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

[HMR74]

15 minutes ago, Moonarino said:

Please view this first part of my response as thoroughly light-hearted (and consider that I'm retirement age myself) but you do know about "phablets", cellphones as big as tablets used to be? My lady's phone has a 6.8" screen with 4k resolution. My chronic carpal-tunnel-like affliction won't allow me to even think about something that big and heavy. My current cell screen is 5.5", with hardware buttons instead of onscreen (so relatively bigger than 5.5" with onscreen buttons). I do also have a 9" tablet with a case that props. But I still much prefer big-screen TV for football and basketball. Sports bar. Indy OTS has a very nice one (Playmakers) just off the Casino.

 

Logging in on my last 3 cruises (Royal and CCL) at peak times would often take minutes, even with always being careful to disconnect from WiFi every time after logging out. Still not optimum per se. This is one thing I hope gets better as part of Starlink (accompanying WiFi/router/switch upgrades etc).

 

when our kids still needed babysitters we have a bluish green notatel phone I recall. the brick.

 

one of my colleages in trading just messaged me on our private deal that the Euro is at .99 now. Ordinarily that would be good when traveling from US to Europe but costs are rising faster.

 

[Moonarino]

1 hour ago, mfs2k said:

i still use AltaVista through Compuserve as my preferred search engine.

Woah. Compuserve, Prodigy and AOL, the former "big three". Tons of early innovation there. I had no idea AltaVista was still around. As for Compuserve, you reminded me that AOL is only the second-oldest email service that's still kicking.

Edited September 6, 2022 by Moonarino

[mfs2k]

8 minutes ago, Moonarino said:

Woah. Compuserve, Prodigy and AOL, the former "big three". Tons of early innovation there. I had no idea AltaVista was still around. As for Compuserve, you reminded me that AOL is only the second-oldest email service that's still kicking.

I was just trying to be funny.

I dont think Compuserve or AltaVista are still around.  

[Moonarino]

1 minute ago, mfs2k said:

I was just trying to be funny.

I dont think Compuserve or AltaVista are still around.  

Lol, okay. But AOL still is, and it's almost as old as Compuserve.

[mfs2k]

1 minute ago, Moonarino said:

Lol, okay. But AOL still is, and it's almost as old as Compuserve.

true.  I still use an AOL email for when I m in a store and they want my email address. 

[canderson]

5 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

I was just trying to be funny.

I dont think Compuserve or AltaVista are still around.  

AltaVista = Yahoo, and still functioning!

[Moonarino]

1 minute ago, canderson said:

AltaVista = Yahoo, and still functioning!

I had a nagging thought in the back of my head about that. Yahoo has gotten its hands into a whole bunch of stuff over the years.

[NutsAboutGolf]

Wish there was a little more info about which ships will get it when besides the E-Class.  We know all E-Class ships (including the almost complete Ascent) are in Europe along with the Connie and Reflection so its as good as a guess as any that the installation team would take care of all the ships in Europe first.  The other thing I'm guessing, there's probably only one sole installation team which will need to install it on every ship in RCG's portfolio, including RCI and SilverSeas.

[Moonarino]

Just now, NutsAboutGolf said:

Wish there was a little more info about which ships will get it when besides the E-Class.  We know all E-Class ships (including the almost complete Ascent) are in Europe along with the Connie and Reflection so its as good as a guess as any that the installation team would take care of all the ships in Europe first.  The other thing I'm guessing, there's probably only one sole installation team which will need to install it on every ship in RCG's portfolio, including RCI and SilverSeas.

I'm sure I read last week that Solstice ships won't get it till early next year (maybe Spring), Edge being the first priorities. I could be wrong.

[jean87510]

On 9/1/2022 at 1:35 AM, HMR74 said:

I like you are apparently value oriented. The classic package reisling is $9 plus the 18%.  Basically the same as in restaurants. I buy a case on sale for 5 bucks a bottle. It tastes great/fantastic  at $5 a bottle. The premium (on X) reisling tastes better to me and that bottle retails for 16 but its order only.

