The cruise line business suffered a major setback during the pandemic, but the big players have weathered the storm. Bookings are finally beginning to increase, and Royal Caribbean apparently squirreled away enough cash to invest in an internet upgrade to attract returning vacationers. SpaceX and the cruise line have announced a partnership, which in the immortal words of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will deliver “kickass internet” to passengers.
A cruise ship traversing open water is one of the few places where connectivity is still absent. Anyone who has been on a cruise before can attest to how terrible the satellite-based internet service can be. It’s expensive, and bandwidth isn’t even enough to stream a video without constant buffering. However, Starlink is much faster than the old-style satellite feeds.
Starlink rolled out its Maritime service earlier this year, targeting private yachts and other luxury vessels. Starlink promises 100-350 Mbps down and 20-40 Mbps up for the individual Maritime service, but cruise ships can host thousands of people at once. The solution, apparently, is to load the ship down with multiple Starlink dishes.
The announcement from Royal Caribbean shows a row of Starlink’s larger Maritime dishes mounted on the deck of a cruise ship. It’s quite the flex for the cruise line, too. A consumer signing up for Maritime service on their fancy boat has to buy a pair of dishes at $5,000 each, and the service costs $5,000 per month. Presumably, Royal Caribbean will pay more than $5,000 per vessel because it’s going to need a lot of bandwidth to share among the passengers.
Kickass Internet connection coming Royal Caribbean ships soon! https://t.co/8qJRiUuNah
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2022
Starlink service could still save Royal Caribbean big money over time. Earlier this year, SpaceX noted that it switched to Starlink Maritime service on its fleet of drone ships that serve as landing pads for Falcon 9 rocket boosters. The old-fashioned Viasat connection it used previously cost $150,000 per month for a depressingly slow 25 Mbps connection. The veritable forest of Starlink terminals shown by Royal Caribbean could provide much higher speeds.
Installation of the service will begin immediately on all Royal Caribbean vessels, as well as those sailing under the Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises brands. The company expects to have the service live in early 2023, which is also when Starlink hopes to expand maritime coverage to most of the globe. Currently, Starlink Maritime only works in coastal regions. The middle latitudes will get coverage on the open sea late this year, and equatorial areas should be available early next year.
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