wifi - and work

[rakesh]

I am considering going on one of Alaska or Caribbean cruise in May 2024.

Major factor in deciding on which cruise liner depends on qualify of wifi-which I will use for work.

I may or not need VPN to connect to work- but work more access with VPN access.

 

I am confused as to buying wifi as a separate add-on, or as part of package.

I am confused as to several levels of wifi that one can buy- ideally I want the fastest wifi I can get- but of course at a reasonable price.

 

 

Any recommendations/

 

Any   web sites (including cruise critic) with links to topics, such as cruise wifi advice.

[Heidi13]

37 minutes ago, rakesh said:

I am considering going on one of Alaska or Caribbean cruise in May 2024.

Major factor in deciding on which cruise liner depends on qualify of wifi-which I will use for work.

I may or not need VPN to connect to work- but work more access with VPN access.

 

I am confused as to buying wifi as a separate add-on, or as part of package.

I am confused as to several levels of wifi that one can buy- ideally I want the fastest wifi I can get- but of course at a reasonable price.

 

 

Any recommendations/

 

Any   web sites (including cruise critic) with links to topics, such as cruise wifi advice.

 

When discussing cruising and wifi, high speed and reasonable cost are never normally used in the same sentence.

 

If wifi access is key, then you should only be considering ships that have starlink installed. You should also be aware the the Geo-stationary sats, are less reliable in Alaska, due to their low altitude in the sky, while in the Caribbean, where they are at a higher altitude, you have less periods of no service

 

Skagway, at the berths by the mountain is notorious for having no sat service, as the mountain blocks direct line of sight to the sats.

 

Have not researched starlink access in Alaska, but I expect they have less sats visible above the horizon than in the Caribbean.

 

The other consideration, you can pay for fast access, but you are still limited to whatever bandwidth is available from visible sats. You are also sharing the bandwidth with fellow pax, crew and the ship's business, so speed depends on how many are sharing.

[CruiserBruce]

Many of the cruise line wifi programs don't allow VPNs...although that might be changing with the new Starlink systems. 

[mnocket]

You should choose a cruise ship that has Starlink internet service.  Here's a good resource for finding one....

Starlink on cruise ships: Which lines have faster internet connections on board? - The Points Guy

 

Then when you've narrowed down your choices, check out that cruise line's forum on CC to see whether or not people have been successful using a VPN.  Starlink supports VPNs, it's the cruise lines that may or may not allow it. 

Edited March 24 by mnocket

[jsn55]

While the cruiselines would like us to believe that 'their WiFi' is the greatest, the truth is that it's relatively hit or miss.  I've never had much trouble doing emails and doing research on the internet, but often it's slow and glitchy.  Just annoying, not a deal breaker like it would be under a work deadline.  I agree with mnocket, get some fresh views on the CC boards.  Things are changing all the time, and very fast.  

[klfrodo]

If you need to use the VPN required by your employer to access their intranet, my past experience was that the VPN would time out before I could get connection due to the delay in the connectivity (ping) which is often in the high hundred mS if not thousand mS.

[Noledad77]

Not for nothing, I'm wondering why you'd want to work while on a cruise. I'd LOL in my boss' face if they asked me to work on mine.

I can understand if there are extenuating circumstances (i.e., you don't get paid if you don't work, you're the boss/owner of a company) but I can assure you that I won't even think about work while I'm at sea.

I do hope, for your sake, that you're able to get it worked out (no pun intended?) and get done what you need to get done, and still have some time to relax and have fun!

[klfrodo]

2 hours ago, Noledad77 said:

Not for nothing, I'm wondering why you'd want to work while on a cruise. I'd LOL in my boss' face if they asked me to work on mine.

 

This type of post (of which there are many that cover this subject) gets me triggered.

Over my 35-year career in the profession I chose, I had a few "bosses" where I would do what you suggest. More often than not though, I worked with "leaders". There is a huge difference between bosses and leaders. A true leader allows you to complete your mission with very little oversight. When working for a leader, if I can voluntarily answer a few questions, answer a few e-mails, knock out an on-line training session when I have some downtime on a cruise to make the team more quickly complete its mission, then I was happy to do it. And, since it's my time and my money, and my vacation/holiday, I'm not sure why anyone else would be concerned about how I spend my time.

I remember the ole phrase that went something like, if you do something you truly enjoy, you'll never work a day in your life. That was my job story. I enjoyed every minute of it and feel blessed to have been able to do it. I've been retired for 7 years now and miss it every day.

[Capt_BJ]

I sailed a ship with STARLINK and tests showed I was realizing 3 mbps download ... THREE .... that's BAD <I see 300 at home>

 

they wouldn't be tossing more birds in the air every week if their coverage was solid. Depending on where you sail SL may not be the answer.

 

But if you choose to trust the marketing promises be my guest.

[Hlitner]

If good Internet is criteria for a cruise, you should consider not cruising!  Even with the new Starlink systems, you are at the mercy of the ship to put out reasonable bandwidth and a reliable WiFi system.  While we have been on some cruises where Internet was pretty good, it is still common to have outages (sometimes for days) or such a slow system that it becomes frustrating.  As to using VPNs.  many cruise lines/ships completely block that capability.

 

Hank

[Noledad77]

21 hours ago, klfrodo said:

This type of post (of which there are many that cover this subject) gets me triggered.

Over my 35-year career in the profession I chose, I had a few "bosses" where I would do what you suggest. More often than not though, I worked with "leaders". There is a huge difference between bosses and leaders. A true leader allows you to complete your mission with very little oversight. When working for a leader, if I can voluntarily answer a few questions, answer a few e-mails, knock out an on-line training session when I have some downtime on a cruise to make the team more quickly complete its mission, then I was happy to do it. And, since it's my time and my money, and my vacation/holiday, I'm not sure why anyone else would be concerned about how I spend my time.

I remember the ole phrase that went something like, if you do something you truly enjoy, you'll never work a day in your life. That was my job story. I enjoyed every minute of it and feel blessed to have been able to do it. I've been retired for 7 years now and miss it every day.

And you clearly didn't read the entire post, especially the part where I said I hope that they were able to do what they needed to do and still have some time to relax and have fun. But don't let the facts get in the way of your feelings.

[mnocket]

18 hours ago, Capt_BJ said:

I sailed a ship with STARLINK and tests showed I was realizing 3 mbps download ... THREE .... that's BAD <I see 300 at home>

 

they wouldn't be tossing more birds in the air every week if their coverage was solid. Depending on where you sail SL may not be the answer.

 

But if you choose to trust the marketing promises be my guest.

First it's relative (compare to pre-Starlink internet speeds on cruise ships, not to home internet). Second, the speed the end user sees is more a function of how the cruise lines implement Starlink (e.g. how do they throttle speeds) than it is the Starlink infrastructure.  Yes, Starlink continues to launch more and more satellites and things will only get better, but reports from most people who have had Starlink service are very positive.  There are always exceptions. 

[Capt_BJ]

it was VIKING OCEAN ... small ship cruising so the competition for bandwidth was small. BTW as a former Chief of Communications Operations for USCG, who was involved in first bringing commercial satcom data to our cutter fleet I probably have a better grasp of reality in this arena then most ..... Admittedly I was on a Norway/Iceland cruise that visited Longyearbyen.