Crossing the Atlantic in April or October
 

We were thinking about taking an inexpensive cruise back to Fort Lauderdale from Rome in October after touring Tuscany for a few weeks. We have not taken a cruise this direction before and wondered if one can use their own computer to send and receive emails? Some years ago we took a Caribbean cruise and used the ship's computer which was quite slow and expensive.

You should repost in the cruise forum

It's still slow and expensive. The cruise line has to use a satelite and have limited bandwidth.

I found it working best at around 3-4 am when nobody else is on line but still expensive.

Have a wonderful cruise and forget the internet.

I agree with AA. despite the many advances on ships the internet remains "painfully" (and a real revenue generator for the cruise line coincidentally) slow. So slow, in fact, that the cruise I was just on had a very large print "warning" on the log-in page about how "connection time at sea usually takes considerably ;longer than it does at home or compared to what you may be used to."

I am sure we can thank the cruise line legal department for that boilerplate addition.

And trust me, there is no need to re-post your question anywhere because the answer is going to be the same.

I am brand new at using fodor's com. Thanks for your help and experience.

If you MUST talk to someone you know while on a cruise, rent or buy a satellite phone and make sure you have all of their numbers with you.
How did we ever live without the internet? I know, we used Ma Bell and talked to everyone we didn't want to send a postcard to.

You need to look in the Europe forum at a thread that starts in Florida, Ft. Lauderdale, followed by the transatlantic crossing in the other direction, to Rome (just done in April). rhkkmk does quite thorough reporting, and you can always ask your question(s) on that thread. If you search for rhkkmk, it should pull up his page and there you will find the thread. It is still on page one of the Europe forum right now, but things move quickly over there!