NCL WiFi Lessons the Hard Way

Just got off the Encore (Starlink) and thought I'd share some things I learned the hard way. Not sure if this applies to other ships and other people might have had different experiences. Also, there were some things that worked early in the cruise, but did not work on the later days, even though the help desk said everything was working just fine.

I started with the Voyage plan, but ended up upgrading to Streaming plan so I had access to both. Since my Voyage plan was included in my booking, I had to pay $39.99/day to upgrade to Streaming. If I had known this I would have pushed harder to have the Streaming plan included in my original booking. I was eventually able to get them to refund half of the cost of the Streaming upgrade.

We were with a large group and texting was a nightmare. iPhone users could mostly text each other, but that was hit and miss, especially if an Android phone was included on the group chat. People were sending texts, not realizing they weren't going through. Android users could not text at all on the Voyage plan.

Later found out that NCL was blocking SMS/RCS texts on the Voyage Plan, but allowing it on the Streaming plan, which meant anyone with an Android on was pretty much screwed unless they upgraded to Streaming. WiFi calling was also blocked on Voyage plan, but that only seemed to be an issue for the 2nd half of the cruise for some reason. The internet help desk tried to say that this was the fault of my cell phone carrier, which was odd because it worked fine on Streaming plan. They then pointed out that "Messaging and Calling" does not include SMS/RCS....ok, but lame and that should be made more clear so we can plan ahead. I've cruised on several other cruise lines and not had this issue.

Solution to texting issue on Voyage plan is to use a 3rd party messaging app, but trying to get a large group to coordinate a 3rd party app is not simple. Also, the Apple Appstore was blocked, which prevented several people in our group from getting or updating WhatsApp. And of course some people did not want to use WhatsApp.

Also, my business laptop would not work at all with the NCL wifi, even with Streaming upgrade. I'm thinking the security software installed on my laptop was flagged by NCL for some reason causing them to block it. I've never had any issues with this laptop at airports, hotels, etc.

Hope this helps others avoid some of the frustration we encountered.