Please post names of ships that have high-speed Internet available in the cabins (not just the business center or public-area WiFi) along with the cost.

Carnival has it on all ships since Carnival Valor. Valor, Liberty, Freedom, and soon-to-be Splendor all have it. Cost varies depending on the package purchased, but it runs an average of about $0.50 per minute.

Good to see you posting again, QuietLion.

This is what I found on the Carnival site:

"To access the Wireless Internet Service, the guest�s laptop must be in relative close proximity to a Wireless Access Point. The specific locations of access points vary from ship to ship. A complete list of these locations can be obtained from the Internet Caf�."

My travel agent says that Silver Seas has high-speed internet access in the rooms, but it is sketchy because of all the steel in the construction of the ships.

It is certainly something that all the cruise lines are working on. Can't wait. We are now Platinum on Princess so we do get some free internet access. Sadly, it is not unlimited anymore.

As it says, it's different on different ships. On the newest ships (Valor, Liberty, Freedom, and Splendor) wifi is available from bow to stern, even in cabins. On most ships, it's available at the internet cafe and in most public spaces. On the oldest ships, it's only in the internet cafe.

How consistent is it in the cabins?

http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/.../connected.cfm

Great site, thanks ScottC.
They make a good point about going ashore to find an internet cafe - I euro per hour versus 20 euro on the boat, on my most cruise.
Once I'd got over the "how can I cope without 8 hours a day online?" initial panic, I actually reached the stage of thinking, "no, tomorrow will do for the email" stage - much more relaxing.

Silversea has worked fine for the cabins I've been stuck in. $250 buys 1000 minutes.

All Regent ships have wifi in cabins - cost is something like $50 for 250 minutes (don't really recall though since "Silver" and up get internet access for free).

Can you please explain, peteropny, what "silver and up" means. I am sorry to say that we have never sailed on Silver Seas and are unfamiliar with their programs.

Thanks.

peteropny was referring to Regent's frequent cruisers ranking & benefits

High speed on a ship sure doesn't mean DSL/Cable/T1 speed. More like 1999 dial up. And when a lot of people are trying to access the internet, it is even slower. Your minutes get eaten up rapidly.

I have yet to have anything close to "high speed"-read at least "wifi at the airport" speed on any cruise ship I have been on-Celebrity, HAL, Cunard, Princess and Seabourn. Just too much time wasting for a connection. If you absolutely MUST access email/internet from foreign ports, use the internet cafes in port. It took 23 minutes to book a rental car from the ship (Celebrity-December 2006)-waiting and waiting and waiting for the next page to load. And I wasn't searching for a car-I knew what I needed, just needed to book it before we got into Valparaiso.

In my own experience I've never had a problem, nor have I seen any complaints at cruise critic.

I can't speak for other lines, but this is not my experience with Carnival. You're right that it's not true "high-speed" like we see at home, but I regularly get ~256kbps onboard, which is not lightning fast but doesn't add an particularly noticeable lag for regular web surfing. 100 minutes supplies me with enough time to check my work email daily for a week plus check the news.

Carnival must have much better internet than any other cruise line I have been on. I had better (faster) internet service on Cunard using my Verizon air card from NYC to FLL (we were close enough to shore to get a connection) than I could get anyplace on the ship. And on X (which I sail at least 2 times per year), during dinner or late at night is the ONLY time the service has approached 256K. More likely a 56K connection.