NCL banned walkie talkies: what families use instead

Norwegian added walkie talkies to its prohibited items list in July 2023 and they have stayed there. The line has never given a reason. If you were planning to pack a set to keep a big group together, this page is what is left.

Where this comes from, precisely. Cruise press reported Norwegian's prohibited items update in July 2023, and trade reporting dated 10 November 2025 has the ban still in force and Royal Caribbean still permitting them. We could not read it on Norwegian's own site — ncl.com serves its FAQ as an application that returns no readable text to us — so this is corroborated secondary reporting rather than the line's own page. Prohibited items lists do change: a fan ban from the same period was softened a month later. Check your own sailing's list before you pack.

The gap it leaves, which is real

Walkie talkies were never mostly about novelty. They were how a large party split across a ship stayed joined up: teenagers at the pool, grandparents in the cabin, somebody queuing for dinner. Reporting on the ban made exactly that point — that banning them would cause families and groups problems.

So the question is not whether the ban is reasonable. It is what a family of eight does on day one instead.

What the ban is probably about, honestly labelled

Norwegian has not explained it, so everything here is inference rather than fact:

• Interference. Crew use radio for operations and for emergencies. A powerful consumer set on the wrong frequency is a genuine nuisance.
• Other guests. Walkie talkies are loud and children enjoy them more than neighbouring sunloungers do.
• Commercial. Norwegian sells a Phone and Messenger service at around $9.95 per person for the voyage. People noticed. It would be unfair to state it as the reason, and dishonest to pretend nobody suspects it.

They would have disappointed you anyway

Worth knowing even if you sail a line that still permits them. A ship is a stack of steel floors, and radio travels along a deck far better than through one. The direction you most need — pool deck to cabin, several decks down — is the direction steel blocks.

The ranges on the box are measured in open country with line of sight. Onboard they mean nothing. The fuller version of that, including where they do work, is here.

What to use instead, cheapest first

Agreed times and places — free

Old-fashioned and still the most reliable thing available. Fix the points of the day — breakfast, dinner, a bar after the show — and nobody needs to be contactable in between. Which meeting points actually hold up on a big ship.

Where it fails is the moment anything changes, which on a cruise is constantly.

An app that passes messages phone to phone — free

Phones can reach each other directly over Bluetooth and over the ship's own local network, with no internet package involved. CruiseLink does this, it is free, and it works between iPhone and Android.

The honest limits, because they matter and nobody else will tell you: everyone has to install it before sailing, it reaches your own group rather than the ship, and it is not instant across a large vessel — a message travels when phones come near each other, directly or carried by somebody walking between you. On measurements from a real evening with six phones and no shared wifi, people re-found each other every four to seven minutes. The full numbers.

Norwegian's own Phone and Messenger — around $9.95 per person

Unlocks chat inside the Norwegian app over the ship's network, with no wifi package needed on top. It works.

The sting is per person: a family of six is paying around $60, and both ends of a conversation need to have paid. What it covers, and what it does not.

What does not work

• WhatsApp, iMessage, ordinary texts. All need the internet, which at sea means buying the ship's package. What that costs your party.
• Mobile signal. There is none at sea beyond the ship's own maritime cell, which bills at maritime rates. How those bills happen.

Royal Caribbean still allows them, and that is the useful contrast

This is a Norwegian rule rather than an industry one. As of trade reporting in November 2025, Royal Caribbean still permits walkie talkies while Norwegian still bans them — two of the largest lines taking opposite views on the same device.

Which tells you something worth carrying: there is no cruise-wide rule here, and a set that is fine on one ship can be confiscated on the next. If you sail more than one line, that alone is an argument for a method that travels with you. The physics above applies on every ship regardless — steel blocks the direction you need, whoever permits the radio.

Every line's prohibited items list changes without much notice. Check yours for the sailing you are on, not the one you took last year.

Get CruiseLink

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