Couponz Posted October 3, 2023 Report Share Posted October 3, 2023 Recently I’ve been hearing about Royal Caribbean throttling internet speeds. I booked my cruise several months ago but today I’ve been scheduled for several days of critical zoom VIDEO calls that I cannot miss. I’ve been on celebrity cruises before and they were good enough for audio zoom calls but wondering how video/screen share performance will work on Anthem? Should I bail on my cruise? These calls are extremely important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted October 3, 2023 Report Share Posted October 3, 2023 Which ship ? The connectivity on Grandeur has been horrific but this is an old ship and [apparently, if you believe the VOOM staff] this ship’s infrastructure is incompatible with Starlink. I don’t think it is as big an issue on the newer ships. RCIfan1912 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted October 3, 2023 Report Share Posted October 3, 2023 Satellite internet at sea is never guaranteed. This is real opportunity for poor performance or outages due to weather and other issues on all ships and all cruise lines regardless of the satellite provider. If you need a guaranteed internet connection stay home. Curt From Canada, PeloAl and WAAAYTOOO 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Couponz Posted October 3, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2023 5 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said: Which ship ? The connectivity on Grandeur has been horrific but this is an old ship and [apparently, if you believe the VOOM staff] this ship’s infrastructure is incompatible with Starlink. I don’t think it is as big an issue on the newer ships. on anthem the package is VOOM but when i booked the cruise, they said starlink was installed on anthem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted October 3, 2023 Report Share Posted October 3, 2023 Even if Starlink service is perfect, there are still other reasons why internet on board ship would be poor, especially on older ships (though they're redoing onboard network infrastructure on some) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted October 3, 2023 Report Share Posted October 3, 2023 2 hours ago, Couponz said: on anthem the package is VOOM but when i booked the cruise, they said starlink was installed on anthem VOOM is Royal's name for internet. Has been since around 2012. Who the service provider is doesn't change the name VOOM. Anthem has Starlink. Starlink is the internet provider behind Voom, today. Voom is nothing more than a marketing name invented by Royal. Who the satellite provider shouldn't matter. In 5-10 years Starlink in its current form will be considered outdated junk. Whoever Royal uses in 5 - 10 years for satellite internet may change, but they can still call it Voom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAYNO Posted October 3, 2023 Report Share Posted October 3, 2023 VOOM service has been pretty poor for us, throughout the fleet. As we speak, my wife is on Navigator, and we are experiencing the best wi-fi service we've ever had on a ship, anywhere. I don't know if Navigator uses Starlink, or if it's on a conventional, earlier Satellite internet system. Whatever it is, it's working very well on this cruise. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xaa Posted October 4, 2023 Report Share Posted October 4, 2023 @Couponz, in 20 years the only people who will remember that you sacrificed your cruise vacation for these "important" calls will be your family. Take your vacation, make your best effort. The company will still be in business when you return. On Anthem, sometimes in cabin can be spotty. Royal promenade is strong, but likely noisy. I'd suggest you see how things are in your cabin and if spotty try the library just off 270. Remember, the idea of working is to improve the quality of your life. PeloAl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katiemay0101 Posted October 4, 2023 Report Share Posted October 4, 2023 We were on Anthem in June and it was okay during the day but I swear they turned it off after 11 PM. My son was still finishing up some remote college classes and tried to do them at night because of the time difference (we cruised in Norway) and it sucked every single night after 11. We went to the service desk to ask about it and their advice was to turn the laptop off and on and reconnect but they also admitted it was bad at night for them too. Hopefully your meetings are during the day and you can still enjoy your cruise. Kate RCIfan1912 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brdjnr Posted October 4, 2023 Report Share Posted October 4, 2023 we were on Mariner last month and the performance was frankly stunning (in a relative sense). I was able to connect to my work VPN, log into my desktop (notoriously sensitive to latency) and do some work that popped up. I was very impressed. we will be on her again later this month, during which time I hope I dont need it but may. RCIfan1912 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCSC Mike Posted October 4, 2023 Report Share Posted October 4, 2023 It was excellent on Wonder in June. One nice upgrade on the newer ships is having a WAP in every cabin. I had no issues streaming videos while relaxing in my cabin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steverk Posted October 5, 2023 Report Share Posted October 5, 2023 I find that on average, Voom is ok, but not great. My wife uses it for FaceTime pretty regularly. Usually, but not always, it works. I have noticed that performance declines, and frequently fails entirely when I'm in an area with lots of people. A great example is being in the theater 10 minutes before a show. This is consistent with insufficient router capacity on the ship rather than a Starlink problem. In other words, if you're willing to go to a different part of the ship, you'll usually find a place with good performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Miller Posted October 5, 2023 Report Share Posted October 5, 2023 There are dead spots on the Interior of Anthem. But if you pay attention, you'll figure it out. Luckily my cabin(s) have always been fine. (Usually mid ship interior. YMMV) Sorrentos was great and the next Venue over, The Pub, was basically cut off from WiFi. Just quirks like that to learn. In my experience, the internet was good most of the time, but definitely not 100% of the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianB Posted October 8, 2023 Report Share Posted October 8, 2023 If it’s critical to have internet while on your cruise….you may be disappointed. StarLink is the service currently being used onboard Anthem. In my experience, it’s been fantastic!