Princess Cruises Wi-Fi cost, and what is cheaper
Land networks give out about 12 nautical miles from shore, which on most sailings is well before lunch on day one. Here is how the onboard package measures up against the eSIMs built for open water.
- Package
- MedallionNet
- Network
- Starlink-backed
- 7 nights, 2 devices
- $350
$25/day one device, $45/day four devices; bundled in Princess Plus fares
What Princess Cruises charges
Princess Cruises charges about $25 per device per day for MedallionNet — roughly $175 for a seven-night sailing, doubled if two of you want data. A GigSky Cruise + Land plan costs $119.99 (about $4/day), covers both sea days and port days, and can be shared over your phone’s hotspot.
Princess Cruises Wi-Fi price vs a maritime eSIM
| Option | Typical cost / day | Works at sea? | Works in port? | Devices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maritime eSIM (GigSky Cruise + Land) | ≈ $4 | Yes | Yes — switches to local networks | Shareable via hotspot |
| Princess Cruises MedallionNet day pass | $25 | Yes | Yes (but you're ashore) | Usually per device |
| Carrier cruise-ship roaming | $20+ day pass, or brutal per-MB | Yes | Yes, at roaming rates | One device |
| Regular travel eSIM | $1–4 | No — dead beyond ~12 nm | Yes | Shareable via hotspot |
| Seven-night sailing | 1 device | 2 devices | 4 devices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Cruises Wi-Fi | $175 | $350 | $700 |
| GigSky Cruise + Land (hotspot shared) | $119.99 | $119.99 | $119.99 |
One caveat in fairness to the ship: hotspot sharing drains the host phone’s battery, and a single eSIM allowance is shared between everyone using it. If four people all want to stream, ship Wi-Fi’s per-device model is the more predictable buy.
eSIM plans that work on Princess Cruises ships
GigSky lists Princess Cruises among the 290+ vessels its Cruise plans cover, and it is the only option that also covers you in port on the same eSIM. Saily is cheaper per gigabyte at sea but has no port coverage at all.
GigSky — Cruise & Middle East 10GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickBest valueCode ESIMDUDE⚠️ Switches between the ship’s maritime network at sea and local networks in port — one eSIM covers both.
Get deal →$119.99≈ $4.00/day- GigSky — Cruise & Americas/Caribbean 10GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickCode ESIMDUDE
⚠️ Switches between the ship’s maritime network at sea and local networks in port — one eSIM covers both.
Get deal →$119.99≈ $4.00/day - GigSky — Cruise & Europe 10GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickCode ESIMDUDE
⚠️ Switches between the ship’s maritime network at sea and local networks in port — one eSIM covers both.
Get deal →$119.99≈ $4.00/day - GigSky — Cruise & Asia Pacific 10GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickCode ESIMDUDE
⚠️ Switches between the ship’s maritime network at sea and local networks in port — one eSIM covers both.
Get deal →$119.99≈ $4.00/day - GigSky — Cruise & World 10GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickCode ESIMDUDE
⚠️ Switches between the ship’s maritime network at sea and local networks in port — one eSIM covers both.
Get deal →$119.99≈ $4.00/day - GigSky — Cruise at Sea Only 10GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickCode ESIMDUDE
⚠️ At-sea data only — no coverage in port. Cheaper than Cruise + Land if you already carry a regional eSIM.
Get deal →$119.99≈ $4.00/day - GigSky — Cruise & Middle East 3GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickCode ESIMDUDE
⚠️ Switches between the ship’s maritime network at sea and local networks in port — one eSIM covers both.
Get deal →$39.99≈ $2.67/day - GigSky — Cruise & Americas/Caribbean 3GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickCode ESIMDUDE
⚠️ Switches between the ship’s maritime network at sea and local networks in port — one eSIM covers both.
Get deal →$39.99≈ $2.67/day - GigSky — Cruise & Europe 3GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickCode ESIMDUDE
⚠️ Switches between the ship’s maritime network at sea and local networks in port — one eSIM covers both.
Get deal →$39.99≈ $2.67/day - GigSky — Cruise & Asia Pacific 3GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickCode ESIMDUDE
⚠️ Switches between the ship’s maritime network at sea and local networks in port — one eSIM covers both.
Get deal →$39.99≈ $2.67/day - GigSky — Cruise & World 3GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickCode ESIMDUDE
⚠️ Switches between the ship’s maritime network at sea and local networks in port — one eSIM covers both.
Get deal →$39.99≈ $2.67/day - GigSky — Cruise at Sea Only 3GB🟢 Works at seaTop pickCode ESIMDUDE
⚠️ At-sea data only — no coverage in port. Cheaper than Cruise + Land if you already carry a regional eSIM.
Get deal →$39.99≈ $2.67/day
About the Princess Cruises fleet
Princess pairs a classic premium product with the most integrated onboard technology at sea: the OceanMedallion wearable handles cabin doors, drink orders and location-based services, and MedallionNet is consistently rated among the fastest cruise Wi-Fi networks. Itineraries lean heavily on Alaska, where Princess is the largest operator, plus the Caribbean, Mexico and long-haul world cruises. Pricing is $25 a day for a single device or about $45 a day for four, and the Princess Plus fare bundle includes Wi-Fi outright — which genuinely changes the calculation. If you are on Princess Plus, buy only a port-day eSIM; if you are on a base fare with a family, the four-device tier is still expensive enough that a shared maritime plan competes.
Carnival Corporation · 16 ships · Starlink-backed connectivity · $25/day one device, $45/day four devices; bundled in Princess Plus fares
Two checks before you spend anything
Princess Cruises’s day rate is one row in a table covering every major line. If you are still choosing a cruise, or you want to know whether Princess Cruises is expensive or ordinary for what it charges, the Cruise Ship Wi-Fi Price Index answers, on the same basis for every line.
