Starlink rolling out, please post ship, latency, and bandwidth you are seeing.

[outtoseacruise]

1 hour ago, outtoseacruise said:

That is nothing to get excited about especially if you need to work and remote into a server or other computer through a VPN. 

Last week in the Mediterranean I was just barely able to work and do what I needed with the below results on Odyssey doing the Eastern Med.  

 

When I have been on a ship with acceptable Starlink this is what I have seen or better. It's not uncommon to see better on some ships. Don't be fooled by these people who think the throttled down crap is good. There is more potential than what most are seeing from Starlink.

 

The results someone posted for Enchanted Princess have me worried about my 2 weeks on her in July. I can see I will probably have to use my T-Mobile Hotspot since those results are not anything to get excited about.

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by outtoseacruise
.

[cruiserdf]

Has anyone been using Yahoo email with the StarLink internet service.  My last experience on the Discovery was it seemed to be blocking Yahoo email.

[outtoseacruise]

If you use a VPN there is only one that I have found works with Starlink on Princess or Royal. The one that works comes in the McAfee Total Protection. I have been unable to get Surfshark, Fastest VPN, or Google One's VPN to connect on Starlink. 

If you use VMware or RemotePC they both work on Starlink. You do need the better Starlink latency and bandwidth in order for it to work without lag. 

The slow speed even with the better latency doesn't cut it. It may be OK for text, email, and grandma chatting with the grandkids. It doesn't take much to impress some people who don't understand it. Those that need it to run a business or to work know the difference.

[Btimmer]

We just got off the Regal Princess 6/13 having done a UK circumnavigation.  I happened to run a speed test and noted the existence of Starlink.  But the speeds were IMHO atrocious as previously noted. I tested it multiple times during the cruise and received download speeds of 2.9mbps and 1.0 and less mbps uploads.  We had several YT vloggers onboard and they commented to me that it was taking hours to upload their videos. For me, I was able to read and send email and watch YT videos.

 

At a Q&A session with a 3rd Officer, I asked if Princess was throttling the Starlink speed.  The officer looked at me quizzically and finally said that they were testing it.  I replied that I ran a number of test over a two week period and they always showed Starlink as the source.  But he remained silent on further information.

 

Edited June 21, 2023 by Btimmer

[Thrak]

It's not really all that long ago that we were excited to get DSL as "high speed" Internet. DSL offered "up to" 5 Mbps and rarely (if ever) actually delivered that speed. To those of us who had been stuck with dial up DSL was pretty snazzy.

[KarmaCruisers]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

It's not really all that long ago that we were excited to get DSL as "high speed" Internet. DSL offered "up to" 5 Mbps and rarely (if ever) actually delivered that speed. To those of us who had been stuck with dial up DSL was pretty snazzy.

I remember when I got DSL…in 2001…it’s 22 years later…I’m a software engineer (who moonlights as a network engineer haha) and I only have 100Mbps at home and i never have any issues doing anything I need to do…in reality, to use “vacation internet”, 5Mbps is plleeeeennntty. If I needed to work though, a reliable 25Mbps is pretty much the minimum required. (To connect to a VPN, you’re going to lose 30% of that bandwidth right off the top)

[mrmoviezombie]

I was pretty happy with bonded ISDN at 128Kbps

[outtoseacruise]

8 hours ago, Btimmer said:

We just got off the Regal Princess 6/13 having done a UK circumnavigation.  I happened to run a speed test and noted the existence of Starlink.  But the speeds were IMHO atrocious as previously noted. I tested it multiple times during the cruise and received download speeds of 2.9mbps and 1.0 and less mbps uploads.  We had several YT vloggers onboard and they commented to me that it was taking hours to upload their videos. For me, I was able to read and send email and watch YT videos.

 

At a Q&A session with a 3rd Officer, I asked if Princess was throttling the Starlink speed.  The officer looked at me quizzically and finally said that they were testing it.  I replied that I ran a number of test over a two week period and they always showed Starlink as the source.  But he remained silent on further information.

