CruisingOz Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 I was just looking at the Royal Caribbean App checking through my reservations and noticed two ships we have reservations on where the App is not yet available, the Grandeur and Radiance. If the App is not available for things like Muster 2.0 Drill and paperless menus and alike, do think Royal will offer free Voom wifi on the ships so guests can access various tasks with minimal contact and interaction with crew? I am sure it is only a matter of time before all ships will be able to connect to the app, so it would be interesting to find out if Royal has any timelines? Baked Alaska 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 Royal has never published timelines for the app as it relates to which ship and when. Free Voom? No. They'll get these ships app enabled soon. It's probably already done but not turned on or imminent (It's a safe bet Odyssey will be app enabled yet she still shows not available in the app). Even if they needed to rely on shore based websites to accomplish muster 2.0 or menus they could just whitelist that one domain rather than requiring the entire internet be free. For example royalcaribbean.com and celebritycruises.com are free now. They could make any domain they want be reachable 24x7. However I don't think it will come to that. They didn't app-enable Grandeur because she was scheduled to leave the fleet in April. With her departure from the fleet no longer happening I expect her to be app enabled by the time guests have an opportunity to board. Not sure about Radiance or Explorer. Both were scheduled to have dry docks that were impacted by the pandemic so it's likely just a matter of implementing the tech upgrade outside of a dry dock. Explorer was recently in Port Canaveral picking up a lot of cargo and material so I would be surprised if that included some servers required to app enable her. It's probably on someone's to do list right now. I feel like in the coming months as the restart moves closer these ships won't be part of the first phase in the restart but as soon as they are approaching their individual restart date they'll flip the switch and suddenly they will be app enabled. Baked Alaska and CruisingOz 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
princevaliantus Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 2 hours ago, CruisingOz said: I was just looking at the Royal Caribbean App checking through my reservations and noticed two ships we have reservations on where the App is not yet available, the Grandeur and Radiance. If the App is not available for things like Muster 2.0 Drill and paperless menus and alike, do think Royal will offer free Voom wifi on the ships so guests can access various tasks with minimal contact and interaction with crew? I am sure it is only a matter of time before all ships will be able to connect to the app, so it would be interesting to find out if Royal has any timelines? You have a better chance in winning the PowerBall than RCG giving away free internet. Bazza, AshleyDillo, CruisingOz and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 Hi @CruisingOz Grandeur booking next February has Voom packages available and they are listed most days. However I have noticed that some days they are not shown but back again next day. Managed to get a good deal last month for the 14 day trip for 2 devices with streaming for about 30% less than it is showing today so def worth checking daily. CruisingOz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 This is today's listing for me in UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD474 Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 1 hour ago, princevaliantus said: You have a better chance in winning the PowerBall than RCG giving away free internet. You have a better chance of counting all the stars in the sky or all the leaves on the trees. WAAAYTOOO and CruisingOz 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 Once Upon A Time... Michael Bayley hinted that internet would be free on Enchantment. Look how that turned out. It costs a lot of money to blast satellites into space and to support them. SpaceX has had several launches very recently with more in the coming days that are putting Elon Musk's Starlink constellation into place. They estimate the cost to build it to be around $10B. Residential internet service will become available in rural and underserved areas as a result but will cost an estimated $100 per month for the general consumer, triple that of land based providers. The point is that satellite based internet costs a lot of money and no one will be giving it away free to the public at large due to the super high costs associated with operating in space. CruisingOz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psycho and Barb Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 29 minutes ago, twangster said: Residential internet service will become available in rural and underserved areas as a result but will cost an estimated $100 per month for the general consumer, triple that of land based providers. We have a deer camp in the woods of Alabama with no cell service or internet. We just recently had HughesNet satellite internet installed for $60 per month for 10GB per month with no hard data limits. 10MG is not much but we don't watch videos or play games...We only use it for test messages, WIFI calling and have one Ring security cam. So far we are very happy with it and haven't had any problems with our limits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 8 hours ago, Psycho and Barb said: We have a deer camp in the woods of Alabama with no cell service or internet. We just recently had HughesNet satellite internet installed for $60 per month for 10GB per month with no hard data limits. 10MG is not much but we don't watch videos or play games...We only use it for test messages, WIFI calling and have one Ring security cam. So far we are very happy with it and haven't had any problems with our limits. Hughes is using legacy geostationary satellites that are multipurpose and doing many other things like direct broadcast TV as well. Starlink's goal is low latency. Go figure, Elon is a gamer at heart and he wants a low latency platform that can support gaming regardless of location. On some cruise forums users cite these new low earth orbit platforms as paving the way for cheap internet at sea but new doesn't equate to free. Hughes has been one of the only solutions for many years in rural America but it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of performance when compared to terrestrial internet available in populated regions. Starlink has the potential to offer the same performance as terrestrial solutions... at a higher cost. The satellites that Hughes uses domestically don't point to the sea because no one lives there. The satellites that do cover oceans charge a premium because there are fewer consumers to spread the cost over. Until millions move to the ocean zip codes that isn't going to change. emmef 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 1 hour ago, twangster said: Once Upon A Time... Michael Bayley hinted that internet would be free on Enchantment. Look how that turned out. That's not as bad as Majesty. When she got her major refurb to keep her in the fleet (2016?) the cruise line advertised free internet for all onboard. A few months later, that turned into "JKLOL" SpeedNoodles, CruisingOz and twangster 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisellama Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 While free internet would be nice - back to sail will most likely require the ability to use Muster 2.0. So getting information on when older ships get the required "IT" upgrades is a readiness to sail signal for me. In fact inability to get the "IT" upgrade might be what inhibits older ships to be part of the initial restart. Baked Alaska 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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