Three days into a Caribbean cruise, you try to send a photo to someone back home and nothing happens. Not slow, not buffering. Nothing. Your eSIM, the one that worked perfectly in the airport and in every country you’ve visited this year, is completely useless out here.
What most people don’t realize is that once a ship sails beyond 12 nautical miles from the coast, it disconnects from land-based networks entirely and switches to its own satellite infrastructure. Your regular plan (whether it’s from Airalo, Holafly, or anyone else) simply doesn’t cover that. The ship sells you its own Wi-Fi package at whatever price it feels like charging and most people just pay it because they have no other option. It’s one of those travel gotchas that’s been around forever and that the industry has never really bothered to address, probably because cruise passengers aren’t going anywhere.
Saily, the eSIM app from the NordVPN team, just launched dedicated cruise plans covering more than 200 vessels across Royal Caribbean Group, Carnival Corporation, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, MSC Cruises, Disney Cruise Line, Virgin Voyages, and P&O Cruises and Cunard Line. Matas Cenys, Saily’s Head of Product, puts it this way: “Many travelers are surprised to learn that mobile connectivity works differently once a ship leaves port. Standard roaming plans often do not cover maritime networks, and connecting to a ship’s onboard cellular network can result in significant roaming charges.”
The plans live in a new “Cruise” tab inside the app and you set everything up before you even get to the port, which is kind of the whole point. Prices run from $16.99 for 500 MB over a day up to $69.99 for 5 GB over 30 days with a couple of options in between. All plans come with 3% back in Saily credits, and the coupon code GIZMODO gets you 15% off at checkout, cruise plans included. The same code also gets you 35% off the North America plan if you’re in the US for the World Cup right now, which given the crowds pouring into American cities this summer is probably relevant to more people than usual.