 

Last week on Royal's Odyssey it took me 22 hours to upload to my Vlog on Starlink. Odyssey had better latency and bandwidth than what I am seeing reported on Princess with Starlink. 

[Sinbadssailors]

Forgive me if this doesn't work, I've never posted a pic before. 

 

This was this morning on the Enchanted.  We've been on board since June 10th and the connection has always been slow. 

 

I've never seen it connected to Starlink 

[outtoseacruise]

13 minutes ago, Sinbadssailors said:

Forgive me if this doesn't work, I've never posted a pic before. 

 

This was this morning on the Enchanted.  We've been on board since June 10th and the connection has always been slow. 

 

I've never seen it connected to Starlink 

Latency looks good, bandwidth sucks, if it is like that for the 2 weeks I have coming up next month it will be a little stressful. 2 weeks ago in the Med I got better results on MSC using SES o3b. 

I find it hard to believe Elon would allow this type of performance from his product. It has to be all on Princess the poor performance.

[Thrak]

13 hours ago, mrmoviezombie said:

I was pretty happy with bonded ISDN at 128Kbps

 

I was pretty happy when I managed to connect at 300bps. When I figured out the configuration error on my first modem I was absolutely thrilled to jump up to 128bps. Times have changed. Of course the only places to connect with were local BBS systems and it was all DOS so no graphics to worry about. Now my wired connection at home barely gets 100Mbps and I mostly just use my laptop on WiFi. Those speeds are generally in the 58-62Mbps range which works fine for everything I do. It still amazes me that downloads that took several hours "back in the day" now happen within seconds - even on my phone.

 

I'm fortunate that I'm retired so don't have to try to work from a ship. I know from experience that a poor connection makes me crazy. When I was still working (systems analyst for a state agency) I took vacation time to cruise and didn't give a thought to work. My wife was a grant writer and made sure her projects were wrapped up before cruising.

[RedEarth]

On 6/1/2023 at 1:37 PM, boufa said:

OK... I want that install gig... sure they are working hard much of the day, but then they put human clothes on and enjoy the ship that night... 

Enjoying the ship in the evening would be a nice perk, but I was watching the guy stood in his overalls doing the welding in the baking hot sunshine and thinking to myself I wouldn't fancy being in his shoes. Wouldn't be nice in the pouring rain or strong winds either. No shelter whatsoever in the area you're working, for obvious reasons.... 😜

[Bgwest]

On 6/23/2023 at 12:37 PM, RedEarth said:

No shelter whatsoever in the area you're working, for obvious reasons.... 😜

[Mercruiser]

Island Princess, offshore of Bergan Norway, 720 am local  

 

[mrpauly]

Can confirm Crown Princess has starlink.  Similar speed to Celebrity Apex I was on in May, 3mb down 1mb up and 90ms ping which is pretty good.  

[TN-Mountains]

I took these speed tests on Sky Princess (Norway/Iceland June  3-17).  The first was on June 4 @ 6:35 PM so we were at sea somewhere between Southampton and Bergen.  The second was taken on June 6 @ 7:35 PM, so we were somewhere between Flaam and Olden.  I'll be honest.  These numbers look bad to me.  My internet would be unusable if I had tests like these at home.  Fortunately, the internet worked great on the ship.  I was able to make/receive video calls using both FaceTime and WhatsApp.  There were a couple of times there was a lag with the video, but it wasn't terrible and we were in the middle of nowhere between Norway and Iceland...possibly north of the Arctic Circle at that time.  I had no issues checking email, news, etc.  After reading how horrible the internet was on these boards, I had ZERO intentions of getting internet, Princess Plus or Princess Premier.  The prices are too high for it not to work.  I reluctantly upgraded to Princess Premier on day 1 because my husband needed his work phone in addition to his personal phone.  I have no regrets and never felt the need to run any more speed tests.  The ones I ran were purely out of curiosity and not because I was having issues connecting.  I hope these are helpful to others!

