Cruise Pass
One internet package. The whole family in touch.
Messaging on board is free and always works. A Cruise Pass gives your family a mailbox on the internet, which is what lets people reach you when you're apart. When any one family phone gets online (a Wi-Fi package, a café ashore, cellular on a port day), it carries everyone's queued messages in both directions, including to family back home.
$9.99 · 30 days from purchase · one payment, no subscription · no-questions-asked refunds
The 30 days start the moment you buy, not when you sail. Buy within a month of your trip so the pass is still live when you board.
The apps aren't in the app stores yet. They're in release testing, so for now the only way to install CruiseMesh is to build it from source. A pass only does something once the app is on your family's phones. If it isn't yet, wait for the store listings rather than buying now. Refunds are no-questions-asked either way.
I'll have Wi-Fi on the ship. Why do I need this?
Because cruise internet is sold per phone, per day. You might buy a package for yourself. You are probably not buying one for your kids, your parents, and everyone else in the cabin next door.
On board, CruiseMesh keeps your whole group texting for free, with no package at all. And when one phone has internet, a Cruise Pass lets everyone else's messages ride along through it, so the kid with no plan can still tell Grandma goodnight.
One $9.99 pass covers the whole family for 30 days from the day you buy it, which is one trip for almost everybody. On our cruise, the messaging add-on alone would have been $196 for four of us.
If everyone you want to message has their own internet, use whatever you normally use. CruiseMesh is for when they don't.
Can't I just turn on my hotspot?
Maybe, but often not. Plenty of phones will only share cellular data over a hotspot and won't pass along a Wi-Fi connection at all. At sea, Wi-Fi is the connection you paid for, so on those phones there is nothing to share.
And a hotspot only reaches whoever is standing next to you. It doesn't reach the kid who wandered off in port or Grandma at home. Cruise Pass isn't a shared connection: the other phones never get online. They hand their sealed messages to a family phone that is online, which works across the ship and across the country.
What it's for
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Reach the people at homeMessages flow through Cruise Pass to grandparents, the kid who stayed behind, and anyone else off the ship, without buying internet for every phone on board. Set their phones up before you sail: a pass is what lets people reach you when you're apart, so the phones staying home need it too.
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Port daysThe group scatters, some ashore and some on the ship. Any phone with any internet keeps the whole family's messages moving.
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When the ship Wi-Fi flakesOn-ship delivery over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is free and needs no pass. Cruise Pass is the internet backstop when direct paths are unavailable.
How it works
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Pay by cardCheckout is handled by Stripe. Your card details never reach us.
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Get your setup linkChoose Open in CruiseMesh on the purchase result or in your email.
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Review and testChoose Review, check the host CruiseMesh shows, then Test and use. CruiseMesh saves the pass only after that check succeeds, and your family's secret stays hidden.
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Set up each family phoneOne pass covers the family. Each phone needs the setup link or QR; this does not add contacts or provide internet access.
Refunds: no questions asked
Every ship's network behaves differently, and you can't know exactly how yours will until you're on board. So if Cruise Pass doesn't work out on your sailing, for any reason, contact us within 90 days of purchase with your checkout email address and we'll refund the full amount. No questions asked.
What we can see
The delivery service stores sealed ciphertext only, for up to 30 days. It cannot read your messages, who sent them, or whether they were read. Details in the privacy policy.
Prefer to self-host?
CruiseMesh is open source, and the same delivery server runs on any small VPS; see the deployment guide. Cruise Pass exists for families who'd rather skip the server admin.