RCL Starlink capabilities

[cusematt4]

Hi all,

 

For ships that have starlink surf and stream - does anyone know if this is fast ending for video calls, in addition to streaming shows on Netflix and YouTube tv?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[cusematt4]

Thank you very much.

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, cusematt4 said:

For ships that have starlink surf and stream - does anyone know if this is fast enough for video calls, in addition to streaming shows on Netflix and YouTube tv?

The entire fleet was converted to Starlink earlier this year. Even before that, all ships' internet connection was good enough for that kind of functionality.

[theOSU1]

Mariner had excellent connectivity in all parts of the ship this past week, not so good with connectivity on the top deck or main theater on Explorer, two weeks ago. 

[crzndeb]

Just be aware that Starlink isn’t the do all, be all on some ships. On the Jewel to Greenland, the internet was horrible.  Rarely worked in the cabin. In Two70 on Ovation, no internet.  In Alaska, it can still be patchy with mountain ranges and cloud cover. So it can be great on some ships and areas, other’s not so much.

I never had any luck streaming YoutubeTv before I got rid of it, even with a VPN. They wised up and started blocking VPN’s. I have had luck with other streaming services.

Edited December 10, 2023 by crzndeb

[SparklyPinkCruiser]

We did the Transatlantic in October on Odyssey and everything worked wonderfully. My husband and I were able to do full Zoom meetings with no issue from the middle of the Atlantic. I also streamed Netflix with no issues.

[klfrodo]

Of course, connectivity also depends on where the access points are located.

On my Anthem cruise (in a GS), there was an access point in my cabin. Have heard that on the newer ships that access points are in all cabins. However, in many of the older ships the access points are still in the hallways and depending on your cabin location, connectivity can be affected.

[Merion_Mom]

Anthem has finally upgraded its hardware.

[RFerrington]

On Freedom now and the internet (haven’t tried calling of any kind) is dreadfully slow.  I thought maybe it was an access point issue but even when I went to the library and used their onboard PCs it was slow.  Not sure why but….ugh.

[twangster]

14 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

On Freedom now and the internet (haven’t tried calling of any kind) is dreadfully slow.  I thought maybe it was an access point issue but even when I went to the library and used their onboard PCs it was slow.  Not sure why but….ugh.

Couple of thoughts...

 

Starlink has outages just like any tech company.  How's the weather?   Starlink has rain fade like any satellite service and that includes where the downlink gateway city is which can be far away from the ship. Storms moving across the SE today.  Wait a couple hours.

 

Try a different device.  From what I've seen they bind a device to a particular antenna/modem.  My laptop often draws a different public address compared to my phone.  Try his phone or another device.  

[RFerrington]

13 minutes ago, twangster said:

Couple of thoughts...

 

Starlink has outages just like any tech company.  How's the weather?   Starlink has rain fade like any satellite service and that includes where the downlink gateway city is which can be far away from the ship. Storms moving across the SE today.  Wait a couple hours.

 

Try a different device.  From what I've seen they bind a device to a particular antenna/modem.  My laptop often draws a different public address compared to my phone.  Try his phone or another device.  

Yeah, the weather has been shi++y today (Nassau) but pretty clear previously.  Dans iPad as well as the ships PCs have been equally crappy but I will try one of our phones and see what happens.  Turnaround tomorrow then off on another high adventure back to PDCC and Nassau.  Good thing I just love to cruise and don’t care where I’m going !  😂

 

11 Pinns on this sailing.

[twangster]

6 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

Yeah, the weather has been shi++y today (Nassau) but pretty clear previously.  Dans iPad as well as the ships PCs have been equally crappy but I will try one of our phones and see what happens.  Turnaround tomorrow then off on another high adventure back to PDCC and Nassau.  Good thing I just love to cruise and don’t care where I’m going !  😂

 

11 Pinns on this sailing.

 

Go to https://www.ipaddress.com/

 

That will show you the gateway city, then see if the gateway city also has weather impacting it.

[Pandamonia]

Like everything that royal sells 

 

it works until a sea day then it doesn’t. 
 

but good news is that it will cost 2x more than other lines and work worse 

[jjmahaney]

Just off the Allure of the Seas 12/11-12/15  We were thoroughly impressed with our streaming ability during our 4 day cruise. Had some rough weather last night and I thought for sure streaming would suffer. Ship was rocking and rolling and wind howling but was able to stream Max, Discovery and Hulu from phone to tv without any issues. Not sure if the area of the ship makes any difference. We were deck 11 aqua theater suite. 

[orville99]

Starlink is only as good as the installed access points and wiring cable infrastructure. On Serenade in February it was slow and ability to connect was inconsistent. On our November/December Panama Canal B2B, they were upgrading all of the access points and pulling all new cable in anticipation of the world cruise, and the coverage, speed, and stability were all excellent.

[Gabrielle R.]

On Adventure (right now December 15). Internet has worked well ALL trip.  A few times I needed to log back into the WIFI- but it has worked great.  I’m quite pleased with it 

[Mikamarii]

On Odyssey now. Used a vpn to put our location in Canada and had full access to our telus tv package on my phone. Been watching hockey games with 0 issues. 

[Jasukkie]

In my experience, location matters a lot. What works adequately by the pool won't work in your cabin. Sometimes just stepping outside the cabin door could get a page to load, otherwise things timed out. So if you need streaming video for work, in a private location, it may be hard to find.

[barbeyg]

We sailed southern Caribbean on Celebrity Beyond (yes, I know, not RCI, but RCI sails southern Caribbean too), and we never noticed any dropping of service. It was excellent. Glad to see Odyssey TA has good service. Thanks to all who shared their experiences.

Edited December 15, 2023 by barbeyg