Cruise Specific Packing Guide.
You probably already know what to pack in general for travel, but there are some extra things you want to make sure you remember to bring on your cruise that you might not think about when you’re used to traveling and staying on land.
General Cruise Gear
Bonine
While everyone hopes that the ocean will play nice and be smooth, you can’t always count on that. Bonine is a great non-drowsy medication for when the boat-is-a-rocking and you don’t want nausea callin’.
snawowo Mini Handheld Personal Portable Fan
My number one travel device is a portable fan. This one is usb-c rechargeable, has 3 speeds, and has a variety of ways you can set it up. You can attach it to your lounge chair, wrap it around the light above your bed, or just set it up on a desk.
Cruise Lanyards, 3 Pack
For all cruise lines other than Virgin and Princess, you get a keycard to open your door, charge items to your room, and to let the crew know who you are. It’s somewhat annoying to have to pull your card out all the time. This lanyard makes your cruise card readily available, and you can quickly detach it to hand it to the crew (as long as they can tap it, and not just swipe it like a credit card)
Downy Wrinkle Releaser, pack of 3
You can’t bring an clothes iron onto the ship for fire safety purposes, and most cruises don’t have a laundry room for you to use. Downy wrinkle releaser removes wrinkles, static, and gives your clothes a fresh smell. All you have to do is spray your garment, hang it in the bathroom, and take a shower. The steam helps this spray work better, but even just spritzing your clothes will help.
Pool Deck Gear
ESFUN 16 Pack Beach Towel Clips
Cruise ship decks can be windy. To keep your beach towel on your lounge chair, you can clip them on with these. The holding power on these are pretty good. They’re quite lightweight, but also a little fragile.
10 Pcs Towel Bands Silicone Rubber Bands
Like with the towel clips above, these silicone bands hold your towel onto your lounge chair during windy conditions. These aren’t quite as versatile as the clips, but they take up less space when packing, and work just as good for holding towels onto chairs.
Cabin Gear
Neosmuk Magnetic Hooks, 27 lb+ Heavy Duty Earth Magnets (Pack of 10)
Cruise cabin walls are mostly metal behind the panels. If you ever wish you had more places to store your items while in your cabin, these can be a lifesaver. Just pop them on your wall and hang up things like your lanyard, hats, lightweight bags, etc.
Mr. Pen - Magnetic Clips, 8 pcs
Similar to the magnetic hooks above, you can attach these to the walls in your cabin and clip something up. I often use these for daily planners, excursion tickets, and reminders. These aren’t as strong as the hooks, but they can hold pieces of paper quite well.
Cruise Power Strip Foldable Non Surge Protector
You can’t take a power strip with a surge protector onto the cruise ship. This little device allows you to get a few extra outlets in your cabin. It also gives you a couple usb ports you can use, but be aware they are a bit lower power than what you might expect.
TESSAN Universal International Plug Adapter, 65W
Often times, in your cruise cabin, you end up wanting more outlets. They normally have some American and some European outlets. This lets you use the European outlet and convert it to an American outlet. It also gives you 65 watts of USB power with 3x usb-c outputs. If you don’t need 65 watts, there are other options available on this one for less usb power. Plus you can use this off the ship on your international travels!
(just be aware of voltages, as this does not convert voltages for the actual outlet)
Excursion Gear
4Monster Hiking Daypack
When you go off the ship and go on excursions, or even just to the beach, you want to have something to hold all your items in. Whether it be a snack, your cruise card, phone, or just a place to stash your purchases, this backpack has worked great for me.
It even collapses into a small bag that you can throw in your luggage.
Anker Magnetic Battery, 5,000mAh Foldable Magnetic Wireless Portable Charger with Stand and USB-C
If you’re out in the port, or worse yet - out in the woods, and you run out of juice on your phone, you kind of are in a pickle. This battery pack keeps my phone charged up when I’m on the go.
I don’t even have an iPhone! I got a magnetic case for my Pixel and this attaches and charges just as well.
Luggage Gear
BAGSMART 6 Set Compression Packing Cubes
Packing cubes help you organize what you’re bringing on your vacation. Compression packing cubes make sure you’re using the least space possible. These are the compression cubes I use. Great quality and makes it easy to pack. I don’t even unpack these all the way once I’m on the cruise - I just unzip the compression part and keep them on shelves.
Cruise Luggage Tags (NCL, Princess, Carnival, MSC)
For Carnival, Princess, NCL, and MSC cruises, you print your own boarding tags and put them on your luggage before you get to the port. These luggage tag holders help make sure they don’t fall off or get damaged. The worst feeling is losing your luggage, so use something like these and you’ll be safer!
Cruise Luggage Tags (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity)
The size for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruise luggage tags are different than the previous entry, so these are specific for those. The reasons to get them are the same.
Note: Virgin Voyages doesn’t have you print off your own luggage tags from what I’ve researched. The porters at the terminal will have them and attach them for you. Double check before you go, in case this changes.
