Which apps work on a cruise ship?

Nearly every app on your phone reaches other people through the internet, and at sea there is no internet unless somebody has paid for the ship's wifi. So the honest answer for almost all of them is: only if you buy a package, and even then not always well.

Here is what each one actually does once you leave port.

• Does WhatsApp work on a cruise ship?It works, but only if somebody pays for the internet.
• Can you FaceTime on a cruise ship?Technically possible. Usually a bad idea, and here is why.
• Does Find My iPhone work on a cruise ship?It stops working the moment you leave port, and here is why.
• Does iMessage work on a cruise ship?Blue bubbles need internet. Green ones cost you roaming.
• Does the P&O Cruises app have chat?There isn't any. My Holiday does a lot, but not messaging.
• Does Facebook Messenger work on a cruise ship?Works on a package, like everything else that goes through Facebook.
• Can you make phone calls from a cruise ship?Four ways, three of them expensive, one of them free.
• Princess MedallionClass app chat: free, and genuinely freeFree, and it works without buying MedallionNet. The best of the bunch.
• Norwegian Cruise Line app chat: what it costsPaid, per person, and the dearest of the lines that charge.

The pattern behind all of them

It helps to see why these pages all say something similar. Every app above works the same way: your phone sends a message up to a company's servers, and those servers send it down to the other person. That journey needs the internet at both ends.

On land you never notice, because your phone has mobile data everywhere. At sea the mast is gone. The only internet on the ship is the satellite connection the cruise line sells, shared between several thousand people, and usually priced per device — so a family of four wanting to message each other is four packages.

The exception

An app does not have to use the internet. Phones can talk to each other directly over Bluetooth, and over the ship's own local network where the ship allows guests to reach each other. Nothing in that chain leaves the ship, so nothing in it costs anything.

That is what CruiseLink does. It is free, there is no account, and it works with your phone in airplane mode.

The limits are real and worth stating plainly: it reaches only the group you set up, everyone needs it installed before they sail, and a message travels when phones come near enough — directly, or carried by someone else in your group — so it is not instant across a whole ship.

Related reading

• How to communicate on a cruise ship without wifi — the full picture, including the ship's own options.
• Which cruise lines charge for app chat — seven lines compared.
• Roaming charges — how the big bills actually happen.

Get CruiseLink

Free, no account, nothing to set up beyond your group. On iPhone and Android, and the two work together.