Texas Cruisers Be Advised: Electronic Devices Can Be Confiscated

The Port of Galveston is the primary cruise port that most Texas cruise guests use when planning an ocean-going getaway. The port is a short drive from Houston, Beaumont, College Station, Austin, and San Antonio. They offer a myriad of cruise vacation destinations through several different cruise lines via the Galveston gateway.

As a veteran of dozens of cruises through the past twenty years or so I can attest the attitude on board a cruise ship has changed significantly through the years. Cruises used to be all about eating, drinking, dancing, relaxing, and sleeping. And yes, there is still plenty of that going on during the cruise there has been a major shift in the relaxation paradigm. 

The major change I have noticed in cruise passenger behavior is just how many people are still at work while they are on vacation. Now, I am a fine one to talk, I always work while on board a ship. Fortunately for me, cruise lines have invested a lot of money in their onboard internet service and that allows me to write these stories for you while I am on a voyage.

Cruise ship internet has improved tenfold or maybe even one hundredfold since I first attempted to use the internet at sea before the turn of the century. A lot of the cruise lines have made the switch to Starlink, that's Elon Musk's satellite-based internet service.  Perhaps you've seen the Starlink array as it passes overhead in the nighttime sky. Below is what it looks like.

As you might imagine, Starlink's service costs a pretty penny for a cruise line to provide. This is where the confiscation of some high-tech devices has been brought into play.

When you purchase an internet package on a cruise ship it is usually "per device". However, some tech-savvy cruise guests have been utilizing travel routers to take their single internet package and share the connection with other members of their travel party.

Many cruise guests I have spoken with feel the move by Royal Caribbean to confiscate travel routers and devices such as satellite dishes is unfair. It's not. Here's why.

If you pay for one connection on one device, that's what you should get. You can't go into a donut shop and pay for one donut and then take three or four others for the other members of your dining party, can you? So, you shouldn't be able to use more internet than you've paid for. It's stealing if you do or more properly "theft of service".

You can find the official policy statement on the Royal Caribbean website. My guess is that other cruise lines, especially in the Carnival family will adopt the policy in short order. So leave the high-tech at home and enjoy your vacation. Trust me, you don't need a router to get ripped at the poolside bar.