WiFi Packages

[Lisa353]

We have just booked our first cruise with Celebrity and as part of our deal we will receive the Basic WiFi package. After reading the information about what is included I have a question. It says that you can't access social media. Does this mean you can view other websites but not Facebook etc?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Basic DOES work with Facebook; do you have a source that says otherwise?

[Lisa353]

3 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Basic DOES work with Facebook; do you have a source that says otherwise?

I was just going with what it was saying on Celebrity's website under the description of Basic WiFi.  Please see below:

 

With our Basic Wi-Fi, you can surf the web, send emails, and text family and friends via select messaging apps. It’s a great value option for staying connected while you’re on vacation, but please note that you won’t be able to email large files, share photos or videos, use streaming apps, access social media, or make video calls.

[NutsAboutGolf]

I haven’t tried in 2023 but did in Dec and had no issue accessing FB/IG with basic 

[Lisa353]

7 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

I haven’t tried in 2023 but did in Dec and had no issue accessing FB/IG with basic 

 

Unless they have maybe changed it for 2023. Hopefully someone that has been onboard this year can confirm.

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

My understanding is data intensive sites like CC are either not accessible or only partially accessible.     CC uses a lot of stuff behind the scenes that don't seem compatible.

 

 

[rmalbers]

OP: You don't say what ship but EQ is now using Starlink and FB works with basic but if someone uploads a huge image or video to the FB group that you are trying to view that was sometimes/usually an 'issue'.  I measured it a couple of times and got a solid 1mb up/down speed but of course you have the latency.  I also had an 'issue' where I started up my Elite 90 free minutes and it worked fine but was used up when I woke up the next morning without having really used it at all.  I'm not sure what is up with that, I didn't ask. 

Edited February 12, 2023 by rmalbers

[rmalbers]

4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

My understanding is data intensive sites like CC are either not accessible or only partially accessible.     CC uses a lot of stuff behind the scenes that don't seem compatible.

 

 

Yes, I had that happen with a number of sites, even CNN.  I think it might have to do with embedded ad and tracking links. 

[rmalbers]

Off topic a little but just to put it out there:  I was wondering about Starlink and how they are doing it.  There was a VO ship next to us and I noticed they had eight Starlink antenna's (that I could see) clustered in the center of the ship and that ship hold around 900-1000 guests. 

Edited February 12, 2023 by rmalbers

[NutsAboutGolf]

15 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

My understanding is data intensive sites like CC are either not accessible or only partially accessible.     CC uses a lot of stuff behind the scenes that don't seem compatible.

 

 

This is basically (pardon the terrible pun) how it is with basic.  Technically you can access CC yet for whatever reason it doesn’t format correctly making it unusable

[NutsAboutGolf]

11 minutes ago, rmalbers said:

Off topic a little but just to put it out there:  I was wondering about Starlink and how they are doing it.  There was a VO ship next to us and I noticed they had eight Starlink antenna's (that I could see) clustered in the center of the ship and that ship hold around 900-1000 guests. 

It’s superior to what they had before but on most ships other than the beyond it’s seems to be greatly throttled back

[rmalbers]

11 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

This is basically (pardon the terrible pun) how it is with basic.  Technically you can access CC yet for whatever reason it doesn’t format correctly making it unusable

I would be curious to know, if Starlink home users in the US have any issues accessing CC?  Anyone seeing this that use it (without issues)? 

Edited February 12, 2023 by rmalbers

[Lisa353]

33 minutes ago, rmalbers said:

OP: You don't say what ship but EQ is now using Starlink and FB works with basic but if someone uploads a huge image or video to the FB group that you are trying to view that was sometimes/usually an 'issue'.  I measured it a couple of times and got a solid 1mb up/down speed but of course you have the latency.  I also had an 'issue' where I started up my Elite 90 free minutes and it worked fine but was used up when I woke up the next morning without having really used it at all.  I'm not sure what is up with that, I didn't ask. 

I will be going on Edge.

[rmalbers]

7 minutes ago, Lisa353 said:

I will be going on Edge.

OK, that is starlink equipped so my comment/s apply. 

[Lisa353]

3 minutes ago, rmalbers said:

OK, that is starlink equipped so my comment/s apply. 

Ok. Thanks for your help.

[Mark_T]

38 minutes ago, rmalbers said:

I would be curious to know, if Starlink home users in the US have any issues accessing CC?  Anyone seeing this that use it (without issues)? 

It isn't a Starlink problem, those on the Stream package had no issues accessing CC, it just seems that they have the bandwidth set so low on Surf that it just chokes trying to load the complex pages on CC.

[NutsAboutGolf]

44 minutes ago, rmalbers said:

I would be curious to know, if Starlink home users in the US have any issues accessing CC?  Anyone seeing this that use it (without issues)? 

 

5 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

It isn't a Starlink problem, those on the Stream package had no issues accessing CC, it just seems that they have the bandwidth set so low on Surf that it just chokes trying to load the complex pages on CC.

@Mark_T nailed it.  X’s old internet basic and X’s starlink basic choke CC’s format

[long time lurker]

1 hour ago, rmalbers said:

OP: You don't say what ship but EQ is now using Starlink and FB works with basic but if someone uploads a huge image or video to the FB group that you are trying to view that was sometimes/usually an 'issue'.  I measured it a couple of times and got a solid 1mb up/down speed but of course you have the latency.  I also had an 'issue' where I started up my Elite 90 free minutes and it worked fine but was used up when I woke up the next morning without having really used it at all.  I'm not sure what is up with that, I didn't ask. 

If you connected using your Elite minutes and did not disconnect that is why your minutes were used up the next morning.  The minutes are for time connected, not for time actually using.  I usually go to the internet desk and ask them to allow access for me to “toggle” between basic and premium minutes so that I can stay connected, but can save my elite minutes for when I need a better connection.

[rmalbers]

45 minutes ago, long time lurker said:

If you connected using your Elite minutes and did not disconnect that is why your minutes were used up the next morning.  The minutes are for time connected, not for time actually using.  I usually go to the internet desk and ask them to allow access for me to “toggle” between basic and premium minutes so that I can stay connected, but can save my elite minutes for when I need a better connection.

I was wondering about that.  So what do they do that allows you to 'toggle'?  So what I needed to do was turn my wifi on my phone off to save minutes and back on when I wanted to use those minutes? 

[wdr59911]

Just off the Equinox and had both the basic package and the Elite + minutes.  There were issues of not being able to access the start-up page for both.  A quick trip to the iLounge and the nice lady fixed it up.  She set it up so when you logged in you you had a menu to select either package.  That made it easy to disconnect and switch.  She had to do it through her system.  It would be nice if it would do that automatically.   In either case, they were both excruciatingly slow.  Everyone was complaining that they were not able to stream even with the Premium Wifi.  

[rmalbers]

4 minutes ago, wdr59911 said:

Just off the Equinox and had both the basic package and the Elite + minutes.  There were issues of not being able to access the start-up page for both.  A quick trip to the iLounge and the nice lady fixed it up.  She set it up so when you logged in you you had a menu to select either package.  That made it easy to disconnect and switch.  She had to do it through her system.  It would be nice if it would do that automatically.   In either case, they were both excruciatingly slow.  Everyone was complaining that they were not able to stream even with the Premium Wifi.  

I went into it wondering how the elite minutes worked and I found out real quick, lol!  They should set that up if you have elite minutes automatically for sure.  If I would of known about that I would have put that in/on my survey.  Anyway, the basic worked for what I needed, I don't need to stream.  I was getting a WIFI 6 connect to the AP from my cabin aft on deck 12, not that that improved my overall speed but it surprised me.