I've seen more than one allusion to the fact that NCL's website leaves a lot to be desired. I definitely second that most emphatically!
With that said, I am finding it difficult to get any real information about the computers available on board.
What I want to do is hook up my camera, transfer files to my 1GB thumb drive and move on with my life. The alternative to this would be schlepping the laptop along which I would really prefer not to do. However, I'll do it if no other backup is available.
When Paul and I were on our honeymoon in 2002 our camera was stolen and with it the memory card with all the pictures! Needless to say, we're always thinking about ways to protect our digital photos when we travel.
So, this long winded message was simply to ask if anyone has used the computers aboard for other than internet access to do file transfers.
i used the internet cafe a few times on Dawn last december and found the speed OK (for a ship underway), but as a professional IT-network-admnistrator i had my serious doubts about the setup of their used Windows NT (!!) Systems.
When pointing out this serious breach in security for private data, the complain was rather bluntly ignored without actually being registered. A complain by email was never answered.
To your question towards Camera etc.... Forget it! The systems are TerminalServer style, so you're not getting near any hardware to plug something in.
As it is, Paul already said that he's in no way jeopardizing our photos so we'll be "schlepping". It's probably just as well. Our last cruise on the Dawn in 04 we took over 800 photos in 7 days. Now we're 8 days with a 5 megpixel camera! I may need a new hard drive!
Re: your comments on the IT systems. I find that interesting but not surprising! You of course know they're provided through a sub-contractor...I'm just curious, did you complain to them or NCL or both?
i told it to the manager on duty and (after his rather "unmotivated" reactions) wrote an email to MTN (thats the outsourced contractor/service provider) with CC to NCL.
As this mail was very specific (especially in technical terms) about the faulty installations i would have expected something. Well, not a change, but at least a reaction.
But nobody should get me wrong. The speed and availability was good (especially if one recalls to be sitting on a moving ship at sea!). It is just that i find it pretty disturbing to work with a system so obviously mis-configurated as theses systems were.
I would not like to imagine how a non-pro, regular computer-user would run into this pitfall when he actually uses the net to tunnel into his company's network at home (or something like this.). Every user after him would have been able to see and use his private resources at will. It is (was?) simply a very sloppy configurated system.
My 2 cents on this: Take your own laptop, configure it to survive in a pretty open network and you'll be perfectly fine, since nobody messes with your "schlepp-top"
BTW: 5 megpixel for 8 days... If i get my math right, you should be perfectly fine with a 4GB SD/CF- or-whatever-memory card. My SLR has 12 megpixel and i am using a 4gb card for highres pics. Even without sorting out the worst cases every evening you should be fine with that. As even 8gb cards come available this (or 2x4gb)might be more conviniant as to schlepp around an additional thing.
But this thought might only be right if you would do nothing else than saving pics to the laptop. Any DVD-watching, playing, listening to audio-books etc. would of course change this dramatically in favour for the laptop
I'm sorry; I can be too sarcastic at times. I was actually just making a joke about a new hard drive...80 GB is just fine!
I only have a 1MB and 512K for the camera but I don't like to carry a lot around with me because of the chance of losing them. So, I download each day, sometimes twice a day!
Re: your comments on the IT system. As I said, I'm certainly not surprised and wouldn't really expect them to fix it. I would think that NCL would hold their sub-contractors to a higher standard of customer service. At least they should pretend to care!
Since my laptop will strictly be my storage medium, I don't need to worry about security since I will NOT be connecting to the network. Our goal for this trip is COMPLETE disconnection for our busy lives!
You got a point there. An alternative would be to take serveral cheap 512Mb with you (at least here they come for less than 20$) and leave the "full-ones" in the cabin safe.
But on the other hand what am i preaching here... I take my schlepptop along myself
quote:
Our goal for this trip is COMPLETE disconnection for our busy lives!
Right, that's our goal too. What would be a trip like this for else? I am never telling anyone at the company that i could go online. That would be like taking work projects right with you to the pool. I might be nuts, but i am not stupid
Happy sailing yourself. Lucky you with only ~50 days to go. Our next trip is over 490 days away <getting depressed>
I can't say how much i envy you. Lots of fun there.
Wow...490 days, we should have ANOTHER under our belts by then.
Since you live in Deutschland you may not have heard about this...did you know most of the lines, NCL included, will soon have "cell sites" on their ships so that you can use your cell phone wherever you want?
Talk about NOT being disconnected! The last thing I want aboard is my phone. The only reason I have it with me is to call my ride when I get back from the cruise!
we would love to have a cruise inbetween that, but you see, from a european perspective a short reasonable priced caribbean cruise is always connected with 2 intercontinental flights, which are most often higher priced than the cruise.
So we "schedule" for every second year and doing it big time than... It's simply a matter of getting the most out of it.
quote:
cell phone network on board...
Yep, the Cells were already in place on the Dawn last Dec., but (thanks heaven) it is for the more popular US-frequency-bands only (not the full-digital as they are usually used in Europe). Therefore it actually did not matter to us anyway.
But you're perfectly right. Cellphones should be collected like the booze right at the gangway
Of course you're perfectly right! A Caribbean cruise for a European is no small feat! The same goes for us visiting Europe.
My 14 year old nephew is a huge history buff and artist and wants to visit Europe. His parents aren't really interested in going so Paul and I may skip our cruise next year and take him to Europe instead. We'll have to wait and see how many houses Paul can sell!
What you said about the phones on board; what a great idea! But, confiscate the phones and let us keep our liquor!
Just returned from Alaska on the Norwegian Star. Internet service was extremely slow and expensive. We discovered that the photo gallery onboard could transfer our pictures to a CD. I think it cost $15.00. An easy way to protect your pictures.
<getting depressed>
