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

[ricflyer]

Here is an update I found for Celebrity's installation:

 

"Celebrity Cruises has already provided an update on when it plans to implement the new systems on its ships. Celebrity’s newest ship, Celebrity Beyond, will receive the new system on September 5, among one of the first ships to be turned over this Holiday Weekend.

All of the Celebrity Edge Series ships will have been updated by the end of this year. The installation will then continue into 2023 and be complete by May."

https://www.cruisehive.com/royal-caribbean-unveils-plan-to-rollout-starlink-fleetwide/80203

[fstuff1]

14 hours ago, Moonarino said:

I do hope Starlink will "work with Royal Caribbean Group" to improve networking throughout the ships while they're offering that fat pipe, which is only half the battle. The other half is getting there, i.e., having enough good-quality/well-configured switches and access points onboard, all the layers we have to hop through to get to (and from) The Big Pipe. It's never about improving just one piece. IOW, cross your fingers that it will live up to the hype.

 

Edit to add: Not a nay-sayer because I love good technology that works as advertised. Just sayin', it's always about the whole formula.

 

 

a gigabit switch is 1gig speed per port on the switch.

so to overwhelm it, your internet speeds have to be over 1g/bits per sec.

 

i noticed a cisco device in my m-class cabin.

i'm going to assume it can handle 10megabits/sec.

You only need 1megabit/sec for 480p youtube videos

 

[fstuff1]

12 minutes ago, ricflyer said:

Here is an update I found for Celebrity's installation:

 

"Celebrity Cruises has already provided an update on when it plans to implement the new systems on its ships. Celebrity’s newest ship, Celebrity Beyond, will receive the new system on September 5, among one of the first ships to be turned over this Holiday Weekend.

All of the Celebrity Edge Series ships will have been updated by the end of this year. The installation will then continue into 2023 and be complete by May."

https://www.cruisehive.com/royal-caribbean-unveils-plan-to-rollout-starlink-fleetwide/80203

 

sweet.. i will be on the Beyond for Halloween

[NutsAboutGolf]

7 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

 

sweet.. i will be on the Beyond for Halloween

Yet what will cost be? 🤔

[Moonarino]

11 hours ago, markeb said:

I'm crossing my fingers. Having great upload/download bandwidth will be great, but I'm not convinced they've engineered the routers and access points on the ship to take advantage of the external bandwidth. . . .

That was the point of my comment (#10). There are several layers (including cabling) between us users and the big pipe to the sky. We must hope every aspect is considered/examined/upgraded as necessary for a solid final product.

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

11 hours ago, jrmende63 said:

My feedback was not positive. We were in the forward starboard side on deck 12 of the Freedom of the Seas. When the internet worked, it was great. When it did not work and dropped our connection, it was at an inopportune time and lost the entire presentation I was working on. It was not a one time dropping of the connection. This happened many times over our b2b cruise.

Thanks!

How much did it cost?

Were there different starlink speeds offered?

Was a different reduced speed non-starlink internet offered?

[asnaleah]

We made final payment yesterday which includes unlimited premium internet. I do not expect to be charged more for Starlink.

[PTC DAWG]

I can’t wait to hear movies, tik toks, etc screaming from everyone’s tablets/phones on deck..will be a blast.

[Moonarino]

44 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

 

a gigabit switch is 1gig speed per port on the switch.

so to overwhelm it, your internet speeds have to be over 1g/bits per sec.

 

i noticed a cisco device in my m-class cabin.

i'm going to assume it can handle 10megabits/sec.

You only need 1megabit/sec for 480p youtube videos

 

Raw speed rating is a starting point (e.g. how does the box perform in the real world, etc). And as @markebmentioned on page one, if wireless access points aren't well-placed, etc, it may not even matter to some folks what size the uplink is. The chain breaks at its weakest link, so to speak. Long-time IT pro, I saw a few failures and sub-standards in my day.

[PTC DAWG]

3 hours ago, OysterD said:

Funnily enough a friend just messaged me earlier to say he's boarding a plane shortly for a TA work trip, and he's wishing planes were like they were 20yrs ago with no WiFi and no connectivity to the outside world. He is expected to continue working while on the flight. I'm with him - long flights used to be a time to kick back, relax, have a few drinks and watch an onboard movie and be completely disconnected from the world. 

