Carnival Princess Cruises is giving passengers something that many want

Internet on a cruise used to be an expensive luxury.

It was sold by the hour, or even by the minute, at high prices because it cost the cruise lines significant money to provide connectivity.

Even a few years ago, before Elon Musk’s Starlink became the cruise industry standard, onboard internet ranged from unusable to barely serviceable.

Royal Caribbean called its Voom package “the fastest cruise internet at sea,” which may have been true, but that accolade was closer to “this is the most edible item on a $7.99 buffet” than a true statement of quality.

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In the age of Starlink, a product of Musk’s SpaceX brand, it’s fair to say the reliability bar for internet service has risen to decent.

Your experience will vary depending on where you are on the ship and how many people are using the internet. In the middle of the afternoon on a busy day, when lots of passengers are watching YouTube videos or trying to post their own, service can suffer. But overall, Starlink was a massive improvement.

Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean have both completed the rollout of Starlink to their fleets, but neither has created a new Internet product aimed at business travelers.

However, Carnival’s Princess Cruises has attempted to fill that niche.

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Princess has upgraded to Starlink internet.

Image source: Princess Cruises.

Princess Cruises sees business internet users

More Americans have jobs from home than at any time in history. In addition, the line between work and home has blurred. Many people need to stay connected even when they go on vacation.

Some passengers, of course, don’t travel with a laptop or tablet and lock their phone in the safe as soon as they board. Another large group likes to stay connected, but uses the Internet for social networking and entertainment.

A growing third group, however, work at least when on a cruise ship. This can be frustrating because while the internet service has improved, it’s nowhere near the experience you get in almost any cafe on land.

Princess Cruises has decided to target the seafaring public with a new premium internet product.

The cruise line, which calls itself “the world’s most iconic cruise brand,” launched MedallionNet Max, “a new level of onboard Wi-Fi service that will meet the growing demands of today’s digitally-connected travelers.”

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Princess Cruises offers new premium internet

The cruise line did not specify the people working during the cruise, instead saying MedallionNet Max was an effort to continue expanding the market for cruise vacations.

“Since 2018, Princess has led the industry in high-performance onboard Wi-Fi, aggressively adopting new satellite constellations, including a Wi-Fi access point in every cabin on every ship, and ensuring that access to Wi-Fi service is simple and complicated. -free,” says the cruise line on its website.

“Princess is the only cruise operator to have adopted every bandwidth source covering the globally deployed fleet, including LEO (Starlink), MEO, GEO satellite constellations as well as terrestrial 5G.”

Princess now offers two tiers of Wi-Fi service — MedallionNet Classic and MedallionNet Max.

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“MedallionNet Classic will provide the same service performance, reliability and global coverage that Princess guests enjoy today. MedallionNet Max will now be the highest performing service level with priority access to the highest quality and highest performance bandwidth available anywhere in the world, which is typically Starlink,” it added.

The new service will be available exclusively on the Princess Plus and Princess Premier packages, packages that include a beverage package, complimentary room service, crew gratuities and other perks.

Princess Cruises has not promised any specific speeds for MedallionNet Max, which will not be offered on the charter.

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