captiveguru

Looking at one of Cunard's fall 2014 "New England and Canada" cruises. One problem: I must be able to use the internet to teach an online class from 7 to 9 PM EDT on 9/22. It looks like the ship will be within 12 hours of QC at that time and well within the St. Lawrence Seaway.

This class does not use video streaming. It is a Citrix "Go-To-Meeting" event. The internet is used to display my PowerPoint slides and carry my voice. I could use a "landline" for the audio.

Does anyone have experience with the QM2 internet capability? Can I do this?

gegarrenton

My experience was a transatlantic crossing, so I really don't know if it is valid for your use, but we have perfect sat based internet access the whole time.

DanJ

The internet on the ships is often described as similar to dial up. No idea how well a multimedia presentation will go. I'm not sure how fast the ship will be sailing up the St Lawrence, but 10 or 12 hours prior to reaching Quebec City, you will at the least, be near Rimouski or to the west, and quite possibly within cell service range. I would think in an area like that, the ship would be required to turn off it's own cell service, lest people on land pick up the ship rather than their own service towers. You might be able to use your own cell phone hotspot to do the presentation, rather than relying on the shipboard internet.

fredjr

Please contact Cunard. There is almost no way we can give you an accurate answer.
I can tell you however, internet packages are available and will be far, far less expensive than a cell program.
I am unaware of any cruise line that disables their internet service. I have never heard of this but it could be a valid issue.
I am facing almost exactly the same conundrum on another cruise line sailing from QC.

DanJ

To be clear, I didn't say they would disable their internet service, but cruise ships are supposed to turn off their cell phone system when it can conflict with shore based systems. Sailing down the St Lawrence can cause all sorts of issues if the ship is closer to a town than a cell tower is. (I don't know how far apart cell towers usually are). Similarly, I sailed from Baltimore a few years ago on Carnival, and my cell phone showed AT&T all the way down the Chesapeake and past Norfolk before it switched to the Cellular At Sea (or whatever it was called at the time) network (and I promptly turned it off).

Also, depending on his package, the data usage on his phone might be cheaper than 2 hours of ship internet (minimum of about $70). But I wasn't thinking that the cost is the big deal maker or breaker here, it's the availability of service. Not to mention that time of evening is also a big internet usage time, so the service will be even slower.

captiveguru

I did ask the Cunard Sales Rep. She said there would be "No problem," but I do not think she understood what I was asking. Plus, she was trying to sell me the cruise so, like most sales people, she was willing to promise me the moon. If you know how to get in touch with an IT person at Cunard please share.

Cost is not my main concern. I need a 1 Mbps connection from 7 to 9. I have used my cell phone to tether and, with a 4G signal I have had 10 Mbps.

nux

See also: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...et-cruise.html

gegarrenton

The QM2 internet is satellite based, not cellular. It's provided by Inmarsat last time I was on board, who is the same provider we use for offshore broadband on racing yachts. It's plenty fast, and doesn't get turned off.

The biggest issue would be if the QM2 disabled it for cost reasons when not doing a crossing (not a cruise). If customer service said that's it's always on, it most likely is.

DeirdreTours

I am quite surprised to read that other pax have not experience issues with internet access on the QM2. I was on the ship for 7 day crossing in June 2012 and July 2013. On both crossings, internet was painfully slow and simply unusable most evenings. During "high use" periods, even signing on was very difficult, requiring multiple attempts (as in 15-20 attempts).
Cell phone service was also very spotty- I had a few business calls I had to make and was not able to be understood by the other party on half of them.

If you are close enough to land to use the land system, you shouldn't have problems, but I would not count on being able to use the cellular at sea or the onboard internet at a specific time.

DeirdreTours

Just completed another Atlantic crossing on the QM2, August 19-27. I can report the internet is still impossibly slow for large portions of the day. Early morning and late night are manageable, but midmorning to late evening are simply overloaded with users. Pages will typically just time out during these hours.

ralfkrippner

I've just travelled that route on Celebrity Summit - on the St. Lawrence there always was a reliable connection but AFAIK this depends a lot on weather also.

Celebrity have SAT based Internet available on the ships. In the early morning hours this was very fast but probably I have been using a good part of the available bandwith. As elite frequet cruisers get a package of free minutes and they now sell unlimited internet packages during promotions free as part of the cruise, lots of users compete for the bandwith especially 8-10 am and 3-6 pm in my experience. During those times downloads were VERY slow and uploads will probably be even slower.

Picking up land based signals in the hours before arrival at Quebec City was spotty IIRC.

So IMO doing a 2 hours online class is probably impossible.

If there is no other option, then try to get advice onboard for the best spot with priviledged bandwith available. On Celebrity they have an invitation only space called the Michaels Club. There they had an access point with somewhat privileged allotment of bandwith. It was probably double or triple the bandwith I would have had in my cabin. Conference rooms might be another possibility for that.