 

Same as, in my mind, a cruise ship should be. We go on a cruise for a holiday, to get away from everything and to switch off for a week or two. Personally I hate being in restaurants or bars or anywhere leisure oriented and seeing everyone glued to their phones. I think it's anti social and its not good for us as a society. We managed perfectly well on cruises or other holidays for decades without constantly being connected. I would love to go on a cruise and never see anyone sat at a bar, in a restaurant or by the pool on their phones! I'm looking forward to 11 days next month of switching off and ignoring work emails and getting away from screens. I don't want super fast Internet and won't be paying to upgrade from the bog standard included package lol. I definitely wouldn't want to give that egotistical guy a penny of mine so I could stream a movie on a cruise. I think there's enough to be doing onboard rather than sat in my cabin watching Netflix! 

 

Oh and I'm in my early 40s, in theory I should be loving the idea that cruise ships are getting high speed Internet. Most of my friends think the same way though. We want to go on holiday to get away from it all! 

Haven’t you heard, people are much more important these days, must stay tethered at all times.

 

FWIW, I agree totally with your comments. 

[fstuff1]

46 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Yet what will cost be? 🤔

free for me because high casino tier

[Moonarino]

56 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

. . . Were there different starlink speeds offered?

Was a different reduced speed non-starlink internet offered?

It should be presumed that Starlink will replace the present uplink, and also that a ship's Starlink is just one wide-open uplink. Think water pipes (a network of them) with each segment growing in size until it hits the single big pipe. You pay for the size of the water pipe that's closest to you (this is a gross over-simplification but a traditional analogy), not necessarily the giant one that everybody onboard goes through.

 

Methinks the pricing tiers would be similar to current, like whether your package allows video streaming or not, multiple simultaneous users, etc. In other words, relatively transparent to the change to Starlink. (Please note my stress on "relatively".)

Edited August 31, 2022 by Moonarino

[Moonarino]

3 hours ago, OysterD said:

. . . Oh and I'm in my early 40s, in theory I should be loving the idea that cruise ships are getting high speed Internet. Most of my friends think the same way though. We want to go on holiday to get away from it all! 

And I as a techie (even a much older one) should probably be raving too. But I very much agree with your entire post.

 

There's an adage (or several) about making the cart bigger and then inventing new ways to overload it. That's exactly how the computer world has operated for as long as I've been involved in it.

[NutsAboutGolf]

9 minutes ago, Moonarino said:

It should be presumed that Starlink will replace the present uplink, and also that Starlink is just one wide-open uplink. Think water pipes (a network of them) with each segment growing in size until it hits the single big pipe. You pay for the size of the water pipe that's closest to you (this is a gross over-simplification but a traditional analogy), not necessarily the giant one that everybody onboard goes through.

 

Methinks the pricing tiers would be similar to current, like whether your package allows video streaming or not, multiple simultaneous users, etc. In other words, relatively transparent to the change to Starlink. (Please note my stress on "relatively".)

 

 

Found this, cliff notes, two tiers offered on pilot program, their lower speed allowed folks to do a long zoom call without interruption.  Starlink hardware in the image above

 

https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/royal

[Moonarino]

1 minute ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

. . . . .

Found this, cliff notes, two tiers offered on pilot program, their lower speed allowed folks to do a long zoom call without interruption.  Starlink hardware in the image above

 

https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/royal

Gawd. I get your point, obviously very relevant, but man what an eyesore 😉. Would seriously expect sights like this to be above the highest passenger access. Maybe this is, can't know for sure from the pic.

[Purplsmurf]

1 hour ago, ricflyer said:

Here is an update I found for Celebrity's installation:

 

"Celebrity Cruises has already provided an update on when it plans to implement the new systems on its ships. Celebrity’s newest ship, Celebrity Beyond, will receive the new system on September 5, among one of the first ships to be turned over this Holiday Weekend.

All of the Celebrity Edge Series ships will have been updated by the end of this year. The installation will then continue into 2023 and be complete by May."

https://www.cruisehive.com/royal-caribbean-unveils-plan-to-rollout-starlink-fleetwide/80203

We shall see if this is true. I just read yesterday that it’s supposed to be completed by the end of the 1sr qtr in 2023. We sail at the end of March so my husband is hoping it’s finished then.

[ricflyer]

2 minutes ago, Purplsmurf said:

We shall see if this is true. I just read yesterday that it’s supposed to be completed by the end of the 1sr qtr in 2023. We sail at the end of March so my husband is hoping it’s finished then.

The Sept 5 date is confirmed for the Beyond, that is the "Presidents Cruise" and it is a big thing Lisa will be introducing. 

