Back in the 1980's and through most of the 90's, going on vacation meant mostly disconnecting from work and home. If parents left their kids with a babysitter, they might make a quick call home, but long-distance rates were a thing and cell phones weren't.
That has, of course, changed dramatically with the internet and smartphone era. People are always in touch and it's actually pretty much expected. Your office may not require you to work on nights or weekends, but answering a question during your off hours that helps someone work is pretty much something many employers expect.
And, for families, the ubiquity of smartphones has changed all expectations. Kids no longer leave a note on the fridge talking about where they are, they text. And, of course, location tracking makes knowing where your family is possible in a way it simply wasn't not that many years ago.
Now, the expectation of being in touch always has spread to vacations. That's easy for land-based destinations as most tourist spots have solid internet. It's harder, however on a cruise ship where connectivity has been both expensive and fairly terrible.
Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) has mostly solved that by adding Elon Musk's Starlink internet to its ships. That's a move Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) plans to follow and the early verdict says it's going to work.
Image source: TheStreet
Starlink Internet on Royal Caribbean Works Well
As someone with a remote job who works on cruise ships fairly often, decent internet literally makes my life easier. Previously, my experience has been that Royal Caribbean has serviceable internet on its bigger ships that was prone to dropping out, while MSC and Carnival offer internet that barely works.
On a Royal Caribbean ship (or on sister brand Celebrity) I could write, surf the internet, and make phone calls. The internet was never all that reliable and doing something like adding a photo to a story was sometimes impossible. On sea days, it was worse, and there were times I had to wait until late night if I needed to watch a video.
Starlink, which I'm using on Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas right now, has mostly solved these problems. Since boarding the ship. I've been able to work as if I was in a Starbucks on land. The connection is notably slower than what I have at home and videos can lag, but performing normal work tasks is easy and I have not had my connection drop out at any point.
Download speeds are better than upload speeds which suggests that video meetings would be easy to watch, but that turning off my camera might be a good idea. These speeds have also been pretty consistent no matter where I am on the ship. That's very different from the old setup, where some rooms had poor connections and I often had to hunt down "hot spots."
Royal Caribbean Has Made No Internet Claims
The cruise line has been very quiet about the rollout of Starlink. In fact, there's nothing onboard that suggests we have the new internet. You can tell, however, in two ways. First, the speed test I ran shows that my connection is through Musk's internet service.
Second, on ships that offer Starlink, Royal Caribbean only sells what used to be the higher-end "Surf & Stream" internet package rather than offering a lower-bandwidth "Surf" package." The cruise line also still uses its Voom brand and its "Fastest Internet at Sea" tagline, which may have been true, but was relative.
Now, ships with Starlink offer reasonable quality internet at prices that mirror what you paid for the old Zoom. For those of us who work at our regular jobs while cruising, the change is fairly amazing, but it should also benefit people looking to share pictures and videos of their cruise with people back home.
And, while some people are horrified at this notion because they believe you should unplug while at sea, streaming was decent and a viable experience if you want to Netflix and Chill instead of reading a book. Starlink has its limitations but it's a massive improvement that should make it easier for people to work, keep in touch with those on land, and enjoy their cruise in the way they see fit.
