Before most major cruise lines added Elon Musk’s Starlink internet, cruise ship internet hovered between pretty bad and useless.
On a good day, you might be able to send an email and pull up web pages. When things weren’t working well, it was maddening trying to do basic tasks.
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Back in those days Carnival Cruise Line offered multiple tiers of internet, and neither worked well on sea days or during the hours when most passengers were on the ship.
In some cases, sending required emails for work or logging in to do basic tasks (like filing a time card or running payroll) worked only late at night or early in the morning.
The addition of SpaceX’s Starlink across the fleet has fixed that problem, and Carnival ships now have serviceable internet. Your connection and speed can vary depending on where you are on the ship. That can make working on board — something some people need to do — difficult.
Carnival also has a huge hole in its internet/WiFi offerings, and because the cruise line does not draw attention to this problem, it could cause huge issues for passengers.
A frequent and generally happy Carnival Cruise Line customer recently brought this issue to Brand Ambassador John Heald.
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Carnival does not allow WiFi calls
Most passengers know to move their phone into airplane mode as soon as they get on board. If they don’t do that, they run the risk of running up huge roaming charges as their phone grabs various networks along the way and downloads items in the background.
A phone in airplane mode does everything over WiFi. If a Carnival passenger purchases a WiFi plan, they can use their phones for most but not all tasks for which they use their device on land.
Mark A. shared a letter with Heald that explained his specific situation:
John,
I apologize for the lengthiness of this post, but in the current age of technology and real-world work situations for many, the issue discussed is relevant and needs to be addressed.
My wife and I have always enjoyed cruising with Carnival. Our last Carnival cruise was a wonderful experience on the Celebration in January of 2022. Shortly after that cruise, I became an independent contractor for my livelihood. It was a bit of a scary experience transitioning from the corporate world after 28 years with the same telecommunications company, however, it has been a great experience thus far.
There’s really no vacation from my current line of work, as I have no one to back me up, and I earn my living from the direct sales and service that I perform. However, I do have great flexibility to work from anywhere in the world where I have reliable internet and phone service. I’ve been on 4 cruises since Jan 2022 with both RCI and Virgin, and had great experiences being able to enjoy what my wife and I love…cruising, and being able to work and keep the revenues flowing, as I successfully stayed connected via WiFi calling and work Apps while on the ships.
We have an upcoming cruise on Firenze and recently learned that Carnival blocks WiFi calling. This prevents me from being able to easily and successfully conduct my business. I’m very concerned about the impact on my livelihood next week because of this issue. Virgin and Royal allow WiFi calling which meets the needs of me and many others in similar (current, real-world) situations.
Mark A. asked for answers to three questions:
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Why does Carnival Corp cruise brands block WiFi calling?
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Can you or someone at Carnival provide me a good solution for my situation as a Carnival customer?
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Do you see any change in the near future to Carnival’s policy on blocking WiFi calling?
Carnival Cruise Line shares bad WiFi news
Most cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Virgin Voyages and MSC, allow WiFi calling. If they didn’t, passengers would be able to make phone calls only when they’re in port. And depending upon the wireless carrier, those calls can have a high per-minute rate (although some companies sell international day passes).
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Heald’s answer will not make Mark A. happy.
“Thank you so much, I recently spoke to a senior colleague about this in the IT department. I can only tell you that it is not compatible at the moment with our current system that we are using for the satellite service and whether it has to do with bandwidth or something else, well, I’m not sure,” Heald wrote.
More Carnival:
The news got worse for Mark A. and other would-be callers.
“All I know is there are no plans at the moment to allow WiFi calling. Hopefully, you can use the premium Internet service, and perhaps Zoom or Teams, which I use both of when I’m on board through the premium Internet, will suffice,” Heald added.
“Thank you, I do understand that it puts limitations on you so wherever you decide to spend your vacation, I do wish you only the best of times, and if there is anything else I can do please let me know. I will make sure once again my colleagues see this post.”
Blocking WiFi calling does not block apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Meta’s WhatsApp. But not knowing about the need to use those apps before a cruise would leave many passengers not having those communication methods set up on both sides of their calls.
Carnival does mention the lack of WiFi calling in the description of its premium internet plan (text that many people likely do not read).
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“Experience superior internet performance. This plan offers access to all sites from the Social and Value Plans at speeds up to three times faster,” the website says.
“You can stream movies, video chat, monitor your home, and browse the web seamlessly, including apps like Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, FaceTime, Zoom, and Ring, where coverage allows. Cellular-network-dependent Wi-Fi calling is not supported,”
Editor’s note: As someone who cruises a lot, whose wife does not cruise, this might be a dealbreaker for me on some Carnival itineraries. In theory, my wife could get WhatsApp, but she does not generally use that, and setting up a Zoom seems silly. When sailing, I call her most nights, so having the ability to call in ports would not be that helpful.
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