Royal Caribbean: 'Very Aggressive' on Tech Infrastructure

Royal Caribbean: 'Very Aggressive' on Tech Infrastructure

At Royal Caribbean Cruises, the idea is to anticipate the future of technology and get ready for it now.

“I believe that the largest challenges for us are the things that we don’t even know will be coming in the next five to 10 years. There are revolutions coming, things like virtual reality and other things that we don’t even imagine. We need to look at the historical growth of those technologies in the past, focusing on the future,” said Guillermo Muniz, director of satellite and network engineering, Royal Caribbean Cruises.

While cruise lines may plan into the 2020s on the technology front, challenges still remain when it comes to internet aboard today’s fleet.

“Royal Caribbean is being very aggressive regarding infrastructure within the ship. We are investing to make sure we have the infrastructure on our ships to have the correct Wi-Fi and the latest technologies to be able to not worry about connectivity over the next decade,” Muniz said.

The newer Royal Caribbean ships are using a new technology, marketed as Voom, that has significantly improved internet access aboard, helped in part by SES Networks.

“On those ships, the connection is comparable to our home experience. You can stream and watch videos on your devices easily. The amount of bandwidth that we provide to a single user today is the same amount of bandwidth that we provided for our entire fleet in 2000,” Muniz noted.

Royal Caribbean is working on a new boarding process that uses facial recognition to speed up the embarkation. Muniz explained that guests will be able to take a selfie at home, upload it via an app, and then be recognized at the cruise terminal by special facial recognition cameras. The cruise line plans to launch the system over the next few years.

Silversea Adds Free Wi-Fi

Starting with voyages sailing in April 2018, all guests on Silversea ships will get free unlimited Wi-Fi access.

Since January 2016, guests have enjoyed at least one hour of free Wi-Fi per day, the company said.

The new policy will provide each guest booked in standard suites with free unlimited standard internet access. Guests staying in larger suites (from Silver suites to the Owner's suites) will enjoy free unlimited premium internet access for up to two devices simultaneously per guest. Unlimited premium internet access is also available to purchase for guests wishing to upgrade.

"We know how important it is to catch up on emails or share photos on social media while on vacation," said Barbara Muckermann, Silversea's chief marketing officer. "Now, with free unlimited Wi-Fi in all suites, our guests can stay as connected as they like while they voyage to the most fascinating places on Earth."

Royal Caribbean's increase in on-board revenue attributed to cruise ship revitalizations

Royal Caribbean's increase in on-board revenue attributed to cruise ship revitalizations

Oct2013

Royal Caribbean reported third quarter financial results today and the big "star" of the results was the on-board spending, with a 7% increase overall.  So what is Royal Caribbean's secret?  They think it's all about the revitalization program.

During the financial results conference call, Royal Caribbean Chief Financial Officer Jason Liberty pointed to a few key factors that are part of the fleet-wide renovations to why the company is seeing better guest spending on-board their ships.

• Speciality Restaurants
• Casino
• Internet
• Unlimited alcohol packages
• Shore excursions

"We benefited from new on-board venues introduced as a result of our revitalizations, and we saw further strength in spending from our U.S. customers, which helped generate improvement in gaming, beverage, speciality dining and shore excursions," Liberty said during the conference call.

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein elaborated on how the company is looking to get more on-board spending, "So as I believe we mentioned earlier, gaming, beverage, shore excursions, retail and also some of the smaller revenue streams, internet has been doing well for us, which we wanted to see because we made a significant investment in, I think, 7 or 8x more bandwidth to the ships this year, and that seems to be paying off. 

So a number of the investments that we have already made, we would expect to continue to pay dividends and revenue growth into 2014 and beyond. And we continue to look under every stone for on-board revenue opportunities that don't conflict with the satisfaction of the product offering."

Basically, guests are spending more money in all these aspects and most of these venues are areas of the cruise ships that get upgraded or added as part of the revitalization program

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When each ship is refurbished, more restaurants are added and wifi is spread out to more areas across the ship. Add to that the new drink packages and Royal Caribbean is offering its guests more opportunities to spend money.

Carnival Corp. reaches WiFi deal

By Tom Stieghorst

Harris CapRock said it won a five-year contract to provide telecommunications services to over 100 ships operated by Carnival Corp.'s 10 brands. Terms were not disclosed.

The satellite communications firm said its system will provide for "dramatically improved bandwidth levels."

Carnival will get equipment, installation, maintenance, service, monitoring and support worldwide, Harris CapRock said.

Previously, telecom services on many Carnival Corp. ships were supplied by MTN Satellite Communications.