CruiseLink
Forgot to download the cruise line’s app? Whether you can get it on the ship for free
On most lines, yes, by the line’s own account. We read eight cruise lines’ own pages on 10 Nov 2026. Norwegian, Celebrity, Princess and MSC say you can download their app once you are on board, through the ship’s wifi, and Norwegian, Celebrity and Princess spell out that it costs nothing. Disney says the opposite: the free network is for using the Navigator app, and downloading it on board “is subject to additional charges”. Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Holland America and Costa tell you to download before you sail and do not describe a free download on the ship. And no line says its free network will let you download any other app.
Why we checked
Every line says “download the app before you sail”, and every cruise has someone who did not: a grandparent, a teenager who ran out of storage, a phone replaced the week before. We put the question to a search-grounded AI search tool on 10 Nov 2026. It said you can use the lines’ apps on board without paying, then added that it “did not find a source confirming that the App Store or Google Play download itself goes through the free guest network”. The lines’ own pages answer it, one line at a time, and they do not all give the same answer. Guests ask it one line at a time too, on planDisney and in forum threads. We found nobody who had put the lines side by side.
Line by line
The middle column is the line’s own wording, read from its own website (or, for Costa, its UK App Store listing) on 10 Nov 2026. The right-hand column is what that means if you are already on the ship.
| Line | What the line says | If you are already on board |
|---|---|---|
| Norwegian | App page, “To download and connect to the app while on board”: airplane mode with wifi on, connect to nclwifi.com, “Select ‘Download Norwegian Cruise Line App’ and download the app from your app store.” Also: “no personal Wi-Fi minutes are spent or utilised when using the app on board.” | Yes, free. The clearest instructions of any line, and the download goes through a button for Norwegian’s own app. |
| Celebrity | App FAQ: “You can also download the app at no charge onboard.” “How do I download the Celebrity Cruises® app onboard?” Connect to the ship’s guest Wi-Fi, open a browser and type “login.com”, then “Tap the App Store icon (for iOS devices) or Google Play icon (for Android devices) to install the app.” | Yes, free. Celebrity still suggests downloading before sail day “so you can save time at the terminal”. |
| Princess | MedallionClass FAQ, “Do I need to pay for MedallionNet® Wi-Fi to download the Princess Cruises app on board?”: “The app may also be downloaded and updated at no cost while onboard our ships and connected to MedallionNet.” | Yes, free, and Princess is the only line that also says updating it on board is free. It still encourages everyone to download and update before embarking. |
| MSC | MSC for Me page (UK): “You can download it before your cruise or once on board via the ship’s Wi-Fi.” And: “MSC for Me operates via the ship’s Wi-Fi, and no internet package is required to use its features.” | Yes. MSC says the app is free and that downloading on board is possible; it does not say in so many words that the download itself needs no package. MSC’s chat is for ages 16 and over. |
| Carnival (HUB) | HUB app page: “The app is free to download and use on board.” “Download before your cruise to start planning the fun!” “The app works with the ship’s internal Wi-Fi network.” | Probably, but read it carefully. “Free to download and use on board” can be read as covering a download on the ship, or as “free to download, and free to use on board”. Carnival gives no steps for downloading on the ship. Chat costs extra on Carnival. |
| Royal Caribbean | App page: “Download the app before starting your holiday.” “Once onboard, use the app for free by connecting to ship Guest Wi-Fi – no Internet package needed.” Its app FAQ covers connecting to the ship wifi and using the app without a package. | Not stated. Neither page describes downloading on the ship. Celebrity, which belongs to the same group and shares much of the same app FAQ wording, does describe it, so it may well work the same way. Royal Caribbean does not say so. |
| Holland America (Navigator) | FAQ: “Download and log in before embarkation so you are already set when you arrive at the pier.” App page: “Our app works on the ship’s internal Wi-Fi network … without purchasing an internet plan.” | Not stated. Using the app needs no plan; downloading it on board is not described. |
| Costa | UK App Store listing: on board, “Connect to the ship’s network, log in with your Costa Card or C|Club membership”. | Not stated. We found nothing from Costa on downloading the app on the ship. |
| Disney (Navigator) | Help centre, “Is there a charge to download or use the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app?”: the DCL-GUEST network is complimentary “when used to support the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app on the ship”, but “using our onboard Wi-Fi for other activities, including downloading the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app, email and surfing the internet, is subject to additional charges. That’s why Disney Cruise Line recommends downloading the app at home.” | Charged. The only line that says outright that downloading its own app on the ship is not covered by the free network. Disney does not say what it costs. |
“Not stated” means the line does not say either way, not that it cannot be done. Lines change their apps and their wifi set-up between seasons, so check your own line’s app page before you sail. P&O Cruises is covered on its own page.
