P&O Cruises wifi, and the bit you can skip paying for
P&O sells internet per person, so a family of four pays four times. There is no free package. You can connect to the ship's network and use the MyHoliday app for nothing, but anything that reaches the actual internet needs a paid plan. Keeping your own group in touch onboard is a separate problem, and that part can be free.
What you are actually buying
P&O's packages are sold per person for the length of the cruise, with a cheaper tier aimed at messaging and social media and a dearer one that will carry video calls and streaming. Buying before you sail is normally cheaper than buying onboard. Prices move by ship and by season, so check your own booking rather than trusting a number on a page like this one.
The part that catches families out is the per-person bit. The package is tied to a set number of devices, so there is no household option. Four phones means four packages, which is why so many groups end up with exactly one connected person acting as the family switchboard.
What is free
Connecting to the ship's wifi network itself costs nothing — you will see MyHoliday or P&O Cruises Guest WiFi in your phone's wifi list. Without a package you can still use the MyHoliday app for the daily programme, your booked dining and events, and your account. That works because it talks to the ship's own systems rather than out to the internet.
The two different problems
It is worth separating them, because people buy the expensive answer to the cheap problem.
Reaching home
Needs a package, on at least one phone. There is no way around this short of waiting for a port and finding café wifi.
Finding each other onboard
Does not need the internet at all. Phones can pass messages to each other directly, which costs nothing.
Keeping the group in touch for nothing
CruiseLink passes short messages straight between the phones in your group over Bluetooth, and over the ship's wifi network where the ship lets guests reach each other. No package, no account, free on the App Store.
P&O's Arvia is the one ship we have tested the network side on ourselves, and guests could reach each other across it. We cannot promise that of every P&O ship, and we will not pretend otherwise — the Bluetooth route works regardless.
The honest limits: it reaches only the people in your group, everyone needs it installed before you sail, and a message travels when phones come near each other rather than instantly across the whole ship.
Not affiliated with P&O Cruises or Carnival plc. Check current prices with P&O before you book.
Next: set your group up before you sail.
Get CruiseLink
Free, no account, nothing to set up beyond your group. iPhone today; Android is built and in testing.
