When will NCL/Regent follow Royal Caribbean

[captjohn]

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/information-technology/royal-caribbean-group-taps-spacexs-starlink-high-speed-internet-across-entire

[Lonedaddy]

10 minutes ago, captjohn said:

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/information-technology/royal-caribbean-group-taps-spacexs-starlink-high-speed-internet-across-entire

One can hope - internet on regent certainly isn't a 5-star experience currently.

[PaulMCO]

They need to jettison their EMC/MTN contract.

Seabourn and most of Carnival needs the same.

 

Starlink works extremely well. We use it at home.

The system that RCCL used has multiple  (12) larger antenna arrays mounted forward -- significantly larger than the single small home version.

[Pcardad]

Regent can have 4 times the bandwidth with a phone call. The hardware is in place - they just need to sign a contract for more bandwidth.

[mnocket]

I suspect almost all cruise lines will migrate their internet to Starlink over time.  Remember, all of those Starlink satellites are sitting idle while orbiting over the oceans.  The incremental cost for Starlink to service cruise ships is modest and the revenue opportunity is significant.  My expectation is that cruise lines that sign up will achieve much faster internet at equal or lesser cost.  It's a win-win for both parties.

[dvalentine823]

Currently on Voyager, and the internet is horrendous! Upgrade to the streaming package, and basically 0 * 2 still equals 0. Useless, got a refund.

 

Regents needs to fix this. Even the oldest passengers now at least want to be able to get reliable email and post on facebook, so there are no excuses!!

[Pcardad]

https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/30/royal-caribbean-will-equip-all-its-cruise-ships-with-starlink-internet/

[Aloha 1]

A 5 star cruise line should absolutely have 5 star internet. Otherwise, they are not 5 star. Come on, Jason, step up.

[cwn]

4 hours ago, Pcardad said:

https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/30/royal-caribbean-will-equip-all-its-cruise-ships-with-starlink-internet/

Only in costal waters not in mid ocean…. How does that help?

We have been  around the world in the Navigator and to Antarctica in the Mariner, kept a daily online blog going and DH kept in touch with his customers daily, did daily emails to family and friends…. not a problem except very few times in very remote areas. You are on vacation on a ship in the middle of no where at times. Somebody needs to get a grip or maybe just go to a 5*resort.

[Pcardad]

16 minutes ago, cwn said:

Only in costal waters not in mid ocean…. How does that help?

We have been  around the world in the Navigator and to Antarctica in the Mariner, kept a daily online blog going and DH kept in touch with his customers daily, did daily emails to family and friends…. not a problem except very few times in very remote areas. You are on vacation on a ship in the middle of no where at times. Somebody needs to get a grip or maybe just go to a 5*resort.

I am just linking the article. I think everyone understand there will be signal lose at times....but I do not understand why the speed is not faster when it easily can be....on the only 6 star rated line in the world.

 

[cwn]

47 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

I am just linking the article. I think everyone understand there will be signal lose at times....but I do not understand why the speed is not faster when it easily can be....on the only 6 star rated line in the world.

 

We have sailed on Seabourn and Silver Seas who also claim to be as good as Regent…..our personal favorite is Regent but the internet speed is not overly concerning to us nor does it ruin our enjoyment of the cruise. 
I don’t know anything about the RCL set up other than the link in your post. So I can’t see why that would be better. I am sure Regent has a reason not to up the band width since maybe they can…extra cost? Passed on to the passenger? We would pass at that choice as it doesn’t add anything to the cruising experience for us. 

[Pcardad]

5 minutes ago, cwn said:

We have sailed on Seabourn and Silver Seas who also claim to be as good as Regent…..our personal favorite is Regent but the internet speed is not overly concerning to us nor does it ruin our enjoyment of the cruise. 
I don’t know anything about the RCL set up other than the link in your post. So I can’t see why that would be better. I am sure Regent has a reason not to up the band width since maybe they can…extra cost? Passed on to the passenger? We would pass at that choice as it doesn’t add anything to the cruising experience for us. 

Yes - the current provider is expensive and Regent has determined they would loss money if they bought more bandwidth. Starlink is less expensive.

[cwn]

2 hours ago, Pcardad said:

Yes - the current provider is expensive and Regent has determined they would loss money if they bought more bandwidth. Starlink is less expensive.

