Access to WiFi for passengers on cruise ships? Yes! Is it fast; reliable; secure? Good questions. It has recently/currently been undergoing some rapid improvements. Some brief history & context notes follow for the curious; or maybe you might move on to the next posts.
Seems agreed that general internet service for passengers began around year 2000 (which was also when I personally started to enjoy this mode of travel..), with “Internet Cafes” onboard. I have read that in 1999, the Norwegian Sky was the first cruise ship to have an Internet cafe.
Relatively soon there was great demand for, & it appeared to be expensive for the cruise ships to supply, this service. From early days I was being told that internet access works quite differently/is more complex & more expensive while on a ship than when on the land. Internet on board at the beginning could sometimes be problematic/slow & pretty expensive (e.g. passengers paying by the minute) & harder to access when in some areas of the World. I recall spending 15 minutes trying to send one email to back home from Alaska. And reports of Skype communications blocking by some countries, & your early days cell phone might need replacing after trying to use it on a ship.
For both cruise lines & passengers, keen interest to continue was there on both sides. Perseverance; feedback .. & things began to improve.
Data has often been arriving to the ships via satellite. Not (for a time yet) was this a quicker/cheaper method. The closer the satellite the faster the data travels, & satellites weren’t closer yet. There needs to be a clear path between satellite & ship to send/receive data, so obstacles like high mountains (Alaska? Norwegian fjords? …) can hamper that. Fast forward, & now more than one system of closer-to-Earth satellites create one of the speed improvements.
Internet service on cruise ships has been steadily improving.