Atlantis Harmony 2023: Wi-Fi & Internet
Update - Jan 10: Royal Caribbean’s website now shows slightly lower prices for some packages, including those for Internet. The prices in this article has been updated.
The Basics
Wi-Fi Internet is not included with your fare but is available for purchase. On this Atlantis Harmony cruise, Royal Caribbean offers their “VOOM Surf + Stream” Wi-Fi Internet package, starting at $16.99 / day if purchased online on Royal Caribbean’s website before the cruise (doesn’t look like you can buy it via their mobile app 🤔) . Wi-Fi coverage is available throughout the entire ship.
If you’ve already made up your mind that you’ll get the Wi-Fi, skip down to the end of this article for some money saving hacks. Otherwise, keep reading.
Should I get Wi-Fi?
If you need to stay connected for work, want to keep in touch with family not onboard, or want to post on social media during your vacation, you’ll need Wi-Fi for all those things.
If you’re mainly looking to meet boys (for whatever reason 😈), you don’t need Internet for that. My best advice for meeting people on a gay cruise is to be open and put yourself out there, go to the parties and meetups and events that Atlantis puts on, and make your move in person. Having said that, I have occasionally made the connection online while on the cruise, so no judgement from me 😊
Wi-Fi is probably the most useful for those wanting to keep in touch with friends on the cruise (especially on a cruise this large) and for coordinating meetups with others you’ve just met. But this depends on whoever you’re trying to reach also having Internet.
How else can I stay connected to others onboard?
Use the phones that are in every stateroom and in some common areas (look near elevators and stairs). Simply dial a room number to ring up that room, and you can leave a voicemail if they’re not home.
Royal Caribbean's mobile app has a chat feature. It used to cost $1.99, but it’s supposed to be free starting Jan 1, 2023, just in time for our Atlantis Harmony sailing. However, the chat experience doesn’t seem to be the best - there are frequent reports of message alerts not appearing, so people don’t know if they got a new message unless they go into the app and manually check.
Use door decor to leave messages for other people. This works not just for people you’ve already met, but also for boys you haven’t met yet! It’s a fun and easy way to flirt with others.
Or just bring them back the first time you meet them - punch in, punch out 🤣
How good is the Wi-Fi? Starlink on Harmony
TL;DR: It should be good for messaging and photos, but maybe not consistently great for videos or Zoom calls.
Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite Internet service, and Royal Caribbean has announced that Starlink will be deployed to its fleet of cruise ships, to be completed by Q1 2023.
Compared to the previous satellite Internet technology used on cruise ships, Starlink’s satellites are in lower orbit and closer to Earth, meaning lower latency and higher speeds. Although speeds are not to the level of the high-speed home Internet you’ll find in most metropolitan areas in the US, they’re still significantly better than the satellite competition (roughly 2-4X better real-world speeds but this depends on several factors). Cruise ship Wi-Fi has a reputation for being mediocre at best, so any improvement would be welcomed news!
Although Royal Caribbean has not provided any official updates on which ships offer Starlink connectivity to passengers, reports suggest that the system has been installed on the Harmony of the Seas, and some passengers have reported to have been on recent sailings on Harmony where the Starlink system was active and serving passengers.
Adding more support to the possibility that Starlink is active on Harmony, Royal Caribbean is only offering the faster “Surf + Stream” Internet packages for pre-sale on the Atlantis Harmony sailing, with the slower “Surf” package not shown anywhere. This is the same as what’s been seen on other Royal Caribbean ships where Starlink is active.
Having said all of that, Starlink is very new technology and I’m sure the old satellite Internet equipment on Harmony has not gone anywhere, so there’s always the possiblity that the ship’s Wi-Fi might be switched back onto the old equipment if Starlink isn’t working for whatever reason, either due to technical issues, or if the ship is in a location where it’s not getting a strong enough Starlink signal.
Hacks to save $$$
Split a multi-device package with others
Instead of paying $16.99 / day for a 1-device package for just yourself, you can split a 4-device package with three other people and pay roughly $14.25 / day. Over the course of this 8-day cruise, you’d save $21.94 😮
Here’s how to use this hack:
One person in the group of 4 will buy the 4-device Internet package, ideally ahead of time before the cruise for maximum savings (it’s usually more expensive to buy the package onboard).
After boarding, the person who purchased the package will connect to the ship’s Wi-Fi network and create an easy-to-share username and PIN number for the Internet package.
This person shares the username and PIN number to the other 3 people, which they can now use to access the Internet package. It’s easiest to do this before the ship leaves the port, while everyone still has bars on their phone and still have cellular data.
Use multiple devices without paying for a multi-device package
You can switch Wi-Fi service between different devices and it will only count as a single device in terms of the Internet package. You do this by logging out of the device that’s actively connected to the Wi-Fi, then logging in with a different device. You can log in and out of different devices as many times as you need. The catch is that you can’t have multiple devices simultaneously connect at the very same time.