Queen Elizabeth Wifi

[asdf1245]

Just how reliable and quick is the QE Wifi onboard?   Is it Starlink or some other sort of Sat Comm?

 

Does Cunard offer better discounted wifi packages than what they show on their website?

 

Thanks.

[s.s.France]

I used it last October. It was very fast and reliable. Its Starlink as far as I know. Reception in Suite and Public areas very good.

[Pushpit]

It is Starlink and pretty good, much better than what there before (based on QV, I've not been on QE since Starlink was put on). In my case it's better than my home broadband. It's good enough for Teams and streaming, as examples.

 

If you don't have status with Cunard then you will get a better deal buying in advance, unless your OBC is more generous than your needs. Cunard does sometimes offer some deals / promotions at non predictable intervals - these will get emailed to you and often feature in this Board. As far as I can recall they typically don't offer deals once on board.

[JT1101]

It's Starlink - all the Cunard fleet has undergone the conversion to Starlink.

[NE John]

30 minutes ago, JT1101 said:

It's Starlink - all the Cunard fleet has undergone the conversion to Starlink.

Finally…a good use of OBC. 

[daisybel]

Starlink very good and purched using Diamond status. On our last two cruises I needed to “WFH” and was pleased how fast it was. By buying it on the second day after boarding, it lasted for about 20 days 

[e&mcruise]

Just off QE two weeks ago......wifi was awful and nearly ruined our trip as my Husband had to do some minimal work whilst we were away and really struggled.

 

If you are using your mobile phone on a wifi package, when you go floor to floor it will disconnect your device and you have to continually log in.

 

Hair pulling frustration.

 

We had three services and really only managed to get a stationary laptop in our QG penthouse suite to work consistently.

 

When we complained to the Pursers office (on several occasions both by phone and in person) we were treated like criminals somehow trying to wrought the system. All we wanted was what we had paid for.

 

If you NEED wifi to work whilst away you will struggle unless in port. If it just for fun or keeping in touch you will be fine.

[Cruisermatic]

Just on board Queen Elizabeth for 28 days- bought 2 Internet packages on their Valentine's day special special prior to boarding - excellent discount

 

Needed one dedicated and one to share.

 

Starlink speed was excellent all the time

 

Was able to switch between hardware phones / laptop constantly very easily

[D&N]

I'm not sure how well access points are located on QE and QV just now. I read the reports of upgrades during QM2's drydocking in November.

But Starlink still doesn't offer cover worldwide, so service will be variable depending on where ships are. Here's a link to a coverage map.

https://www.starlink.com/map

[NE John]

1 hour ago, D&N said:

I'm not sure how well access points are located on QE and QV just now. I read the reports of upgrades during QM2's drydocking in November.

But Starlink still doesn't offer cover worldwide, so service will be variable depending on where ships are. Here's a link to a coverage map.

https://www.starlink.com/map

Thanks for the link but the map doesn’t show what ocean areas are covered. Am I missing something?

I’m impressed that Mongolia has full coverage though. 

[exlondoner]

5 minutes ago, NE John said:

Thanks for the link but the map doesn’t show what ocean areas are covered. Am I missing something?

I’m impressed that Mongolia has full coverage though. 

Yaks always like to keep in touch with each other.

[D&N]

52 minutes ago, NE John said:

Thanks for the link but the map doesn’t show what ocean areas are covered. Am I missing something?

I’m impressed that Mongolia has full coverage though. 

There's a drop down at AVAILABILITY. Selecting one of the other options suggests it doesn't work very well in some areas that have satellite coverage. I don't know anything about how that all works. There are other sites such as SatMagazine that try to explain some of what's behind it all.

 

But I assume that initially the target will have been to cover inhabited land areas since that's where they are most likely to make money and any sea coverage will have resulted from that. Some articles mention being able to switch off coverage, an example given was ocean areas without regular shipping lanes.

[asdf1245]

Thanks One and All,

 

We're doing a Japan, Alaska, Canada cruise from May through June, so we'll be crossing the Pacific as well.   I note the map shows no availability in South Korea or Taiwan presently but they are only on our cruise for a day each.   Its more important that I can access VOIP while out at sea or if VOIP is unavailable at least receive emails.

 

Nice to see China, Russia and North Korea all Blacked Out.

Edited March 30 by asdf1245

[LaAna]

Just a quick tip to anyone struggling with a weak or unreliable wifi signal: make sure your device is set to treat the connection as metered.  Most phones will do this automatically but it is my experience that laptops do not and tablets vary.  Setting the connection as metered means that your device won't download updates and other nonsense in the background while you struggle to check your email, and can make a real difference in speed and stability.  Used to be the only way I could do anything online on pre-Starlink QM2 was to be in metered mode, but these days the signal strength and speed is much improved.