Cruising and internet access

[opethdisciple]

Parents are going on a cruise in Jan to the Caribbean.

The ship has Wi-Fi but it is extortionate so they have asked me if there are any options.

I found this article which gives me some ideas.

It seems like the best option is to purchase an esim.

Do you think an esim will be the answer?

Are there any other alternatives I am not aware of?

Basically the aim is to be able to get internet whilst at sea.

 

[TrojanWhore]

This is all from general principle, rather than personal experience, as I've never done a cruise or even travelled outside of Europe.

As long as it's somewhere an eSIM can service (in terms of signal), then that would seem like the best option. The biggest consideration other than that is how much data they'd need

If ping isn't an issue, then the best solution would likely be satellite (as in, would get signal anywhere on earth), but for cost and portability, something like starlink is probably a no-go. (for frequent trips, the hardware cost might work out ok)

The article you linked seems to be from a provider of eSIM packages, so there may be others that are better value if you shop around - one that I'm aware of is Saily (as it's promoted by a lot of YouTubers) - I can only see 1GB/7day ($8.99) package listed, but the screenshots on the page seem to suggest other plans are avaiable:

https://saily.com/esim-caribbean-islands/

Hope that's some help, and maybe others can chime in with more experience

Edit: this might help: https://www.reddit.com/r/eSIMs/comments/1nqg7l1/best_esim_caribbean/

 

[EH75]

Get an esim for when the ship is in port. There are various that cover several Caribbean islands which are reasonably priced.

On the ship don't even bother. I think there are a few esims that will give you on board data but it isn't much and won't last that long. Background updates etc will kill your data very quickly. Even if you turn all the syncing etc off they still seem to gobble data up. Phones these days are designed to be online 24/7 so trying to stop them constantly using data is difficult. Especially for those who are not tech savvy. The only way I ever managed it was to download a firewall and only let certain apps through. But honestly the ship will be in port during the day so and with the time difference it's the middle of the night at home when the ship is at sea so it's not like it's a good time to call etc.

Source: I have worked on Cruise Ships for many years. I am posting this from a Cruise Ship in the Carribean! Thankfully Internet for crew is now very cheap (and fast) since the advent of starlink so I don't need to worry too much about the above any more. Still pretty pricey for the guests though.

 

[InkZ]

They won't get internet at sea without the ship Wifi. They can get internet at port by either adding roaming data to their plan, or getting an eSIM.
Depends how many sea days they have whether it's an issue or not. Wifi is really good at sea now thanks to Starlink. Whatever they do, don't connect to the ship cellular and use that. Stick a spending limit on their account to make sure they don't get a nasty suprise.

 

[opethdisciple]

Get an esim for when the ship is in port. There are various that cover several Caribbean islands which are reasonably priced.

On the ship don't even bother. I think there are a few esims that will give you on board data but it isn't much and won't last that long. Background updates etc will kill your data very quickly. Even if you turn all the syncing etc off they still seem to gobble data up. Phones these days are designed to be online 24/7 so trying to stop them constantly using data is difficult. Especially for those who are not tech savvy. The only way I ever managed it was to download a firewall and only let certain apps through. But honestly the ship will be in port during the day so and with the time difference it's the middle of the night at home when the ship is at sea so it's not like it's a good time to call etc.

Source: I have worked on Cruise Ships for many years. I am posting this from a Cruise Ship in the Carribean! Thankfully Internet for crew is now very cheap (and fast) since the advent of starlink so I don't need to worry too much about the above any more. Still pretty pricey for the guests though.

So the esim won't be able to provide an internet connection at sea?

 

[EH75]

So the esim won't be able to provide an internet connection at sea?

Apparently there are some on the link in the first post which will provide this. However at $18.99 for 512mb I'd imagine you'd run through that in about 20 mins on the modern Internet with video content everywhere (even ads etc on websites). You'd be better off paying for the ship's WiFi package. This won't be cheap either but will probably work out better value than the esim on board. I reckon the best options are:

- Esim for use while ashore and accept you won't have Internet when the ship is at sea overnight.
- Esim and pay for ship WiFi package and use this when ship is at sea.