For those who don't cruise often or at all, their "Free WiFi" is generally part of a bundled package. It typically is a limited number of minutes, and/or a lower speed tier also. For instance, I recently booked a 10 day Alaskan cruise with Norwegian for next spring. The perk package included all beverages less than $15, 2 specialty dinners at the on board steakhouse, Italian restaurant, etc. and 150 minutes of the basic WiFi per passenger. I always book full time WiFi for my cruises, regardless of the cruise line. This provides WiFi calling to and from the US, weather & stock market info, email, texting, and of course forum connections. Even with the included minutes as a sort of trade in upgrade, our full time highest tier WiFi is an additional $600. Princess cruises is much more reasonable at about $10 per person per day. Also, the speeds with their current service can be anywhere from 1-5Mbps at best with slowdowns at peak times, such as in the evening. I understand the StarLink service can be suspended, but I don't know the details of that. It could make sense to use StarLink when it's available on the open ocean while relaxing on my balcony at sea, and using the included WiFi while about the ship. Ship WiFi service must be a huge cash cow for the cruise lines, so I would not be surprised if they claim personal service creates interference to their own systems if it becomes popular.