This little-known phone feature could end up costing you thousands without you even noticing while you are enjoying your cruise holiday, an expert has warned. Being out at sea means more expensive data roaming due to the lack of traditional mobile towers that we have on land. Your phone connects to satellites and a maritime network rather than the traditional network, which is not only more costly but also limited in availability, leading to higher prices.
Operating in maritime environments also involves compliance with specific regulations and safety standards for the network, which can also add to the operational costs for service providers. If your data roaming is left switched on in normal mode with your data roaming still on, you could be wasting a lot of money without even realising it as you’ll have apps running in the background which will quickly consume your data.
A video went viral at the beginning of 2025, for a cruise passenger receiving a massive £1,050 phone bill due to unknowingly leaving the data roaming feature on.
It is likely that it will cost a lot to leave your data roaming on, but check before travelling with your network to see how much it would be to use your current bundle via a satellite connection, as some carriers do have agreements with the Cellular at Sea network and could offer more affordable packages.
The way to avoid these costs, however, is to put your phone in aeroplane mode and turn off the data roaming in your phone’s Settings.
This means that you can still access wifi and then you can choose the Wifi package that suits you best.
The best thing to do as soon as you board the cruise ship is to put your phone on airplane mode as soon as you board your cruise ship and turn your data roaming off, seasoned cruise ship expert Kerry Spencer wrote.
If you want to connect to wifi while on board the ship, consider purchasing a cruise line data package and check what options are available before boarding.
With MSC, for example, there are three Wi-Fi packages: the Social Package for £12.50 a week, which is designed for social media use, WhatsApp chatting, and sharing pictures; the Surfer Package for £25, which is suitable for emails and browsing the news; and the Streamer Package for £50, for streaming and other high-bandwidth activities.