Cruise ship internet has never been cheap, but there's a new option that seeks to make it easier and simpler to have internet access at sea.
While Royal Caribbean sells its own internet service to passengers that's powered by Starlink, wireless carriers are getting in on the game too.
Earlier this year, AT&T expanded its International Day Pass plans to include over 400 cruise ships.
Available to AT&T subscribers, it offers a simple way to be get the internet on your cruise ship. Turn your phone on while on the ship and do something with it (call, text, use data) and your 24-hour International Day Pass begins and you will be charged a $20 per day, per device daily fee.
I was curious how well the service worked, so I accepted an invitation by AT&T to field test their service. AT&T gifted me a Samsung S25 Ultra along with their service so I could see how well it worked.
I brought the device on three different ships across different regions to see how it worked in different facets:
- Ovation of the Seas in Ensenda, Mexico
- Independence of the Seas in Northern Europe
- Silver Dawn in Denmark & Norway
I wanted to see how well it performed compared to the Voom packages, and if it was truly as good as they claim.
It just works
As soon as I turned my phone on in any of the places I visited, the connection kicked on and I was ready to use the internet.
I think this is one of its top advantages, as you don't have to really do anything in advance.
Plus, you can cherry pick which days you want to use it. Turn it on on days you need it, and leave it off on days you don't.
Royal Caribbean only sells unlimited packages for the duration of your cruise. It does sell a 24 hour pass online, but it's $29.99 per pass.
Royal Caribbean discounts its internet packages when purchased pre-cruise, and you can often get very good prices.
For an 8-night Independence of the Seas cruise, I paid $167.92 for a one device internet package, which came out to $20.99 per day.
Surprisingly fast speeds too
The biggest question I had was how fast would it be, as Voom has been incredibly reliable and fast enough on ships.
I ran speed tests on all the ships I sailed on using Fast.com. Internet speed tests aren't everything, but it's the best standard I could come up with.
In every test case, the AT&T speeds worked just as fast as Voom. I might see one out do the other, but truly it was always a negligible difference.
In both cases, there would be the occasional intermittent outage where the internet connection drops, but it would come back.
In my testing, I found the speeds to work quite well, and good enough for the needs I had.
Something else nice about the AT&T package is I could activate my phone's hot spot and let my kids tether to the device, thus extending the value of the daily cost.
There is one caveat to AT&T, and that is it provides 500MB of high speed data, and then you're throttled for the rest of that day. Every day you get the 500MB of high speed to start with.
I think most people won't run into that cap, but it's worth noting if you plan to stream movies or do a lot of video work.
You can use it on land too
One advantage I saw with AT&T over Voom was that also worked on land and at sea.
According to AT&T, if you’re traveling at sea and on land on the same day, you’ll be charged a fee of $20 per day that includes both locations.
This means you get to use the service while on a shore excursion, whereas the cruise line option doesn't offer that.
It's a very seamless option and I think this is one of the most compelling reasons to try it.
I was impressed how well the wireless package worked
I expected the Voom package to perform better, but was surprised when it was about the same.
AT&T's offering is perfect for someone that needs to use the internet from their cruise ship on certain days, but not every day. I think that's a great selling point for someone who doesn't want/need to buy the ship internet for the duration of their cruise.
Plus, it's super easy because you just activate your phone's cellular connection and you're all set. I think Voom is easy to use, but I'm always surprised by the line of people on the Royal Promenade seeking assistance at the Voom desk.