…until it’s not. As @twangstercommented above, weather seems to be one of the biggest issues. Even if you find a spot on the ship where the signal is strongest, heavy cloud cover and stormy weather can interfere with the connection to the satellite. There have also been instances onboard the ship where there was an internal problem causing an internet blackout period. One time there was a fleet-wide issue which knocked out internet for two days. Of course compensation was provided for the lost time. If you absolutely need to have connectivity on a schedule not of your choosing, you may be a victim of Murphy’s Law ‘anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!’ Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCIfan1912 Posted October 8, 2023 Report Share Posted October 8, 2023 Maybe Amazon's satellite internet service coming soon will be better. Starlink sounds like a bit of a flop so far. We are gonna be on Liberty next week so I won't be expecting much on an older ship like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steverk Posted October 8, 2023 Report Share Posted October 8, 2023 2 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said: Maybe Amazon's satellite internet service coming soon will be better. Starlink sounds like a bit of a flop so far. We are gonna be on Liberty next week so I won't be expecting much on an older ship like that. Sorry to disagree, but I believe the problem is not StarLink. Based on my experience, the problem is Royal's on board infrastructure. Skippy67, RCIfan1912, Eamon and 2 others 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottD Posted October 10, 2023 Report Share Posted October 10, 2023 We had great connections all week on Oasis. My son was able to video chat his friends from dinner (he wanted to show off his fancy dinners and dining room experience, lol) and was able to log in to his school page a few times with no issues. Posted on facebook and here all week and even made a wifi call with no interruptions. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowen Posted October 10, 2023 Report Share Posted October 10, 2023 It was great on Allure, terrible on Liberty last year (I am not sure if that was Star Link though). It probably is ship dependent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straychicken Posted October 12, 2023 Report Share Posted October 12, 2023 We just got off the Explorer and had good Internet in our deck 2 ocean view cabin. Maybe it's a matter of expectations? We live in the country in an area not currently served by high speed internet lines. We have Starlink for our home Internet and our used to its speed and the short down time that happens occasionally as it connects to a different satellite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Couponz Posted November 1, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2023 i'm literally on Anthem right now here's my speed test. happy to report that i had *zero* problems with my zoom calls *HOWEVER* bring a travel router. for some reason, devices connect by default on the 2.4ghz connection and was getting TERRIBLE speeds. i brought my travel router to force 5ghz and got much better speeds. RCIfan1912 and deButler 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCIfan1912 Posted November 1, 2023 Report Share Posted November 1, 2023 When we were on Liberty last week and we did go north to Maine and Canada the speeds were incredible. The connection was reliable and really no issues. On Oasis last year and Adventure it was also unusable. It was straight up awful. I was blown away last week on Liberty. At times I got upwards of 50 Mbps. Other times 14 which is still awesome at sea. ChessE4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonOasis Posted November 2, 2023 Report Share Posted November 2, 2023 I'm on Wonder right now my download Mbps is 12.06 and my upload Mbps is 3.82 Voom has bee great the entire time we've been onboard. We had no issues last week and no issues this week either and we are on day 5 of this cruise. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottD Posted November 2, 2023 Report Share Posted November 2, 2023 Oasis in October was great. My son kept a live stream\video chat open with some of his friends for hours at a time with no issues. Posted pics, made wifi calls and streamed some music. No problems at all. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexanTwoStep Posted November 2, 2023 Report Share Posted November 2, 2023 Satellite comms is very location-dependent. It can depend on a multitude of factors including ship's heading, course, how far you are away from the VOOM wifi router, and even clouds can cause disruptions. Our last cruise on Voyager, internet service was great in the promenade and on deck, but awful in our suite on Deck 12 forward. It was really good in the library as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy67 Posted November 2, 2023 Report Share Posted November 2, 2023 I was hoping to Speedtest how location-dependent Starlink was on our Alaska trip in September on Ovation. Unfortunately, it looks like the entire ship caps its WIFI speed at around 14Mbps download and 4Mbps upload. I was consistently getting these results regardless of where I was in the ship, if we were leaving Seattle or at Skagway, sunny or rainy days. Other passengers also confirmed a problem with the connection dropping then reconnecting in our cabins, but this doesn't happen on the public areas of the ship. My guess is that the wireless access points are different for the cabins. On Navigator in April, I would get 88/20 in my interior cabin on deck 9 and 160/90 in the Cosmopolitan Club on deck 14. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PL8SWPR Posted November 2, 2023 Report Share Posted November 2, 2023 On Liberty now. Download is great - just got a 65Mbps in the room. Upload is slooooow. Like 0.25Mbps slow. I'm able to watch videos no problem, but uploading pictures etc is slow. RCIfan1912 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeloAl Posted November 3, 2023 Report Share Posted November 3, 2023 On 10/4/2023 at 5:11 AM, Xaa said: @Couponz, in 20 years the only people who will remember that you sacrificed your cruise vacation for these "important" calls will be your family. Take your vacation, make your best effort. The company will still be in business when you return. On Anthem, sometimes in cabin can be spotty. Royal promenade is strong, but likely noisy. I'd suggest you see how things are in your cabin and if spotty try the library just off 270. Remember, the idea of working is to improve the quality of your life. Yasss! Can't imagine cancelling my vacation for some zoom calls... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.