 

Now to the internet and where they get the money. Celebrity is already advertising that if you want the high speed starlink, it is the  premium package. . Celebrity says upgrade to the high speed pkg and voila you have it. I think eventually they end up with just the premium starlink service. Simplifies everyhting. They know the  numbers they have to hit.

 

I have premium internet included on x, so I do not know the ala carte price, but I waited for a sale to buy the ZOOM surf package on Oasis saved a lot. . Something like 147 for the first, and the 4th one on sale is a $28 increment. Average of 82 per package per week.

I do not think the price is terribly high and yes in total its big dollars, however, its for 4300 on Beyond including the crew.

 

Starlink public price I mentioned earlier for a standalone system is 550 for equipment and 110 a month per sub. I will just guess that even if it was 4300 subscriptions needed, its 2.3 mil up front for beyond. The ship cost 1.4 bil. 4300 subscriptions a month (by now you might guess I am a bean counter) at 110 retail price is 473,000 per month. Lets assunme the average cruis has 2500 guests on board and 2000 buy the full servic internet. At Royals best current price-on sale and buying 4 for on cabin, its 11.71 per day.

11.71 times 2000 times 30 days is 702,000 in internet revenue a month vs 473,000 retail cost , which leaves a lot of profit to pay for the equipment in about a year. I just do not know what the current margin is. But the system stinks. 

 

Anyway, they could easily get away with charging slighly more. But they do not need to. They have already said teh cost to them is substantially less with these low orbit sats.

All the cruise lines need to focus on getting occupancy back to where it was, and then make sure they are properly staffed number wise and then properly staffed to meet the skills requred.

 

There are some days we would just like to sit on balcony and fresh ocean air,  and watch a movie of our choice on one of the streamers. Or binge watch something. The current system signal does not make it out to the balcony. This new one should.

 

In the end I look at cost of the whole package and reduce it to a per day basis. At some point it just gets too pricey for what you get at each  level of service, depending on how we each grade it.

 

 

 

 

exactly.  I have an aqua suite booked on a 9 day on the equinox plus magic carpet booked on the Beyond.  It's a southern Caribbean where Im going to be exhausted at night and probably not in the mood to do dress up and sit in a show.  So we plan to have some good shows to binge and movies to watch in our expensive (well at least to me) cabins and maybe have some room service to go with our entertainment.  I have been monitoring this star link for future rv camping trips in the northwest and am really excited it came to the cruise lines.

[HMR74]

2 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Wish there was a little more info about which ships will get it when besides the E-Class.  We know all E-Class ships (including the almost complete Ascent) are in Europe along with the Connie and Reflection so its as good as a guess as any that the installation team would take care of all the ships in Europe first.  The other thing I'm guessing, there's probably only one sole installation team which will need to install it on every ship in RCG's portfolio, including RCI and SilverSeas.

Perhaps 2 install teams .

perhaps a couple days to install and test depending on team size and ship/ship class. all that wiring from antenna to deal with too. Not to mention trouble shooting when somehting goes wrong.

[NutsAboutGolf]

12 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

exactly.  I have an aqua suite booked on a 9 day on the equinox plus magic carpet booked on the Beyond.  It's a southern Caribbean where Im going to be exhausted at night and probably not in the mood to do dress up and sit in a show.  So we plan to have some good shows to binge and movies to watch in our expensive (well at least to me) cabins and maybe have some room service to go with our entertainment.  I have been monitoring this star link for future rv camping trips in the northwest and am really excited it came to the cruise lines.

 

11 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

Perhaps 2 install teams .

perhaps a couple days to install and test depending on team size and ship/ship class. all that wiring from antenna to deal with too. Not to mention trouble shooting when somehting goes wrong.

 

Logically, it doesn't make any sense flying the installation team back and forth between Europe and the Caribbean so I'm pretty sure they'll tackle all ships in Europe first; for X that's the Beyond, Ascent, Apex, Edge, Reflection and Connie) plus the other RCI and SS ships.  Once done with Europe ships, will they straight to the Caribbean or stop at the "unique" locations like the Eclipse in Australia first?  Once in the Caribbean, which will be the first X ship they'll upgrade?

