Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) seems to be following in the footsteps of Royal Caribbean and Hurtigruten after a passenger spotted nearly a dozen SpaceX Starlink dishes on one of its cruise ships.
NCL hasn’t yet made any official announcement about partnering with SpaceX to add Starlink to its fleet of 17 different cruise ships, but it appears as though the company is in the early stages of deployment.
A total of 11 Starlink dishes were spotted on the Norwegian Breakaway by Reddit user u/Asleep_Operation2790, who noted they were all installed on the top sundeck of the 18-deck cruise ship.
Several photos of the installation were also shared, showing NCL is using SpaceX’s new Flat High Performance dishes for maritime users, which is more rugged and can better withstand the harsher weather conditions out at sea.
Interestingly the dishes were not installed using SpaceX Wedge mount kits that are included with each dish, but instead NCL used mounts from Seaview Global.
According to the passenger, it appears as though the Starlink service hasn’t been activated yet. It was noted that the internet speeds on the ship were slow, and that the IP address onboard didn’t show Starlink as being the provider.
If NCL is adding Starlink to their cruise ships, it would be another significant deal for SpaceX as they would two of the top 5 cruise line operators in the world (or even the top 2 depending on who you ask) using their satellite internet service.
UPDATE Nov 4 12:23pm PT: In response to a request for more information from Drive Tesla, NCL simply said “We do not have any information to share at this time.”
SpaceX has also expanded into the air, signing deals with Hawaiian Airlines and JSX to add Starlink to their aircraft. Canada’s De Havilland has also become the first aircraft manufacturer to integrate Starlink into their planes.
SpaceX is also offering Starlink for private jets with the launch of Starlink Aviation last month.
