I'm going on a Mexican Riviera cruise aboard Disney Wonder soon and need some guidance for internet access. My son and I are both college students with online classes. We still need to do our schoolwork, even if we are on vacation. I have an IPad with 3G capability but I don't know if that will work on a cruise or not. I know the ship offers WIFI for a fee but that could get pretty pricey.

If you think ship-board Wi-Fi is going to be expensive, wait until you see your cell phone bill. AT&T does provide the internet service on a lot of cruise ships, but for at least a surcharge of $4.99 per minute, that's going to be a pretty pricey class; even if you get a discount plan, you're talking at least $1,000 to do 3 class hours of work online using 3G during your cruise.

The ship probably offers Wi-Fi service or has an internet cafe, but the computers can be really slow, and this will cost you a lot of money. Frankly, I just don't think it's practical to think you can do real college classwork on your vacation if you need to be online to do it. You're just not being realistic.

The cheapest alternative will be to use an internet cafe in your port stops. Most places will have these, and they won't be horrendously expensive

Check with your cell phone provider for your best 3G option.

WiFi charges are quite expensive can go up to $50/hr

on some cruises.

Also wise to keep 3G off to keep out unwanted expensive

downloads while cruising in my experience with my I-Pad.

So check direct with your cell provider on best way to go.

Happy Cruising,

Seems to me that the real choice is vacation or class. Take your pick. You can't have it all.

Thanks for your insight. I think we're going to try to get as much homework done before the cruise. Disney's wi-fi isn't too expensive, so I may need to go that route just to finish things up. I will certainly make sure my 3G is turned off to avoid any surprises.

Have you consider an "internation" 3G package? Or, using internet cafe ashore?