One internet package. The whole family in touch.

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 Shore 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 helps whoever is in range of it, right now. Step out of range and there's nothing.

CruiseMesh doesn't hand the other phones a connection at all. It holds their messages sealed and moves them whenever a path opens: over Bluetooth when two of you are near again, over the ship's Wi-Fi, or out to the internet through whichever family phone has it. For Grandma at home, that means she's reachable the whole trip.

What it's for

1. Reach the people at homeMessages flow through Shore 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.
2. Port daysThe group scatters, some ashore and some on the ship. Any phone with any internet keeps the whole family's messages moving.
3. When the ship Wi-Fi flakesOn-ship delivery over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is free and needs no pass. Shore Pass is the internet backstop when direct paths are unavailable.

How it works

1. Pay by cardCheckout is handled by Stripe. Your card details never reach us.
2. Get your setup linkChoose Open in CruiseMesh on the purchase result or in your email.
3. 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.
4. 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.

Who your pass is for

A Shore Pass covers one family or travel party: the phones you set it up on. Keep it to those phones.

• Friends don't need one to reach youAnyone can message you whether or not they have a pass, because your pass is the mailbox their message lands in. Nearby, everything works both ways for free. To reach a friend when you're not nearby, though, they need a mailbox of their own, so a friend without a pass is someone you can message in person but not from across the ship or across the country.
• Don't post the setup linkAnyone who has it can use your family's delivery capacity. Treat it like a door key rather than an invitation, and keep it off social media and public group chats.
• Exposed it? Replace itContact us and we'll issue a fresh setup link for your family.

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 Shore 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. Shore Pass exists for families who'd rather skip the server admin.