Elon Musk's SpaceX’s Starlink in an Industry-first to Provide High-speed Internet Onboard Full Cruise Fleet

[mjfship]

MIAMI – Aug. 30, 2022 – Royal Caribbean Group (NYSE: RCL) announced today its plan to implement SpaceX’s Starlink – making the Group the first in the cruise industry to adopt its high-speed, low-latency connectivity for a better onboard experience for guests and crew fleetwide. The innovative broadband internet service will be installed on all Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises ships, along with all new vessels for each of the brands.

 

Deployment of the Starlink technology across the fleet will begin immediately, leveraging the insights obtained from the trial onboard Freedom of the Seas, which has received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from guests and crew. The installation is slated to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2023.  “Our purpose as a company is to deliver the best vacation experiences to our guests responsibly, and this new offering, which is the biggest public deployment of Starlink’s high-speed internet in the travel industry so far, demonstrates our commitment to that purpose,” said Jason Liberty, president and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean Group. “This technology will provide game-changing internet connectivity onboard our ships, enhancing the cruise experience for guests and crew alike. It will improve and enable more high-bandwidth activities like video streaming as well as activities like video calls. Using Starlink is one more example of our continued focus on innovation and excellence for our guests, our crew, the communities we visit and our shareholders.”

Faster and more reliable internet will also make it easier for guests and crew to remain connected to work, family and friends – no matter where they are in the world.

 

“Royal Caribbean Group selecting Starlink to provide high-speed, low-latency internet across their fleet will make their passengers’ getaways even more luxurious,” said SpaceX Vice President of Starlink Sales Jonathan Hofeller. “We couldn’t be more excited to work with Royal Caribbean Group to ensure travelers at sea can stay connected with a great internet experience.”

“Our work with SpaceX is another example of how Royal Caribbean Group continues to lead the cruise industry in innovation and adoption of cutting-edge technology,” Liberty added.   

Edited August 30, 2022 by mjfraser

[sbcs5390]

Amazing news. Can't wait to find out a more specific implementation schedule. I'm sure someone will hear from officers on the different ships in due course. 

[Jim_Iain]

I'm looking forward to it.   When they say Royal Caribbean Group I'm hoping it includes Celebrity.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

I'm probably the only one, but that makes me LESS likely to purchase and use the internet. The thought of supporting him in any way makes me sick.

[h20cruzer]

1 minute ago, Jim_Iain said:

I'm looking forward to it.   When they say Royal Caribbean Group I'm hoping it includes Celebrity.

I'm with you, can't wait, current internet is slow at best. In the above announcement says "will be installed on all Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises ships, along with all new vessels for each of the brands "

[verizon]

5 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I'm looking forward to it.   When they say Royal Caribbean Group I'm hoping it includes Celebrity.

The innovative broadband internet service will be installed on all Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises ships, along with all new vessels for each of the brands.

[verizon]

This is posted on Celebrity FaceBook.

Celebrity Cruises 

 

1 hr  · 

 

Surfing the web while sailing the seas just got smoother.

We’re excited to announce that we’re going all-in on SpaceX's Starlink WiFi– an industry first leveraging high-speed, connectivity for a much improved onboard experience for guests and crew.

Starlink is a game-changer, and we can’t wait to revolutionize the seas with faster and more reliable internet – making it easier for guests and crew to remain connected to work, family and friends – no matter where they choose…

See more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[grandgeezer]

Wait until you see the pricing and speeds available before your all excited. The land based option is $600 for equipment and $110 a month for usage. 

[dlh015]

5 minutes ago, grandgeezer said:

Wait until you see the pricing and speeds available before your all excited. The land based option is $600 for equipment and $110 a month for usage. 

Now, now, let's not exaggerate...it's only $599 for the equipment!  🤣😂

 

Wow, I had no idea it would be *that* much!!

[Moonarino]

I do hope Starlink will "work with Royal Caribbean Group" to improve networking throughout the ships while they're offering that fat pipe, which is only half the battle. The other half is getting there, i.e., having enough good-quality/well-configured switches and access points onboard, all the layers we have to hop through to get to (and from) The Big Pipe. It's never about improving just one piece. IOW, cross your fingers that it will live up to the hype.

 

Edit to add: Not a nay-sayer because I love good technology that works as advertised. Just sayin', it's always about the whole formula.

 

Edited August 30, 2022 by Moonarino

[hcat]

Hope we can still have our E + perk of free minutes.  That's enough for us and we would not pay more just to have faster e mail or any e mail

[Tigerfnan23]

3 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

I'm probably the only one, but that makes me LESS likely to purchase and use the internet. The thought of supporting him in any way makes me sick.

 

Yep you're the only one.   

[RTShaker]

2 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

Wait until you see the pricing and speeds available before your all excited. The land based option is $600 for equipment and $110 a month for usage. 

Just think about how much you pay Celebrity for a month now, $750+ for basic.

