Crew Internet Connections Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has deployed about 500 Internet appliances from IBM Corp. to give ship's crew access to the Internet from their quarters. The NetVista thin client hardware was installed in about 500 crew cabins in Royal Caribbean's new vessel, Radiance Of The Sea . The appliances are designed to help the cruise line recruit and keep top staff by allowing the crew to communicate by e-mail with family and friends, and read online newspapers from home. Crews are on shipboard often four to eight months at a stretch. In addition to communication from home, the crew can access internal e-mail and scheduling applications.
Internet access is provided through a satellite uplink from the ship.
Crew are charged for Internet access at a rate of a penny a minute currently, with pricing to increase to about 15 cents per minute later. The crew is charged partially to recoup costs, and partially to throttle usage and keep from flooding the satellite link with traffic. In addition to the crew Internet access, passengers can access the Internet through several Internet cafes on the ship. Also, passengers who bring their own notebook computers can hook up to the Internet through high-speed datalinks in their cabins. The autopilot in Norwegian Sky failed and caused her to make a sharp turn and then list, sending plates and glasses crashing and injuring more than 70 people, the Coast Guard said.