Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Fastest Cruise Wi-Fi & Internet at Sea: Voom

wifi on cruise ships

Just enable WiFi on your device after switching to airplane mode, and you can connect to the ship’s network. While on a cruise ship, you must put your phone on airplane mode to avoid roaming charges. Make sure you turn on airplane mode before you embark so you don’t forget once the cruise entertainment begins. Planning a cruise vacation can be exciting, but one essential question that you might be wondering is, “Do cruise ships have WiFi? Using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) on cruise ship WiFi may be possible, but it is important to check the cruise line’s policy on VPN usage. Some cruise lines may restrict or block VPN access for security reasons.

Do I Have to Buy Internet for Every Day of the Cruise?

Passengers with Princess Plus or Premier have MedallionNet already bundled in. If you purchase their “All Included” package at the time of booking you get free drinks plus free basic internet. You can then upgrade to the Premium service for $9.99 per day. You cannot purchase the Basic Internet package separately.

Carnival Cruise Line Unveils Booking Tool Upgrades

However, you can receive complimentary WiFi as part of the larger Princess Plus or Princess Premier packages, including items like drink packages and gratuities. MSC Cruises offers two internet packages Browse and Browse & Stream. Cunard Line offers two internet plans for passengers, Essential and Premium. Guests who book the Always Included fare receive complimentary Basic WiFi. You can upgrade to the Premium Plan for an additional $15 per day to take advantage of faster speeds and streaming. Internet speeds of 2 to 10 Mbps are typical on cruise ships.

Carnival Cracks Down on High Stakes Activity on Pool Deck

Book packages pre-cruise for discounts of up to 20 percent off. With a few exceptions on specific ships, Voom Wi-Fi is complementary to Sky and Star Suite guests. Carnival offers fast ship wide Wi-Fi, as well as internet access at onboard cafes and kiosks, across its popular fleet. Wi-Fi is not available on Carnival’s private island in the Bahamas, Half Moon Cay. On some ships operated by Carnival, you even can order beer and pizza to wherever you happen to be using an app.

Get an All-Inclusive Package That Includes Wi-Fi

Celebrity Cruises offers two internet packages for passengers who book the cruise-only fare. Deployment of the high-speed SpaceX Starlink internet access has already begun across the Royal Caribbean fleet, with all the installations expected to be completed early in 2023. The rollout on Celebrity Cruises started with the line’s newest ship, Celebrity Beyond, and will be included on all of its Edge-class ships by the end of this year—and the rest of the fleet by May 2023. Well aware of how important connectivity has become to travelers in a modern world, cruise lines are constantly racing to get ahead of the competition.

Internet Speeds Are Slower Than You Expect

wifi on cruise ships

If you're booking an older ship or an expedition ship and you want the most coverage available, ask your travel agent or the cruise line if the ship has bow-to-stern Wi-Fi. Generally speaking, no, the internet you'll find at sea is not as fast as what you get at home. It can be painfully slow, in fact, depending on where you're sailing and on which ship. Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) is one of the few we’ve found that explicitly says they will let you access via a VPN.

If you are close to land then any Internation Romaing package may work – but as soon as you get out to sea you will find yourself connected to the “Cellular At Sea” service which is MEGA-expensive. Unusually NCL has been known to offer heavy discounts once you have been on the cruise for a couple of days, but again this can vary depending on the sailing. If you do upgrade from the Free At Sea package you will usually get a 15-20% discount off the price. Since the rollout they have consolidated their Internet offering to just one service “Voom Surf and Stream”.

Celebrity now has “XCelerate” Internet at Sea, a cutting-edge Wi-Fi service that boasts faster speeds compared to typical internet access on cruise ships. This new service is now available on all ships in Celebrity’s fleet, except for those on Galapagos sailings. Basic packages often allow access to popular social media platforms, text messages and email. Premium packages have faster speeds and usually allow uploads and streaming, in addition to social media and email. Viking's expedition ships and river ships in Europe, Egypt and the Mississippi also feature free internet access.

Silversea Cruises WiFi Packages

Princess Cruises claims the "fastest Wi-Fi at sea" with its MedallionNet technology, with download speeds of 12.6 Mbps and upload speeds of 1.9 Mbps. Carnival Corporation and Princess achieve this speed by working with SES Networks, a leading satellite connectivity provider. One-day internet packages are $29.99 per day (for Browse) and $34.99 (for Browse & Stream). Celebrity Cruises uses Starlink as a provider for internet service across its entire fleet, with the exception of its Galapagos-based ships. Carnival Cruise Line offers guests the option of three plans via the line's satellite providers.

Silversea Cruises offers two levels of internet access, standard and premium. When you switch devices, the previously connected device is kicked off the network once the new device signs in. Regent Seven Seas Cruises provides basic complimentary WiFi for all guests.

First of all, it would take forever at the connection speeds. Beyond that, the internet is being provided by satellite for thousands of passengers at any given time. It’s likely that you would be asked about using such a massive amount of data.

Ambassador Cruise Line Installs Starlink Wi-Fi Connectivity - Cruise Industry News

Ambassador Cruise Line Installs Starlink Wi-Fi Connectivity.

Posted: Sat, 18 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Don’t use the Wi-Fi for any financial transactions and use a VPN for peace of mind. If Cruise Wi-Fi seems too steep for your wallet, you’ve got some other choices to stay connected. Right now, Norwegian is slowly rolling Starlink out across their fleet, so if speed is important to you, you’ll need to do some research to find out if your ship has it installed. Learn how MedallionNet Wi-Fi works and discover how speed and connectivity may be affected while sailing in different regions. On older ships, as well as on some riverboats and expedition ships, internet is only available in specified locations, such as a lounge or an internet cafe.

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