Installation of Starlink on all HAL Ships Completed

[BermudaBound2014]

"All 11 of Holland America Line’s cruise ships have now been equipped with onboard internet service, beginning with the Pinnacle-class Koningsdam in April 2023 and concluding this month with Nieuw Amsterdam."

 

https://www.cruisehive.com/high-guest-satisfaction-as-cruise-line-completes-internet-installation/118780

 

 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

That's good news ..

[Toad]

Very good news

[OlsSalt]

Quiet, sedate cruise ships with excellent interconnectivity - that is an excellent marketing draw.

[ski ww]

Thanks for sharing, we'll see how it is in Aug. 

[POA1]

Just off the Nieuw Statendam on Sunday. Performance was great the whole time. The only glitch was about 2 hours of an outage one evening when the HAL RADIUS server or whatever they use for authentication went down.

[WisRiver]

We were on the Oosterdam for the November transatlantic.  We had the premium internet package.  With Starlink we had,fast, stable internet across the Atlantic.  

[YourWorldWithBill]

2 hours ago, POA1 said:

Just off the Nieuw Statendam on Sunday. Performance was great the whole time. The only glitch was about 2 hours of an outage one evening when the HAL RADIUS server or whatever they use for authentication went down.

Great to know. We're on the NS in May.

[Mtn2Sea]

We’re currently on the Volendam and the internet is sooo much better!  Had a few hours last night when things weren’t working right, but otherwise the internet is almost like being at home.

[POA1]

3 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Great to know. We're on the NS in May.

It was very speedy throughout the voyage. With the last iteration of shipboard internet, you noticed slow periods at certain times of the day. Not so now - and Have It All has got to mean more users.

[OlsSalt]

Wonder how this will work on the Antarctic cruises when the former connectivity waves bounced off the curve of the earth's pole. (That is as technical as you will get from illiterate me ,and my cartoon version of the alleged problem in this part of the globe.)

 

Do Starlink satellites avoid this alleged whole earth curvature issue?

[asebastian]

We're just off a long (56-day) Asian voyage in the Westerdam. Starlink worked great, BUT the ship fell back to the old satellite links when we were in Taiwan (both Keelung and Kaohsiung) as well as in Hong Kong. Google was glitchy for some, FB didn't work for some and a lot of people complained that WhatsApp seems to relay messages in a delayed fashion. I guess the great Chinese firewall at work. All Starlink connections were restored automatically after about 4 hours sailing out of those ports.

Screenshot of Starlink speed on the Westy....and the message displayed on the Navigator when we had issues of blockage...

 

[Crew News]

Any zoom experience with Starlink?

[asebastian]

6 hours ago, Crew News said:

Any zoom experience with Starlink?

We didn't do any zoom, but plenty of video calls with WhatsApp and they were fine, no lag at all.

[WriterOnDeck]

On 12/20/2023 at 8:56 PM, OlsSalt said:

Wonder how this will work on the Antarctic cruises when the former connectivity waves bounced off the curve of the earth's pole. (That is as technical as you will get from illiterate me ,and my cartoon version of the alleged problem in this part of the globe.)

 

Do Starlink satellites avoid this alleged whole earth curvature issue?

Worked fine in November when the Zaandam went to Antarctica.

[WriterOnDeck]

10 hours ago, Crew News said:

Any zoom experience with Starlink?

Worked fine for me -- IF you are in a location with good connection to a router. That was not the case in my cabin on the Zaandam -- perhaps because it has the metal walls that hold magnets. I had to seek a quiet but public place for a couple of zoom calls.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

It is working great on the Zuiderdam. 

[billco]

On 12/20/2023 at 5:56 PM, OlsSalt said:

Wonder how this will work on the Antarctic cruises when the former connectivity waves bounced off the curve of the earth's pole. (That is as technical as you will get from illiterate me ,and my cartoon version of the alleged problem in this part of the globe.)

 

Do Starlink satellites avoid this alleged whole earth curvature issue?

I've been following the blog from Oosterdams' current Antarctic cruise. Last post was Port Stanley yesterday. Next post should give a good idea of internet coverage.

[POA1]

13 hours ago, Crew News said:

Any zoom experience with Starlink?

On Premium it was fine. Same with MS Teams. There is lag or skips if you are in "room" with a lot of people, but that happens on land as well.

 

It makes working a lot easier, but I don't know if that's really a plus. Kinda defeats the whole reason for vacation.

[YourWorldWithBill]

4 hours ago, POA1 said:

On Premium it was fine. Same with MS Teams. There is lag or skips if you are in "room" with a lot of people, but that happens on land as well.

 

It makes working a lot easier, but I don't know if that's really a plus. Kinda defeats the whole reason for vacation.

Good point about working on vacation; the question is whether Premium is needed for streaming, now that the ships are using Starlink.

[asebastian]

8 hours ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

It is working great on the Zuiderdam

Good to hear, that's our next ship in June

[asebastian]

3 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

the question is whether Premium is needed for streaming

We were just on the Surf package, with HIA. We had access to a great wireless access point mounted in the ceiling above the bed, in our Neptune suite. But coverage elsewhere in the ship was comparable too.

[Haljo1935]

12 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Good point about working on vacation; the question is whether Premium is needed for streaming, now that the ships are using Starlink.

I needed Premium for Teams and Skype calls as well as for wifi calls.

TA Rome->FLL.

[dchip]

We had Starlink on the Tales of the South Pacific this fall. It was our 5th time on this same cruise and the first time we have had connectivity every single day. It was almost as fast as home. We were able to receive and send videos instantly. I upgrade to premium so we could FaceTime with our grands. It was amazing to show them the Kings Palace when we were in Tonga. To let them follow along as we sailed the coast of Rarotonga. It was simply amazing. 

[YourWorldWithBill]

8 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

I needed Premium for Teams and Skype calls as well as for wifi calls.

TA Rome->FLL.

Thanks.