Edited September 6, 2022 by NutsAboutGolf

[HMR74]

11 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

 

Logically, it doesn't make any sense flying the installation team back and forth between Europe and the Caribbean so I'm pretty sure they'll tackle all ships in Europe first; for X that's the Beyond, Ascent, Apex, Edge, Reflection and Connie) plus the other RCI and SS ships.  Once done with Europe ships, will they straight to the Caribbean or stop at the "unique" locations like the Eclipse in Australia first?  Once in the Caribbean, which will be the first X ship they'll upgrade?

we are on Oasis for Thanksgiving and RCL is playing it close to the vest.

However, since money is important I think the  bigger ships first as well as high priced premium ships , where more revenues can be raised. Leaving Vision  and Milleinium class last.

 

Real question is just how long does it take------and where does my next cruise ship fit into all of this,.

 

As for prices, they pushed prices up rather significantly a few months back, apparently thinking abut revenues in general and internet too. Perhaps that price increase covers the new deal. once they start getitng into the 30 a day range where  even "just"  210 a week for internet starts to sound like a lot. I just paid 656 for 8 of us for one week. Zoom surf  and I thought i got away cheap during the "sale" week.

[fstuff1]

51 minutes ago, Moonarino said:

Woah. Compuserve, Prodigy and AOL, the former "big three". Tons of early innovation there. I had no idea AltaVista was still around. As for Compuserve, you reminded me that AOL is only the second-oldest email service that's still kicking.

 

I used to spend a ton of $ playing Compuserve multi player games.

It was like $10/hr for 300 baud.

[HMR74]

6 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

 

I used to spend a ton of $ playing Compuserve multi player games.

It was like $10/hr for 300 baud.

that triggered my mind. I have to try using internet on cell phones at home vs using cell towers which in my area none of the services  are great.

[mfs2k]

15 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

 

I used to spend a ton of $ playing Compuserve multi player games.

It was like $10/hr for 300 baud.

 

I "met" a woman from Canada on in May 1995 on Compuserve's chat platform called "CB Simulator."  We chatted online for 6 months.

Between dialup and compuserve fees it was expensive. 

I finally met her in person in December 1995.  In Ocober 1996 she moved to NY and moved in with me. We got married in 1999 in St Thomas while on a Carnival cruise.  We've cruised about 10 times together

We celebrated our 23rd anniversary in March and we're sailing on Beyond in October.

 

Edited September 6, 2022 by mfs2k

[NutsAboutGolf]

12 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

we are on Oasis for Thanksgiving and RCL is playing it close to the vest.

However, since money is important I think the  bigger ships first as well as high priced premium ships , where more revenues can be raised. Leaving Vision  and Milleinium class last.

 

Real question is just how long does it take------and where does my next cruise ship fit into all of this,.

 

As for prices, they pushed prices up rather significantly a few months back, apparently thinking abut revenues in general and internet too. Perhaps that price increase covers the new deal. once they start getitng into the 30 a day range where  even "just"  210 a week for internet starts to sound like a lot. I just paid 656 for 8 of us for one week. Zoom surf  and I thought i got away cheap during the "sale" week.

 

Just playing devils advocate that they have no problem filling the big ships, X on the other hand has a harder time filling the soon to be based out of L.A. Solstice "Mex Riviera" or the older Infinity, based on them offering casino deals on even the holiday sailing which is generally a no-no.  Yet just my opinion, with the time frame is so tight, now-Q1 which just under 7 months, minimizing logistical costs will cost RCG far less than trying to pick either big ships or ships with the least amount of bookings.  Most likely in order to install this, in addition to shipping the hardware, they need everything from low-cost laborer's to highly specialized engineers and everything in-between.

