« iPhone -- First Days, First Reactio | Home | Hey, good buddy? What CB radio can »

Cell site on cruise ship saves the day!

by mobileman (07/24/2007 - 17:57)

Disney Cruise Line Goes Mobile

What a difference three years has made on the Disney “Magic” cruise ship. In the summer of 2004, I was on a family vacation on the Disney “Magic” cruise ship. The Magic is a large luxury liner with all the bells and whistles (and Belles!), large mice (Mickey and Minnie), chipmunks (Chip and Dale), ducks, pirates, large 7-foot dogs, and princesses. My favorite was “Belle.”

During the cruise we experienced three hurricanes, which caused many deviations from our itinerary and extended our stay at sea by 4 days. Our only reliable connection to change our flights home (from Florida to New York ) were half a dozen low-speed Internet terminals that used a satellite link. With over 1000 passengers, the waiting time to use the Internet was long and tempers were short. I remember when we were off the coast of Florida we went to the side of the ship that was closer to land and tried to get a cellular signal to call our travel agent. It was a comical sight. I was with about 200 other passengers, most extending their arms an extra two feet towards land, as though that would make the signal just strong enough!

We could have called from our staterooms but the charge ($10/minute) seemed like piracy on the high seas. You can only wake up to “Good morning to another magical day at sea on the happiest place on earth!” so many times before you want to jump overboard. We managed to rearrange our flights and arrived home none the worse for wear.

This past July (2007), my family once again braved the high seas with the Disney Magic. This time we were enjoying the sites of the Mediterranean . We chose this venue because the chances of a hurricane are very small! Unfortunately, one of our family members (there were 3 families and 14 people) got sick and required serious medical attention.

We needed to contact a surgical supply house in Florida and have a piece of equipment sent overnight to our port of departure. While at sea, we needed to contact a doctor in Florida and make contingency plans to med-evac a family member back to the States.

We needed frequent contact with various people stateside, while in the middle of the sea and many miles from land. All of this communication was done on our mobile phones. We used Verizon and AT&T phones, no problem. The cruise ship had its own cell site (GSM and CDMA) with satellite connection. The ship was also covered stem to stern with Wifi. We had constant mobile voice, text and e-mail connectivity throughout the cruise. While using this connectivity during a vacation is normally counterproductive to relaxing from the stresses of the work environment, it made our management of a medical emergency less stressful because of the ease of mobile communication.