I attempted Elon Musk’s Starlink web on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship

I went on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas to place the SpaceX’s Starlink satellite tv for pc web to the take a look at. 

Royal Caribbean’s Wi-Fi speeds have been hit and miss, relying on the ship. Even ships with the upper speeds (sometimes new ships), it was nonetheless slower than our web at house.

For these of us that do not fully disconnect on cruises, it’s usually irritating to get web sites and movies to load, and even join with family and friends at house. I thought-about it a value of cruising, as being on a ship in the midst of the ocean would not provide you with many choices.

That’s, till now.  

Earlier this month, Royal Caribbean Group filed with the Federal Communications Fee, disclosing a partnership with SpaceX Companies, Inc. Whereas sure airline carriers, together with Hawaiian Airways, have labored out offers to supply Starlink to their passengers, Royal Caribbean is the primary cruise liner to file the request. On the time of submitting, Starlink was not accredited to be used on shifting autos, and the submitting referred to as on the FCC to hurry up the method.

Across the identical time of the submitting, passengers began noticing that the Freedom of the Seas was outfitted with Starlink satellite tv for pc dishes, and quietly testing the service for these onboard.

Hoping that Starlink would nonetheless be actively testing, I booked a weekend cruise on Freedom to strive it for myself. 

My objective was to check the Wi-Fi speeds on board, whereas crusing and at Excellent Day at CocoCay. There was no indication that Starlink would nonetheless be supplied by the point I obtained onboard, as it may be pulled down at any time throughout its testing. It additionally is not clear if or when different ships will get this service. 

For this crusing, we bought each the Voom Surf and Voom Surf & Stream web packages to check. Royal Caribbean’s Voom service is boasted because the quickest web at sea, being 6x sooner than different web at sea.

On embarkation day, we headed to the Royal Promenade on deck 5 to start out the testing course of. Utilizing two laptops, my husband John examined the Surf & Stream whereas I examined the Surf pace.

As soon as we began the pace take a look at, it confirmed that we had been related to SpaceX Starlink, which means that the Starlink trial onboard Freedom was nonetheless energetic.

It was immediately clear that this web service was above and past what Voom sometimes supplied.

The Surf bundle confirmed a obtain pace of 9.01 Mbps and add pace of 20.34 Mbps. The Surf & Stream gave a obtain pace of 77.03 Mbps and add pace of 15.72 Mbps.

On each gadgets, we tried watching YouTube movies and Netflix reveals to see how they’d work. Each packages allowed us to immediately begin watching the movies, with no lag or buffering time. 

Shortly after these assessments, John moved to the Star Lounge to take a Zoom name utilizing the Surf & Stream service. The zoom name related simply, and there was no buffering or freezing for his video and audio.

Later that afternoon, he moved to our stateroom to take one other Zoom name, however realized that the service in our inside stateroom (7121) was taking longer to attach, and buffering his video. He ended up shifting again right down to deck 5 to complete the decision.

Being in an inside stateroom, between loads of steel partitions, we weren’t stunned that the standard wasn’t as clear as it’s within the open areas which have minimal Wi-Fi sign interference.

After he wrapped up his calls, the ship started to sail away, whereas we waited to see how the service held up as soon as we had been farther from port.

That night, about 3 hours after we set sail, we tried the assessments once more, from inside our stateroom. This time Surf gave us a obtain pace of two.85 Mbps and add speeds of three.74 and Surf & Stream gave us a obtain pace of 19.9 Mbps and add pace of 5.42 Mbps.

Whereas the Surf & Stream speeds had been greater, we discovered that we had been each capable of stream reveals on both bundle, with only a slight loading time for the Surf bundle.

The subsequent morning we docked in Excellent Day at CocoCay, Royal’s personal island within the Bahamas. We had been excited to check the speeds whereas on the island, which incorporates wifi entry if you happen to bought a bundle on the ship.

To our shock, the service remained robust even on the south facet of the island, with Surf exhibiting obtain speeds of 19.93 Mbps and add speeds of 8.19 Mbps, whereas Surf & Stream confirmed obtain speeds of 52.50 Mbps and add speeds of 10.10 Mbps.

Later that day whereas crusing between CocoCay and Nassau, we tried utilizing Facetime on every bundle to see how the video and audio high quality can be. We had been completely happy to see that each had been crystal clear on every finish.

On different cruises whereas utilizing Royal’s Voom service, the video would minimize out and in, change into blurry, and the audio would lag, making it a irritating expertise for everybody concerned.

On the final day of our cruise, we determined to take our take a look at up a notch and stay stream on the Royal Caribbean Weblog TikTok account for each the Worldwide Stomach Flop competitors and the Battle of the Sexes recreation present. Each occasions had been capable of stream with out interruptions or buffering. 

General, Starlink has blown my cruising Wi-Fi expectations out of the water.

Whereas we did discover that the service slowed in our inside room, we had been nonetheless capable of stream reveals and use the web a lot sooner than the everyday Voom packages we’ve skilled up to now.

We had been notably impressed with the Surf bundle, which to our shock allowed us to stream virtually in addition to the Surf & Stream bundle. That will or might not stay a characteristic if Starlink will get accredited for basic use on cruise ships.

Whereas many individuals proceed to work remotely, if adopted completely Starlink shall be a terrific answer for working from a cruise, or simply keep related whereas out at sea. 

The one draw back to the Starlink service on Royal Caribbean that we discovered shall be having to regulate our Wi-Fi expectations when crusing on different ships with out Starlink.