Is the at sea internet very good?

If you work hard and are always in touch, or own your own business where you must be accessible, fear not, most cruise ships have phone and internet service available.  Now with that said let’s chat about the issues related to internet and phone connections while at sea. They are far better now as technology has evolved, but sadly they are far from perfect.

First off, you must know that your internet speed will be fairly slow on a ship. For one there is only one connection that everyone is sharing, unlike in your own neighborhood where folks are using several connections.  We also see more and more people spending time logged on while at sea. I admit I do so nearly every day to check email. I don’t surf the net unless I need to go get some critical piece of data.

You will also find that although the internet is available it can get fairly costly to use if you use much of it. Most of the major cruise lines though do offer some really good package deals which bring the cost down to a more palatable cost/per minute. Of course it’s still a cost you will see on your on-board spending account at the end of the cruise.  Those who happen to be frequent cruisers may well get some free internet time while aboard and some also get additional discounts on the packages.

You will find that aside from the slow connections, there are some other key factors that determine how well your connection and speed will be.  On older ships where the internet satellites are a bit older (have not yet been updated) a bit of a rock can lead to choppy connections in plain English. What this means is that although you are connected the strength etc…are poor and the internet is slowed to a crawl as packets of information are checked and rechecked to get the data to and from the ship.  This can make those email communications frustrating especially if they are critical.

Another area where you will begin to have difficulty with internet is the middle of Atlantic and Pacific crossings where the satellite coverage is spotty if at all. The satellites are set up in a geostationary orbit so they provide coverage to a specific view of the world at all times.  This allows for better coverage of those areas, but due to the cost of the satellites coverage is not global. Coverage is established where there are people who want to pay to use the services.  

In some ports various communications devices must be turned off. I have yet to personally experience it, but you could find that your internet via the ship is turned off while you are in certain ports around the world.  This is a rare occurrence though.  On the subject of internet in port, I would like to point out that rarely in the major ports of the Caribbean will you find free internet access while sitting on your balcony scanning.  Some ports have totally free internet in their terminals but most often it is in the building or just outside the walls only. Dubai is one such port which comes to mind.

Overall if you only want to upload and download email, the internet on the ship is fairly reliable and fast enough to send plenty of messages up and down without too much difficulty. However, if you start sending or receiving large attachments the whole process will slow to a crawl pretty quickly.