During a recent 10 day Panama Canal cruise, I had to get off at every port in search of an Internet cafe just to keep "in touch", because the available wireless Internet access on board the ship was, well, to be kind, horrible!
Trying to use my laptop in the 10 foot by 10 foot (I'm really not joking about this) area that had "good wireless access" I felt like I was in a third world country with a bad 14.4 modem (remember those?). It was just, without question, unacceptable in this day and age - extremely weak signal 95% of the time, and it was totally down for almost two entire days.
Sure, there was the 50 cents per minute, just as painfully slow Internet Kiosk on board, but you could not download the GoToMyPC (remote desktop access) viewer, since it was blocked, nor could you access, of course, any personal type email accounts - only web based services such at Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc.
And the Internet staff was so technically malnourished that I received three different reasons why it was blocked from three different staff members.
This was the Coral Princess, and I had a similar experience with the Caribbean Princess last year.
Personally, I cannot sail on Princess again (until they change to the same Internet provider sister company Carnival has) and I suggest you make it VERY clear to clients planning on sailing Princess that they do not expect the Internet access to be sufficient to conduct any type of business at sea.
To help you help your clients avoid these types of problems, since I know everyone has clients now that will not cruise if they cannot use their laptop EFFECTIVELY, I would like to have some feedback on which lines (and/or ships, since different classes of ships may have different results within a line.)
Here is what I have found from personal experiences, past client experiences, and colleagues - our informal panel:
The best Internet access to be had at sea on major lines is on Royal Caribbean Voyager and newer ships and Carnival's Conquest and newer ships.
For luxury lines. Oceania gets the most nods by our panel.
On the down side...
Avoid Princess when Internet connectivity is a must and many of the smallest lines, river cruises, etc. have very limited connectivity.
It's pretty general, I know, but no one person can be on every ship. Did we miss something? Did you have a different experience? let us know...
readerresponse@ivli.com
Thank you.
Alan Cohen
Associate Publisher / Editor
Daily Cruise News
