WIFI Question - Not Related to Price Increase

[IMSAILING]

Hello

 

It's been 4 years since I cruised. We are going on the Horizon in May.

 

Last time I bought an internet package it was good for both of us in the cabin, and limited to 5 devices. Do you now have to buy a package for each person ?

 

Thanks in Advance 

[Sailin_Pirate]

It's 1 device at a time. So yes 2 purchases if you want to use at the same time.

[Markmom18]

We’re going on the Horizon this Fall.   I always buy the Premium Plan,  especially on the older ships.

 

But, since I believe the Horizon is one of the newer ships, will any of the 3 Internet Plans be up to speed?

 

I don’t FaceTime.  I do watch Netflix and  go on the internet & take photos.

 

Thanks,

Bobbi
 

 

[groundloop]

8 hours ago, Markmom18 said:

We’re going on the Horizon this Fall.   I always buy the Premium Plan,  especially on the older ships.

 

But, since I believe the Horizon is one of the newer ships, will any of the 3 Internet Plans be up to speed?

 

I don’t FaceTime.  I do watch Netflix and  go on the internet & take photos.

 

Thanks,

Bobbi
 

 

 

I haven't been on any of the Vista or Excel class ships yet, so I can't speak to the quality of internet service on them, but it's been my overwhelming experience on all of the other ships that their internet service isn't good enough to support consistent video streaming.  At best I've been able to stream video (YouTubeTV or Netflix) somewhat tolerably early in the morning before most people are up, but when more people are online it becomes impossible.

[Munchy1313]

My grandson had the premium on Horizon and loved it, was able to stream and play his games. You can buy one internet plan and share it but only one can log on at a time.

[Eli_6]

We always just buy 1 and log on and off devices.  It is easy to do. But if you want to be on at the same time then you need to buy 2. There is a way to have two on at a time, but that is beyond my expertise.   

[resetjet]

You can always upgrade the package.  On most ships of all lines,  there is little difference between mid and top tier.  This only matters when the network is not overwhelmed. It almost always overwhelmed

[mz-s]

15 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

We always just buy 1 and log on and off devices.  It is easy to do. But if you want to be on at the same time then you need to buy 2. There is a way to have two on at a time, but that is beyond my expertise.   

 

It's really not worth the hassle to buy a travel router and try to get the Carnival wifi logged in to it. The wifi is so slow on all but the newest ships, it becomes positively unusable when shared among multiple devices. Carnival is at least 5 years behind their competitors when it comes to their wifi.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

2 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

It's really not worth the hassle to buy a travel router and try to get the Carnival wifi logged in to it. The wifi is so slow on all but the newest ships, it becomes positively unusable when shared among multiple devices. Carnival is at least 5 years behind their competitors when it comes to their wifi.

 

I actually just picked up a travel router, though I have not set it up yet - I'll have to do a little more research before our Mardi Gras sailing next month.

 

Up to this point, I've just used my phone as a hotspot, and then log into that with my laptop (or Cheryl my log on as well... and perhaps even her computer). Using this method, we can get by with a "1 device" package.

 

 

And... I won't even get into the benefits of VPN's here. 🙂 

 

Tom

[resetjet]

46 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

I actually just picked up a travel router, though I have not set it up yet - I'll have to do a little more research before our Mardi Gras sailing next month.

 

Up to this point, I've just used my phone as a hotspot, and then log into that with my laptop (or Cheryl my log on as well... and perhaps even her computer). Using this method, we can get by with a "1 device" package.

 

 

And... I won't even get into the benefits of VPN's here. 🙂 

 

Tom

Not sure about carnival but somehow it does not work on norweigian.  It keeps kicking off the other device.  It does work on rccl though.  

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

15 minutes ago, resetjet said:

Not sure about carnival but somehow it does not work on norweigian.  It keeps kicking off the other device.  It does work on rccl though.  

 

Interesting - yep, it seems like they're all set up differently. I just learned, after booking my first MSC sailing a couple of days ago, that when they say 1 device, they mean just that. You can't switch one off and another on. 

Tom

[BlerkOne]

3 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

It's really not worth the hassle to buy a travel router and try to get the Carnival wifi logged in to it. The wifi is so slow on all but the newest ships, it becomes positively unusable when shared among multiple devices. Carnival is at least 5 years behind their competitors when it comes to their wifi.

I don't know about that. I found the WiFi on Carnival Ecstasy (the oldest ship at the time) was superior to that on Celebrity Reflection and Royal Vision of the Seas.

 

I don't fool with travel routers. Google Pixels make great routers.

[mz-s]

3 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I don't know about that. I found the WiFi on Carnival Ecstasy (the oldest ship at the time) was superior to that on Celebrity Reflection and Royal Vision of the Seas.

