AT&T Adds New ‘Surf N' Turf' Day Pass For Cruise Ship Travelers

Forbes

16-04-2025

There's a new package option for using your phone on land or sea.
AT&T is targeting international cruise travelers with its latest product overhaul, and it could not come at a better time. Spring Break is still in full swing, and big summer trips are not far behind.
The new 'International Day Pass' launches today and covers international data when on land as well as on a ship. For a flat fee of $20 per day, this renewed travel pass covers 500MB/day of data usage on both land and sea. It also includes unlimited talk and text, convenient for family members that want to stay in touch on the ship as well as when ashore, plus no data overages.
'The evolution of cruise line internet has gone from virtually unusable — and exceptionally expensive — to a luxury that allows cruisers to stay connected while at sea.'
AT&T currently has a $12-per-day international pass that works on land in more than 210 countries and territories. It also has a $20-per-day maritime pass. This new offering replaces the need to combine the two (at a cost of $32 per day) into one flat $20 fee. While the land pass caps out at ten days for a total $120 per month (and good for the whole month), the $20 'surf n' turf' option has no limit on the number of days when used at sea.
'The evolution of cruise line internet has gone from virtually unusable — and exceptionally expensive — to a luxury that allows cruisers to stay connected while at sea,' says Colleen McDaniel, editor of Cruise Critic.
Talking on the phone or using data to send photos costs less with this flat-fee day pass.
'For many cruise lines, internet remains an add-on that cruisers will pay extra for. While packages are far less expensive than they were in the charge-by-the-minute days, it's still an expense that will cost cruisers anywhere from $13 per day to $40 per day, depending on what the package includes.'
The current Cruise Basic and Cruise Plus packages include up to 1GB of data, voice, and texting on over 175 cruise ships. This new offering, which replaces the existing packages, significantly expands coverage, drops data overages and works on both land and sea.
Cruise ship Wi-Fi packages can be very expensive.
What makes this a worthy consideration for travelers is that it could essentially replace Wi-Fi packages on ships for those that use it mostly on their phone (digital nomads may still need to purchase Wi-Fi to use on their laptops, for example).
Now when travelers go ashore, they will not need to search for a local Wi-Fi signal. They can continue using the same maritime cellular data pass that connects them on the ship as one on land, without the need to pay the $15-45 potential daily charge for ship-based connectivity.
The day pass works on land and at sea.
And many ship Wi-Fi plans would not include traditional voice calling or SMS whereas this plan would. And cruise-based wireless plans get switched on only when six miles away from land, and they also switch them off while in port. In that instance, wireless service reverts to the land-based cellular provider of the local country.
The telecommunications brand says it developed the new day pass after surveying 10,000 customers and learning that 100% of them were concerned about being double-charged when traveling internationally by cruise.
'Using cell service at sea can be incredibly expensive, as many guests have discovered the hard way," notes McDaniel.
Remote working on cruise ships has become a growing trend, and going without Wi-Fi or data can be a problem for some travelers when overseas.
According to AT&T, they are the only telecom provider to offer a 'double-tech stack' for land and sea coverage on the same pass.
The day pass will be available on more than 400 cruise ships globally, including familiar cruise lines like Celebrity, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Scenic, Seabourn and Viking among many others.
American Airlines Boeing 737-8MAX taking off from Miami
This comes on the heels of a recent announcement that AT&T will support complimentary Wi-Fi for members of the AAdvantage loyalty program on American Airlines flights starting in 2026. The Viasat and Intelsat high-speed satellite connectivity will be available on more than 90% of the airline's fleet.