was significantly degraded in March or April of this year, and with passenger counts going up, people have mentioned some serious connectivity problems of late. 

[dreaminofcruisin]

We were on the Emerald Princess in August. Of course, that was in the British Isles, so may not be the same. We made a small number of calls deal with a small issue at home. The first one we used WiFi Calling successfully, though a bit choppy. The 2nd call using WiFi Calling just didn't work, so we gave up and used WhatsApp, which seemed to be a bit better. Another tip is to stay in one spot when calling. DH has a tendancy to wander while talking and I think that made it harder to keep the connection. 🙄 I also think the 2nd call was on a Sea Day, so it may have impacted how good the WiFi was?

 

Bottom line would be to have multiple options available.

[Steelers36]

In my past, I was a functional-technical consultant (as opposed to a functioning technical consultant or technically functioning as a consultant).  I realize over time, terms just get "appropriated", but WiFi is not a synonym for the Internet.  Here is a quote from NewScientist.com:

 

What is Wi-Fi? For many people the term Wi-Fi is now synonymous with “Internet”. But to be accurate it's just a wireless connection standard. If you're using a wireless device then Wi-Fi may be bringing you your internet connection, but it is not the internet.

 

In fact WiFi was just an invented term to use as an easy marketing term for the IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence standard.  The latter makes you think of a room full of white lab coats and pocket protectors.  The former sounds consumer friendly. 

 

In regards to the above posts, and other posts in various Princess thread topics, it seems that the problem lies not with the Internet, nor with the Wifi network on the ship, but rather with the satellite connection.  Whether the satellite capabilities or service level has been down-graded, or the ship reception equipment is not processing well, we don't have a lot of visibility into why the service has degraded in many parts of the globe on Princess ships.  Meanwhile, there are other satellite-based internet signal providers that don't seem to be having the troubles that Princess (perhaps whole CCL family) is having. 

 

[Thrak]

2 hours ago, iriemon said:

We are on the Emerald Princess in Nov going through the Panama Canal. While on the cruise there are some calls that I have to make. I have the internet pkg and was wondering if I could use the WiFi calling to accomplish this. Has anyone used it?  Was the quality good?  Thanks

 

I really don't understand this question. Why not just try it out and see for yourself? Call your mom, your daughter, your dealer, somebody... If it works then you have your answer. Why ask here when the obvious and simple answer it to simply give it a try and see how it works for you???

[iriemon]

12 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

I really don't understand this question. Why not just try it out and see for yourself? Call your mom, your daughter, your dealer, somebody... If it works then you have your answer. Why ask here when the obvious and simple answer it to simply give it a try and see how it works for you???

I can't try it out because I am not on the ship. I know my wifi works but it is very dependent on the ban with on the ship. It has worked on some not others

[loerie]

So happy that  we do  Not own a cellphone!

[lx200gps]

15 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

I really don't understand this question. Why not just try it out and see for yourself? Call your mom, your daughter, your dealer, somebody... If it works then you have your answer. Why ask here when the obvious and simple answer it to simply give it a try and see how it works for you???

How can they try it if they are not yet on board on the ship's wifi? Just because it works on land is no guarantee that it would work on a cruise ship with today's spotty Princess wifi. On the Enchanted this past week Wifi was dreadful.

[Thrak]

3 hours ago, iriemon said:

I can't try it out because I am not on the ship. I know my wifi works but it is very dependent on the ban with on the ship. It has worked on some not others

 

8 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

How can they try it if they are not yet on board on the ship's wifi? Just because it works on land is no guarantee that it would work on a cruise ship with today's spotty Princess wifi. On the Enchanted this past week Wifi was dreadful.

 

Sorry, my bad. I missed a couple words in the original post. We are on the Emerald Princess in Nov going through the Panama Canal. A combination of poor eyesight (damn vision seems to vary from day to day) and an extremely small font.

[SiliconCruiser]

7 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

 

Sorry, my bad. I missed a couple words in the original post. We are on the Emerald Princess in Nov going through the Panama Canal. A combination of poor eyesight (damn vision seems to vary from day to day) and an extremely small font.

It's the Princess Plus package ... 😂  Ti many martoonis ...😄

 

[SiliconCruiser]

22 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

In fact WiFi was just an invented term to use as an easy marketing term for the IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence standard.  The latter makes you think of a room full of white lab coats and pocket protectors.  The former sounds consumer friendly.

 

There are a lot of folks who get confused when I tell them I was involved with social media (for pay) many years before Al Gore invented the Internet.

[SiliconCruiser]

On 9/24/2022 at 5:37 PM, iriemon said:

We are on the Emerald Princess in Nov going through the Panama Canal. While on the cruise there are some calls that I have to make. I have the internet pkg and was wondering if I could use the WiFi calling to accomplish this. Has anyone used it?  Was the quality good?  Thanks

It will really depend upon your connection.  If your cell phone is capable of wi-fi calling, you may be able to use your phone as you normally would, and it will probably be better than using a third-party app (though I do find Google Voice handy as an alternative, and they have great foreign rates if you need to call outside of North America.)  Being close to the equator, you might get very good reception.

 

[Thrak]

2 minutes ago, SiliconCruiser said:

There are a lot of folks who get confused when I tell them I was involved with social media (for pay) many years before Al Gore invented the Internet.

 

How about Ted Stevens referring to the Internet as "a series of tubes". "Intellectual" statement from a guy heading a Senate committee responsible for "regulating" the Internet. Gotta love having ignorant idiots  "in charge".

[iriemon]

On 9/25/2022 at 1:44 PM, Thrak said:

 

 

Sorry, my bad. I missed a couple words in the original post. We are on the Emerald Princess in Nov going through the Panama Canal. A combination of poor eyesight (damn vision seems to vary from day to day) and an extremely small font.

We are on that same cruise in November