Will i be able to get wireless on a cruise ship?

Question

how easy would it be for me to use my laptop and get internet on a carnival cruise ship? would it be pretty pricey?

Answer 1

Internet cafe is the only way on the cruises I've been on, sometimes in Port a wireless Cellular card will work depending on where your stateroom is situated in relationship to the cellular towers. I too recommend not bringing a laptop. A lot of crew have access to your room from your I know that housekeeping, Porter, Bell man, maintenance, etc all have access and there isn't much space to store that laptop securely.

Answer 2

You can bring your laptop or you can use the ship's internet cafe. I haven't been on Carnival but Norwegian and Royal Caribbean charged approx. $50 for 60 minutes. They have all kinds of plans: by the minutes, in 10 minutes increments, and by the hour or unlimited.

I wouldn't haul my laptop on a cruise unless you absolutely have to for access to files and such. If you can do without it, use the internet cafe.

Answer 3

To the contrary, we have thoroughly enjoyed having our laptop in our room.  You don't have to worry about leaving your room to get on the internet, if there's a terminal available when you get to the internet area, etc.  As an added bonus, we also find it very nice to be able to lay in bed at night and look at the digital pictures we took that day, and it's nice to be able to dump your digital camera and have a fresh card!  Of course there is a fee to use the internet, whether you're wireless on your own laptop or at their terminals.  But we've done this on Carnival & Royal Caribbean, and their pre-paid fees are reasonable.

But by all means do carry your laptop aboard in a carrying case, don't send it through with checked luggage.  Our laptop case has a shoulder strap and lots of pockets, so we also use it to carry aboard our passports, cash, etc. in one bag.  And it doesn't hurt to leave the laptop in a spot in your cabin that's out of plain view while you're out of the room.

Bring your laptop...you'll enjoy that.  Have a wonderful trip!

***NOTE**** In reference to TINKERTOY's response below, maybe we've just been lucky with where our staterooms are on the ship, but we've carried our laptop on several cruises, and only ONCE were we not able to hit the wireless internet from our stateroom.

As far as price per minute, we usually buy the bulk minutes and get that for about 55 cents a minute for about 100 minutes.  Not a lot of time over a week, but it is handy to check and send e-mails.  Here is the page right off of Carnival's website stating internet pricing and access locations.  I have found Royal Caribbean's to be very similar:

http://www.carnival.com/CMS/FAQs/On_Boar...

Quoted right off the above page:

"In addition, several Carnival ships also have bow-to-stern wireless access, which allows guests to access the Internet from anywhere on the ship, including from the comfort of their staterooms.  These ships are the Carnival Imagination, Carnival Inspiration, Carnival Victory, Carnival Pride, Carnival Legend, Carnival Valor, Carnival Liberty, Carnival Splendor and Carnival Freedom.  To take full advantage of this feature, guests should bring their personal laptops along with them, as the number of laptops available for rent onboard is limited."

I have never been on any of the above mentioned ships, and, still have almost always been able to access Wi-Fi from my room.  No guarantees, though.

Of course, as Tinkertoy mentioned, internet cafes in port are another option.  We even found one store in Grand Cayman where, if you made a purchase of at least $5 I believe, you could use their internet terminals for free for 15 minutes, or make free phone calls over their VOIP phone for 10 minutes to anywhere!  Talk about the connectivity deal of the century!  Hope all the info you get here helps --Johnnie

--Johnnie

http://www.kimscruisetips.com

Answer 4

they have internet access on board you dont need to bring your lap top, its about £5 for half hour

Answer 5

You can get Internet in the Internet Cafe. The price is OK if you really need to use it. But you are on a cruise, so enjoy it and stay off the phone and Internet. Plus why did you go on Carnival. They enjoy s******g with there customers. Good Luck

Answer 6

Its been my experience that all cruise ships now have internet access and some have WiFi service also.  

BUT,  internet access is very very expensive on cruise ships.  It generally cost about $50 to $60 an hour; that's about $1.00 a minute.  Even when you purchase a "plan" the cost is still very high, like about $40 to $50 a minute, compared to your home service where that $40 to $50 gets you a whole month of unlimited service.

AND, the ships that have internet WiFi service generally have it in certain locations on ships and not all over or in the cabins.  So you have to go where the WiFi connection can be made to use your laptop.  You cannot just sit in bed at night and browse away; not that you would want to for very long or very often at $1.00 a minute.

AND, its been my experience that the internet service on ships is not very good, especially when the ship is moving.  The internet speed is very slow and tends to drop out and in.  On one cruise we got a refund because the internet service was so bad.  It wasn't the ship's equipment but mainly the fact that the ship is moving and cannot keep a steady satellite signal.

AND, its much cheaper and better to just wait until you get to a port stop and go to an internet cafe where the rates will likely be about $5. to $6. an hour.  WE have used internet cafes all over the Caribbean in port stops.  Some ports have internet access in or near the cruise terminal.  Other places you have to walk a few blocks from the port.  For Example, In St Thomas USVI there is an internet cafe right outside the grounds of the cruise port; in St Maarten we found an internet cafe in the town of Philipsburg just a block off the main street. I have also found internet cafes in Jamaica, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and even Costa Rica.  If you want to ask your cabin steward and/or your wait staff where they internet is in ports as they generally know.

If you decide to take your laptop then I suggest that you also be sure to take a lock for one of your pieces of luggage and store the laptop in the luggage with it locked when you are not in the cabin.  That has worked for me.