Princess Cruises to Expand High-Speed Internet to More Ships

(10:25 a.m. EST) -- Princess Cruises is rolling out its high-speed Wi-Fi, MedallionNet, to more ships in 2019. The internet, which the line touts as the best at sea, is reliably fast enough to stream movies or teleconference even in the middle of the ocean.

The rollout schedule is as follow: Coral Princess (April 5), Island Princess (May 15), Crown Princess (June 30), Emerald Princess (August 3) and Golden Princess (December 20).

The line's next new ship, Sky Princess, will also be equipped with MedallionNet when it debuts in October 2019.

"We're expanding MedallionNet across the fleet as quickly as we can so that in the very near future anyone who sails with us will experience the best WiFi at sea," said Princess Cruises' president, Jan Swartz. 

"While many sail with us to disconnect from their digital life, we realize that offering land-like connectivity from anywhere on the ship is something guests value so that they have the option to stream movies, music, sports or video chat and share their amazing vacation experience as much or as little as they'd like."

MedallionNet is one of many facets of Princess Cruises' Ocean Medallion program, which also features keyless cabin entry, on-demand food and beverage service and a family-tracking navigation system enabled by the use of wearable technology.

Of the ships receiving MedallionNet in 2019, only Crown Princess is slated to roll out the full Ocean Medallion experience as well.

The ships join four others on which the internet is already available: Caribbean Princess, Regal Princess, Royal Princess and Ruby Princess. Caribbean Princess and Regal Princess are the only ships currently fully outfitted with Ocean Medallion technology, with Royal Princess due to receive the other features in April 2019.

Read our recent report, live from Caribbean Princess, to see our thoughts on MedallionNet and the Ocean Medallion experience.