But it seems that Starlink has less coverage at this point at least, so how can that be better for long voyages?

[Pcardad]

5 minutes ago, cwn said:

But it seems that Starlink has less coverage at this point at least, so how can that be better for long voyages?

Because the vast majority of sailing is in coastal waters and I think the article outlines a plan to provide additional coverage.

[daetchief]

I'm always amused by the obsession with having High Speed internet on cruise ships.  For the AOL.com crowd, here is all that you need to do it right.

 

1. A fast 'land based' connection to the Internet:  i.e.  An Internet Service Provider [ISP]

        - Commercially you could have that at as high as 15Gb/s [Bits, not Bytes]

2. A satellite constellation [it takes a fairly large number of them] which can handle the throughput of that ISP's speed. 

       - I'd be surprised if the satellites could 'talk' faster that 1Gb/s.  Probably a lot slower... 

3. A ground station that has an uplink/downlink sufficiently fast enough to talk to the satellites.

       - Think big parabolic dish antennas - but you can't go any faster than the satellite's speed.

4. A shipboard receiver suite with a [nearly] geo-stationary antenna and an uplink/downlink sufficiently fast enough to talk to the satellites.  

     -  That could also provide shade to the pool deck, or be a sail in stormy weather.

5. Don't share this connection.  No, Voice, No Navigational or Weather updates; just Email and Travel Websites. [Cruise Critic..]

     -  Don't share the internet connection with other [Regent] ships, Industries or the Government.

6. Now, after you've leased the above. [No, really, you can't afford to buy it...]  do one of two things:

     a.  Replicate it for each 6-star cruise ship  or

     b. Take that 1GB data stream [dream?], divide that by the number of ships you want to support, and then divide that by the number of devices currently being serviced.  [1Gb/5 ships = 200MB divided by 350 passengers [1/2 the guests at a time] and at best you'll see 500 Kb throughput.   

     c.  Reality:  There are far more satellite lease customers - other than Regent, NCLH or even the whole cruise community put together using the satellites who are more than pleased to have SOME connectivity at sea.

 

Onto a more manageable subject:   Should I Tip my Butler? ☠️

Edited September 2, 2022 by daetchief
gr

[Pcardad]

20 hours ago, daetchief said:

I'm always amused by the obsession with having High Speed internet on cruise ships.  For the AOL.com crowd, here is all that you need to do it right.

 

1. A fast 'land based' connection to the Internet:  i.e.  An Internet Service Provider [ISP]

        - Commercially you could have that at as high as 15Gb/s [Bits, not Bytes]

2. A satellite constellation [it takes a fairly large number of them] which can handle the throughput of that ISP's speed. 

       - I'd be surprised if the satellites could 'talk' faster that 1Gb/s.  Probably a lot slower... 

3. A ground station that has an uplink/downlink sufficiently fast enough to talk to the satellites.

       - Think big parabolic dish antennas - but you can't go any faster than the satellite's speed.

4. A shipboard receiver suite with a [nearly] geo-stationary antenna and an uplink/downlink sufficiently fast enough to talk to the satellites.  

     -  That could also provide shade to the pool deck, or be a sail in stormy weather.

5. Don't share this connection.  No, Voice, No Navigational or Weather updates; just Email and Travel Websites. [Cruise Critic..]

     -  Don't share the internet connection with other [Regent] ships, Industries or the Government.

6. Now, after you've leased the above. [No, really, you can't afford to buy it...]  do one of two things:

     a.  Replicate it for each 6-star cruise ship  or

     b. Take that 1GB data stream [dream?], divide that by the number of ships you want to support, and then divide that by the number of devices currently being serviced.  [1Gb/5 ships = 200MB divided by 350 passengers [1/2 the guests at a time] and at best you'll see 500 Kb throughput.   

     c.  Reality:  There are far more satellite lease customers - other than Regent, NCLH or even the whole cruise community put together using the satellites who are more than pleased to have SOME connectivity at sea.

 

Onto a more manageable subject:   Should I Tip my Butler? ☠️

On an interesting sidebar, I have personally watched a Regent person download a 5gb movie in under 30 seconds while at sea. This is not a dispute of anything you said...just a data point.