Just got offered an upgrade on our upcoming BCN to DXB cruise on Voyager. $1500 for the three of us to upgrade from an F to a B (could've taken an A but wanted to stay low as possible). My question is does anyone have any information about the iPad in the suite? I'm a PC guy and can't even spell apple. I assume I can get to the internet with it (wirelessly from room?) but can I load photos from xD and SD cards, edit them and then save back out to a flash drive??

Thanks,
Greg

To use the iPad, I think you will need the iPad camera connection kit, which is $29 unless they supply that also. The SD card goes into one end, and the other goes into the connection and then the photos are loaded onto the iPad. It works quite nicely.
There is second connector that comes with it in which you can directly connect a camera's USB cable.

However, since there is no USB port on the iPad itself, I don't know that you can load the photos back into a computer using a flash drive.

Maybe some one who is more computer savvy than I knows a trick. By the way, I use a Photogene App on the iPad to edit photos. To see details on the connection kit click on this
iPad Camera connection kit .
---------------

Eugene

Yes on the internet wirelessly in your suite - I have found connection problematical on the two cruises I have taken with my iPad along. Sometimes OK, often not. And it drops out very frequently. Often it depends where you are on the ship.

No on the photos - you can load them in to the ipad with a special adapter/card reader, that I'm sure Regent does not provide. They won't have editing apps loaded in and you can't download any apps yourself - you would need the master password for that. Even IF they did have editing software on it the only way out is to sync your photos with your computer, upload them to a storage site (again this would need an app), or email them out.

You can manage your photos fine if you OWN the iPad, but their loaner is just for casual stuff like surfing the web and email. You will want to bring your computer too if photos are a priority.

Greg, totally agree with Eugene and Leslie...I had a really bad experience on one cruise (it kept dropping the connection where Doug's computer had no problem) and a great experience with an iPad on another (even better than Doug's computer). I like traveling with the iPad since I can do almost everything on it that I can do on the computer with Photogene and it is so easy with the adapter. When I get home, I get more sophisticated on the computer.

Thanks guys. Looks like I'm bringing my laptop :(

:lct:
Greg

Interestingly, our iPads connected more often than computers on our Russian river cruise, but on Regent there is a problem - may be how the satellite is configured.

The Regent computer room guy on CLEO told me that with iPads unless there is some sort of activity in a ten minute period they log you out in order to reduce load on the bandwidth - I don't understand how they could differentiate whether you are using a laptop or an iPad so not sure if this is true.

In Asia earlier this year, I hated the difficulties in using my iPad. But on the recent CANADA cruise, connection was fine from anywhere on the ship. Only problem is that it would just drop me off out of nowhere, and not after ten minutes of activity. It happened constantly

I do have the little plugs with the slots for the SD card and USB port. They work well, and quickly. Only thing is, I left my iPad somewhere on the ship and it was never turned in, and no, I did not have the "Find my iPad" app. I've ordered another, and this time, that will be the first thing I do.

The security officer made a complete sweep of my rooom before giving me the lost item report I need to file under my trip insurance policy.

Greg, We used the Regent supplied Ipad on our cruise in June on the Mariner. We had constant connection issues in our suite with the Ipad but not with our laptop, go figure. The computer room staff were not really helpful with Ipad issues. We were interested in simply trying out the Ipad to see if we wanted one. We haven't purchased one yet. BTW we are on the same BCN - DXB cruise, I am sure we will run into each other.

Mike

Mike,
I'll be easy to spot. I'll be the short chunky guy with two tall attractive women. :D


Greg

I recently used an Android system tablet (Acer) on board the Navigator and it worked great. It does have a USB port and I was able to load pics directly from the camera, edit and post on Facebook and attach them to emails. I was able to get an internet connection almost everywhere on the ship, but did have a bit of trouble in Galileo's.

I'll echo what others have said above. My iPad connection was squirrelly.
I love my iPad as a photo viewing and editing device (photogene is excellent, snap seed is quite good too). With the new iCloud photostream functionality, it might be simpler to transfer photos to your PC.

I posted a reply to Greg's identical inquiry over on CC, similar to Dreps' initial reply above, so I hadn't posted here.

Lauri, I didn't suggest trying to transfer photos via iCloud as an alternative to carrying a laptop because I can't imagine the slow Internet service on the Regent ships would be effective for transferring photos in bulk. Uploading a few photos, sure, but uploading everything you've shot on a cruise? No way.

-- Eric