Thirty years ago, when I first started writing about cruising, typical internet connections at sea were more than just slow. This is a glacier. You only experience many seconds of frustration clicking on a website. Maybe that page will appear. Maybe not. Maybe the cruise is over while you’re still sitting there.
Thankfully, those days are gone. Internet services on cruise ships have become widely used in recent years a lot of Start faster and cost less. In fact, if you haven’t been on a cruise in a few years, you might be surprised to find that the Wi-Fi speeds on cruise ships are a lot faster than the last time you sailed, and in some cases internet plans have become more affordable.
While there are still some ships and some cruise locations where getting online requires a lot of patience, extremely slow internet speeds on cruise ships are gradually becoming a thing of the past.
This is good news. The bad news is that Wi-Fi on cruise ships is still not as fast or reliable as Wi-Fi at home.
Here are the details on Wi-Fi on cruise ships, including five things you should know about internet at sea.
Wi-Fi on a cruise ship is never as fast (or reliable) as at home
Yes, all cruise ships offer internet connectivity these days, but it may not be the seamless experience you expect on land.
Although internet conditions on board ships have improved significantly in recent years, you may still find speed and reliability issues when getting online on some ships in certain locations around the world.
RELATED: 16 Mistakes Cruise Passengers Make on Disembarkation Day
Why are internet speeds and reliability different on board ships than on land? One obvious reason is that there are no cables connected to your cruise ship. On a cruise ship, every data packet you download to your phone or computer is transmitted mostly via satellite, which isn’t a fast or cheap proposition.
Reward your inbox with the TPG daily newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers and get breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive offers from TPG experts
In recent years, maritime communications companies that specialize in providing internet connectivity to ships have been trying to get up to speed. Solutions include adding more satellites and connecting their systems to land-based towers that connect with ships as they approach shore.
But ultimately, satellite systems can only work so effectively. First, the ship needs to have a clear “line of sight” with the satellite in order to exchange data, but this is not always the case. For example, cruise ships traveling through the famous Norwegian fjords may lose satellite signals due to the height of the surrounding mountains.
Satellite coverage in some parts of the world is too weak or non-existent to allow access to the internet on a cruise ship – though that’s changing quickly. During a cruise in the Russian Arctic with Hapag-Lloyd, I was forced to go without internet for the better part of a week due to the lack of satellite coverage in the area (which, I must say, was kind of wonderful).
So while Wi-Fi speeds are getting faster on boats, they may never be as fast as at home, where hardwires carry the signal directly to the router.
In-flight internet speeds are getting faster and faster
On some cruise ships, signals are getting faster and you can now watch Netflix from the comfort of your cabin – something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
New satellite systems, coupled with millions of dollars of investment in shipboard technology, are changing things for the better in a big way. The turning point came more than a decade ago in 2014, when cruise giant Royal Caribbean partnered with satellite company O3b Networks to create a new onboard internet system that it said was six times faster than anything else at sea. The system, called Voom, taps into satellites operated by O3b that can beam beams directly at ships as they move.
Recently, Royal Caribbean, like many other cruise lines, has turned to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service to provide even faster internet at sea. Still, it’s all relative.
When I speed tested Voom on the Symphony of the Seas in 2024, I found that the service typically offered download speeds of just 9 megabits per second. While cruising, I never saw download speeds exceed 10 Mbps, but they occasionally dropped to 4 Mbps. Compare this to the download speeds I get at home in North Carolina through cable provider Spectrum, which is about 400 Mbps.
Still, while much slower than many home connections, the 9 Mbps I got on Symphony of the Seas was still enough to enjoy Netflix and other streaming video services, although I did encounter some issues.
There were a few times during the cruise that I completely lost my internet connection. The speed seems to slow down briefly at times and freeze at other times.
Royal Caribbean still claims that Voom is the fastest and best Wi-Fi option on cruise ships today, but we doubt it — not because the Wi-Fi is slower than stated, but because other cruise lines like Carnival Cruise Lines are quickly catching up. Many people now use the same Starlink service as Royal Caribbean and achieve similar results.
