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VOOM should be renamed to DOOM!


rjac

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Just got back home from an 11 day cruise aboard the Serenade of the Seas. I paid for a 24 hour internet package and was not impressed at all! I took my laptop to the computer center on deck 4, figured that's where I would get the best/fastest wireless connection, boy was I wrong! After getting no where very slowly with my laptop I logged out and logged in using one of the computer center desktop computers. Ha, even worse! The operating system was Windows 7, hell, Microsoft doesn't even offer support for that operating system anymore! I feel sorry for those folks who paid for the internet package for the whole cruise. You should have seen the looks on their faces when they were trying to surf the web, check their email, etc with their personal devices. Definitely a look of gloom and doom.  :blink:

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The quality of Voom indeed varies quite a bit by ship.  On Allure and Freedom it was fantastic.  Independence was  acceptable for web browsing and such. Navigator was rough.  I do think they need to make it more clear what to expect on any given ship when it comes to internet access.  For those of us who work online, it can affect which cruises are viable when.  There have been two cruises so far that I'd have booked if I'd have known that I had reliable internet access.  That in mind, they're still doing better than most of the cruise industry.  Some Carnival ships have decent options, NCL has been making improvements - it'll only get better, though in the mean time, honesty in messaging would be awesome.

 

Side note: Windows 7 is still very much supported and still used on the majority of computers in business, as it takes a lot to move entire organizations to new operating sytems.  Currently, extended support (maint and security updates) are scheduled to end in January of 2020.

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Was it the standard package, or the Surf and Stream package?  I wonder if the Surf & Stream is a better overall experience.  I'm thinking about being able to do a longer cruise some day and remoting in to the office from the ship on a couple sea days to cut down on the amount of vacation time I'd have to burn, but it needs to be fast and reliable enough for wifi phone calls.

 

I bought the Surf & Stream package for my upcoming 4-nighter over Christmas on the Majesty to test it out, but I'd be interested to hear about other people's experiences on a variety of ships.

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Was it the standard package, or the Surf and Stream package?  I wonder if the Surf & Stream is a better overall experience.  I'm thinking about being able to do a longer cruise some day and remoting in to the office from the ship on a couple sea days to cut down on the amount of vacation time I'd have to burn, but it needs to be fast and reliable enough for wifi phone calls.

 

I bought the Surf & Stream package for my upcoming 4-nighter over Christmas on the Majesty to test it out, but I'd be interested to hear about other people's experiences on a variety of ships.

 

I've only ever used the Surf & Stream - and for a while, that's all there was.  It really comes down to which ship you're on, which is unfortunate.  You'll find, from what I understand, that Voom on Majesty works quite well.  

 

I've heard great things about Voom and/or had positive experience on: all Oasis class ships, all Quantum class ships, Freedom of the Seas, Empress of the Seas, Majesty of the Seas.  Indy was iffy - didn't fit squarely in the 'naughty' or 'nice' column.

 

Perhaps we'll start collecting speed tests like Cruise Compasses...

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I was on Adventure right after the half-"refurb" while they were still tweaking it.  24 hours with no access at all in the middle of the week sucked, but oddly enough one of the better locations with a strong signal strength was on my balcony in the aft corner of deck 9.

 

Bcarney-going on Adventure in May. Do you think VOOM is worth it or should I cancel the order I placed for it and save the money? Thanks.
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Bcarney-going on Adventure in May. Do you think VOOM is worth it or should I cancel the order I placed for it and save the money? Thanks.

What do you want to use Voom for?

 

Worth is pretty hard for others to determine on your behalf.  Voom on most ships is more than adequate for messaging, email, even standard web browsing.  If we can better understand your use case perhaps we can better understand if it is something we think you'd be happy with.

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Bcarney-going on Adventure in May. Do you think VOOM is worth it or should I cancel the order I placed for it and save the money? Thanks.

 

I've seen enough Periscopes since my sailing that make me think they've got the kinks worked out.  I'd be OK with keeping it.  If you get onboard and you don't feel it meets your needs, you can always cancel onboard.

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Basic use. Email, Hangouts, etc. Thanks for your reply!

If that's the use case I think you'll be quite happy with the level of service on any Royal Caribbean ship.  Many of the folks on the boards enjoy streaming video on Periscope or FB Live, which takes far more bandwidth and less latecy.  As such, they (well, we) tend to be a bit more critical of the speeds and stability in that way.

 

As bcarney mentioned, you can always speak with someone on board and cancel if it isn't doing what you need it to, but I suspect you'll be just fine.

 

Report back and let us know after your cruise!

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If that's the use case I think you'll be quite happy with the level of service on any Royal Caribbean ship. Many of the folks on the boards enjoy streaming video on Periscope or FB Live, which takes far more bandwidth and less latecy. As such, they (well, we) tend to be a bit more critical of the speeds and stability in that way.

 

As bcarney mentioned, you can always speak with someone on board and cancel if it isn't doing what you need it to, but I suspect you'll be just fine.

 

Report back and let us know after your cruise!

Will do, thanks. BTW, although I didn't take advantage of it last year everyone seemed very pleased with the Voom service on Anthem.
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So I've got a collection of speed tests from the Freedom, Oasis and Liberty. I've tried Surf as well as Surf and Stream. I'm fairly certain that Surf is capped at 512kb up/down on all three ships. As for Surf and Stream on Oasis it appears to cap at 4mb up/down and seems to achieve it always. While on Freedom and Liberty it could be slower at times. Western Carribbean itineraries seem to have worse connection for certain parts of them and I know they usually include a note in the Cruise Compass or include a note in my room before the connection will be spotty.

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We were just on Allure last week and I have to say VOOM impressed me, as I wasn't expecting much for internet at see.  It worked so well that we were able to text friends on board as well as each other.   My wife was also able to connect to all her social media easily.  We even were able to face time and make wifi calls to our 2 boys that didn't go on the cruise with us.  I also was able to connect my macbook to voom and it worked great as well.  I have limited experience, but I can testify that on allure voom is very good.

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In general, Voom on these ships is outstanding:

  • Oasis of the Seas
  • Allure of the Seas
  • Harmony of the Seas
  • Quantum of the Seas
  • Anthem of the Seas
  • Ovation of the Seas
  • Majesty of the Seas

I've heard/seen good things on

  • Freedom of the Seas
  • Enchantment of the Seas
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The ladies in our group were uploading photos to FB all day and had no problems, we could all text each other and use our iphones as normal. However, as others have pointed out, coverage can often depend more on location than the ship's system. Fairly sure that your Cruise Compass will warn you on days when satellite coverage will be patchy.

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  • 1 month later...
On 3/22/2017 at 8:14 PM, monorailmedic said:

If that's the use case I think you'll be quite happy with the level of service on any Royal Caribbean ship.  Many of the folks on the boards enjoy streaming video on Periscope or FB Live, which takes far more bandwidth and less latecy.  As such, they (well, we) tend to be a bit more critical of the speeds and stability in that way.

 

As bcarney mentioned, you can always speak with someone on board and cancel if it isn't doing what you need it to, but I suspect you'll be just fine.

 

Report back and let us know after your cruise!

We are on Adventure OTS now. Phone on airplane mode with wifi on and using Voxer app to text and talk (not a phone call, like a walkie talkie). Voom Surf & Stream is working great all over the ship. If you have time, wait for a cruise planner sale. On board, the price for one device is $17.99/day. I paid half ($8.99) in advance with a cruise planner sale. Thanks Monorailmedic, bcarney and others for your input.

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