 

 

[fpsphil]

Currently on the Enchanted in Greece. Has been SES the whole trip and no better than months ago. Starlink dishes are visible up on top

[BaliThai]

Any update on the roll out on the Royal? Thank you!

[gamja]

Currently on the Enchanted.

[Willwils]

On 6/20/2023 at 9:56 AM, cruiserdf said:

Has anyone been using Yahoo email with the StarLink internet service.  My last experience on the Discovery was it seemed to be blocking Yahoo email.

Why block Yahoo mail?  Wife and I use Yahoo email mainly. We'll be on Emerald Princess in Jan'24. If that's the case for then getting wifi will be a dissapoinment and be a waste of money. 

[fisherguy]

On 6/27/2023 at 2:06 AM, mrpauly said:

Can confirm Crown Princess has starlink.  Similar speed to Celebrity Apex I was on in May, 3mb down 1mb up and 90ms ping which is pretty good.  

Just got off the Crown.  The internet center worker told me starlink went live on the second day of our cruise.  Overall I was quite satisfied with the speeds.  Was able to WhatsApp video chat with my mom at Hubbard Glacier.  She was able to see the glacier pretty clearly.

[nascartony20fan1]

On 6/19/2023 at 2:27 AM, travelers07 said:

On Island right now. StarLink became active June 12 so this the first cruise. I have found the speed amazing for a cruise ship. Download is 3.66 and Upload is 4.8. Doesn’t sound great but we are in northern Norway and it is 8:15 in the morning. The surprising part is that I have been streaming tv news with a vpn and there is no problem. We lost the tv channels (off and on) a couple of days ago but using my subscription for YouTube TV and a vpn, I have access to all the channels I have at home. And surprisingly, they have been strong. We have  been in 2 fjords with snow capped mountains and Wi-Fi is still good! 
 

The crew is very happy too and several have said they noticed a big difference. 
 

Websites, email, and photos seem fine. Nothing is terribly fast but certainly useable. And I am happy- and no, I do not like to disconnect while on vacation. To each her own.

Hi. We will be on Island the end of July to Norway, then Iceland and Greenland. Were there any days/locations during the cruise that the internet was terribly slow? I am trying to plan out work days. Were you able to use WiFi calling by chance? Very excited to hear any info you have on your overall experience with Starlink on Island Princess. Thank you! 

[malba2366]

On 6/20/2023 at 9:47 AM, outtoseacruise said:

 

When I have been on a ship with acceptable Starlink this is what I have seen or better. It's not uncommon to see better on some ships. Don't be fooled by these people who think the throttled down crap is good. There is more potential than what most are seeing from Starlink.

 

The results someone posted for Enchanted Princess have me worried about my 2 weeks on her in July. I can see I will probably have to use my T-Mobile Hotspot since those results are not anything to get excited about.

 

Princess probably has to throttle more than other cruise lines because 60+% of the ship has internet access.  There is no way they can supply 80 mbps with even with starlink with that many people on the service.  8-9 mbps down should be adequate for anything other than streaming high res video.

[travelers07]

Still on the Island and StarLink working well. Have been able to stream tv and use Wi-Fi calling. WhatsApp is very popular in Europe since it uses less bandwidth and most businesses have it. If you don’t have it, set it up before you leave home. Anyone at home needs to set it up to communicate with you.

 

StarLink worked well even in Honningsvag. Today we were in Tallinn and all is good. We did not go to Iceland or Greenland. The speed just now was 2.95 download and 12 upload. Does not sound that good but sure is better than any previous cruise. 
 

I do use PIA vpn when I stream some tv channels and it is also working well. 

[LACruiser88]

Currently on the Emerald Princess heading to Hawaii from Los Angeles.