I don’t know how you “live” people do it…

[schmoopie17]

Actually, when I say “live” people, I mean those of you who do live trip reports. (Everyone reading this is a live person…or so I assume).

 

Anyway, NCL says access to CC is “free” while onboard. Well, that’s news to me. On our last three cruises (including the one we’re currently on) I have never been able to even access CC. The only reason I’m typing this here right now is because we’re in port in Taino Bay and our T-Mobile plan includes international access virtually everywhere (except on the ship).

 

Even when I go to the internet “help” desk they are unable to access CC on my phone. You people doing live reports must have some sort of NCL supermojo.

 

I salute you.

[Anoynmous Phoenix]

While on board I find the easiest way to access Cruise Critic is to log in using a minute of time I have paid for and then access through the free tab before logging off.   Then you can use CC free.

[hallux]

14 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

You people doing live reports must have some sort of NCL supermojo.

Or they paid for internet...

[cruiseny4life]

I've attempted to use the free Cruise Critic. As with many things NCL, it may work, but not really. So, are they lying? Well, not really, but the service is certainly not there. It doesn't work. That's why my March Joy live was...well not really live, but after the fact. I've attempted to use the free Cruise Critic access on all but my first cruise, so Getaway, Joy, and Pr1ma. No luck on any ship.

 

The other voyages, we purchased the unlimited internet. It's the only way to do a "live" live or mostly live or semi live. 

[julig22]

Accessing CC onboard for free hasn't usually been an issue, although it tends to be slow.  But it's often in more of a visitor mode, so you can't post or view your roll call.  The solution, as @Anoynmous Phoenix said, is to use a minute of paid wifi to get logged in to CC, then log out of the wifi.  How long you can still respond without doing another login - I haven't a clue! 

[Asawi]

It's been a hit or miss with Cruise Critic for me. On Star I wasn't able to read the forum without using minutes (it looked like it was loading, but it took forever and I had lots of minutes to spare so I gave up). On my more recent Gem cruiseit was slow, but I was able to read the forum without logging in to use minutes. I just used my forum bookmark on my cellphone. Go figure...  

I guess it's one of those NCL things where you can say "it depends". Denpends on what? Who knows? I don't...

[Monica887]

The only time I did a live was the one time I paid for "unlimited" internet. Internet worked well and wasn't glitchy, so it was easy to update and add pictures every day. 

 

I'd like to do another live this summer but it's Alaska so I don't know if I can justify paying for Internet when I should be able to easily have Internet in port. 

[Anoynmous Phoenix]

@julig22

 

I do as much as I need/want to and then leave.   I do it about 3 times a day so can usually do all I am interested in doing.   That said I carefully choose my time to do it.

[YVRteacher]

When I write a live I do the writing in the Notes app on my phone then copy the text.

 

I then log onto the internet using free minutes and paste the post into the thread. When possible I add photos then log out of the NCL internet. On the second leg of the NCL Star last summer I opted to buy the unlimited internet package because the signal was so poor it took forever and a day to load.

[david_sobe]

I am very old school.  The live trip reports I have done, I have went to the internet cafe and used one of their computers and my minutes to log in each day for a live report.  I don't post any photos until I get home. That's a really old school way of doing things since most use phones for everything.  I am even typing this on from a keyboard on a tower computer.   😁

[KeithJenner]

Lately I have had free at sea plus, so unlimited internet is included, but previously I would generally post from

my phone using my phones internet whilst in port.

 

Most of my live posts have been done from a train or similar transport or whilst sitting in a bar, either in town or onboard whilst in port.

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, david_sobe said:

I am very old school.  The live trip reports I have done, I have went to the internet cafe and used one of their computers and my minutes to log in each day for a live report.  I don't post any photos until I get home. That's a really old school way of doing things since most use phones for everything.  I am even typing this on from a keyboard on a tower computer.   😁

I had hoped to do a live from the Prima this past summer, but then I discovered that their internet cafe had no computers! (no phone)

[graphicguy]

Yeah...unless you have unlimited internet, it's impossible to post pics.  I find the free access to CC to be limited, at best. It's also tough to do from your phone.

 

Personally, I use either an iPad or a MacBook to post to my live threads.  Much easier to catch my mistakes (although I have quite a bit of operator error). 

[Sailing12Away]

Tmobile person here too. The only time I use my free minutes is on sea days like today. And if it's a lot I want to type up, I put it in word then cut/paste after logging in. 

 

I still have over 100+ mins on each of our free accounts and today's our last sea day. The only reason I'm using any minutes at all is because I'm job searching and use em or lose em at this point. 