[Honolulu Blue]

I think it's good news.  But as mentioned, the devil is in the details.  Will it be installed and available by my next cruise on Celebrity in November?  Who knows?  🥴

[jrmende63]

We were on the Freedom of the Seas with the trial run. It kept dropping the connection for us. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

8 minutes ago, jrmende63 said:

We were on the Freedom of the Seas with the trial run. It kept dropping the connection for us. 

 

Care to be more specific as the press release states a "tremendous amount of positive feedback"?

[prmssk]

The Weekend Cruiser on YouTube spends a lot of time on the Freedom and he has posted a couple videos about Starlink.  His first one was really promising with great speeds even from a cabin that was on one end of the ship.  The last one I watched where he talked about Starlink again, his speeds were significantly lower and he felt like maybe they were throttling the speeds.  It will be interesting to see how it works fleet wide.  I welcome any improvement to internet at sea.

[jrmende63]

11 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Care to be more specific as the press release states a "tremendous amount of positive feedback"?

My feedback was not positive. We were in the forward starboard side on deck 12 of the Freedom of the Seas. When the internet worked, it was great. When it did not work and dropped our connection, it was at an inopportune time and lost the entire presentation I was working on. It was not a one time dropping of the connection. This happened many times over our b2b cruise.

[markeb]

I'm crossing my fingers. Having great upload/download bandwidth will be great, but I'm not convinced they've engineered the routers and access points on the ship to take advantage of the external bandwidth. Too many dropped connections that didn't automatically reconnect on my last cruise, and that's not the external bandwidth! You should be able to walk through the ship and never lose your connectivity...

[dlh015]

50 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Care to be more specific as the press release states a "tremendous amount of positive feedback"?

Uh, what would one expect marketing to say...lol. Along with that "tremendous amount of positive feedback", there could have been a "tremendous amount of negative feedback". 

 

(Worked alongside marketing groups during most of my career...a special memory was when we were releasing an update with numerous bug fixes...marketing called it a 'performance release'...😃) 

 

That said, I'll withhold any judgement until we see how it works out...and I certainly do hope it works out for the best! 

 

 

[Mark_K]

13 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

I'm probably the only one, but that makes me LESS likely to purchase and use the internet. The thought of supporting him in any way makes me sick.

You must have a delicate stomach.

[OysterD]

Funnily enough a friend just messaged me earlier to say he's boarding a plane shortly for a TA work trip, and he's wishing planes were like they were 20yrs ago with no WiFi and no connectivity to the outside world. He is expected to continue working while on the flight. I'm with him - long flights used to be a time to kick back, relax, have a few drinks and watch an onboard movie and be completely disconnected from the world. 

 

Same as, in my mind, a cruise ship should be. We go on a cruise for a holiday, to get away from everything and to switch off for a week or two. Personally I hate being in restaurants or bars or anywhere leisure oriented and seeing everyone glued to their phones. I think it's anti social and its not good for us as a society. We managed perfectly well on cruises or other holidays for decades without constantly being connected. I would love to go on a cruise and never see anyone sat at a bar, in a restaurant or by the pool on their phones! I'm looking forward to 11 days next month of switching off and ignoring work emails and getting away from screens. I don't want super fast Internet and won't be paying to upgrade from the bog standard included package lol. I definitely wouldn't want to give that egotistical guy a penny of mine so I could stream a movie on a cruise. I think there's enough to be doing onboard rather than sat in my cabin watching Netflix! 

 

Oh and I'm in my early 40s, in theory I should be loving the idea that cruise ships are getting high speed Internet. Most of my friends think the same way though. We want to go on holiday to get away from it all! 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

15 minutes ago, OysterD said:

I definitely wouldn't want to give that egotistical guy a penny of mine so I could stream a movie on a cruise.

 

Thank you!

[NutsAboutGolf]

9 hours ago, jrmende63 said:

My feedback was not positive. We were in the forward starboard side on deck 12 of the Freedom of the Seas. When the internet worked, it was great. When it did not work and dropped our connection, it was at an inopportune time and lost the entire presentation I was working on. It was not a one time dropping of the connection. This happened many times over our b2b cruise.

 

Thanks for your feedback.  I'm on the Equinox now and it goes out from time to time, I personally wouldn't work on any file that could be lost if the wifi goes out, whether that's starlink or non-star link.

[NutsAboutGolf]

8 hours ago, dlh015 said:

Uh, what would one expect marketing to say...lol. Along with that "tremendous amount of positive feedback", there could have been a "tremendous amount of negative feedback". 

 

(Worked alongside marketing groups during most of my career...a special memory was when we were releasing an update with numerous bug fixes...marketing called it a 'performance release'...😃) 

 

That said, I'll withhold any judgement until we see how it works out...and I certainly do hope it works out for the best! 

 

 

 

Totally understand, up until now, Virgin and Princess have had the fastest internet at sea yet they're still not perfect.  Sounds like starlink will be great foundation which will have some growing pains.