I love to travel, but most of my life I have been a working traveler, with the requirement to log in to the Web and write something almost every day of my trip. For years I wrote a minimum of three articles a week for my former cruise web site, which not only meant needing access to send the articles in, but also needing Google for research, etc.
I had to find Internet access on every cruise I ever took and if the ship did not have it (they ALL do now) I spent my time in port taking my laptop to the local Internet Café and usually spending most of my time in port in a dark room.
But it had its rewards. My former partner (Anne Campbell, the first editor of Cruise Critic from 1995) and I actually did the very first "virtual cruise" from the inaugural cruise of the Golden Princess out of Istanbul in 1997. A "virtual cruise" is a daily update to web readers coming from the actual ship. And I give Anne credit for inventing the name, but the rest of the concept was entirely my idea.
The tech details were vast. I got a European cell-phone and modem (back when most Americans did not even have cell phones yet) before I left New York. We logged on to AOL by dialing the 1-800 number for Istanbul (the home port for that cruise). The article about our first day on this beautiful new ship was pre-written by Anne and I had taken pictures that day to upload with one of the first digital cameras ever sold. I know it sounds so easy now, but I was the first person to do this, and most people did not even know it was possible – including Princess Cruises.
That digital camera was so new that strangers in Europe would stop me walking down the street and ask to look at it. But dialing in to AOL from the ship was surprisingly easy throughout Europe because the continent has a singular cell phone standard – GSM - which just happens to be digital, but the uploads were very slow (I think 1200 baud was the max for a cell phone modem then). We had to use a dial-up cell phone modem to access cell towers on land from the sea, because ship satellite phone time was $10/minute back then.
We kept the whole project a secret until our first update from the ship. We wanted to surprise our readers. It was actually the very first social media post from a cruise ship at sea. When the PR rep from Princess, the lovely Julie Benson (now retired) heard about it from her home office she ran to our stateroom and blurted out "How did you do that?"
She then set it up so I could take my laptop to the communications engineer's office and dial up over their satellite phones. So, though it would have happened anyway, Anne Campbell and I posted the first social media message from any cruise ship.
Internet Access at Sea Today
Web access at sea is still tricky because it requires satellites, but they have come a long way in the last five years. This is very good news for cruisers like me. I have always been a "road warrior" and the same is also true for almost everyone working today who wants to travel. So, today there is no better travel choice for road warriors than a cruise, because you can literally log in to the Internet any time you want.
Five years ago, on the Oceania Cruises' inaugural sailing of Riviera, I commented to CEO Frank Del Rio, "I am just waiting for the first cruise line to offer free Internet to all guests." He asked me why? I said, "The reason is simple; road warriors want to cruise, but access is a necessity, not a luxury." Today most hotels offer inexpensive Internet, but on cruises it was usually pretty pricey - until now.
This week Oceania Cruises just announced it will include full-time Internet Access for all of its guests at no extra charge on its cruises. Now, they are not the first to do this, that claim goes to much more expensive luxury vessels, including Oceania's sister company Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Crystal.
But Oceania has always been my favorite cruise line (and they "sail under the radar" for many cruise enthusiasts). If you have not tried an Oceania Cruise, you have not yet tried the best food and enrichment experiences at sea – at any price. Oceania means "luxury quality at more reasonable prices." And now that also includes free Internet access. Heads up, road warriors, get ready to discover your next "favorite cruise line."
