Royal Caribbean app chat
It is free, and it has been since January 2023 — before that it cost $1.99 per person per day. You do not need an internet package, but you do need to be connected to the ship's wifi network, and that is where the two real problems come from.
What you get
Guest-to-guest messaging is built into the Royal Caribbean International app, alongside the daily planner, your boarding pass and dining bookings. It reaches other people on your sailing who also have the app. You connect to the ship's wifi, which costs nothing, and use chat without buying a package.
Credit where it is due: this is the most generous arrangement of any major line. Carnival still charges a one-off fee per person for the same thing, and Norwegian sells it as an add-on. If you are sailing Royal Caribbean, use their chat. It reaches the whole ship, which nothing else here can claim.
The first catch: it is only as good as the network
Chat runs over the ship's own wifi. Your phone drops that network every time it sleeps, and the app stops receiving. The message sits on the ship's server until you unlock your phone and open the app, which is why so many people describe the notifications as unreliable — they are not broken, they are just arriving when your phone next reconnects rather than when they were sent.
For "see you at dinner" that is fine. For "we've left the pool, meet us at the gangway in ten minutes" it is not, and that is the message people actually need.
The second catch: everyone has to be on it
It reaches people on your sailing, with the app installed, signed in to that booking. In practice that means the family member who never installs anything is unreachable, and so is anyone you meet onboard who sails with a different line next time.
Where CruiseLink fits, honestly
If your whole party is on a Royal Caribbean ship and happy with the app, you may not need anything else, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
CruiseLink is worth having for three specific situations:
- When the ship's network is busy or down. CruiseLink passes messages directly between phones over Bluetooth, so it does not care what the network is doing.
- When your group is not one booking. Two families travelling together, friends in separate cabins booked separately — CruiseLink groups are whoever you invite.
- The next cruise. It works the same on every line, including the ones that charge.
The honest limits are the same everywhere on this site: it reaches only your group, everyone needs it before you sail, and a message travels when phones come near enough rather than instantly across a very large ship.
Other lines
If you are comparing, there is a table of what every major line charges, and a page on what happens to texting at sea generally.
Get CruiseLink
Free, no account, nothing to set up beyond your group. iPhone today; Android is built and in testing.
Not affiliated with Royal Caribbean International. Pricing last checked October 2026 — confirm for your own sailing.