My husband thinks he can "work" on board with wifi on the Wonder. Is he out of his mind?

[Elleinthecity]

DH needs to do some work while on our Alaska Wonder cruise. Has anyone attempted this? Is the wifi decent enough to connect to a VPN and dance around some spreadsheets?

I'm hoping y'all have no experience with this because VACATION!!!

 

[Calantha]

It depends on how much work he needs to do and when. When we were in port in Ketchikan, Juneau and Icy Strait Point, I just turned off the Disney Wi-Fi and turned on my cell service (we're in the US), and I had perfect connectivity. So you could tether your computer to that I suspect?

Out on the boat, I wouldn't hold my breath, unless the new internet service has arrived...I know it rolled out on the Fantasy this week, but I don't know about the Wonder.

 

[DisneyConvert]

Maybe download and upload emails. Work remotely using PC apps.
Save documents to a shared folder and upload/download judiciously.
Unlikely to be able to I/O lots of data (thin client) much less do Teams meetings.

Yes, in some ports. Follow the off-duty crew as they will know where good/cheap WiFi is.

 

[bcwife76]

We bought a very small internet package on the Wonder last week (think it was $20?). It was horrible. Timed out, didn't connect, took forever to load. So yeah....don't think he will be getting any work done on sea days. Best bet is to hot spot to your wifi while in port.

 

[jeffporfirio]

My husband thinks he can "work" on board with wifi on the Wonder. Is he out of his mind?​

Yes

 

[CastawayCayLover]

DH needs to do some work while on our Alaska Wonder cruise. Has anyone attempted this? Is the wifi decent enough to connect to a VPN and dance around some spreadsheets?

I'm hoping y'all have no experience with this because VACATION!!!

I've done plenty of work while on board. Spreadsheets or Word docs are fine as long as they're not large files that need to be sent and received. I've never used Teams or Zoom while on board so can't comment about them. All of the conference calls I've done were while I was in port and could use the international day pass plan from my cell phone carrier.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Yes, he is out of his mind. Why pay all that money to then spend your time working?

Other than that, depends on what he is doing. I use Teams for just about everything since the pandemic started. You can work on files without the internet connection. It then updates the files seamlessly when you do have a connection. If he plans on conducting meetings and keeping up-to-speed with email, no, probably can't (and shouldn't) be done.

 

[BrokeMack]

Yes

This is the only correct response.

 

[Husker Mike]

Yes, he is out of his mind. Why pay all that money to then spend your time working?

Other than that, depends on what he is doing. I use Teams for just about everything since the pandemic started. You can work on files without the internet connection. It then updates the files seamlessly when you do have a connection. If he plans on conducting meetings and keeping up-to-speed with email, no, probably can't (and shouldn't) be done.

Depends on the situation... if the choice is between either "I'm able to do a little bit of work in order to not have a disaster waiting when I get back" or having to cancel the cruise due to work obligations, I'd go for "try to do a little bit of work" option. Not ideal by any means, but sometimes it's the best solution.

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

This is the only correct response.

That is correct.

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

DH needs to do some work while on our Alaska Wonder cruise. Has anyone attempted this? Is the wifi decent enough to connect to a VPN and dance around some spreadsheets?

I'm hoping y'all have no experience with this because VACATION!!!

Yep, he sure is.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I have the type of job where it can be really difficult to step away for any length of time; it's hard on me as well as on people I work with. But I have to say that I have actually appreciated how cruising with DCL and its crappy internet (prior to recent upgrades....if any) has forced me to disconnect. Lol.

 

[BrokeMack]

All kidding aside and totally unhelpful, but I consider myself extremely fortunate that my current job has no out-of-office requirements. I'm of the opinion that we should adopt that French law (I think, it might be an EU thing) where your employer has to pay you overtime if they call you at home.

 

[iannovich]

If he can tether to a cell signal while in port, it might be doable. But if he is thinking that he will rely on the ship's wifi, it just won't work. Until the Wonder gets the upgrade that the Magic, Fantasy and Wish have, it just isn't a good idea. He will eat through internet package after internet package in the blink of an eye, while accomplishing little more than staring at spinning wheels and hourglasses.

I've spent over a month's worth of time specifically on the Wonder since the restart.

Unfortunately, I do need to be able to check in on my business while at sea. Shouldn't take me more than a few minutes to see if I have any fires to put out. Usually it's as simple as checking an app and if I have no messages, I'm done. Logon. Refresh. Logoff. Just a couple times a day. Easy peasy and not much of an interruption. I can sometimes get away with the 50mb free plan they give you on the first night.

But if there IS a message it becomes an adventure. It should usually should only take me 10 minutes tops to resolve an issue. Instead it takes forever to try to get a webpage to load and you find that while it was playing 'little-engine-that-could' it sucked down every drop of data you had... again. Time to buy a new package... again... I feel like I'm playing at a slot machine that just keeps taking my money, but I'm sure will pay off eventually, so I keep pumping money into it.

 

[DenLo]

We were on a non Disney Alaska cruise (Princess) in June, we were shocked at the poor internet connectivity. Another guest said she usually worked while cruising and couldn't get decent connectivity on that cruise. We both agreed that when we cruised to Cabo from LA, in the spring, the internet was excellent. The cruise line also blamed poor connectivity in Alaska as satellite positioning was poor. They said it was always like that in Alaska. Another passenger that had moved to Alaska in the last six months said internet was poor all over the place.

 

[Karin1984]

All kidding aside and totally unhelpful, but I consider myself extremely fortunate that my current job has no out-of-office requirements. I'm of the opinion that we should adopt that French law (I think, it might be an EU thing) where your employer has to pay you overtime if they call you at home.

Most EU countries have at least the policy 'outside work hours you are not required to answer your phone or e-mail'. Paying overtime if they call you during off-time sounds like a very French thing to do, their unions are strong.

 

[soniam]

My husband did some work on the Fantasy (old wifi) while we were quarantined due to covid. In St Thomas, he used his phone as a hotspot, because the cell data was way more reliable. He could barely work using the purchased ship data, so he mostly tried to do stuff offline or read emails. I think VPN/VNC/NX were right out with the ship data.

 

[Keyser]

Maybe download and upload emails. Work remotely using PC apps.
Save documents to a shared folder and upload/download judiciously.
Unlikely to be able to I/O lots of data (thin client) much less do Teams meetings.

Yes, in some ports. Follow the off-duty crew as they will know where good/cheap WiFi is.

This. I've done it before, but mostly working offline while just using internet to upload/download stuff. Be prepared to pay, also, though.

I've heard of people getting off in ports and using wifi in some local coffee shop or whatever when they needed higher bandwith. You can also sometimes get good cell signals in port and use data there.

To those wondering why you'd do this - sometimes you are just stuck with work that has to get done that you couldn't manage to finish before leaving. The worst was one day I had several hours of work to do, but got to spend it during a sea day - it was simultaneously some of the worst cruise time and the best "work time" I've had! I'd love it if I could work each day on a lounger looking out on the ocean with food and drinks just steps away.

 

[Elleinthecity]

Yes

Thank you. Sometimes you just need other opinions.

 

[Elleinthecity]

Yes, he is out of his mind. Why pay all that money to then spend your time working?

Other than that, depends on what he is doing. I use Teams for just about everything since the pandemic started. You can work on files without the internet connection. It then updates the files seamlessly when you do have a connection. If he plans on conducting meetings and keeping up-to-speed with email, no, probably can't (and shouldn't) be done.

He has to access files via a VPN. That’s how his company sets things up. I don’t they’d allow downloading files to a local drive. I agree that everyone should be able to take a vacation. Sadly his management does not.