Who Has The Best Internet At Sea?

It’s common-place now when a cruise ship docks in a port to see hordes of people flocking to the nearest cafe to make use of the very lucrative free wifi that is invariably advertised on a MASSIVE board that can be seen for miles. It’s not just the passengers, but also the crew that do this. In this technological age many people need internet connectivity in order to work whilst they are on holiday & some that just want to keep in touch with family & friends or just to show off that they’re sunning themselves on holiday whilst fiends back at home are at work in the cold weather.

Part of the reason for this is the exorbitant charges that some cruise lines make for using their wifi on board. Granted, it’s more expensive for them to provide than a land-based establishment, however with some operators charging almost a dollar a minute this must be a money-maker for them. Some cruise lines are now introducing free wifi packages in to their promotional campaigns.  Click here to for more on each cruise lines wifi charges and packages. You would have thought that with the prices that are charged on board that the connection would be amazing, but from personal experience this is often not the case.

Some cruise lines are certainly are making big strides towards better quality connectivity. Royal Caribbean have introduced ‘Voom’ and claim that it’s the fastest internet at sea, however hot on their heels to steal that accolade is Princess. They are introducing ‘MedalionNet’. I read an article containing lots of information about ‘bandwidth’ & ‘gigabits’ which quite frankly went over my head, but the gist of it was that it was going to be very fast, reliable and $9.99 for 1 device for a 24 hour period. Interestingly both are provided by the same company.

I have to be honest that when I go on a cruise (that’s not for work purposes) I relish the time that I’m cut off from the world wide web, facebook, e-mail and all the other things that I didn’t have for the majority of my life – and I still managed to survive! By the same token I love the fact that I am still able to communicate (if I need to) with the folks back home. I find it sad when I’m out & about in a cafe, bar or restaurant and people are on their phones and not actually talking to each other. I’m conscious that this makes me sound very old, but hey ho…each to their own.


About Me

Hi There!  My name is Collette and as the blog suggests I am a big lover of cruising and have travel in my blood. I have worked in the travel industry for 25 years, starting as a holiday rep in Turkey back in 1993. After 4 years I returned to the…

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