[PTC DAWG]

41 minutes ago, Moonarino said:

 

 

There's an adage (or several) about making the cart bigger and then inventing new ways to overload it. That's exactly how the computer world has operated for as long as I've been involved in it.

With permission, I'm going to use that...good stuff.  

[verizon]

1 hour ago, fstuff1 said:

free for me because high casino tier

Be careful what you post.Celebrity is reading.

[D C]

19 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

I'm probably the only one, but that makes me LESS likely to purchase and use the internet. The thought of supporting him in any way makes me sick.

AMEN to that! 

The less I can do to support that petulant child and his space junk, the better.  I wish there was a way to prevent any of my tax dollars going towards him and his businesses, but he does nothing without govt $. 

[PTC DAWG]

19 minutes ago, D C said:

AMEN to that! 

The less I can do to support that petulant child and his space junk, the better.  I wish there was a way to prevent any of my tax dollars going towards him and his businesses, but he does nothing without govt $. 

He only provides jobs to 100k plus folks, what a drain on the economy.

Edited August 31, 2022 by PTC DAWG

[HMR74]

on cost,

Starlink sells subscriptions to anybody  at $110 a month plus you buy the equipment, including reception antenna) which is $550. (could do on board ship however where do you put antenna and not have issues)

So once up and running ~$3 a day. And that covers probably 10-20 devices. With 55 ships RCL consolodated just handed Spacex 165,000 customers plus crew. Just different customers each week.

 

 

one reason cost is lower is the low orbit sats cost a lot less than high orbit sats

 

In theory, RCLs cost goes down. the question being how many cabins wil a sub system cover so service is not degraded. . Will Beyond for example need "enough" subs to cover 3200 guests and 1150 crew. Will 1 sub system cover 10 cabins or 20 devices at potential? I do not know.  How many routers can starlink cover (I think Beyond retreat has a router in each cabin but I also think they also have each other cabin with a router)

 

So a lot  on cost "depends" -anybody on beyond with router in their cabin, does it have an ethernet out port?

 

And another assumption goes  back to the "Pipe" mentioned above. With all the wiring in older ships, even if revolutionized, are ther ebottlenecks to prevent full potential clean speed to the devices in cabins. eg, When I built my house, the best ethernet cable was 5e, and thats a thick pipe by 2001 standards but thin today but I get 700 mbp second wired which is what I pay for. I do not get that speed with wireless as my wireless access points  are a few years old.

 

Beyond is new and one would think it has the latest and greatest pipes. Who knows, because there have been complaints about Beyond speeds. And Apex too.

 

Is the RCL ZOOM the same as what Celebrity is using?

anyway I think costs may actually go down for The company, and then I think they charge the same for one offering, recently raised on RCL ships to 22 a day with the  multi day package. everybody gets the same.

 

I wonder if the cruise company wil do the same as before--buy a different number of broadband  packages activated depending on what they anticipate on usage. Or just make it available to everybody as a competitive advantage.

There are times when I wish I had a 2 device plan so I could use phone and watch PC screen at same time.

 

Some  paramaters of thought.

 

 

[Moonarino]

50 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

With permission, I'm going to use that...good stuff.  

Go for it, no problem. I remember when 10Mb hard drives were a thing. Back in the days of floppy disks almost as big as a dinner plate.

 

16 minutes ago, D C said:

AMEN to that! 

The less I can do to support that petulant child and his space junk, the better.  I wish there was a way to prevent any of my tax dollars going towards him and his businesses, but he does nothing without govt $. 

I might recommend avoiding topics like "petulant child" (too many of which actually run too much of our govs, not to mention AMZ and Google) or the zillions of ways our tax dollars are wasted. Opinions are like you-know-what.

[HMR74]

33 minutes ago, D C said:

AMEN to that! 

The less I can do to support that petulant child and his space junk, the better.  I wish there was a way to prevent any of my tax dollars going towards him and his businesses, but he does nothing without govt $. 

once again , politics will rise  to the top.

 

imagine if we all stopped using the products and services of people or companies that do not think the way we do, what would happen.

 

We do have this thing called free speech, and we should embrace that liberty even if it sometimes drives us nuts. Where would we be without it? Just need to have a give and go with it and people havung the respect for free speech.

 

Just do not need to polticize everything. Then determin if its a lack of resect for a guy like Musk, or just jealous.

Edited August 31, 2022 by HMR74

[Moonarino]

7 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

. . . imagine if we all stopped using the products and services of people or companies that do not think the way we do, what would happen.

. . .

 

People would get dizzy just trying to keep up these days.