The call I’d written off in advance went through clean. I was two decks down, in a windowless shop off the atrium, the worst spot on the ship for a satellite signal. I’d braced for one bar and an apology to a real client on the other end. Instead, video held the whole way, mid-morning, with the hull steel all around me.
Yes, you can work from Explora. Wifi is ship-wide Starlink, included in every fare with no per-day or per-device upcharge, and on Explora I it held everywhere I went, not just in the suite. Connectivity runs on the same low-orbit satellite system the at-sea speed benchmarks track. If you do not get to fully unplug, that one fact changes the math. The cabin-only caveats the remote-work guides write about did not apply to my sailing. I went in skeptical, and it cleared the bar.
Is the Wi-Fi actually included, or is this another paid add-on?
Included. Every fare, ship-wide, no package to pick and no daily charge per device. There was no tier decision to make, no per-day premium upsell, no juggling which of the family’s laptops got the “fast” connection. You connect and you are online. The full list of what’s included lays out the rest of the fare the same way, but the connectivity line is simple: it is in the price.
That is the part the mass-market remote-work guides cannot quite picture. Almost every one of them is written for a different ship: a megaship with thousands of passengers sharing one connection, where the advice is buy the premium tier, then manage your timing around the peak-hour crush. Explora is the opposite case. Wi-Fi is in the fare, the passenger count is a fraction of a megaship’s at up to 922 guests, and the connection is not fought over the same way. So most of that “how to beat the paid Wi-Fi” advice just doesn’t have a problem to solve here.
Does it work where it actually matters, or just in the suite?
This is the real question, and it is the one the speed tests skip. The benchmark posts on outlets like The Points Guy measure Mbps on a sun deck in open sky. Fine. But the anxiety for someone who has to stay reachable is not “is it fast by the pool.” It is “will it drop the moment I am somewhere awkward.” A meeting room two decks down. A shop with no window to the sky. The interior of a steel hull.
So I tested the worst case on purpose. The shop off the atrium, mid-morning, no line of sight to anything, a live client on the call. The spot where a marine connection is supposed to fall apart. It held. Full signal, video, start to finish. That is the test no marketing page can run for you, and the reason “fine in the suite, spotty elsewhere” never showed up on my sailing. Starlink held everywhere I went, not just the cabin. This is where the story started, in the trip that surprised me; this is the longer version of why it mattered.
Can you really run a work life from the ship?
I do not get to fully unplug. I run businesses that do not stop because I am at sea, and the fastest way to ruin a trip like this is to spend it bracing for the next email. So I worked the whole week, and the connection held the whole week.
Be honest about what “working” means here, because it sets the bar. For me it was calls, email, normal browsing, the occasional document. Not a render farm, not nightly multi-gigabyte uploads. That ordinary executive workload is exactly what the connection cleared without drama. The exec who will not promise their team a real disconnect is the buyer no one writes for. The guides offer two settings, digital detox or how-to-beat-the-paid-Wi-Fi, and nothing for the person who genuinely has to be reachable and wants the trip anyway. On Explora, for the right traveler, that tradeoff mostly goes away.
The connection is also what makes the suite a real workspace, not a place you go to discover the signal died. Every suite is oceanfront with a real terrace, so the choice is a desk inside or a table in the open air with the coastline in front of you. I took calls from both. If you want the room-by-room read on which suite fits how you’ll use the ship, the breakdown has it, but the connectivity does not change with the tier. The entry suite gets the same Starlink the top Residence does.
What’s the honest catch?
There is one, and it is physics, not Explora. Starlink at sea relies on a clear line to a passing low-orbit satellite, so certain navigation areas can run slower or briefly drop, and that is route-dependent. My sailing was the Mediterranean and the Greek isles, a coastal route with plenty of open sky. A deep-ocean crossing or a high-latitude leg could read differently, so if your itinerary is remote, treat that as a verify-before-booking item rather than a guarantee. Independent coverage like The Points Guy tracks the same Starlink-at-sea behavior across lines if you want the technical version.
A few practical notes from actually doing it. For a call that matters, pick a quiet venue over the busiest bar; that is a noise problem, not a signal one, and it is true on land too. And I did not run a speed test, so I will not hand you a Mbps number and pretend I measured it. Third-party benchmarks put Starlink at sea in the range that carries video comfortably, but that is documentary, not my stopwatch. If your work depends on heavy uploads or a VPN-heavy stack, verify your specific tools before you rely on the ship for the heavy lifts. My use was ordinary, and ordinary was easy.
One more honest note: Explora is a young line, launched in 2023, and the connectivity is one of the things it got right early. The guest consensus on the cruise forums lands in the same place mine did, fast and free, which is not something I say about most ship Wi-Fi.
Who is this the deciding factor for?
If you genuinely detox on vacation, the Wi-Fi is a non-issue and you will forget it is there, which is its own kind of luxury. This post is not for you, and that is fine.
If you must stay reachable, this is one of the quiet reasons Explora works where other ships make you choose between the trip and your inbox. The same logic runs through the full list of what’s included: the connectivity sits in the fare, not in an add-on, so reachability is never a line item you negotiate. For the broader question of whether the line is worth it at all, my honest verdict on whether Explora is worth it is the place to start.
If connectivity is the thing standing between you and booking, send me your dates and the suite tier you’re considering. I’ll have live pricing in your inbox within two hours, no call required.
Questions people ask
Is wifi included on Explora Journeys? Yes. Wifi is included on every Explora fare, ship-wide, with no per-day or per-device charge and no premium tier to buy.
Is the Wi-Fi fast enough to actually work from the ship? First-hand, yes. On Explora I it held a full-signal video call from a shop on a lower deck deep in the hull, and it carried calls, email, and normal browsing across the whole week.
Does Explora Journeys use Starlink? Yes. Explora’s onboard connectivity runs on Starlink, the low-orbit satellite system, which is why it held in interior spaces and not only in the suite or up on deck.
Do you have to pay extra for premium internet like on other cruise lines? No. Unlike the mass-market lines that sell tiered per-day packages, Explora includes Wi-Fi in the fare with no premium upsell and no per-device charge.
Can you make video calls from Explora Journeys? Yes. I took a full-signal video call from a lower deck deep inside the hull. For a call that matters, pick a quiet venue over the busiest bar, since that is a noise issue, not a connection one.
Will the Wi-Fi drop when the ship is at sea? Starlink at sea can have navigation-area slowdowns or brief drops that are route-dependent physics, not the line’s fault. A coastal Mediterranean route held everywhere for me; a remote or high-latitude itinerary is worth confirming before you book.
— Justin