August 7, 2000

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Ship To Shore: Cruise Line Plans Net Links

Royal Caribbean Cruise lines breaks the mold by adding in-room Internet connections

By Cheryl Rosen

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he world's cruise ships always have had a clear philosophy about their customers, mirrored in everything from cabin designs to marketing brochures. Their mantra, like that of casinos, whispers subliminally, "Get out of your room and play!"

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is about to break the taboo: It's bringing the Web into the cabin following the success of Internet cafes and interactive TV in two of its ships. Royal Caribbean plans to implement this on its new ships and on the entire fleet by 2001.

"We're rebuilding our entire business around customer centricity, and our shipboard technology didn't allow us to provide the customer experience we wanted to," Royal Caribbean CIO Tom Murphy says. "We know it runs contrary to the old notion of cruising, which was to keep people out of their cabins. But we recognize that the cabin experience is as important as everything else."

The current interactive TV gives passengers a choice of first-run movies and lets them sign up for on-shore tours. But full Internet access opens the door to many possibilities, such as looking up information about the next port or sending a gift to someone at home from an online store. "We see this as the foothold into the cabin," Murphy says.

Royal Caribbean will use Computer Associates' Unicenter TNG systems-and network-management software to monitor the system from shore and onboard, Murphy says. Satellite technology will provide the transmission.

Adding in-room services is smart in this increasingly competitive industry, says Joyce Landry, president of Landry & Kling Inc., which specializes in cruise meetings. As the number of available berths almost doubles in the next five years, ships are counting on business customers--and they are counting on communications. Sending E-mail will cost less than a $9 call, but specific pricing hasn't been set.

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