WiFi included but it’s not really

[billc23]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

I work in IT and could probably figure out how to bring along a VPN.  It just creates two tiers.  One pax with a VPN with 40mps service. And one without with 1mps service.  Both paying the same price.

 

 

 

Please teach me how to use a VPN to increase internet speed!  

[Arizona Wildcat]

38 minutes ago, bEwAbG said:

The internet discussion is interesting but a fatal flaw of the OP's post is the idea that you have to send a photo to anyone, let alone pay more money to do so.  Texting photos is a relatively recent development in our lifetimes, even more so from the middle of the ocean.   I'm sure the recipients will survive without visual proof that you are where you say you are.

Agree.

It is really neat to be able to send photos.  Unlike the OP I have never had an issue sending a picture.   I do send in lower resolution and do try to avoid peak use times on board when the ship's bandwidth is divided by more users.

Always am amazed someone will spend a few thousand to fly to Europe, a few more for their cruise then complain about $90 to get internet fast enough to send pictures to friends.  Especially when waiting till the next port will offer a high speed connection.

Anyone else remember when you mailed photos using an envelope and a stamp?  How about calling the operator to get a long distance line?

[PTC DAWG]

1 hour ago, patty1955 said:

Getting drunk on a cruise never crosses my mind but I know lots of people do.

I thought this was about the internet… 🙂

[PTC DAWG]

12 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

What is a price worth paying?  My first cruise was in 1992. I didn’t have a cell phone and I had never heard of the internet. My pictures were taken on a Kodak disposable camera (some of which are in a box in the attic still waiting to be taken to Walgreens for 1 hour development) and all my memories of the trip were relayed to anyone who cared once I got back home. How ever do we manage now a days and what I wouldn’t give to go back to that simpler time. 

No doubt about it.,

[zitsky]

40 minutes ago, billc23 said:

Please teach me how to use a VPN to increase internet speed!  

 

Maybe start by reading post #50, in the thread you're in right now.

[patty1955]

40 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I thought this was about the internet… 🙂

You're right

[arealcheapskate]

7 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

What speeds are you seeing?

I had premium, wife had basic. Used the router with her basic login but over VPN, same speeds. Around 6mbps down and 1mbps up this was in Australia. In iceland a bit faster - not sure about the caribbean. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

15 minutes ago, arealcheapskate said:

I had premium, wife had basic. Used the router with her basic login but over VPN, same speeds. Around 6mbps down and 1mbps up this was in Australia. In iceland a bit faster - not sure about the caribbean. 

 

Thanks, this is the first time I've heard that with some routers you can essentially convert basic wifi to premium

[NutsAboutGolf]

Just showing proof you can get 60Mbps down on Carnival.  As stated the X throttled 5-6mbps gives me everything I need but it was quite nice on carnival to have every load in an instant

 

[Jim_Iain]

On 3/23/2024 at 11:34 AM, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

When starlink was first deployed on X, you could hit 40mbps but they throttled it down.  X wifi seems to be capped at 1mbps for basic and 5mbps for premium.  Last fall, was getting 60mbps with Carnival.  As slow as X is, it is literally revolutionary to what they had in the past which became unusable during peak times such as just before lunch or dinner services start 

 

I was on Solstice when they went live.    I was getting up to 80mbps up and down.   They had not yet announced that they were testing it.   Next cruise they had throttled it to 5mbps for Premium.   It was fun for the 8 days it was un-throttled.

[Traderboy]

You have all made my point.

it is not worth paying Celebrity for Premium WiFi.

Premium WiFi does not match its name.

At times it is not even in existence!

You are wasting your money if you pay for it

[Jeremiah1212]

8 minutes ago, Traderboy said:

You have all made my point.

it is not worth paying Celebrity for Premium WiFi.

Premium WiFi does not match its name.

At times it is not even in existence!

You are wasting your money if you pay for it

 

And there we have it  case closed. I've had Premium numerous times since StarLink was deployed and have never had a problem using my phone exactly as I do at home or on land in the US. 

Edited March 25 by Jeremiah1212

[Jim_Iain]

6 minutes ago, Traderboy said:

You have all made my point.

it is not worth paying Celebrity for Premium WiFi.

Premium WiFi does not match its name.

At times it is not even in existence!

You are wasting your money if you pay for it

 

I would say that is a personal choice and opinion.     Unfortunately you are expecting that in the real world you can get wired internet at a price point that is acceptable to you.   OK I don't worry about it as I get Free Premium as a Zenith so my perspective is different.   I don't expect Gigabyte speed while on a ship nor an Airline.      While it is not perfect I have no trouble streaming YouTubeTV worldwide without stutter.    Being from Silicon Valley I live in a connected world and accept the limitations.

 

Airlines have the same speed but I was willing to pay $25 for a 24 hour pass for my United 15 hour Flight next week to Sydney.    Is it a rip off yes.... but it is also a choice.    Same for you --- if you don't like it don't buy it.

[d9704011]

10 minutes ago, Traderboy said:

You have all made my point.

it is not worth paying Celebrity for Premium WiFi.

