Picking up WiFi while in port while on the ship

[rjack22]

We will be on the Panama Canal cruise, LA to FLL. The ports are Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco, Huatulco, Puntarenas, Fuerte Amador, Cartagena, and Aruba. And lets not forget the canal itself.

 

While the ship is docked in these ports (well, not the canal obviously) can you get Wifi from the shore in any of the ports, like from on your balcony? I'm thinking it would be cheaper than the ships WiFi. I am not talking about going onshore and using a Internet Cafe. I prefer to use my own laptop and I won't take it ashore.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this?

[paul929207]

I have been to all but Cartegena on cruises and could not get shoreside wifi from my cabn.

[bubbadog]

I Seriously doubt it,and i dont know as i would trust the sites,you should be able to use ships wifi;)

[Pam in CA]

Some people have said they've gotten WiFi while on their balcony in port but that's probably few and far between. You can try it but I doubt you'll be able to get a good signal.

[snowskier]

We were in all these ports in October on a Panama Canal trip. Could not get wifi on our balcony in any of them.

[Bill B]

You have to be fairly close for it to work (or send a very powerful signal) - electromagnetic radiation attenuates proportionally to the square of the distance between sender and receiver.

[ericosmith]

I got a good signal in Aruba from the balcony. Two of them in fact. There was a charge but it was fairly inexpensive. I want to say $2.95 per hour for the least expensive one. This was actually the only port that I thought to check.

[rcacace]

Check with any of the crew about if it's possible. They'll know for sure if there's any usable signal & if not they'll know of the closest free WiFi place. I always see them getting off the ship with their laptops.

[txsaxplayer]

Check with any of the crew about if it's possible. They'll know for sure if there's any usable signal & if not they'll know of the closest free WiFi place. I always see them getting off the ship with their laptops.

 

Let me confirm that the best source of information may well be crew members. When I was on the crew we depended on our laptops to keep in touch with home, and we would be going through the same ports for the whole season. You can bet we figured out where the signals were.

 

My favorite was Santa Cruz in the Canary Islands, where the tourist authorities saw fit to make a signal happen in the transition area between the port and the town, for FREE. Of course this information will be of no value to you in Panama, other than to recommend asking a crew member where they get their wifi signals.

 

RF

[California Native]

In Cabo you will be tendered..

I was able to pick up some hotels on our Balcony BUT they were secure so I couldnt go any further except seeing the signal strength

Acapulco was the same thing

but you can always try!

[j!m]

take your blackberry it will work

 

and the roaming charges for data are not too much

 

hava great cruise

[rjack22]

But I don't have a Blackberry.

 

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I didn't really expect to be able to, but I thought it was worth asking.