Wifi on Cruises- for work
 

I am considering going on one of Alaska or Caribbean cruise in May 2024.

Major factor in deciding on which cruise liner depends on qualify of wifi-which I will use for work.

I may or not need VPN to connect to work- but it is easier to access work email and work apps with VPN access.



I am confused as to buying wifi as a separate add-on, or as part of package.
Unless going on luxury cruise liner, I understand wifi on cruises is not free.

I am confused as to several levels of wifi that one can buy- ideally I want the fastest wifi I can get- but of course at a reasonable price.





Any recommendations?



Any web sites (recommended by FT) with links to cruise wifi advice.

You may get responses here, however, your best bet would be posting your query on cruisecritic.com.

Our last two cruises were on Celebrity. One cruise we had the basic all inclusive; basic drinks package, basic wifi and prepaid tips. We had to upgrade the Wifi because the basic is just so slow and only good to check email. With the upgraded my husband watched the Premier Legue game on his laptop. The basic drinks package wasn't really worth it. It's only good for drinks of a certain price and there really isn't any comprehensive drinks menus to know what you're paying for. They are trying to pass off a margaita made with beer on the cheap drinks package. It was disgusting to say the least. So unless you drink beer or low cost drinks the drinks package may not be worth it.

The second cruise we just did the prepaid tips. Waited till we got on board and bought the high grade wifi on the first day we decided we wanted Wifi (it's prorated by day) and just bought drinks as we wanted. You can bring on soda/non-alchoholic drinks to keep in your cabin.

I would think that any cruise line that offers more than one speed internet you will need the premium one. The websites are pretty good about explaining what the internet speed can be used for.

Princess has converted to Starlink. It’s on all ships AFAIK. It has sufficient horsepower for streaming, video calling, surfing, etc. If I needed to work, I wouldn’t hesitate to book one of their Alaska cruises. There is anecdotal evidence on CC that it even works well on Antarctica voyages.

Basic WiFi on Celebrity used to be able to handle normal stuff like sending pictures, etc... but they now limited it. You can't really do much with it other than sending a few messages without pictures. If OP is on Celebrity, upgrade to premium internet is a must. Premium internet with Celebrity is on Starlink but is also limited by Celebrity on bandwidth. You will get about 5Mbps down and 2Mbps up. It's not bad, normal work can be done, but you probably can't host a video meeting.

Virgin is about to launch a much better premium wifi that they’re saying will be good enough for full work on their ships. They’re also marketing a work
from helm month long pass.

Agreed, you will get much better answers there for cruising related questions

Some cruise line internet packages may not allow access to all websites, even if they offer a premium or faster service. My husband's job includes monitoring several internet forums, but found out (after purchasing the premium package) that access to all of them was blocked, due to bandwidth considerations according to the customer service desk. I also believe that most streaming services and video calls were also blocked. This was in the Caribbean, and also a Starlink connection.

You might want to contact the cruise line directly for specifics.

Just got off an NCL Joy cruise - they are (or have) upgraded most ships to Starlink. The "Premium Streaming" package was fast, but I did have issues with my VPN and Authenticators in certain areas. I assume they were likely protecting me from what it saw as unknown behavior. The IPs are issued from a variety of Caribbean nations - so just be aware if that is an issue for your IT group. Otherwise, it was functional and I was able to do what I need...however, there were some blocks for video calling and some voice features. So your mileage may vary.

Virgin
 

This is a really cool offer-sail for a month for a smidge over $10,000 per CABIN for 2. Includes wi-fi, gratuities, specialty dining, group fitness.

Did a bit of research after a really disappointing StarLink experience, which fortunately will not be the norm.

A word of caution regarding StarLink. It uses lower-orbit satellites for improved responsiveness and speed, and it works wonderfully in areas it's designed to cover. But on our December Hong Kong-Singapore cruise on Celebrity, it was often reminiscent of dial-up for speed, maybe DSL a few times, but often no coverage at all. More populated corridors (and seaways) are going to have better coverage, but Starlink's advantages from lower orbits might turn into a disadvantage when you're off the beaten track.

