The new Celebrity Cruises' ship Celebrity Beyond is set to be the first to offer guests the use of Elon Musk’s Starlink internet.
The technology has been heralded as a way to offer better quality internet access to passengers in remote sites, making them best for industries like air travel and cruises. Now, 3 months after the U.S. FCC-Federal Communications Commission authorized the use of the technology, it is making its way to the open seas.
A subsidiary of RCG-Royal Caribbean Group, Celebrity’s ship Beyond may be the first to officially use it, but it will not be the last, with the technology due to be installed fleetwide/RCG.
Providing internet access through a cluster of highly-advanced satellites situated in the lower Earth orbit, Starlink is expected to allow guests to perform higher-bandwidth tasks like video streaming/calling. It could also make remote work from a cruise liner a possibility.
Celebrity Beyond will have Starlink up and running just in time for her 5-night voyage to the Western Caribbean in November and the 9-night viyage to Aruba, Curacao and Grand Cayman in December 2022. The cruise ship can hold up to 3260 guests and has a variety of Caribbean-based itineraries from Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades, Florida).
The adoption of the new technology across Royal Caribbean Group comes after a successful trial period earlier in 2022. Starlink was trialed on Royal Caribbean’s ship Freedom of the Seas, and the line “received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from guests and crew.”
Following the installation of Starlink on Celebrity Beyond, Royal Caribbean Group expects the technology to be available on all RCI-Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Silversea Cruises vessels by the end of the first quarter of 2023.