June 2006 - The Parklander Magazine

Cruising the NetBy Ron GottiThis past April, for Spring Break, the Gotti family took a muchneeded and way overdue family vacation aboard Princess Cruises’Caribbean Princess. I selected the Caribbean Princess because one of myclients, Steven B. Stern, a cruise expert and author of numerouscruise-related travel books including Stern’s Guide To The CruiseVacation, gave this ship a five star rating (the highest). He said it wasthe best cruise ship currently sailing the Caribbean and heasked me, if I had time, to evaluate the technology availableto guests aboard the ship and give him abrief overview.There are two ways to access theInternet on the Caribbean Princess. Forthose who take laptops, an InternetenabledPDA or other wireless deviceaboard, the ship offers wireless service inthe main lobby. For those who don’t,there is a terrific Internet Café.To use the wireless service passengersmust purchase a prepaid 30-minutewireless access card from the front deskfor $10.50, or 35 cents a minute. The cardis attached to a one-sheeter that includesdetailed instructions for creating yourpersonal wireless Internet account andthis important notice:“Due to the use of Satellite connectionswhile at sea/port, continuous Internetaccess is NOT guaranteed due to ship’slocation and/or weather conditions. The speed of your Internetconnection will also vary due to certain factors such as the ship’slocation and/or weather conditions.”After waiting in line to purchase the wireless card, signing up forthe service and logging on was simple—but I was not impressedwith the speed, especially at 35 cents a minute.While there is no guarantee of speed or a continuous connection,I found both to be reliable. At no time during the entire trip didI drop a connection. The speed was a consistent but slow 86 kbpsdownload (equivalent to twice the speed of a decent dial-upconnection) and 85 kbps upload.I tested the connection and speed in two of three ports, at sea inthe morning, during the day and late at night. Every wireless userI interviewed complained about the speed. Finally, I downloaded an8 MB file that I have downloaded hundreds of times. I watched itstart at 150 kbps, only to drop like a rock and hold steady at 86 kbps.From the time I finished logging on to the ship’s Internet serviceto the time I read my first e-mail using AOL’s web mail, I burned up13.5 minutes, or nearly half of my prepaid wireless card. I read andreplied to three additional brief e-mails before being disconnectedbecause the card ran out.Even though you’re away while crusin’,you can still stay in touch and cruise onlineAs expected of a first class ship, the Internet Café aboard theCaribbean Princess is beautiful and well designed. It has about 20private workstations and each consists of a brand-name desktopcomputer and flat panel monitor. I didn’t test the desktopequipment as thoroughly as thewireless but the two times I did use it,it was cheaper (23 cents per minute)and faster (averaging about 123 kbps),or about 2.5 times as fast as a decentdialup connection.If you require Internet accessonboard the Caribbean Princess and youdon’t need the data, contacts, previouse-mails, etc. that reside in your laptopor PDA, use the desktop computers inthe Internet Café. If you must carryyour laptop or PDA, be prepared—it can be frustrating and expensive.The ship also offers a broad range offee-based, computer-related training,including private lessons and grouplessons in Photo Editing, Excel, MSPowerPoint and MS Word. Grouplessons are $25 for 50 minutes.My favorite piece of technology onboard was the giant, 300-square foot Movies Under the Stars poolside movie screen locatedover one of several main pools. All day long it plays concerts,movies and other entertaining fare. At night the entire pool area istransformed into an outdoor theater. The ship’s staff fits eachpoolside lounge chair with a terrycloth cover and blanket, whichmakes watching the evening’s feature under the stars a unique,comfortable and fun experience.Aside from slow Internet speeds, my only other complaint aboutthe ship was bad coffee and many other passengers agreed withme. Even the $5 double latté was terrible. I don’t understand whythe best ship in the Caribbean can’t serve a good cup of coffee.Would bad coffee and slow wireless Internet keep me fromsailing again on the Caribbean Princess? Absolutely not! The ship ismagnificent. The food was good and plentiful. The service wasexcellent. The entire staff—especially our cabin stewardess, Rose—was meticulous, courteous and creative. The entire Gotti familyhad a wonderful vacation and we all agreed that we’ll definitely doit again!Ron Gotti is the owner of Computer Help, Inc., an eight-year-old, Parklandbasedcompany. Email him at ComputerHelp@theparklander.com.42the PARKLANDER