Carnival HUB app chat
Chat is a paid feature. Carnival charges a one-off fee per person for the voyage, widely reported at around $5, bought inside the HUB app. You do not need a wifi package on top, but you do need everyone you want to reach to have paid for it too.
What you are paying for
The HUB app itself is free, and so is the useful half of it — the daily programme, deck plans, your account, bookings. The chat feature is unlocked separately, per person, for the voyage. A family of four is paying four times for the same conversation.
For comparison, Royal Caribbean has included guest chat since 2023, and Princess and Disney include it too. Carnival and Norwegian are the two major lines still charging. The full table is here.
The complaint people actually have
Search for "carnival hub app chat not working" and you will find the same thing described over and over. It is rarely that the feature is broken; it is that it only receives while your phone is awake and on the ship's wifi.
A sleeping phone drops the network. The app stops receiving. Your message sits on Carnival's server until the other person unlocks their phone and opens the app, at which point everything arrives at once. For arranging dinner that is fine. For "we've left, meet us at the gangway" it is not.
"We've used the messaging feature of the Hub app. It's not the greatest, but it is significantly cheaper than WiFi and of course you get what you pay for." — a cruiser on Reddit
What it does well
It reaches anyone on your sailing who has also paid, not just your own party — useful if you are meeting another family onboard. And it is already on your phone, because you need the HUB for the programme anyway.
What to use alongside it
CruiseLink does not touch the ship's network. Phones in your group pass messages straight to each other over Bluetooth, so it keeps working when the network is busy, when your phone has dropped it, and when somebody in your party decided not to pay the $5.
It is free, and it behaves the same on any line, so it is not a Carnival-only purchase.
The honest limits, the same as everywhere on this site: it reaches only the group you set up, everyone needs it installed before you sail, and a message travels when phones come near enough rather than instantly across a very large ship. On a Carnival megaship, that last one matters.
If you are deciding
- Travelling as one party? CruiseLink covers it for nothing. Skip the fee.
- Meeting people from other cabins or other bookings? Pay for HUB chat as well — it reaches the whole ship, which CruiseLink cannot.
- Worried about missing a message? Neither is instant. Agree a meeting point too.
Get CruiseLink
Free, no account, nothing to set up beyond your group. iPhone today; Android is built and in testing.
Not affiliated with Carnival Cruise Line. Pricing last checked October 2026 — confirm in the app before you sail.