Your friend has a few options that will make it easier for her to keep in contact with her office.
The first thing she needs to do is to prepare. It is absolutely essential that she knows how to use it and to practise using it before the cruise.
She needs to find out from her Administrator what type of email she has. If it's Web Based or if it can be used as a Web Based account, it will be easy. She can check that type by just typing in the url of the website from Internet Explorer.
Next, is there a way to have her existing email automatically forwarded to another account? If so, she can set up a Web Based account, such as from Hotmail or Yahoo and then just check that from the ship. If not, then more options:
If it is a Pop3 or an IMAP4 type of email server, it's a little more difficult.
There is a website that was developed to help people connect to their email accounts using a Web Browser. It is at
www.mail2web.com and is free and very useful. It doesn't work in all cases, so she needs to try it first, before the cruise. She should try to use it from Internet Explorer and be familiar with it before the cruise. If it works Ok, then that's the end of it. If it doesn't, one more option left:
She can establish a Web Based Email account (and practise using it before the cruise) and then inform the people at work of the temp address and then ask them to send her email to the new Web Based account, until she gets back at work.
She should also make a list of all of the email addresses she'll need and then send herself an email at the temp account so she can find them while she's online, and a paper copy to take with her also.
The best way to make it work is to practise before you board the cruise ship. Otherwise, you'll be on the cruise, but you'll miss the 'email boat'.
hope that helps