mike2608 Posted September 4, 2022 Report Share Posted September 4, 2022 I am cruising on the Symphony OTS in the Eastern Caribbean, does anyone know how the Internet quality is? I plan on using Live stream on my 2 dogs that are being boarded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCIfan1912 Posted September 4, 2022 Report Share Posted September 4, 2022 Well I don't have specific experience with Symphony but Oasis a few weeks was not very good. Adventure a few weeks before that was downright awful and almost completely unusable. A few years ago though Anthem Internet was pretty good. So it's hot or miss. Hopefully symphony is better than Oasis was a few weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codyh21 Posted September 4, 2022 Report Share Posted September 4, 2022 Sailed on Navigator for two weeks in 2019 and managed to stream college football a couple weekends. Mind you it did buffer from time to time but was able to watch my teams game at least Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 It really depends on expectations. If you have gigabit fiber at home you'll likely think Voom stinks. If you have rural DSL at home you'll likely feel right at home. Voom hasn't changed over the past 10 years while many of us have been fortunate to get ever better speeds at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAYNO Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 Some folks have had great service. Us not so much. Poor service, or slow service might be tolerable. But when it doesn't work at all, or you don't know when it's working or not, then excuses do not make it better. And to be fair, we have also been on cruises where the service worked quite well. RCIfan1912 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swar Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 Great surf and stream 2 weeks ago on Symphony OTS. Ok service on all other Caribbean cruises. Terrible service on Alaska cruises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda R Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 The regular Voom is not very good. But Voom and Stream is fairly good. We had no issues. And looked at our pets at home on the cameras! haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need2cruz Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 I sailed Symphony this past Feb, but the Western itinerary. We used the surf and stream and it worked well for us. We have cameras set up in our house to watch that our teens were getting ready for school and not doing anything crazy. The videos from both the inside and the outside Ring camera always worked when we checked. asquared17 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustfsu Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 15 hours ago, mike2608 said: I am cruising on the Symphony OTS in the Eastern Caribbean, does anyone know how the Internet quality is? I plan on using Live stream on my 2 dogs that are being boarded. I was on Symphony last Sept. and it was pretty solid,but also less people on board. Going on Allure in 12 days, heard it isn't that great, but I will report back. Soon we won't have to worry when they get Starlink on the ships by next April RCIfan1912 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCIfan1912 Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 Now we I understand it in the next few months all Royal Caribbean ships will have Statlink. I'm looking forward to this on Oasis next May/June. I already booked/ordered the internet for that cruise. I'm wondering if there will be any kind of price increase with this new Internet? I'm gonna be curious to see all the reports of speed with this is implemented over the next few months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PPPJJ-GCVAB Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 2 hours ago, dustfsu said: I was on Symphony last Sept. and it was pretty solid,but also less people on board. Going on Allure in 12 days, heard it isn't that great, but I will report back. Soon we won't have to worry when they get Starlink on the ships by next April noticed you are on the same cruise as a few others of us. Did you check the Roll Call for our cruise? Some of us are planning to meet up on Day 2…just to say Hello. RCIfan1912 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruiseGus Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 I have never been that disappointed with Surf & Stream, sometime to stream I have had to hunt for an onboard location for a better signal. Again remember a lot also depends on the position of the ship. It can be slow at times but I'm not trying to "work" from the ship either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattycruise Posted September 6, 2022 Report Share Posted September 6, 2022 On 9/4/2022 at 4:10 PM, RCIfan1912 said: Well I don't have specific experience with Symphony but Oasis a few weeks was not very good. Adventure a few weeks before that was downright awful and almost completely unusable. A few years ago though Anthem Internet was pretty good. So it's hot or miss. Hopefully symphony is better than Oasis was a few weeks ago. In June I was on Oasis and the Voom (surf only) was AWFUL. I finally paid the difference ($5 per day) to get the Surf and Stream. I must say, that was equally as bad. Texts wouldn't go through, calls dropped, facetime glitch/delay, what'sapp glitch/delay. Then an hour later it was fine. I was just got off Oasis from my August 28 sailing and had Surf only and I coiuld actually open webpages (unlike June) as well as make calls, text AND use facetime (facetime always took about 30 seconds to a minute to "catch up" when we answered, then it was fine). This worked just like it did back in Sept and Oct when I did not pay for the Surf/Stream package. It was amazing! RCIfan1912 and WAYNO 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrimsonCruiser Posted September 6, 2022 Report Share Posted September 6, 2022 Can't speak to Symphony but on Allure last week the Surf & Stream internet in room was pretty weak. Tried watching a YT video on 360p and it had serious lag and buffering time. Even just loading FB, email etc was iffy. Internet was better in common areas, though, but I never tried streaming at those areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asquared17 Posted September 6, 2022 Report Share Posted September 6, 2022 ^^ i have also noticed this. sometimes, depending on where your cabin is located vs wherever they have the signal bouncing off, can really help/hinder your speed. (i am sure there is a much more technical way to put it, haha) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jupiter03 Posted September 6, 2022 Report Share Posted September 6, 2022 Voom is so inconsistent. On my Liberty of the Seas cruise in March 2022, the internet was terrible, except for facebook and youtube. I tried just loading google or wikipedia and it would time out. I tried all over the ship to no avail. Same ship in July 2022, internet was awesome. Everything loaded pretty quickly. I could even stream videos from my doorbell camera. We were at full capacity, so I was worried it would be even worse, but it was surprisingly good, though did slow down during busy times of the day. Weather was nice and sunny in both cases. Who knows why it was so inconsistent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steverk Posted September 6, 2022 Report Share Posted September 6, 2022 I've only tried surf, never surf and stream. It takes considerable patience, but always found sufficient for FaceTime, basic web surfing and whatsapp. It isn't like home though! You will wait for pages to load and you will get timeouts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesKinetic Posted September 7, 2022 Report Share Posted September 7, 2022 I think @jupiter03 hit it on the head--the best word is inconsistent. I was on Symphony earlier this summer. For probably 80-90 percent of the time, it worked fine. But there were a few times (particularly on the last sea day) when it got noticeably slower. As a general rule, I tell people if what you want to do isn't time sensitive, you'll probably be fine because if it's not working at certain time, give it a few minutes or a different part of the ship and your luck can change. But I wouldn't bet the farm on it for things like timely financial transactions (i.e. day trading) or that make-or-break meeting or interview. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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