CruiseLink
Group chat in cruise line apps: which lines have it, and is there a limit?
Three lines say so in their own words. We read the chat descriptions of nine cruise lines on 9 Nov 2026, on their own websites and their UK App Store listings. Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Disney all describe group chat: one conversation for the whole party, not just one-to-one messages. Costa and Holland America describe chat without saying whether it can be a group. Carnival’s own pages do not say; Cruise Critic reported a group setting in 2020. No line publishes a limit on how many people can be in one group, and that is the question large parties keep asking.
Why we checked
We asked a search-grounded AI assistant on 9 Nov 2026 whether a family can share one group chat in the cruise line’s app, and how many people can be in it. It was sure only of Disney. For Royal Caribbean it said the official FAQ does not say whether “invite other people to chat” means a shared group — but Royal Caribbean’s own app guide does say it, in so many words, and the assistant did not find it.
The people who most need the answer are organising big groups. On a Royal Caribbean thread on the Cruise Critic boards in June 2023, one guest was sailing Liberty of the Seas with 35 people and asked how to set up a chat and add them; another wanted to send one message to all 40 guests in their party; a third asked whether there was a 10-person limit on group chats. Nobody could say. On planDisney in January 2023 a guest asked the same of Navigator. Cruise Critic’s own round-up of cruise line messaging apps mentions group chat for two lines, and was last updated in January 2020. We found nobody who had put the current lines side by side.
Line by line
The middle column is what the line itself says, from its own website or its UK App Store listing (read through Apple’s public lookup on 9 Nov 2026), unless another source and date is given. “Not stated” means we could not find the line saying either way, not that the feature is missing.
| Line | Group chat, in the line’s words | Size limit, and what it means |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Caribbean | Yes. App guide on royalcaribbean.com (published 7 Aug 2025): “you can chat with people one-on-one about meeting up for a quick drink — or create a group chat to keep everyone in your party on the same page.” App Store: “chat with your travel party through group or 1-on-1 chats.” Chat FAQ: free on the ship’s Guest Wi-Fi; “Guests sailing in the same stateroom will automatically be connected to chat. You can also invite other people to chat.” How that invite works, and whether other guests can look you up by name, is on who can message you in the line’s chat. | Not stated. A guest asked about a 10-person limit in June 2023 and nobody confirmed one. Another guest on the same thread wrote that the chat had been switched off for about a week after people used it to message hundreds of passengers; we could not confirm that from Royal Caribbean. |
| Celebrity | Yes. App Store: “chat with your travel party through group or 1-on-1 chats”, word for word the same as Royal Caribbean. Its app FAQ carries the same answer on staterooms and inviting other people. | Not stated. Celebrity is part of the Royal Caribbean group and the wording is shared, so expect the same behaviour; we found no guest report specific to Celebrity. |
| Disney (Navigator) | Yes. App Store: “While aboard your cruise, chat one-to-one or with multiple friends and family members at once.” To use chat “you are required to provide your full name, stateroom number and birth date.” | Not stated. On planDisney (5 Jan 2023) a panelist said she had not tested it, and a crew member she asked could not find a limit listed. Panelists are independent; Disney says it has not reviewed their answers. |
| Carnival (HUB) | Not stated by Carnival. App Store: “Chat to connect with family and friends on board.” HUB page on carnival.com: “For a small additional fee, the Carnival HUB App offers chat.” Cruise Critic (last updated 8 Jan 2020, secondary): the chat “has a group setting so family members or a group of friends can communicate within the same conversation.” | Not stated. Carnival’s help page would not load for us on several attempts in November, so we could not check it there. Each person pays the fee, so a large group costs more. |
| Costa | Chat, group not stated. App Store: “Don’t miss out on any message from your travel companions or the new friends you met on the cruise.” | Not stated. Costa does not say whether you can put several companions in one conversation. |
| Holland America (Navigator) | Chat, group not stated. App Store: once on board, connect to the ship’s WiFi to “chat with other guests and more at no additional charge.” | Not stated. The listing describes chatting with other guests and says nothing about groups. |
Princess, MSC, Norwegian and Virgin Voyages are left out because their current UK App Store listings, read 9 Nov 2026, describe no guest-to-guest chat to ask about: Princess names CrewCall chat with the crew, Virgin Voyages messaging Sailor Services. MSC’s own pages said on 28 Oct 2026 that its chat is for guests 16 and over; our MSC page has the detail, and our Norwegian page what we know of Norwegian. Most of the listings quoted above were updated in the fortnight before we read them, and any line can change its app in an update.
