wifi/ vonage report

[longboard55]

So we just got back from 7 days on the magic. Now I know there are many who want no part of wifi on a trip but for some of us it has been a deal killer for work related things, so here is what I expereinced.

We went with the 1000 Mb/s package for $89 and used most of it up. The speed seemed fine, ran a few tests and seemed to be about 3 mb/s which is about what we get on land. I did emails, also did gotomy pc to connect to a computer at work, the goomypc was a little chunky but it always is.

Also I have a Vonage account so I used their vonage app on an I phone to make phone calls. This allows you to make phone calls just using the internet so no charges other than useing up data. Rang right thru, sound quality was not the best, a little garbeled, but made several calls with no issues.

Overall, very well pleased with everything. Being self employed you can not just check out of life for a week, so I have avoided cruises, but this seemed to work fine.

Note to anyone at disney, just make Wifi free at all parks and cruises the way it is at disneyworld. My daughter sent about 200 instragrams on her last DW trip and did an amazing job of promoting your park. Her freinds were greeeen with envy. No better way to sell trips.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I used it on the magic this summer got through a number of packages, fast but expensive.

 

[longboard55]

no packages are free, just like excursions and beer. You just put them on your world card.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

no packages are free, just like excursions and beer. You just put them on your world card.

Well, most of the time. Currently DCL is offering a free 50mg package, if you sign up the first day.

 

[jstewartgt]

Note to anyone at disney, just make Wifi free at all parks and cruises the way it is at disneyworld. My daughter sent about 200 instragrams on her last DW trip and did an amazing job of promoting your park. Her freinds were greeeen with envy. No better way to sell trips.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure there is enough bandwidth on the ships to provide free access. If enough people are trying to video chat home, then you wouldn't even be able to get email to go through. Pay as you go is the best way to regulate, though I do think the costs are a little high

 

[xlxo]

So we just got back from 7 days on the magic.

seemed to be about 3 mb/s which is about what we get on land

That's quite a bit slower than the 24Mbps I found on the Wonder. Did you you notice speed improvements at night (ie midnight)?

 

[jstewartgt]

That's quite a bit slower than the 24Mbps I found on the Wonder. Did you you notice speed improvements at night (ie midnight)?

Out of curiosity, how far were you from port when you received these speeds?

 

[xlxo]

It's satellite, so distance from land is irrelevant. With a ship of 2400 passengers and crew, I expect congestion to be lowest after midnight. I also expect usage to be lower on Day 1 until the internet addicts need their fix later in the cruise.

I did a two speed tests on Day 1 departing from Vancouver going North. Each test consumes 10mb of data.

 

[jstewartgt]

It's satellite, so distance from land is irrelevant. With a ship of 2400 passengers and crew, I expect congestion to be lowest after midnight. I also expect usage to be lower on Day 1 until the internet addicts need their fix later in the cruise.

I did a two speed tests on Day 1 departing from Vancouver going North. Each test consumes 10mb of data.

I'm not so sure it is anymore. They have clearly made improvements over the last couple of years and one model many ships are moving to is to use a land based connection model when close to land which tends to have much higher bandwidth.

It's possible that many are seeing good speeds when closer to land, but don't necessarily realize the correlation.

 

[johnatthebar]

There are now several companies at the game of shipboard internet access, so there are always new receivers, new protocols, new satellite tracking equipment, and new methods (such as hybrid land-based and sat). For this reasons things will keep changing and continue to vary ship by ship. Additionally, the location, weather, sea conditions, etc all take a toll. Further, and this is a big one when it comes to voice and video conferencing, the bandwidth isn't necessarily the main concern, but the latency is a huge factor, and the latency in many of these set-ups is far worse than mobile internet, never-mind traditional land-based broadband. On the upside, it should only get better, and hopefully cheaper.