What to do if someone in your group forgot
- Before the ship sails, use the terminal. At a home port your phone is still on its normal mobile data, which is the cheapest download you will get. Celebrity and Holland America both describe downloading before you reach the terminal as the way to save time there.
- Turn on airplane mode, then wifi. Norwegian and Princess both give this as the first step, so the phone does not start roaming on the ship’s own mobile network. Roaming at sea is where the real bills come from.
- Join the ship’s free network and follow the line’s route. Norwegian: nclwifi.com and the download button. Celebrity: login.com and the store icon. Princess: connect to MedallionNet first.
- On Disney, expect to pay or to wait. Disney is the one line that says the onboard download is charged.
- If the app will not come down, ask at Guest Services. None of the lines publishes a fallback, so the crew is the only way to find out what your ship does.
Any other app is a different question
Everything above is about the line’s own app. No line we checked says its free network lets you download anything else. Norwegian’s route is a button labelled for its own app, Celebrity’s is the store icons on its own portal page, and Disney charges even for its own. We have not tested whether the App Store or Google Play will hand over a different app on any ship’s free network, so we will not tell you it does. Our reading is that a paid internet package is ordinary internet access and would let you download whatever you like, at whatever the line charges for the package; see whether cruise wifi is worth it before buying one for that alone.
The same goes for WhatsApp, an offline messaging app, a map or a game: if you want it on the ship, get it at home.
Where CruiseLink fits, and where it does not
CruiseLink has to be installed before you sail, and this page is the reason. It is not the cruise line’s app, so none of the onboard download routes above is for it, and we cannot promise that anyone who forgets will be able to get it on the ship without paying for the internet. Everyone in your group needs to install it and join the group at home; setting up your group takes a few minutes, and the before-you-sail checklist puts it next to everything else to do that week.
Once it is on every phone, CruiseLink sends text messages, meet-up plans and check-ins between your group over Bluetooth and the ship’s local wifi, with no internet package. The other limits apply in full: it reaches your own group, not the whole ship; it is not instant across a large vessel, because messages wait until someone from your group is in between; it sends no photos; and there is no push-to-talk, so it is not a walkie talkie. It needs an iPhone 11 or later, or Android 9 or later, which rules out some older phones that the lines’ apps still support (compared here). It is free on the App Store and Google Play. If your line’s own app chat does the job for your group, use it; which lines include chat and which charge is compared here, and so is whether everyone needs an account.
Not affiliated with any cruise line. Every line’s wording above was read on 10 Nov 2026 from its own website: Norwegian’s UK app page; Celebrity’s app FAQ; Princess’s MedallionClass FAQ; MSC’s UK MSC for Me page; Carnival’s HUB app page; Royal Caribbean’s UK app page and app FAQ; Holland America’s Navigator FAQ and app page; Disney’s UK help centre. Costa’s wording is from its UK App Store listing, read through Apple’s public lookup on the same day. MSC’s age limit for chat is from its own pages, read on 28 Oct 2026. We have not tested downloading any app on a ship’s free network.
Get CruiseLink
Free, no account, nothing to set up beyond your group. On iPhone and Android, and the two work together.