[HMR74]

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

exactly.  I have an aqua suite booked on a 9 day on the equinox plus magic carpet booked on the Beyond.  It's a southern Caribbean where Im going to be exhausted at night and probably not in the mood to do dress up and sit in a show.  So we plan to have some good shows to binge and movies to watch in our expensive (well at least to me) cabins and maybe have some room service to go with our entertainment.  I have been monitoring this star link for future rv camping trips in the northwest and am really excited it came to the cruise lines.

I am in my 70's and think everything now is expensive and am shocked at how much the kids spend on various things.

 

But then again, my parents thought we bought too big a house (*what do you need that for").

 

Morris Massey once presented a class into corportations to get the different generations to work well together. It was titled " you are what you were when you were born" and he brought together Senior officers born before the depression, with new college grads (then it was the boomers) to make us  understand how each other group thinks , age reference wise, so we could get things done.

[HMR74]

26 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Just playing devils advocate that they have no problem filling the big ships, X on the other hand has a harder time filling the soon to be based out of L.A. Solstice "Mex Riviera" or the older Infinity, based on them offering casino deals on even the holiday sailing which is generally a no-no.  Yet just my opinion, with the time frame is so tight, now-Q1 which just under 7 months, minimizing logistical costs will cost RCG far less than trying to pick either big ships or ships with the least amount of bookings.  Most likely in order to install this, in addition to shipping the hardware, they need everything from low-cost laborer's to highly specialized engineers and everything in-between.

thats a consideration. but then they just factor in where they think they can generate the most addition revenue and profits first. Its their numbers and we are just making assumptions.

 

Because we are on a big ship in 77 days I am biased on their updating those first. On the other hand, they might think of updatiing ships on repositionings  in October.

 

go where the money is and in the end leave to the last where they get the least amount of flak on not having the ultra high speed.

 

Be a nice PR video to show the effort time and expertise to install Starlink on ships.

I am just laughing now to myself thinking about how each balcony would have a dish attached  to it. It would  be like a suburban development all with dishes attached to roofs. If you are on wrong side of ship on TA , you are      out of luck for days.

 

Now that I think about it, they need a few days to install meaning they do it during a cruise. That further complicates scheduling. Got to leave cushion for problems.

 

Edited September 6, 2022 by HMR74

[mfs2k]

I'll be in a suite on Beyond in 2 months. Will I have premium WIFI using the latest/greatest Starlink system? or is this a new tier for Wifi I'll have to pay for if I want it?? 

[Moonarino]

46 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Just playing devils advocate that they have no problem filling the big ships, X on the other hand has a harder time filling the soon to be based out of L.A. Solstice "Mex Riviera" or the older Infinity, based on them offering casino deals on even the holiday sailing which is generally a no-no.  Yet just my opinion, with the time frame is so tight, now-Q1 which just under 7 months, minimizing logistical costs will cost RCG far less than trying to pick either big ships or ships with the least amount of bookings.  Most likely in order to install this, in addition to shipping the hardware, they need everything from low-cost laborer's to highly specialized engineers and everything in-between.

And let's just hope they can get the skilled labor & expertise when they need it over an extended schedule. Well-written contracts, let's cross our fingers.

 

41 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

. . . Morris Massey once presented a class into corportations to get the different generations to work well together. It was titled " you are what you were when you were born" . . .

. . . plus whatever you lived through (Great Depression, WWII, Great Society, Affluent Society . . . Millennials . . . Gen X, Z, etc). My first education on this subject was in Air Force leadership training, early 80s -- before Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" got shot down by too many over-educated people over-thinking the human psyche.

[HMR74]

15 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

I'll be in a suite on Beyond in 2 months. Will I have premium WIFI using the latest/greatest Starlink system? or is this a new tier for Wifi I'll have to pay for if I want it?? 

two weeks ago when first announced for Beyond, X said that the premium package woudl be starlink and if you had the base package you would need to upgrade to xcellerate or the premium package to get it.

 

I understand each suite has ts own access point on Beyond.

[canderson]

2 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

I understand each suite has ts own access point on Beyond.

I didn't go poking around in any of the other suites to compare, but was surprised to find a WAP in one of the cabinets in our RS on Constellation in November 21, too.