 

But yeah, it's easy enough to do when you have a good international phone plan with data and don't go so heavy on posts with those days at sea.

[david_sobe]

4 hours ago, ontheweb said:

I had hoped to do a live from the Prima this past summer, but then I discovered that their internet cafe had no computers! (no phone)

OMG they got rid of the computers?  Then what is the use of an internet cafe?  

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, david_sobe said:

OMG they got rid of the computers?  Then what is the use of an internet cafe?  

I have a feeling there never were computers in the internet cafe on the Prima. When I posted about this on my review of our cruise, others did say there were still computers on other ships.

 

It was the place passengers signed up to use their internet minutes.

[mking8288]

For a while, on shorter 7 days cruise - I managed to do semi-live reports using those "free" 250 or 300+ minutes, limiting especially photo uploads - composing & editing some of the images offline before posting, and, absolutely no video clips as it'll spin & timed out, guaranteed.  Satellite WiFi, even on basic unlimited Starlink is just not fast enough to truly support photo uploads - did almost all of time when ship is docked, using roaming cellular signals (been mainly T-Mobile/partners abroad).  We switched to Google Fi and unlimited Plus plan (we can upgrade & downgrade easily for the billing cycle and/or partially ... seldom spent more than $20 USD on a given cruise between voice & data surcharges, several GB worth of "extra" usage for a given monthly billing cycle.  

 

The trick to better CC access at sea for free, mainly to browse & read, not to really upload & post - as others and I have said before, is to use some of the airtime minutes to first log into the NCL account, check & download other emails & messages (to read offline) and connect to CC, then disconnect & sign out, and read, etc.  You will NOT see pictures online and/or see graphics / images posted, that's only possible when "logged" in (again) with the minutes "meter" running.  

 

Escape 2019 Semi-Live for a 15 days itinerary - mix of port & sea days, NY to Caribbean/Mexico & back - was done with 670+ minutes (300 x 2 plus free 30 minutes bonus extra, that bonus is no longer offered) plus paying extra for another 100 or 125 minutes as I began to run low on the home stretc ... and, we had a full blown norovirus onboard then - a major "incident" in those days and some pax being quarantined, etc. Otherwise, taking advantage of roaming cellular signal in ports for data ... EMC was the satellite partner and was it slow & sluggish.  

 

Other tips & tricks, whether using a tablet, iPad or laptop/notebook PC or Mac (seen very few, if anyone using it as pax onboard) - turned off & disabled most background uploads or apps backing up, those refresh activities will drastically slow you down ... trying to post semi-live.  

 

Nowadays, I mainly use a Chromebook, light & faster & excellent battery life (by Lenovo - nothing premium & not a high end device configuration) or the Sony Vaio laptop/NB PC (no longer running Windows 10 Pro, too slow) with SSD in a Linux / Ubuntu OS environment - with a standalone drive that can run ChromeOS Flex as contingency should Linux crash for whatever reason. 

 

If you see posts flying with images, odds are good that those are coming straight from Android smartphone (been on Google's Pixel 7 Pro for more than a year, no reason to upgrade to the new model) with a 10,000 mAH standalone USB battery pack for quick charge & boost ... especially on port days & ashore, as the battery can run low. 

 

For "emergencies" - usually have the iPhone SE 2022 handy, mainly for voice calls, SMS & as a portable MiFi hotspot for tethering (permitted by Google Fi's plan as a premium "benefit" at no extra costs, if any - on top of applicable charges ... usually very little to none) and to browse, do currency conversion ... and, yes, check the hidden AirTags tracking things, that is on a different carrier, AT&T Wireless.   

[ellewoods]

I always have unlimited internet. I will usually make notes throughout the day in my notes app. Then before I go to sleep at night I will edit it to (hopefully) make sense. Then I will post. 

[sid_9169]

I can't speak for the "free" CC since I always purchase the Unlimited Premium internet, but I've never had much of a problem posting except that one time on the Bliss when the internet was rubbish from beginning to end... (That was 2018, so I assume it's been upgraded now...)

[graphicguy]

1 hour ago, sid_9169 said:

I can't speak for the "free" CC since I always purchase the Unlimited Premium internet, but I've never had much of a problem posting except that one time on the Bliss when the internet was rubbish from beginning to end... (That was 2018, so I assume it's been upgraded now...)

Same here.  The ships I’ve sailed with Starlink make things a LOT easier and quicker.  But, if you’re going to vlog live, everyday, you need the unlimited plan.  Plus, it’s way faster than the “free” minutes.

 

Before that, it was a highly frustrating (including posts getting lost), sllooooowww, live, drama filled posting experience!

Edited March 3 by graphicguy