I think StarLink should be a dramatic improvement for most cruise ship routes. But if work requires a good connection, I'd check with others who have traveled the same route previously.

Mike Jacoubowsky ,


Your experience with Starlink is a big contrast to mine. We went from HK to Singapore in March on Seabourn and had absolutely great wifi. We did have the "Streaming" package, which is marketed as good for streaming, VPN, internet telephony and cloud access.

We were told it was hit & miss on that route, and in our case, a miss. The crew themselves were quite frustrated with it. We were in The Retreat so we had to best wifi package. Didn't matter if we were in our room or anywhere else on the ship.

Some believed it had something to do with China. Glad your experience was better! I did look up the Starlink coverage maps and they don't have much going on in that area.

Last year we had an interesting situation with Starlink sailing the South Pacific. Everythng was fine except when we were in port at Noumea. No connectivity the entire day until we sailed away.

This is for general information. Explora Starlink so superior to the other two lines I've been on recently.....Seabourn and Crystal. If being connected is serious for your business, Explora is worth a look. Plus, IME no blockage of anything.

You will get much better wifi in the Caribbean than in Alaska.
Between the Geography and satellite position, the connectivity in Alaska can be slower than old dial-up service.

If you have AT&T, there is a new option!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ramseyq...hip-travelers/

GigSky may be an even better deal, if you have an unlocked phone. And if you have an older phone lying around, you can get that one unlocked by the carrier and hotspot off it (yes, GigSky allows hot-spotting so you don't need multiple accounts if more than one of you).
https://www.gigsky.com/data-cruises

What I don't understand is why the cruise lines allow these new plans, which seriously undermine their onboard wifi profit center. I believe all of the new connectivity-at-sea options that work through your phone (not through a satellite receiver) use the ship's "cellular at sea" GSM connection.

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Seabourn uses Starlink connection, which is superfast. Regular wifi is free, but there is a faster "Stream" package. Due to my status with them, I get the Stream package, it is allows wifi calling. Not sure about the regular package.

I know I have been successful using Skype on Silversea's basic package, and if I recall correctly, Viking.

Honestly, I don't find these plans that have been announced recently by GigSky and ATT to really be at all competitive. Ok, yeah, maybe if you use no data at all over that time period? But if you're going to need to do anything with data, the GigSky prices are pretty obnoxious in my opinion. I saw someone hawking this on youtube as an alternative to the "high priced" internet on the ships, and about the only thing I can figure is they clearly were being paid to promote it.

Now, I'm not saying that the cruise line plans are all that reasonable, but realistically, even since most of them have gone with starlink, other than price, they've been pretty decent. I have no idea what speeds the cellular at sea stuff is getting, but starlink has definitely in general been enough to be able to do things like zoom or streaming. (And of course, if you need to do either of those, you're going to blow through the gigsky data allotment in no time at all). Obviously some lines are better than others on pricing, but realistically, if you're going to need streaming capability, you're probably still far better off on the cruise line plans that the cell phone plans that have been revealed so far.)

Even Starlink is dependent upon location. Our cruise December 2024 on Celebrity Solstice, Hong Kong to Singapore, had Starlink and streaming upgrade. Terrible coverage. When it was "on" it was dreadfully slow. Maybe two out of the 13 days it was ok.

Best "deal" in many cases would be to use the GigSky (or whatever) only while out to sea, and a very inexpensive non-sea SIM card for use while in ports. Most modern phones allow multiple e-sims but one needs to understand how to switch between them. I'm on Mint Mobile and was surprised that I could keep my Mint phone number in use while using data from a foreign esim overseas.

You can have multiple profiles, but in general, only one eSim can be active at a time.

At least with an iPhone 14Pro, it was possible to choose a "Primary" sim for calls and another sim for data. Much easier to do than I thought it would be. At least with Mint Mobile anyway.