What this means for a big group
Find out on the first afternoon, not the last night
No line tells you how big a group can be, so the only way to know is to try. Get everyone onto the ship’s guest wifi and into the chat on embarkation day, and send one message to the whole group. If someone does not get it, you have the rest of the cruise to sort it out. Doing the account side at home first saves time: which lines need an account or email for chat is compared here.
Several bookings, one group
Big parties are usually several bookings. Royal Caribbean says plainly you can invite people outside your stateroom; most lines do not say whether people on another booking can be added at all. What each line says about chatting across separate bookings.
A group chat only helps if it tells you something arrived
The guests on that Royal Caribbean thread said the app did not alert them to new messages and they had to keep opening it to check. A group of forty where nobody sees the message is not a group chat. Which lines say their chat notifies a locked phone.
Children may not be in it
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity need you to be 13 for an account, Disney switches chat off for under-13s until a parent turns it on, and MSC’s chat starts at 16. A family group chat may be missing exactly the people you most want to reach. How each line handles children and chat.
Where CruiseLink fits, and where it does not
CruiseLink is a group chat first: one person starts a group and sends an invite link, and everyone who joins shares the same conversation. Messages travel between your group’s own phones over Bluetooth and the ship’s local wifi, with no internet package, on any line, and it does not matter whose booking anyone is on. There is no fixed member limit in the app. It was designed around a group of about thirty, but the largest groups we have run on real phones are about ten, so we have not seen thirty people on one ship and will not claim it.
The limits come in the same breath. Everyone has to install it and join the group before you sail, because downloading an app at sea needs an internet package, and for forty people that is forty installs to chase. It reaches your own group, not the whole ship. It is not instant across a large vessel: a message waits when nobody from your group is in between, and is passed on when someone is. It sends text, meet-up plans and check-ins only — no photos and no push-to-talk; it is not a walkie talkie. It needs an iPhone 11 or later, or Android 9 or later, and it is free on the App Store and Google Play. If your line’s own group chat covers everyone, use it; which lines include chat and which charge is compared here, and setting up a CruiseLink group takes a few minutes at home.
Not affiliated with any cruise line. Read on 9 Nov 2026 unless another date is given: Royal Caribbean chat FAQ (“Can I chat with my family and other guests in the Royal app?”, royalcaribbean.com/aus/en) and app guide (“5 ways Royal Caribbean’s app changes cruising”, royalcaribbean.com/guides, published 7 Aug 2025); Celebrity “Celebrity app” FAQ (celebritycruises.com); Carnival HUB page (carnival.com/shipboard/funhub); UK App Store listings for Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Disney Cruise Line Navigator, Carnival HUB, Costa Cruises, Holland America Line Navigator, Princess Cruises, MSC for Me, Norwegian Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages, via Apple’s public lookup. Earlier first-party reading: MSC chat age (28 Oct 2026). Secondary, dated: Cruise Critic, “Texting on a Cruise: 7 Cruise Line Messaging Apps” (last updated 8 Jan 2020); planDisney, “Regarding the group chat function on the Navigator app” (5 Jan 2023). The Cruise Critic boards thread “App for group messages” (Royal Caribbean board, June 2023) is cited as evidence that people ask, and its reports as guests’ own, unconfirmed. CruiseLink’s group size is from its own source code and our own test groups.
Get CruiseLink
Free, no account, nothing to set up beyond your group. On iPhone and Android, and the two work together.
