The cost of staying in touch on a Carnival cruise is getting more expensive. An update to the Carnival website shows new prices coming for its three wi-fi plans starting December 8.
In just a week, the cost for some plans will rise as much as 20% and in some cases reach as much as $25 per day.
The new prices show price increases for all plans — Social, Value, and Premium. These three plans all offer different levels of connectivity. The Social plan allows access to social media and airline websites, but little else. The Value plan offers full web access but does not offer streaming. The Premium plan provides faster speeds and also offers video calling and Netflix.
Carnival offers different price points for these services depending on if you purchase them onboard or ahead of time. Below, we’ve laid out the new pricing compared to the old:
As you can see, all prices are seeing a substantial bump that ranges from roughly 13-20%. Over the course of a 7-day cruise the cost of the highest-tier Premium plan will be an extra $21 if bought onboard compared to the old pricing. It would now also cost a total of $175 to stay connected with that plan for a 7-day cruise when bought on the ship.
Prices Rise Quickly Over the Past Year
The price of Carnival’s wi-fi has increased dramatically since cruises have returned. We believe this to be the fourth price increase since September 2022, just over a year ago.
In late 2022, the least expensive Social plan was just $8.50 per day if bought ahead of the cruise. With this increase, the price will be $15.30 per day if bought before the cruise. That’s an 80% increase.
On the high-end, as late as September 2022 the Premium plan was $14.45 per day if bought ahead of time. This new pricing will now offer pre-cruise purchases at $21.25 per day, or a 47% increase.
Note that the Premium plan prices now match rival Royal Caribbean. During a recent cruise, we saw onboard pricing of $24.99 for that cruise line’s VOOM “Surf+Stream” package, in line with Carnival’s new pricing.
However, we were able to book access pre-cruise on Royal Caribbean for about $17 per day, which is a discount to the new Carnival pre-cruise price.
