Cruise ships embrace technology

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Case 6 Cruise Ships Embrace Technology

Cruising has traditionally enabled people to escape their busy lives for a week or two.

Today, technology is becoming a necessity in the travel industry. Most passengers expect to be able to stay connected while onboard a ship as easily as they do on land. Let's look at the technology deployed on the ships of three cruise lines.

Royal Caribbean Cruises. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd digitally transformed its fleet of 49 ships over a period of 2 years from 2018 to 2020. To help drive this transformation, the company opened an innovation lab at its headquarters in Miami, Florida, to develop innovative technologies for its ships.

Royal Caribbean's ships feature robot bartenders and WOWbands. The WOWband uses radio-frequency identification wristbands (RFID; see Chapter 8) that allow guests to make onboard purchases and access staterooms.

Modern passengers have assumed broadband connectivity is available, so the cruise line features improved Wi-Fi throughout each ship. In one application, passengers can order a drink from a mobile app, and a waiter will bring it to them wherever they are. The company uses Wi-Fi access points to triangulate the passenger's position, providing servers an area of about three meters to walk toward. The servers have phones that show a photo of the passenger's face, which helps find them.

Royal Caribbean uses VR technology to provide passengers in inside cabins with views of the sea. Passengers see these views from their virtual balconies. The cruise line has also deployed the Sky Pad, which is a large yellow sphere on the upper deck. Inside are four trampolines, which are connected to a combination of bungee cords and VR. Once inside, participants bounce with the aid of the bungee cords, all while exploring VR worlds on the VR headsets they are wearing Celebrity Cruises. The Celebrity Edge launched on December 16, 2018 and is the first ship designed completely three dimensionally (3D). The company used virtual reality (VR) 3D simulations, full 3D mock-ups of the design, and 3D screens so that designers could look at every different angle of a particular space-passenger cabins, restaurants, entertainment venues, offices-to ensure that what they constructed would be appropriate for their guests and crews.

The ship features a mobile app for passengers and crew that includes machine learning so the app can act as an intelligent personal assistant for passengers. The ship also features facial recognition to allow for check-in at ports, wayfinding (finding your way around the ship), and automatically unlocking cabin doors for the cabin's occupants. Interestingly, automatically unlocking cabin doors required the cruise line to replace all existing door locks, a lengthy and expensive process.

For wayfinding, Celebrity relies on its existing networks as well as sensors on passengers' phones to accurately map where they are on the ship. By embracing this technology, the cruise line did not have to build any new infrastructure on its ships to accommodate
wayfinding.

Carnival Corporation. Carnival Corporation deployed a robot named Pepper that greets guests and answers general questions. Dinner menus and photos of guests that roaming photographers take are available for viewing on iPads located throughout Carnival's ships. The cruise line has also deployed a mobile app to enable passengers to use instant messaging to communicate with one another while onboard.

In November 2017, Carnival debuted its new Medallion wearable device. Each Medallion is connected to a specific guest, and it interacts with 7,000 sensors on each ship. The Medallion works with the Ocean Compass, a network of 4,000 high-resolution 55-inch screens located throughout each ship. The Ocean Compass incorporates machine learning to analyze passenger behavior and provide personalized recommendations. For example, as a passenger walks toward his room, sensors detect his approach. By the time he arrives, the lights are on, and the air conditioner is cooling his room to his preferred temperature.

MSC Cruises. MSC Cruises is launching 11 new cruise ships, with its final ship completed in 2026, and a fleetwide digital innovation strategy called MSC for Me. The 10-year, $10 billion investment program uses technology to improve guest experiences. The first of MSC's new ships, the MSC Meraviglia, entered service in mid-2017.

The ship has 16,000 points of connectivity, 700 digital access points, 358 interactive information screens, and 2,244 cabins with RFID and near-field communications (NFC; see Chapter 8) technology. With 170 nationalities sailing on MSC ships, the communications challenges are enormous.

MSC needs to provide relevant information based on each guest's profile, and all digital communication channels must facilitate the effective delivery of this information. 

MSC for Me bracelets use facial recognition to provide guests with 130 smart, personalized features aimed at an optimized cruising experience. These features include an app that helps guests to book their excursions prior to embarkation, make reservations at one of the ship's restaurants, and experience VR tours of the ship and its spaces, such as rooms and public areas. For travelers, the bracelets serve as a daily activity organizer, providing wayfinding, facilitating purchases, and allowing passengers to request services from staff.

The bracelets come at an additional price for adults but are free for children. Guests who do not choose to purchase a bracelet can access some of its features on the app alone, such as checking how full restaurants are or booking excursions.

MSC is using VR technology to create immersive virtual shore excursions that guests can try before purchasing the actual excursion. The cruise line also uses VR that enables guests to see how they look in various items of clothing sold onboard without having to try them on.

In all of the cruise lines' digital efforts, privacy and security are critical considerations.

Therefore, all cruise lines are developing their applications with best practices in mind for guests' privacy and security.

What technology is discussed in the case and how does it work? Describe the elements and components of the technology and how they interact.

What makes an information system strategic? Is any of the technologies in this case considered strategic systems? Why or why not? Explain your answer

What benefits do passengers enjoy from using an OceanMedallion?

Reference no: EM133276949

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