Upon return to service, every ship in the Princess Cruises fleet will feature upgraded Wi-Fi connectivity through its onboard MedallionNet service, with enough signal strength to allow passengers to work at sea.The Santa Clarita-based cruise line has not sailed for the past year, but the company has used the time to upgrade its Wi-Fi network aboard ships to enable passengers to work or attend classes remotely and conduct secure business transactions online.
Princess caters to business travelers with VIP lounges for meetings, internet cafes and fitness centers. The upgraded Wi-Fi service “ensures guests can work from their deck chairs as efficiently and effectively as in their office,” according to a statement the company emailed the Business Journal, “making remote working, distance learning and the opportunity to securely conduct important transactions available, all while enjoying the most picturesque video conference backdrop on the horizon thousands of miles from home.” The upgrades will enhance the existing MedallionNet service through new satellites launched by Princess Cruises’ service provider, SES.
“In late 2021, Princess connectivity partner – SES – will begin to launch a new constellation of satellites that will further super-charge MedallionNet and offer guests the best connectivity possible at sea,” a statement from Princess Cruises read. “The unmatched bandwidth capacity not only delivers superior Wi-Fi service levels, but also powers the Princess MedallionClass experience onboard.”The satellites built by Boeing Co. and launched in partnership with SpaceX will provide data speeds ranging from 50Mbps to multiple gigabits per second, similar to speeds on land. The functionality should allow passengers to teleconference and access cloud storage without connectivity problems.
The Wi-Fi service will be available through access points in every public room on board, preventing signal lapses, and will also help power the cruise line’s wearable OceanMedallion devices. The program featuring quarter-sized wearable Medallion electronic gadgets started prior to the pandemic and the shutdown of the cruise industry. The devices serve as high-tech replacements for a typical cruise card; onboard they provide keyless room entry, support on-demand delivery of food or amenities anywhere on the ship and provide friends and family with a locator and chat function.
Remote trendPrincess’ investment in improved Wi-Fi capacity is part of a growing market shift in support of remote work. More than 37 percent of the U.S. workforce continues to work remotely since the pandemic started, according to the most recent U.S. Census numbers. And with an expected 36.2 million workers projected to telecommute by 2025, according to a study by Upwork, creating mobile and destination office spaces appears to be the next frontier of the accommodation and travel industries.
“The workplace has undergone a permanent shift, with companies recognizing that remote work can be a sustainable, safe and productive way to do business,” Brie Reynolds, career development manager at FlexJobs and Remote.com said in a statement. “In fact, 82 percent of middle-market CEOs say they are likely to allow for a partially remote workforce even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.”FlexJobs, one of the largest platforms for finding remote work, saw a 19 percent increase of remote job listings in 2020 over 2019, even as the overall job market shed jobs and unemployment rose. Across the U.S., the remote worker population rose from around 5 percent pre-pandemic to 43 percent in the spring of 2020 and the expected growth rate of full-time remote work over the next five years has doubled, from 30 percent to 65 percent.
“I definitely see a market for a type of hybrid vacation/office space in the long run,” Reynolds said in her statement. “According to a 2020 report by MBO Partners, which provides support services for independent workers, 10.9 million American workers consider themselves digital nomads. This is an increase of nearly 50 percent from 2019. … Now that people have experienced the freedom of being able to work outside the office, many will be eager to take advantage of this new way of working, so I think the demand for these services will be high.”Sailing schedulePrincess Cruises has begun booking short trips to San Diego, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, beginning in July of this year, despite limited changes in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that currently dictate procedures for cruise lines. The original No Sail Order was issued on March 14, 2020 and was substantially updated in October to include the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order, or CSO.
The CSO established guidelines and procedures for reopening, including the current phase, announced on April 2, that requires cruise lines to establish agreements at ports where they intend to operate, implement routine testing of crew and develop plans for vaccination strategies to reduce the risk of introduction and spread of COVID-19 by crew and passengers. Simulated trial voyages for crew members are now permitted to ensure protocols are followed before passengers are allowed on board for service in the U.S. The CDC has not set a date to allow cruises to continue U.S. operations without significant restrictions and the CSO will remain in place until Nov. 1 of this year, or until it is rescinded, whichever is sooner.In mid-March, the industry group Cruise Lines International Association, which represents 95 percent of global ocean-going cruises, called upon the CDC to lift the CSO and allow for the planning of a phased resumption of cruise operations from U.S. ports by the beginning of July. The April update did not reverse the CSO, but did elaborate on the framework in place to begin the process of fleets returning to service.“The additional cruise industry instructions issued April 2 by the CDC under the CSO are disappointing. The new requirements are unduly burdensome, largely unworkable, and seem to reflect a zero-risk objective rather than the mitigation approach to COVID that is the basis for every other U.S. sector of our society,” the association stated in a release. “The effect of these new mandates is that nearly half a million Americans – from longshoremen and ground transportation operators to hotel, restaurant, and retail workers, travel agents, and tens of thousands of businesses that service cruise ships, are continuing to financially suffer with no reasonable timeline provided for the safe return of cruising.”Citing outbreaks on the Grand Princess and Diamond Princess ships last January – which were linked to 871 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 17 deaths – the CDC maintains the restrictions in place are necessary for public health.“Current scientific evidence suggests that, absent mitigation measures of the type needed to prevent further transmission, cruise ships would continue to pose a greater risk of COVID-19 transmission than other settings,” the October CDC order read.
Despite the risks, restarting cruises as part of the broader travel industry will provide a much-needed boost to the U.S. economy, according to the cruise association, which maintains cruising is safer now due to increased vaccination rates and lower viral transmission.
Work at Sea Option
