The quality of onboard wifi internet can be one of the perennial grumbles of many cruisers, with it either being too slow or too expensive and many times both! However, each year in my cruising experience, the standard of the onboard internet providers has improved markedly, giving guests the chance to keep in touch with their loved ones from some of the most remote oceans of our planet.
During my most recent cruise around the southern tip of South America, I was curious to test how good the onboard signal was, particularly while we sailed around Cape Horn and through the Chilean fjords, both hard-to-reach places that I had longed to see for myself. Internet was free and widely available around the ship on the particular cruise line that I was sailing with, and so we were spared the inconvenience of either only being able to connect in certain parts of the ship, or having to keep tabs on how much data we had used, and what each MB was costing us. I imagine that more and more cruise lines will adopt this model, as good Wi-Fi becomes even more of a basic need for all of us, but for now, it is still something of a lottery what service you will receive.
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the internet signal as we sailed through the South Atlantic, parallel to the coast of Argentina, and there were no problems using the ship’s onboard internet for email, internet searches, and WhatsApp calls to family and friends. I also tested its ability to stream videos, even though we were asked not to, and there were no issues, although this may well have been due to the ship being at less than 25% capacity. It is obviously still worth downloading all of your favourite Netflix series and TV programmes before you leave home, and that way arrive on board with a fully-loaded laptop or hard disk for all those quiet sea day afternoons!
Once we sailed from Argentina into Chile, I was suddenly able to pick up 4G service as soon as we were near enough to any human settlement with its own LTE (4G) antenna. This was an enormous improvement in the quality of service since it was generally the same standard of service as I would get at home. Now here is the caveat: the reason I was able to do this is that I live in Chile and therefore have a Chilean SIM card. Once I was within range, my phone simply saw that I was somewhere else in Chile, without knowing that I was on a ship, miles from the coastline. The wonders of modern technology…!
There were still days when service both from the ship and the Chilean mainland were either spotty or non-existent, particularly as we sailed in amongst the glaciers and fjords in the southern part of Chile. However, the views over the ship’s rail were so spectacular at the time, that nobody was even checking their phones! Where I most benefited from my Chilean SIM card was during the port days, when I was able to enjoy home-quality internet throughout the day, all for free.
Since we understand that the internet can often be an important consideration during any cruise, at Chile Shore Excursions we offer a service to our clients by providing them with a Chilean SIM card for a small fee that they can use for the entire length of their stay in Chile (maximum 1 month). In this way, you avoid paying exorbitant onboard connection costs and can discard them once you’ve left Chilean waters. Feel free to consult about this service at the moment of reserving your shore excursions with us.