Travel Agents Give Thumbs-Up to Carnival WiFi Revamp

Retailers are applauding the sea change in Carnival Corp’s internet access policy that charges clients based on how they use the service rather than by the traditional per-minute fees that have dominated the industry for years.

The travel giant’s “enhanced” WiFi@Sea network is now available on 30 of the company’s 100 ships, with plans to extend availability to 40% of Carnival’s fleets by the end of the year and to all of the fleets in 2016. Carnival owns 10 cruise brands.

Cruisers can choose from three options: social, at $5 per day, provides access to popular social sites and apps such as Facebook, What’s App, and Instagram, but does not include access to the entire internet; value, at $16 per day, with access to the web for emailing, social media, and browsing; and premium, costing $25 per day, offers the fastest connections to the full web, including calling sites like Skype. Brands currently selling the new packages are AIDA Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, and Holland America Line.

“Until these changes have come about, Internet usage on a ship was the only product I know of where your cost goes up the worse the service is. In other words, if you pay by the minute, the longer it took to download an email or connect to a website, the more you paid, and this caused a lot of frustration,” said Scott Koepf, senior vice presiden of sales for Avoya Travel, the host agency supporting a network of independent retailers.

Koepf said that “moving toward a more inclusive approach is a brilliant move and gets away from paying more for worse service. Ultimately, cruise lines that deliver high speed reliable Internet at a low cost will be able to improve the guest experience and increase demand for their brands.”

The tech talk
The system, which Carnival calls a “breakthrough technology,” is a solution that integrates a combination of 31 advanced satellite systems, onboard software, networking equipment, land-based antennas, and Wi-Fi from port connections, providing the broadest high-speed global coverage across fleets.

With the rollout of the connectivity system across the brands, guests will be able to access the internet at speeds up to 10 times faster than those previously available on the company’s ships.

“We know that each of our guests is looking for something different, whether that is being completely or partially unplugged from the internet or staying plugged in,” said Reza Rasoulian, Carnival Corp.’s vice president of global connectivity and shipboard technology operations. “For those who want to stay connected with their life back home or research the next destination on their trip, we are offering faster, more reliable and more affordable options to give our guests what they are looking for.”

Koepf noted that “the Internet has become such an important part of the consumer’s life, almost on par with food, water, shelter, and safety. The better and more integrated Internet service is without significant costs, the better it will be for the cruise product to compete in the marketplace.”

Travel agents weigh in
Agent Belinda Cassettari, of Travel Bee Vacations in Hampstead, NH, agrees.

“The $5 a day social media plan will be a huge deal for Carnival Cruise Line clients because they are all about showing their vacations off on social media, and that low price will be important to them,” she said. “Carnival clients are budget-minded and tend to be concerned about how much they’re spending – that’s how they determine which line to go on.”

It won’t be as big a deal for guests on Carnival Corp.’s upscale brands, such as Seabourn, though, where clients are more likely to “want to cut ties and relax.” They don’t typically use social-media sites as much as CCL passengers do.

The expanded WiFi@Sea service has led to increased guest satisfaction, higher usage rates and greater numbers of devices connected during voyages, says Carnival. But it declined to reveal statistics that might illuminate which internet packages are selling best on the three lines now offering the enhanced services.

“What we can share is that we see changes on plan adoption on a voyage-by-voyage basis,” a corporate spokeswoman said. “The plans seem to be meeting the guest needs in a meaningful way. Guests appreciate the ability to choose among these packages, unlike being constrained to time before.”

Cruise Planners agent Wendy Cushing predicts other cruise lines will follow Carnival Corp’s lead.

“Charging 75 cents a minute can be frustrating to customers who might have to wait five minutes for a connection. So Carnival is going in a different direction and I won’t be surprised if others follow suit,” says Cushing, who operates her agency out of Sagamore Beach, MA.

She notes that Carnival Cruise Line competitor Royal Caribbean International recently altered its internet cost structure and has moved away from a per-minute policy to a per-device pricing approach.

RCCL currently offers two plans, a spokesperson told TMR. “On ships with VOOM, on Quantum and Oasis class, we offer a flat price of $15 per day per device, with the second device half off. On ships with unlimited high speed internet, which is available on the rest of the fleet, the cost is $20 per day per device with the second device half off.”

Photo: Captain-tucker