Celebrity Cruises' newest ship Celebrity Beyond first to offer Elon Musk's Starlink Internet

   September 3, 2022 ,   Cruise Industry

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).

Celebrity Beyond cruise ship

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.