Cruise ship internet costs drop
Not long ago, you had to pay a small fee to access the internet on a cruise ship. For years, the base rate for inflight Wi-Fi has been around 75 cents per minute. $45 for an hour online!
The old pay-per-minute system could have resulted in sky-high bills for the average internet user, and in recent years most lines have given way to simpler and more affordable “unlimited browsing” plans.
How much does Wi-Fi cost on a cruise ship today? Although costs vary from line to line, you can expect to pay about $15 to $30 per day for Internet service on many ships. This works on one device. If you want to connect multiple devices, you’ll typically pay less per device.
For example, Royal Caribbean’s Voom connection typically costs around $27 per day for one device. At the past price of 75 cents per minute, you could only get 40 minutes of Internet time for the same money.
RELATED: 15 Ways Cruise Newbies Waste Money on Their First Cruise
Royal Caribbean’s price of around $27 per day is what you get when you buy the entire cruise. If you only want to access the internet for a day, you won’t be able to get this rate. Single day packages are more expensive.
But if you buy internet service before your Royal Caribbean cruise, you can get better prices – often 20 to 30 percent off regular prices.
Meanwhile, perhaps the biggest development in cruise internet costs in recent years is that many high-end cruise lines have begun offering free internet access. Cruise lines such as Viking Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Silversea Cruises now offer unlimited internet time as part of the base cruise price. On some of these lines, such as Regent, you can pay extra to get faster service.
Another way to get free or cheaper internet time on board is to join a cruise ship loyalty program. Some offer free cruise Wi-Fi or discounted package prices for middle- and upper-class customers.
For example, in Celebrity Cruises’ Captain’s Club loyalty program, top Zenith members enjoy unlimited free premium internet (the company’s fastest program). At Princess Cruises, customers can enjoy 50% off MedallionNet Internet packages after reaching the Platinum level of the company’s Captain’s Circle loyalty program (to qualify, you need to complete 5 cruises or 50 cruise days).
At Royal Caribbean, you can get free internet on the ship through its high-end suites. Book a room in a Sky Class or Star Suite (all suites above Junior Suite) and you will receive free Voom.
App offers alternative to paid cruise Wi-Fi
In recent years, a growing number of cruise lines have launched free apps for your phone that let you book onboard restaurants, spa treatments and other services without leaving your pool deck lounge chair. On some ships operated by Carnival, you can even order beer and pizza anywhere using the app.
Many of these apps also show you a daily activity schedule, provide ship deck plans, sometimes provide port maps to help you get around, and let you check your shipboard account statements in real time. On Celebrity Edge and other Celebrity Cruises Edge Class ships, you can even use an app to remotely open cabin doors, change TV channels and turn off the lights.
While all of these apps will work on cruise ship Wi-Fi, the good news is that they don’t require purchasing a plan to use them. They also don’t charge any other fees – at least for most features.
At Carnival, you pay $5 (per user, per cruise) to add Chat to the line’s free HUB app. This feature allows you to communicate with other app-enabled passengers through text-like messages.
Cruise Internet Tips: Use Airplane Mode to Avoid Unnecessary Charges
Whether you purchase a Wi-Fi package on a cruise ship or not, I have one very strong recommendation: the moment you board the ship, put your phone in airplane mode and keep it that way for the duration of the cruise.
This is the safest way to avoid unnecessary data charges, which can be high. (Remember the story about a family who spent $14,000 on data charges on a cruise?)
As many cruise ships experience, international phone plans (such as AT&T’s $12/day International Day Pass) are not available on ocean cruises. If you let your AT&T phone roam while you’re on the boat, you’ll pay twice as much – $20 per day, even if you only use it for a few minutes.
If you insist on keeping cellular service on while cruising, you should at least disable any apps running in the background (as they consume data and increase your bill) and disable automatic email checking.
Personally, I find it easier to press the airplane mode button. Once in airplane mode, I reactivate the Wi-Fi feature on my phone to access the cruise Wi-Fi and sign up for the onboard plan so I can stay connected via email or voice over Internet protocol services like WhatsApp.
Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:
