From Spa Appointments to Shake for Champagne™,
Award-Winning Cruise Line Offers Luxurious Onboard Amenities via
Aruba Wi-Fi Network
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today
announced that Virgin Voyages is deploying an end-to-end Aruba ESP
(Edge Services Platform) network to deliver world-class, premium
experiences aboard all four of their inaugural fleet of “lady
ships.” Working with DeCurtis Corporation, Virgin Voyages set out
to create an extraordinary, technology-enabled cruise experience.
Headquartered in Plantation, Florida, Virgin Voyages is a joint
venture between the Virgin Group and Bain Capital.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220802005471/en/
Virgin Voyages is deploying an end-to-end
Aruba ESP network to deliver world-class, premium experiences
aboard all four of their inaugural fleet of “lady ships.” (Source:
Virgin Voyages)
Virgin Voyages currently has two award-winning ships deployed,
and two more in development, all with a capacity of nearly 4,000
passengers and crew members on each ship. Scarlet Lady was named
Cruise Critic’s “Best New Cruise Ship for 2021,” and both Scarlet
and Valiant Lady received top spots on Condé Nast Traveler’s
Cruising Hot List for 2022. As an exclusively adult cruise
experience, Virgin Voyages offers a sanctuary at sea for the 18+
traveler with 20+ unique dining options, immersive entertainment
and wellness-forward programming.
“From the time a Sailor books their trip or uses mobile
ticketing, all on-board experiences up through departure at the end
of their journey, is enhanced by technology,” said Frank Farro,
vice president of Technology at Virgin Voyages. “A favorite luxury
indulgence for Sailors is our unique “Shake for Champagne™”
feature. By simply shaking their phone with the Virgin Voyages app
open, and pressing a button, crew is alerted to deliver chilled
champagne to the Sailor wherever they are on the ship. The same
capability is extended to other services such as Ship Eats, to
guarantee high-touch service to each Sailor’s dining, snacking and
eating experience.”
A primary goal for Virgin Voyages is to deliver a premier Sailor
experience by providing real-time services and always-on
connectivity for crew members to facilitate fast, reliable service.
For example, if a crew member sees a maintenance issue, they can
open a repair ticket on their issued device, and it immediately
goes to the right person to address the issue. The technology
behind these capabilities is ubiquitous for crew members and
transparent to Sailors, creating a seamless five-star experience
wherever they are on the ship.
Another important goal for Virgin Voyages is to provide
location-based quality of service via location-based data. One
powerful example of this is by dramatically reducing the time
Sailors stand in line. Virgin Voyages created a virtual queuing
system so that Sailors don’t have to congregate in long lines.
Instead, the Virgin Voyages app alerts them when it’s their turn to
board the ship, sit for dinner, enter the spa, or disembark in
their Port of Call. Virgin Voyages’ focus on a frictionless
experience allows Sailors to relax and enjoy the amenities, rather
than waiting in lines or dealing with service-related issues.
To achieve frictionless, location-based services that enable
world-class Sailor services, Virgin Voyages looked to trusted
technology partner DeCurtis Corporation. With a vast range of
experience working with some of the world’s best, most-recognized
hospitality brands, DeCurtis and Virgin Voyages were looking to
transform existing Sailor experiences to make them better, faster
and more impactful through creative application of the latest
technology.
In cooperation with DeCurtis and Aruba, Virgin Voyages selected
and deployed a flexible, resilient Aruba ESP network including
Aruba Wi-Fi 6 access points with built-in location services, as
well as access switches. Additionally, Virgin Voyages uses
ClearPass for network access control (NAC) and policy management,
and AirWave for network management.
“It was the Aruba team that stepped up to work with our Virgin
Voyages team as well as our partners DeCurtis and Axians to
solidify and enhance a comprehensive network for our ships,”
explained Farro. “The Aruba team in the yard, on the ship, and the
team behind helping those two teams, have all been responsive and
engaged.”
Virgin Voyages has seen multiple benefits of their new Aruba
network, including reliability, seamlessness, and scalability. “The
network is built to accommodate around 15,000 devices,” said Farro.
“This includes crew devices, PCs, laptops and tablets, in addition
to tablets and TVs in each cabin, as well as in the crew rooms. Add
on top of that the myriad of devices each Sailor brings onboard.
The seamless experience is best illustrated in our ability to
duplicate ‘smart home’ features in each cabin, which are controlled
by the app on the cabin tablets. When a Sailor walks in and their
cabin is in nighttime mode, the lights automatically come on and
the curtains close. It’s just an incredible experience.”
Looking to the future, Virgin Voyages will continue delivering
transparent but ubiquitous high-touch Sailor services and expand
features such as wayfinding. Their focus will remain on making sure
that Sailors’ devices seamlessly connect to the internal Wi-Fi
network, so they don’t even have to think about connectivity from
boarding to departure and everything in between.
About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is the global
leader in secure, intelligent edge-to-cloud networking solutions
that use AI to automate the network, while harnessing data to drive
powerful business outcomes. With Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform)
and as-a-service options, Aruba takes a cloud-native approach to
helping customers meet their connectivity, security, and financial
requirements across campus, branch, data center, and remote worker
environments, covering all aspects of wired, wireless LAN, and wide
area networking (WAN).
To learn more, visit Aruba at www.arubanetworks.com. For
real-time news updates, follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook, and
for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba
products, visit the Airheads Community at
community.arubanetworks.com.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220802005471/en/
Media Contacts: Kari Curto Aruba, a Hewlett Packard
Enterprise company +1 650-504-1076 kari.curto@hpe.com Kathleen
Keith Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company +1-707-529-4507
kathleen.keith@hpe.com
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024