As cruise lines and other parts of the tourism industry continue to take steps to be better environmental stewards, one of the simplest things that ships and ports can do is to connect to shore side power while in port - and now Germany is making that an even easier decision for cruise lines and shipping companies... read more
MedallionNet, Princess Cruises' high speed shipboard internet/WiFi service, part of the Ocean Medallion program is itself picking up steam. While available only on Regal Princess just months ago, the service, allowing guests fast and affordable internet access, as well as a number of guest experience enhancements, is now available on four Princess ships, and will soon be available on a total of ten ships - nine of them before the end of 2019... read more
It’s not just the newest ships at sea that glimmer and host a great time but keeping the entire fleet fresh is the goal of every cruise line. Often lines will spruce up entire classes of ships, adding the latest features and venues. Carnival however has announced a drydock that represents the final phase of a $2 billion eight-year project, and this phase involves a real transformation. Let’s look at some of the new features and venues still to come, how this all relates to pizza, and then get Billy’s take on how this positions Carnival compared to their competitors... read more
Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) recently revealed that they've been working with DeCurtis Corporation to develop a new technology platform known as "Cruise Freedom™" in an effort that they hope, "meaningfully enhances the guest experience from the moment of booking throughout [guests] Norwegian cruise." read more
This week Oceania Cruises, a subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, announced "Wavenet", a new internet technology coming soon to the fleet, which includes free basic access for all guests. WiFi on cruise ships was once, and in many cases still is quite expensive and slow, but it's become much better and cheaper over the past couple of years - changes certainly welcome by many guests as well as crew members... read more
Keeping in touch with friends or family on a cruise is easy if you're going to be purchasing an onboard WiFi package, but often guests look to handheld radios or "walkie-talkies" for a cheaper way to coordinate happenings on ever-larger ships with countless distracting events. This can certainly be an effective option for some, but you'll want to keep reading to learn about features, options, reasonable expectations, and a few "gotchas" before relying on two-way radios on your cruise. Warning, I'm an amateur radio operator, used to work in radio communications, and a bit of a nerd - but I'll try to keep things simple. read more
We love travel tech, and have talked about how we pack for cruises. If you’re looking to invest in luggage for your next trip you may have seen bags with built in batteries – but we think you should avoid them. In addition to some conceptual flaws we’ve noticed, you may soon have trouble flying with these bags... read more