By
Rebecca Gibson |
Royal Caribbean International is to roll out VOOM, its high-speed internet service, available on all 24 of its cruise ships.
Billed as the fastest internet connection at sea, VOOM will be delivered by a combination of wifi service providers and will provide speeds at least twice as fast as before. According to Royal Caribbean, VOOM will allow it to provide more overall fleetwide bandwidth than any other cruise line.
Cruise guests will be able to use VOOM to stream music, movies, TV shows, access e-mail, social media platforms, send texts, and make phone calls and video calls.
“VOOM is revolutionising the onboard experience for our guests as well as for our crew and it is truly a game-changer for the industry,” said Michael Bayley, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International. “Everything our guests and crew can do online at home, they will now be able to do from onboard all of our ships around the world.”
Royal Caribbean will offer two packages, including Surf, which allows guests to connect to e-mail and social media channels for US$12.99 per device per day with additional devices added at a discounted cost. Family packages for five devices or more start at US$8.99 per device per day.
Meanwhile, the Surf and Stream package is aimed at guests who also want to stream movies and music from Netflix or Spotify, and use video chat apps such as Skype. This package is available for US$17.99 per device per day, while additional devices can be connected at a discount. Family packages start at US$11.99 per device per day.