Online upgrade – plus tea and coffee for ferry travellers

The NorthLink ro-ro ferries MV Hjaltland and MV Hrossey, which operate on the Aberdeen – Kirkwall – Lerwick route, have been fitted with satellite communication equipment which means that Wi-Fi for passengers will be available in all public areas.

The VSAT small satellite systems have been installed as part of an upgrade to the vessels’ emergency communications systems and the side benefit is that with ‘ always on’ internet access passengers in public areas will be able to surf the net and receive and send emails from Wi-Fi enabled laptops and smartphones.

Additionally, as part of the upgrade, passengers in premium, executive and some inner 4-berth cabins will have access to the internet though plug-in points.

In another customer service improvement, NorthLink is also to provide coffee and tea-making facilities in all cabins other than the shared use cabins. This means that 89 cabins per ship are being equipped with tea and coffee-making facilities.

Because of the much shorter duration of the Scrabster – Stromness, Pentland Firth service MV Hamnavoe is not being equipped with the new satellite communication Wi-Fi equipment.

NorthLink Commercial Director Cynthia Spencer said: “Our customer feedback surveys have indicated that passengers would like to be able to access emails and surf the net while on board. Similarly, there were many requests for tea and coffee-making facilities to be made available in more cabins.

“We had to replace our satellite communications systems anyway so we are pleased to be able to provide Wi-Fi access at no charge to passengers as a side benefit. The system has less bandwidth than a traditional land-based internet broadband service so can’t be used for ‘streaming’ access for downloading movies and suchlike.

“The internet service will be available free to all while onboard with the only other restriction being that if the Master needs to make use of the satellite for operational purposes then the passenger Wi-Fi will be shutdown. However, we don’t envisage that this would be a regular occurrence and we’re sure that passengers will appreciate these latest additions to the NorthLink ferry experience,“ Cynthia said.