How to set up GigSky for your cruise

Prices last confirmed October 2026

Almost every "my cruise eSIM does not work" story is a setup problem, not a coverage problem. Most of them are decided days before anyone boards. Here is the order to do things in.

First, check the phone in your pocket can do this

Two things decide whether any cruise eSIM will work for you, and both are worth two minutes now rather than a panic at the terminal. The phone has to support eSIM, and it has to be carrier-unlocked.

The eSIM part is easy. Every iPhone from the XS onward has it. So does the Galaxy S20 and newer, every Pixel from the 2 up, and a good spread of recent Sony, Xiaomi and Motorola handsets. Cellular iPads from the third generation carry it too, which is handy if someone in the cabin wants to work.

The lock is the sneaky one. A handset bought on a monthly instalment plan is very often still locked to that carrier, and it stays locked after the final payment unless somebody asks. You cannot see it in the settings. You find out when a foreign profile refuses to attach, which is a rotten thing to discover on sailing day. One phone call to your carrier settles it.

Days before: buy and install at home

Install the profile at home, on a connection you trust. Not at the terminal, and not at the airport. Installing is a download, and it is the one step that really needs decent bandwidth. The profile can then sit unused for weeks, so doing it early costs you nothing.

Check two things before you buy. Does your phone support eSIM? And is it carrier-unlocked? The second catches more people out. A handset bought on an instalment plan is often still locked after the final payment clears, and you cannot see the lock until a foreign profile tries to attach. Your carrier can release it, though not on the morning you sail.

The install itself takes about a minute. You either scan a QR code or tap through inside the GigSky app, and the profile lands in your phone as a second mobile line. On an iPhone that is Settings, then Mobile Service. On Android it is Network and internet, then SIMs. There is no APN to type and no fiddly configuration — if a guide tells you to enter one by hand, it is describing a different product.

Then use the free 100 MB trial. It is the only way to watch the profile attach to a real network before you spend anything, and it catches a locked or unsupported phone while you can still act on it.

Label your lines, then turn the travel one off

You now have two lines, and they look identical in the settings. Name them: "Home" and "Cruise". It sounds trivial. It is the difference between switching data to the right line on embarkation day and guessing between two entries called "Secondary".

Then switch the cruise line off and leave your home line alone. There is nothing to gain from running it before you travel, and a second active line makes it harder to tell which one is misbehaving later.

Embarkation day: the roaming switch that costs the most

Before you board, open your HOME line and turn data roaming off. Turn off any automatic data switching your phone offers, too. This is the step that saves real money. Phones are built to stay connected, and at sea the network that answers is a maritime roaming partner billing your home carrier. That is where the horror-story invoices come from.

Now switch your cruise line on and set it as the data line. Do this at the terminal rather than once you are underway. If something is wrong, you want to find out while you still have shore signal and someone to ask.

It will show no service, or shore service. You are still alongside. Nothing is wrong.

The first hour at sea: what normal looks like

The plan wakes up about twelve nautical miles out. On a normal departure that is roughly an hour after the ship leaves the berth. Until then you sit in a real gap: too far out for shore masts, not yet far enough for the ship to pick you up.

In that window your phone often shows bars while moving no data at all. It is the most misleading state a phone can be in, and the main reason people troubleshoot a plan that is working perfectly. Wait it out. Come back in an hour.

When it connects, it connects on its own, and there is nothing to press. On a Cruise + Region plan the same profile hands back to local networks as you reach each port, with nothing further from you all trip.

Port days

On Cruise + Region, port days look after themselves. Your phone picks up a local network as you come into range, and one allowance covers both halves. Signal dips briefly on the way in and again on the way out while it hands over.

On Cruise Only, port days are the gap you fill yourself, because that plan stops working within sight of land. If you bought Cruise Only and no regional eSIM, get one before your first stop. Otherwise you pay ship wi-fi prices on the days you are ashore.

When it genuinely is broken

Nothing connected two hours after sailing? Work through these in order.

The eSIM is missing from settings altogether. It never installed, and installing needs a connection you no longer have.

The line is there but shows no service. Check it is switched on, set as the mobile data line, and that data roaming is ON for the travel line. That is a different switch from the one you turned off on your home line, and this one does need to be on.

Connected, but nothing loads. Turn the phone fully off and back on rather than using aeroplane mode. A cold start forces a fresh attach, and a stale registration is common on ships where hundreds of handsets try to connect at once.

All of that correct and still nothing. Check your ship against the provider vessel list. If your hull is not on it, no setting will help, and that is the point to contact support instead of toggling switches.

The whole thing as a checklist

If you read nothing else, read this. A week before you sail, confirm the phone is eSIM-capable and unlocked, buy the plan, and install the profile at home on wi-fi you trust. Rename the two lines Home and Cruise so you are never guessing which is which. Leave the cruise line switched off.

On the morning you board, open the home line and turn data roaming off, along with any automatic switching your phone offers. Then switch the cruise line on and set it as your mobile data line while you still have shore signal and someone at the terminal to ask.

Once you sail, do nothing for an hour. The plan starts on its own about twelve nautical miles out. If the phone is still dead two hours after the ship left, work down the troubleshooting list above in order. Nine times in ten it is the roaming toggle on the travel line, which does need to be on even though the one on your home line does not.