Written by Nate Vallier, Alaska Travel Desk, for cruisetheloveboat.com, June 10, 2025
Even before Covid, I thankfully had a job that was OK with the idea of working remotely. See, Hawai’i is ridiculously expensive and traffic just sucks everywhere on O’ahu. It used to take me 2 hours to get from Ewa Beach to downtown Honolulu when I worked full time for Mokulele Airlines and the owner realized I was wasting a good chunk of my day commuting, so he let me continue living in Florida (then moving to Alaska) and flying to the islands a few times a year for work meetings, Chamber/Hawai’i Tourism Association gatherings, sales blitzes, etc.
I’ve mastered working remotely by keeping the local time of the office near and revolving my workday around those hours – and when I lived in Florida, that was an aweful 6 hour time difference; being a night owl it actually worked out in my favor as I like to sleep in until 9am.
So when a friend at Princess mentioned taking the World Cruise, it was almost a no brainer. However, researching wifi speeds was hard as there’s no website or data collection site to determine if I’ll have wifi service on the longer days at sea (we have 7 days between Perth and Mauritius, for example). Some ships I’ve been on the wifi has been fantastic – I’ve done multiple Teams/Zoom/Google/Ring Central meetings & calls with no problems, and I’ve had cruises where Outlook would take an hour just to load a few emails. Princess has been using Starlink and another company for a while, so I just had to hope and pray it works.
The wifi has been OK so far – I can do almost all of my work except that phone calls can be a challenge at time. I’ve even had to take my phone out of airplane mode and use Cellular at Sea – even that quality was pretty bad. But thankfully I’ve discovered the wifi use is pretty much linked to sleepy time – Netflix/Amazon/streaming really does slow it down for everyone else and I’ve found out that I need to do my calls early in the morning or afternoon. I have had to use a VPN in order to connect to my work email due to security settings, and I remind my readers & visitors to do this BEFORE YOU LEAVE for the ship! Many wifi systems on ships (MSC, Norwegian, Princess) block access to the VPN sites to download & install – not sure why. The VPN slows me down a HAIR, but it works well and I’m able to work & also catch the new season of Below Deck @ Peacock.
I do need to warn you: do NOT go to any websites where there are location restrictions (eg: Netflix, Amazon, etc). These sites will geocache your location and know you are using a VPN and eventually stop you from getting US content when overseas. My tablet is worthless now, as I used the Prime Video app without a VPN and we went to a country on my last cruise where Amazon isn’t allowed, and after hours with support and my best IT geek friends, we can NOT clear the geocached location from the tablet. Prime just simply will not load, even with the VPN on.
I bought a different 2nd monitor for my laptop for increased resolution (most are 1080p) so I can use Excel without zooming out 150% – and a stand that’s worked out well for it. Both are from Amazon and I’ll share the links/photos below (I do NOT monetize these links!).
Because I’m nearly 12 hours ‘ahead’ of everyone, its worked out well that in the morning everyone on the East Coast is home or done with work so I can clear out those emails & requests; and when its bedtime for me, everyone is getting UP on the east coast, so I’m able to have good communication with them (just no phone calls due to everyone on the ship killing the bandwidth).
I also have a backup mouse in case this one dies, extra AA and AAA batteries, a USB keyboard (Logitech), power adapters in case the ship uses 220V British plugs, a 3 prong to 2 prong adapter (not needed), 2 mouse pads, extra note pads & pens, and one of the USB/Power plugs from my wifi cafe to act as an extention cable – which has worked brilliantly. (*NOTE: most cruise lines are now prohibiting surge protectors! Make sure any power strips are just that – power strips).
After scouting the ship for a suitable “workspace” during the day, including the Wifi Cafe (desks too small & no outlets), I settled on the Horizon Court Buffet – Deck 15 – and towards the back. There are US-power outlets every few posts between the tables and I’m able to setup an “office” of sorts during the cruise. I purposely go towards the back to be away from crowds should I need to take a call or need some extra privacy. I’ve also found it easy to leave my things for a bit if I need to go for a short walk and stretch my legs or roll my shoulders.
Most of my travel agency clients are aware I’m sailing and emails come in freely and without delay, I try to respond as soon as I can.
So a couple of pointers to working from a ship:
- Make sure that wifi calling is setup on your phone and that it works BEFORE you get on the ship. Most carriers require you do at least 1 wifi call in order to “activate” it
- Keep your phone in airplane mode as much as you can when on the ship. Cellular at Sea has its own tower & data – but its quite expensive
- Test the wifi speed & latency periodically throughout the cruise
- Harmonize your daily cycle to mirror your regular work day if possible
- Download and install a VPN prior to leaving the country
- Add WhatsApp to your phone AND laptop so you can keep communications easier
- Not all cruise lines allow you to hotspot a connection – so if you buy a 1 device plan, be ready to get stuck with that device the entire duration of the cruise (MSC, Norwegian)
- Find a quiet spot to work on the ship near a power source, sometimes this may mean the buffet
Monitor Stand: $10 on Amazon
This has worked better than expected, and it can hold both my Samsung Tab A or my 2nd monitor and doesn’t move in the rockiness of the ship.
2nd Monitor: $130 ish on Amazon
I’ve always had the need to use 2 monitors when I work; one for Outlook / Excel and the other for whatever I’m working on. I bought a portable monitor maybe 7 or 8 years ago but always hated the resolution – it was a solid 1080P and would not get any smaller, whereas my laptop or computer was always 1900+. I finally found one thru a friend that’s 4K HD and at least 1600p + a higher speed than 60hz and this has worked brilliantly. Its lightweight, takes power from my 65W USB C plug, with a mini HDMI plug into my laptop. This monitor has made life all the better.