Radiance of the Seas Docked in Juneau, Alaska (Photo Credit: Ken Schulze) You can receive daily cruise news updates directly to your inbox, so you don't miss a thing! Go ahead and Subscribe here. Royal Caribbean, which was an industry pioneer for adopting Starlink Internet, is again leading the charge by bringing the high-speed, low latency internet to the port of Juneau, Alaska. Indeed, Royal Caribbean was the first to roll out Starlink fleet-wide in 2022. Prior to the Starlink service, internet service was notoriously slow and spotty on most cruise ships – and sometimes didn’t work at all for periods of time. Starlink, which provides high-speed internet using satellites in Outer Space that belong to SpaceX, revolutionized Wi-Fi capabilities onboard Royal Caribbean’s 28 ships – and has since been largely adopted by the cruise industry as a whole. Now, Royal Caribbean Group has partnered with Goldbelt Incorporated, an Alaska Native corporation, to bring Starlink’s high-speed internet to Juneau for cruisers and locals to use free of charge as part of a new pilot program. The installation will begin this week (the week of September 2, 2024), at the Goldbelt Tram Lower Terminal and will continue north on Franklin Street, with the full range expected to become active before the end of September. “Our new pilot program aims to alleviate internet congestion and provide additional bandwidth for locals, while providing internet connectivity for our guests from ship to shore,” said Preston Carnahan, Associate Vice President, West Coast Destination Royal Caribbean Group. According to McHugh Pierre, President and CEO of Goldbelt, this will also provide a solution to the top complaint the company hears each summer, which is a decline in internet service during the cruise tourism season. “We are excited to collaborate with Royal Caribbean Group to explore a solution and add satellite internet capacity to town. This project will help locals and visitors have a better internet experience every day of the week,” added Pierre. Royal Caribbean Group will be monitoring the success of Juneau’s internet pilot program closely – both to optimize its effectiveness and as a way of potentially expanding the initiative to other destinations in the future to continue to provide the best possible in-port experiences for cruise guests. Internet Pilot Program Will be Ready for Next Alaska Season The 2024 Alaska season, which typically lasts from May through September annually, is coming to a close. Depending on how quickly Starlink is rolled out in Juneau, the final cruisers of the season may just eek out a chance to test out the new service. However, adding the new pilot program toward the end of the season may be a good thing – as this provides time to optimize the Wi-Fi so it’s ready to go for the 2025 Alaska Season, which is expected to be quite busy (as this current season has been).