 

I don't fool with travel routers. Google Pixels make great routers.

 

I had a good experience on the Ecstasy years ago, pre-COVID. But on my last Sunshine cruise I couldn't even get Twitter to load reliably - even the Hub app was having issues. Which now the Sunshine is the oldest ship so maybe that's part of it? I have heard that on the newer ships, especially the Excel class - the experience is much better.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

10 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

...

 

I don't fool with travel routers. Google Pixels make great routers.

 

It may well be more hassle than it's worth, but I wanted to give it a go. Easy is often better, but I like to tempt fate from time to time.

 

Tom

[BlerkOne]

8 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

I had a good experience on the Ecstasy years ago, pre-COVID. But on my last Sunshine cruise I couldn't even get Twitter to load reliably - even the Hub app was having issues. Which now the Sunshine is the oldest ship so maybe that's part of it? I have heard that on the newer ships, especially the Excel class - the experience is much better.

I was streaming Thursday Night football in the middle of the Atlantic on Celebration. 🙂

[n6uqqq]

14 hours ago, Markmom18 said:

We’re going on the Horizon this Fall.   I always buy the Premium Plan,  especially on the older ships.

 

But, since I believe the Horizon is one of the newer ships, will any of the 3 Internet Plans be up to speed?

 

I don’t FaceTime.  I do watch Netflix and  go on the internet & take photos.

 

Thanks,

Bobbi
 

 

Netflix will allow you to download up to 100 movies at a time, so you can watch with no internet.

[choppe]

I have never used my phone to make calls while at sea but does anyone know if I will be able to use wifi calling through the Spirit's premium wifi while at sea?  I specifically gave my travel dates to my clients and they went ahead and scheduled mediation while I am gone.  Glad it was at least scheduled for a sea day.

TIA 

[RoperDK]

41 minutes ago, choppe said:

I have never used my phone to make calls while at sea but does anyone know if I will be able to use wifi calling through the Spirit's premium wifi while at sea?  I specifically gave my travel dates to my clients and they went ahead and scheduled mediation while I am gone.  Glad it was at least scheduled for a sea day.

TIA 

I use wifi calling on Royal all the time.  I was looking forward to it on our upcoming MG cruise.  I have been told that Carnival blocks wifi calling.  If that is true, then What's App and messenger would be an option.

[wild4cruisin]

Hello,   can someone please tell me if you are able to access Gmail on the social WiFi plan on Carnival?  It says on their website you can't use most email websites with the Social plan?  Very vague.

Thank you.

[shof515]

any kind of email service does not work on the social plan. you will need the value plan 

 

social plan only works with facebook, ticktok, whatsapp, instagram, vine and all of those popular apps 

[mz-s]

17 minutes ago, wild4cruisin said:

Hello,   can someone please tell me if you are able to access Gmail on the social WiFi plan on Carnival?  It says on their website you can't use most email websites with the Social plan?  Very vague.

Thank you.

 

It's not vague at all. It lists specifically what it supports. Anything not listed doesn't work. That's why the plan is cheaper than the others.

[wild4cruisin]

Thank you for your replies.  Yes I have read what is stated on the Carnival website. I would like to know if someone has sailed Carnival recently, and happened to discover the social wifi plan actually does access Gmail? In the past, to my surprise, I was able to stream using this plan, even though it stated otherwise!  I know Carnival has made changes to their Wifi services. It has been a few years since we've sailed Carnival.  We are sailing Carnival Celebration in a few weeks and I'm trying to decide if I want to purchase internet or not.  Thanks again.

[mz-s]

2 minutes ago, wild4cruisin said:

Thank you for your replies.  Yes I have read what is stated on the Carnival website. I would like to know if someone has sailed Carnival recently, and happened to discover the social wifi plan actually does access Gmail? In the past, to my surprise, I was able to stream using this plan, even though it stated otherwise!  I know Carnival has made changes to their Wifi services. It has been a few years since we've sailed Carnival.  We are sailing Carnival Celebration in a few weeks and I'm trying to decide if I want to purchase internet or not.  Thanks again.

 

what did you stream on the social plan?

[wild4cruisin]

1 minute ago, mz-s said:

 

what did you stream on the social plan?

Sirius XM, which was nice because I could listen to music in the bathroom with my little bluetooth speaker, and news channels that were not available on the cabin TV.

Edited January 4, 2023 by wild4cruisin

[wild4cruisin]

This is what it says on the Carnival website:

Access the most popular social websites and applications. Includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, SnapChat and the most popular airline sites. Does not include access to most other websites or apps.

This is what makes me think it may be possible to access other sites.

Does anyone have personal recent experience?   It would be helpful to know because Carnival (and others) have increased internet prices a great deal and another increase was announced today.