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| Travel: Top Story | ||||
02/09/2003
AT SEA, IN THE CARIBBEAN
– Once upon a time those who went to sea felt they had
entered a special new universe, totally apart from
modern life.
Surrounded by a vast,
unforgiving ocean, the ship was an island itself, a
separate society unconnected and virtually unrelated to
the world on land. Short of casting a message to the
seas in an empty bottle, passengers cut the cords that
bound them to friends, relatives, enemies, the stock
market and the social order in general – at least for
the length of the voyage. Now it looks as if those
days are gone for good. Today's cruisers bring
their high-tech land lives – from family gossip to
world affairs and video games – with them onto the
decks and into the staterooms of some of the world's
modern cruise ships. Some vessels have
embraced the high-tech world more than others. Cabins
have had some kind of television set for a decade or
two, of course, but increasingly these TVs do a lot more
than let you watch the cruise director yuck it up with
the crowd playing bingo on the Promenade Deck. World affairs come in via
CNN. There are VCRs and maybe DVD players, so you can
bring your own movies or borrow some from the purser's
office. Some shipboard TVs let you gamble without going
to the casino, and you may even watch your daily onboard
expenses mount as drinks and shore excursions are added
to the final bill. But nothing seems to have
hit the cruise industry more than the popularity of
seagoing Internet cafes. Now that geo-synchronous
satellites hover over the world's oceans, passengers
have largely abandoned postcards and cables in favor of
e-mail to keep in contact with homes and home offices. Now nearly all
high-profile cruise ships are running full steam ahead
in constructing Internet rooms, some of them
designer-decorated in rich polished teak wood in keeping
with the required luxury aboard the world's floating
palaces. Passengers should be
aware, however, that a satellite connection isn't always
as reliable as their facilities back home. And before
turning off your trusty desktop, it's advisable to ask
your Internet service provider for the best method of
getting connected. As with the world's
Internet cafés, this is usually done via webmail, a
method of contacting your Internet service provider's
Web site, and then entering the necessary user name and
password to access your mail from a remote location. Of course, there are
other ways of keeping in touch. Cabin telephones
connected to the satellite may run $9 to $12 a minute,
and equally expensive fax services are also available at
sea. (Incoming faxes and incoming e-mails delivered to
the cabin may be free, but check.) Other kinds of
electronic passenger interactivity vary widely from ship
to ship and among cruise lines. Here are a few who
answered a recent survey (an electronic one, of course)
on these subjects. Royal Caribbean Cruise
Lines: With an eye cocked to the sailing businessman
as well as to the leisure passenger, this line's ships
have wired their conference rooms and other areas for
audio, video and computer PowerPoint presentations. Throughout the fleet,
Internet-capable computers have been installed in the
library, business center or other public areas. On some
ships, passengers also can use these computers to book
their shore excursions. Some newer ships are being
fitted with in-cabin Internet ports for guests traveling
with laptops. Carnival Cruise Lines:
Carnival is installing Internet cafes on all of its
ships. Also on the high-tech front, the line is proud of
the new infrared listening devices it is installing on
its some of its vessels to help the hearing-impaired.
Available in the main show lounge, the special earphones
are provided without charge. Crystal Cruises: In
addition to a wide variety of TV programming, Crystal
guests may borrow VHS tapes or DVD disks to play on TVs
in their own staterooms. On some of Crystal's
ships, children's game rooms have Sony Play Stations,
along with some PCs equipped with games and educational
software. Access to the Web in
Crystal's Internet cafes run $1.25 a minute. For
passengers who lack an e-mail address, Crystal will
provide them with one for the duration of the voyage. Seabourn Cruise Line: Seabourn,
too, has free VHS tapes for passengers to use on their
cabin TVs. Internet access in the computer center is 50
cents a minute. Personal laptop access, however, is
forbidden. In 2003, Seabourn is installing a new Bose/CD
stereo system in the staterooms. It is also planning to
create a complimentary "Seabourn Sounds"
compilation CD that guests can take with them at
cruise's end. Norwegian Cruise
Lines: The line says it's the first major operator
to have opened an Internet café. In 1999, Norwegian
placed nine computers inside the existing Coffee Bar. Today it takes pride in
its modern remote wireless Internet access system, which
is being installed across the fleet. Passengers can
bring their laptops on board, get a wireless network
card from the purser, and then be able to access the
Internet from several locations throughout the ship. There are no plans for a
cabin laptop hookup such as offered by Celebrity
Cruises, however. Cost for the Norwegian service is $10
a day. And if a passenger doesn't have his own laptop,
he or she can rent one for $35 a day. Princess Cruises: Princess
didn't answer our survey, but the line does offer an AOL
Internet Café on both the Grand Princess and the Star
Princess. There's no way to send attached picture files,
but each of the flat screen displays on the computers is
wired with a camera so your friends at home can see you
sitting at a Princess computer in the Internet café. Unlike on most other
ships, America Online members can also use the popular
chat facility to type in real time to land-locked AOL
friends. High technology can be
appreciated also in the video game room on the Grand
Princess, which spreads out the grandest electronic fun
facility I have seen in two decades of traveling on
cruise ships. Radisson Seven Seas: Facilities
vary somewhat among Radisson ships, but all feature
computer classes and 24-hour Internet access ($1 per
kilobyte or in some cases, 75 cents per minute). The company's five ships
have relatively few Internet capable computers,
especially small vessels such as the Paul Gauguin and
the Song of Flower. Some cabins on the
Diamond and the Navigator have data ports in the cabin
that can be used by laptops with a modem. Many will
consider the costs prohibitive, however: $15 a minute on
the Diamond, or $6.50 per minute on the Navigator or the
Mariner. Robert W. Bone is a
free-lance writer in Hawaii. |
