5 Phone Settings To Change On a Cruise Ship
1) Turn on Airplane Mode
This will help your phone reduce its battery usage by turning off the radios and services needed to connect to a cellular network, and it lets certain apps on your phone know that a cellular network is not available, so that they don’t suck up even more energy trying to access one. Airplane mode also prevents extremely expensive roaming charges on ships that have cellular roaming,
2) Connect to the ship’s Wi-Fi
Many ships and cruise lines are increasingly moving more cruise essentials online and making them electronic, especially after Covid-19. For example, Royal Caribbean has moved the mandatory safety briefing to their mobile app, and their daily Cruise Compass newsletters are now in electronic form by default and accessed by a QR code, instead of the printed copies that used to be automatically distributed to every stateroom.
To get the most our of your cruise, make sure you download the cruise line’s mobile app before you board, then keep your phone connected to the ship’s Wi-Fi network while onboard. You don’t need to purchase any Internet or Wi-Fi packages to do this, and it allows you access to the various (free) onboard features of the cruise line’s mobile app, as well as anything else onboard that has gone electronic.
3) Manually Set Your Phone’s Time
On land, smartphones are pretty reliable at keeping its date and time accurate, but while you’re out at sea, things work a little differently.
This is mainly thanks to ship time, the time that the ship runs on, and it’s not always the same time as the time zone that the ship is physically in. The ship can be docked in a place where it’s currently 3pm, but the ship time might be 4pm (yes, I know, it can be mega confusing). Also, a phone’s automatic date-and-time setting has no way of know that you’re on a cruise ship and it has no concept or knowledge of ship time.
This might not be a problem if the ship’s time never changes throughout the cruise, but most cruise ships often sail through different time zones. Many cruisers, even seasoned ones, frequently get caught out by this, as we’re all so reliant on our phones and smartwatches for the time, but we never give any thought that they might be inaccurate.
Before you go to bed each night, check what the ship time is for the next day, and manually set it on your smartphone. The daily newsletter you get everyday on the cruise will let you know if there is a time change coming up. Announcements are also usually made in public areas at certain times, such as at the start of the nighttime shows at the theater.
As a reminder to myself to do this, I put something, like my daily multivitamins, on the phone charger that’s on my nightstand, so that I always remember to check and set the time on my clock before I go to bed (as well as take my vitamins!)
In case you’re not sure that the current ship time is, it’s always shown in these places:
TV or tablet in your stateroom
Desk phone by your bed or on the desk (if it has a display with a clock)
The cruise line’s mobile app (as long as your phone is connected to the ship’s Wi-Fi network - more below)
Clocks in public areas
How to set the time manually:
4) Enable Low Data Mode
(if you have Internet access onboard)
While some cruise lines are upgrading to faster Internet connections, cruise ships must all rely on some form of satellite connection, and those are just nowhere near as fast as what you can get on land. When you have thousands of people on a ship sharing that connection, every bit of data conservation really helps!
An easy and painless way to reduce your device’s data usage is to enable Low Data Mode for the ship’s Wi-Fi network. This lets the phone and some apps reduce their data usage, such as by reducing how much automatic or background downloads happen. This won’t have an effect on instant messages or time-sensitive notifications - you will still get new DMs right away, for example.
iOS: Low Data Mode
Connect to the ship’s Wi-Fi network.
Go to Settings and tap Wi-Fi.
Tap the Info icon (blue “i” in a circle) next to the Wi-Fi network that you're connected to.
Turn on Low Data Mode.
Android: Metered Wi-Fi
Connect to the ship’s Wi-Fi network.
Go to Settings > Network & internet > Internet.
Tap the Wi-Fi network you're connected to.
Tap Network usage > Treat as metered.
5) Check Auto-Download Settings in Apps
(if you have Internet access onboard)
While many apps will recognize that Low Data Mode is enabled for a Wi-Fi network and change their behavior to reduce data usage, some apps do not. For example, WhatApp automatically disables automatic media downloads when you turn on Low Data Mode in iOS, but Telegram (at least as of January 2025) does not - its automatic media download settings are not affected by Low Data Mode.
A prime example are the large Telegram group chats in which photos and videos are frequently sent (this is most Atlantis cruise group chat, btw). By default, Telegram will try to to auto-download pics and vids sent to the group chat, which can use up a lot of data.
You may want to check any apps you use often that serves or download media, like chat, music, video, podcast, or social media apps. Below I have instructions on how to check Telegram’s auto-download settings:
Telegram
Go to Settings > Data and Storage
Tap Using Wi-Fi in the “Automatic Media Download” section.
I recommend turning off “Auto-Download Media” completely, or setting the “Data Usage” slider to Low so that only photos (and not videos and other files) auto-download. You can also set custom auto-download settings here. For anything that isn’t auto-downloaded, you can just tap on it in the chat for it to download immediately.