Premium WiFi does not match its name.

At times it is not even in existence!

You are wasting your money if you pay for it

I thought your original 'point' was that you had to upgrade your internet package to be able to send some photos and having to pay extra.

[Jim_Iain]

3 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

And there we have it  case closed. I've had Premium numerous times since StarLink was deployed and have never had a problem using my phone exactly as I do at home or on land in the US. 

 

As John Lydgate said --

 

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.”

― John Lydgate

[Ex-Airbalancer]

The only problem I find is when I am following Jim’s live feeds and he has post 20 pictures of doorways ,

I have to twiddle my thumbs for 5 minutes waiting to download the pictures 😉🤣

[hubofhockey]

On 3/23/2024 at 4:13 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

I'm curious what kind of service I'll be getting on the Millie around Japan....

 

 

Pocket WIFI, GoogleFi, or an eSim will probably work as good or better than what Celebrity provides.  We have the basic included with our Aqua Class, but we will also have GoogleFi and, from what I understand, it will be better than the package that comes with our Millennium cruise.

[Rick&Jeannie]

Just now, hubofhockey said:

Pocket WIFI, GoogleFi, or an eSim will probably work as good or better than what Celebrity provides.  We have the basic included with our Aqua Class, but we will also have GoogleFi and, from what I understand, it will be better than the package that comes with our Millennium cruise.

How does that help you while on board "at sea".  Don't you still have to go through the ship's system to "get to" the internet?  If not...how does that work?

[hubofhockey]

On 3/23/2024 at 10:42 PM, Alakegirl said:

Exactly.  It isn’t a charity.

 

Bet you WIFI income has replaced the rip off photo income they used to get.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

1 hour ago, hubofhockey said:

Pocket WIFI, GoogleFi, or an eSim will probably work as good or better than what Celebrity provides.  We have the basic included with our Aqua Class, but we will also have GoogleFi and, from what I understand, it will be better than the package that comes with our Millennium cruise.

Google Fi is a cellphone plane than will only be good connecting with land cellphone towers so it wouldn’t do much good once you are to far from land to connect to the towers 

Also you would have to have their international package in Japan 

[lorimay]

5 hours ago, Traderboy said:

You have all made my point.

it is not worth paying Celebrity for Premium WiFi.

Premium WiFi does not match its name.

At times it is not even in existence!

You are wasting your money if you pay for it

Please don't make blanket statements like this. I usually have to work remotely while on a cruise. I pay for premium wifi. I have been consistently able to do zoom  and google meets meetings in the Europe, transatlantic and the Caribbean. Is it the perfect picture I have at home? Not always but I can see everyone and they can see me. I can send pictures via my phone, download and post on sites like Cruise Critic, and stream content from Netflix and other streaming services. On basic wifi I can still check my email, send emails with attachments, make wifi calls via What's App. Some days it functions better than others but I'm not expecting perfect internet in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It's worth every penny to me to be able to get done what I need to.

[hubofhockey]

1 hour ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Google Fi is a cellphone plane than will only be good connecting with land cellphone towers so it wouldn’t do much good once you are to far from land to connect to the towers 

Also you would have to have their international package in Japan 

It's not an "international package".  The Unlimited Plan will work just fine there and, from what I understand, the cell signals are strong enough to pick up on the ship.  The Sakura website says everywhere they tested gets at least a 4G signal from Docomo or Softbank.  

[Ex-Airbalancer]

35 minutes ago, hubofhockey said:

It's not an "international package".  The Unlimited Plan will work just fine there and, from what I understand, the cell signals are strong enough to pick up on the ship.  The Sakura website says everywhere they tested gets at least a 4G signal from Docomo or Softbank.  

Sorry I should of wrote Unlimited Plus , as their Simple Unlimited is only Add data with Canada and Mexico 

 

[DaKahuna]

6 hours ago, hubofhockey said:

Pocket WIFI, GoogleFi, or an eSim will probably work as good or better than what Celebrity provides.  We have the basic included with our Aqua Class, but we will also have GoogleFi and, from what I understand, it will be better than the package that comes with our Millennium cruise.

 

 We sailed on Millennium last April/May and had the Premium Wi-Fi that came with our SkySuite.  I had not issues with it.  Yes, it is slower than the internet service I have at home but I was able to do email, VoIP, browse the web, upload/download Cruise Critic, post pictures, and stream NetFlix and YouTube to my hearts content with only the occasional interruption. 

 

 One secret I'll share is that moving about the ship it is necessary to sometimes disconnect and then reconnect when you reach your new location.  Not sure why but occasionally there will be a hand-off issue between the access points in some locations on the ship and disconnecting and reconnecting instead of relying on the mesh hand-off helped with connection issues a lot. 

 

 

Edited March 26 by DaKahuna

[NMTraveller]

9 hours ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

And there we have it  case closed. I've had Premium numerous times since StarLink was deployed and have never had a problem using my phone exactly as I do at home or on land in the US. 

I have gigabyte at home and 3 to 5 Mb is just slow...