Is there free wifi on a cruise ship?

Free internet, almost never. Free network, usually yes — and the difference between those two is the thing most people have not been told, because it is where several free options quietly live.

The distinction that matters

Joining the ship's wifi network costs nothing on most lines. Your phone connects, you get a captive portal, and you are on the ship's own internal network.

What you pay for is that network carrying you out to the internet. It is the difference between being let into the building and being given an outside line.

That matters because several useful things live inside the building. The cruise line's app — the daily programme, deck plans, your onboard account, menus, booking a show — generally runs over the free local network without an internet package. On some lines so does guest-to-guest chat. Which lines charge for that is here.

Where free internet does genuinely exist

• Loyalty tiers. Most lines give higher-tier past passengers free minutes, a free device, or a full package. If you have cruised with them before, check before buying.
• Bundled fares. Plenty of fares now include a wifi package, particularly the higher fare types. People buy a second package without realising they already have one.
• Suites. Frequently included.
• In port. The terminal, and the first café you walk past. This is where most people actually do their catching up, and it costs nothing.

What to be sceptical about

Searches for free cruise wifi turn up a lot of advice about VPNs, DNS tricks and portal workarounds. Most of it does not work on modern ships, some of it breaches the line's terms, and none of it is worth risking your onboard account over. There is no clever trick; there is a paywall.

The genuinely free option for your own group

If what you want is to tell your family where you are, you do not need the internet at all. CruiseLink passes messages straight between the phones in your group over Bluetooth and the ship's local network. No package, no account, free, and it works with every phone in airplane mode.

It reaches only your own group, everyone needs it installed before sailing, and a message travels when phones come near enough rather than instantly across the whole ship.

Get CruiseLink

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