Internet on Cruises

[pcslookout]

Is it worth it? Can you stream Netflix ?

 

[midnight growler]

You're paying hundreds to thousands of dollars to go on a cruise and you want to watch Netflix?

 

[pcslookout]

You're paying hundreds to thousands of dollars to go on a cruise and you want to watch Netflix?

Yes but only at night before bed to catch up on some shows.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I would not rely on it, it's probably expensive or not fast enough. I would just bring a bunch of predownloaded stuff on a hard drive.

 

[pcslookout]

I would not rely on it, it's probably expensive or not fast enough. I would just bring a bunch of predownloaded stuff on a hard drive.

Actually it is not that expensive but that is what I am doing by bringing my Tablet just to be safe if there is no internet or the internet sucks.

 

[Murloc]

a cruise is a week or so anyway right?
Just bring them with you.

 

[Jeeebus]

internet on cruise ships generally sucks for anything other than checking email. we're going on royal caribbean's new ship in a few months that promises "fastest internet on the sea" or something like that... we'll see.

 

[ViRGE]

What cruise line will you be on? I just did a Royal Caribbean cruise last month with their Voom service, which is MEO satellite based. Though latency was a couple of hundred ms, connectivity was consistent and every time I ran a speed test I got 4Mbps, which appeared to be the per-user cap.

They advertise their service as allowing/optimized for streaming, and while I never tested that aspect, I don't doubt it would work. You may not get HD, but 4Mbps is plenty for streaming at a lower resolution.

 

[sdifox]

Lulz. Just unplug. I didnt miss internet at all when I was at Cuba for a week.

 

[ponyo]

It's expensive and slow.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Expensive and slow for sure. It actually annoyed me that they couldn't provide a better service. Is sat net really that bad or are cruise ships just cheap?

 

[sdifox]

Expensive and slow for sure. It actually annoyed me that they couldn't provide a better service. Is sat net really that bad or are cruise ships just cheap?

Sat bandwidth is very expensive and high latency.

 

[quikah]

Yes but only at night before bed to catch up on some shows.

Just download the shows you want to watch before you leave.

 

[ViRGE]

Sat bandwidth is very expensive and high latency.

Depends on the sat type. The MEO stuff isn't bad; it's still over a hundred milliseconds each way, but it's workable. It's the older GEO sats that are especially bad, since GEO is so far out there.

 

[sdifox]

They should just fly some relay blimps in the Carribean and Alaska for the cruise ships.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_platform_station#High-altitude_airship

 

[Rubycon]

I never understood the fascination with watching movies when you're supposed to be on vacation. Especially on a cruise.

Anyhow, if you insist on having movies with you, the best way is to pick up a Sandisk wireless connect - https://www.sandisk.com/home/mobile-device-storage/connect-wireless-stick.

Basically what you do is put your movies and music (all popular types recognized) on this just like a flash drive. Use their app to set up SSID and security and connect your devices to its wifi network. You can keep the drive in your pocket and as long as your mobile device is within range you can stream your movies off it. Provides convenience of a streaming service without internet dependency. You'll look like a typical geek that can't get away from tech, of course but we already know who you are.

While it is true that older InmarSat-B was too slow for this type of service, O3B and even LEOSATs are becoming readily available for maritime backhauls delivering gigabit speeds and sub 100ms latency. But you will have to pay for it!

 

[sdifox]

I never understood the fascination with watching movies when you're supposed to be on vacation. Especially on a cruise.

Anyhow, if you insist on having movies with you, the best way is to pick up a Sandisk wireless connect - https://www.sandisk.com/home/mobile-device-storage/connect-wireless-stick.

Basically what you do is put your movies and music (all popular types recognized) on this just like a flash drive. Use their app to set up SSID and security and connect your devices to its wifi network. You can keep the drive in your pocket and as long as your mobile device is within range you can stream your movies off it. Provides convenience of a streaming service without internet dependency. You'll look like a typical geek that can't get away from tech, of course but we already know who you are.

While it is true that older InmarSat-B was too slow for this type of service, O3B and even LEOSATs are becoming readily available for maritime backhauls delivering gigabit speeds and sub 100ms latency. But you will have to pay for it!

Err why not juts copy the movies to the internal storage or microsd of the tablet?

 

[Rubycon]

Err why not juts copy the movies to the internal storage or microsd of the tablet?

Sharing amongst devices is much better.
The drive is a file server, wifi access point with DHCP server in one. I'm sure they can be hacked to do other things as well.
Not all devices have removable storage OR the capacity of a dedicated solution.

 

[sdifox]

Sharing amongst devices is much better.
The drive is a file server, wifi access point with DHCP server in one. I'm sure they can be hacked to do other things as well.
Not all devices have removable storage OR the capacity of a dedicated solution.

ATOT basement dwelling virgins sharing movies? Surely you jest!

Besides, you can do that through hotspotting and a dlna server app.

 

[pcslookout]

I just found out internet on some cruise ships is actually decent.

 

[cbrunny]

"Catch up on Netflix" does not compute.

 

[pcslookout]

"Catch up on Netflix" does not compute.

Netflix lets you download some original tv shows now.

 

[renz20003]

It's like 56k, there's a data cap and it's freaking expensive.

 

[Jeeebus]

I never understood the fascination with watching movies when you're supposed to be on vacation. Especially on a cruise.

Some of us need decent internet for more mundane reasons - like managing a law firm while at sea. Clients and judges don't really care where you are - if you're not responding to their needs, they're not particularly happy. Sucks... but you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[pcslookout]

It's like 56k, there's a data cap and it's freaking expensive.

Most cruises nowadays don't have data caps except for Disney Cruises still.