For the other half of the decision — how much data you personally need for the sea days on your sailing — put your itinerary through the data calculator. And if you have never used an eSIM, check your handset supports one before you pay for anything; a phone that cannot install a profile makes every price on this page irrelevant.
Don’t forget port days
A Cruise + Land plan handles shore days on its own. A second, regional eSIM is insurance against the one port where the network it lands on is saturated.
Is there free Wi-Fi on Princess Cruises, and what is the cheapest way to get online?
No — Princess Cruises has no free Wi-Fi tier, and the internet packages run about $25 per device per day. The cheapest way online for a whole week is almost never the ship's own package. It is a maritime eSIM shared from one phone, with the ship's Wi-Fi kept in reserve for the days nobody wants to ration anything.
The genuinely free options, honestly assessed
There are three, and it is worth being straight about how far each one goes. In port, a phone hops onto the local network like anywhere else on holiday — that is where the free café and terminal Wi-Fi lives, and on a port-heavy itinerary it covers more of the week than people expect. Most lines hand out a short burst of complimentary minutes to their top loyalty tiers. And the ship's own app, messaging and daily planner usually run on the onboard network at no charge, which is enough to arrange dinner with the people two decks down.
What does not exist is free internet at sea. Once the coast drops away, every byte travels by satellite and somebody is paying for it. Anyone promising otherwise is describing the app, not the internet.
The cheapest way to stay connected for the whole sailing
Buy before boarding. Princess Cruises discounts its internet packages pre-cruise, and across the industry that saving runs roughly 10–20% against the onboard price — the single easiest money to save on this page. Then decide honestly how many devices genuinely need to be online: ship Wi-Fi is billed per device per day, so a couple doubles the bill, while one maritime eSIM shares from a single phone's hotspot to everyone in the cabin for the same money.
Why a portable Wi-Fi device will not rescue you
Portable Wi-Fi boxes and travel hotspots come up constantly in cruise forums, and they are the one piece of kit to leave at home. A portable hotspot is a phone without a screen: it reaches for the same land-based masts, and those masts stop reaching the ship roughly 12 nautical miles out. It is brilliant on a road trip and completely inert on a sea day.
Using GigSky on Princess Cruises
MedallionNet is not a reseller package — Princess built the network, wired the ships for it and sells it as a headline feature, which is why it performs and why it costs. The question on this line is never whether it works; it is whether you are paying for a bundle you only wanted one component of.
The Princess Cruises Wi-Fi trap
MedallionNet is genuinely good, and it is priced accordingly. Bought outside a bundle the daily rate is at the high end of the market, and the bundle economics only work if you also want the drinks and gratuities it carries.
How data actually gets used on these itineraries
Glacier Bay is the specific test. Princess holds a limited number of National Park Service permits to enter it, and the ship spends most of a day inside with no port call and no shore mast in reach — every passenger photographing the same calving face and trying to send it. That one day does more damage to a data allowance than the rest of an Alaska week combined.
One port worth knowing about
Beyond Glacier Bay, the Panama Canal transits Princess is known for are a coverage curiosity. You are within a few hundred metres of land for most of a day, so a land plan works unusually well, and buying heavy maritime data for a Canal itinerary is one of the easier ways to overspend on this line.
The verdict
MedallionNet is good enough that nobody should be talked out of it for real work at sea. GigSky's case on Princess is narrower and honest: lighter use, a second device, and the Alaska and Northern Europe port days where the ship's package does nothing and land networks do everything.
Princess Cruises connectivity FAQ
01Does Princess Cruises have free Wi-Fi?+
Not for browsing. Princess Cruises’s app usually works free on the ship network for the daily programme and onboard messaging, but any internet package — email, social, maps — is a paid Princess Cruises internet package priced per device per day (about $25). A maritime eSIM is the usual cheaper route for sea days.
02How much does Princess Cruises Wi-Fi cost?+
Princess Cruises charges about $25 per device per day for MedallionNet. $25/day one device, $45/day four devices; bundled in Princess Plus fares. Over a seven-night sailing that is roughly $175 for one device, or $350 for a couple.
03Does an eSIM work on Princess Cruises ships?+
In port, any travel eSIM works. At sea you need a maritime eSIM: GigSky Cruise covers 290+ ships including the Princess Cruises fleet, and its Cruise + Land plans switch between the ship's network and local networks automatically. Saily Cruise also covers Princess Cruises vessels but activates only beyond 12 nautical miles, so it does nothing in port.
04Is Princess Cruises Wi-Fi or an eSIM cheaper?+
For one light user on a short sailing it is close. For two or more devices the eSIM usually wins outright, because Princess Cruises charges per device while a maritime eSIM can be shared over your phone's hotspot. A week of Princess Cruises Wi-Fi for two devices is about $350; a 3 GB GigSky Cruise plan is $119.99.
05Is MedallionNet worth it, or should I use GigSky?+
MedallionNet is one of the better shipboard networks at sea, and pretending otherwise would help nobody — if you need reliable video calls from the middle of the ocean, buy it. GigSky is the answer when you do not: light messaging and maps use, one or two devices, and a wish to also be online ashore, which MedallionNet does not cover.
06Princess sails a lot of Alaska — which plan fits?+
Americas/Caribbean covers Alaska on the land side. Princess’s Alaska season runs port-heavy itineraries through Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan where land networks work normally, so a Cruise + Americas plan spends much of the week behaving like an ordinary travel eSIM and switches to maritime for the scenic cruising days.
07If I already bought Princess Plus, is an eSIM redundant?+
For onboard use, largely yes. The case for adding an eSIM alongside a bundle is port days and a second device — the bundle’s Wi-Fi covers one device at a time on most fare types, and it stops at the gangway.
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