[HMR74]

2 minutes ago, canderson said:

I didn't go poking around in any of the other suites to compare, but was surprised to find a WAP in one of the cabinets in our RS on Constellation in November 21, too.

when I was booking a b2b in Aqua on Eclipse for Nov Dec 2020, a forgotten  never entered memory due to covid, I called and asked before cabin selection where access points were.

I had to wait on hold for 10 minutes and I guess that was the time needed to stop laughing and answered they do not know.

 

That was back in the days they charged for xcellerate even though it was not available on Eclipse until the rennovation in 2021.

[grandgeezer]

On 8/31/2022 at 10:35 PM, HMR74 said:

I like you are apparently value oriented. The classic package reisling is $9 plus the 18%.  Basically the same as in restaurants. I buy a case on sale for 5 bucks a bottle. It tastes great/fantastic  at $5 a bottle. The premium (on X) reisling tastes better to me and that bottle retails for 16 but its order only.

 

Now to the internet and where they get the money. Celebrity is already advertising that if you want the high speed starlink, it is the  premium package. . Celebrity says upgrade to the high speed pkg and voila you have it. I think eventually they end up with just the premium starlink service. Simplifies everyhting. They know the  numbers they have to hit.

 

I have premium internet included on x, so I do not know the ala carte price, but I waited for a sale to buy the ZOOM surf package on Oasis saved a lot. . Something like 147 for the first, and the 4th one on sale is a $28 increment. Average of 82 per package per week.

I do not think the price is terribly high and yes in total its big dollars, however, its for 4300 on Beyond including the crew.

 

Starlink public price I mentioned earlier for a standalone system is 550 for equipment and 110 a month per sub. I will just guess that even if it was 4300 subscriptions needed, its 2.3 mil up front for beyond. The ship cost 1.4 bil. 4300 subscriptions a month (by now you might guess I am a bean counter) at 110 retail price is 473,000 per month. Lets assunme the average cruis has 2500 guests on board and 2000 buy the full servic internet. At Royals best current price-on sale and buying 4 for on cabin, its 11.71 per day.

11.71 times 2000 times 30 days is 702,000 in internet revenue a month vs 473,000 retail cost , which leaves a lot of profit to pay for the equipment in about a year. I just do not know what the current margin is. But the system stinks. 

 

Anyway, they could easily get away with charging slighly more. But they do not need to. They have already said teh cost to them is substantially less with these low orbit sats.

All the cruise lines need to focus on getting occupancy back to where it was, and then make sure they are properly staffed number wise and then properly staffed to meet the skills requred.

 

There are some days we would just like to sit on balcony and fresh ocean air,  and watch a movie of our choice on one of the streamers. Or binge watch something. The current system signal does not make it out to the balcony. This new one should.

 

In the end I look at cost of the whole package and reduce it to a per day basis. At some point it just gets too pricey for what you get at each  level of service, depending on how we each grade it.

 

 

 

 

I can’t believe anyone would think the internet price would go down when the new product is supposidly much faster and better than the current one. The new satellites needed and getting them in orbit is probably mind blowing. The hardware and the installation on twenty four ships is probably massive. who do you think is going to pay for that, the cruise line? Guess again. If the cost of maintaining the equipment might be lower, the key word is might. The skies the limit. If they mark up domestic beer by about 18 times their cost, why would they not mark up the internet. Before the pandemic they were operating at about 108%, and that’s with crappy internet. The new internet should be a positive in getting customers back and drawing new ones.

Here’s a quick story about a company that truly wants to give their customers a great product at a fair price. We live in an affluent retirement community in the Phoenix area, of about 10,000 homes. There is an internet company that at their own cost, is running fiber optic cable throughout the whole community. I had internet and phone through the phone company. The internet was 50mb download and 5 mb upload. the modem/router had to be purchased or rented for $15 per month, I bought it for about $100. I’ve had the new provider for over a week now. 300mb download and 290mb upload, verified by several speed check web sites. The modem/router is included in the price. The price is almost $7 per month. This s the same price the four other communities that this company has done before ours. Price is guaranteed for a year.