TOP 10 THINGS newbies forget to bring on their 1st Cruise...

1. What my DD and I do is, take an envelope labeled for each port....we put the reservation paper for the excursion in it along with the money left to pay on it...then we add the cash we think we will need for spending. We keep all of the envelopes in the safe and only take out the one we will be needing for that port. That way you always have the cash for the excursion and can see how much you have left for spending...

2. Also, I have meds I need to take with me to port...WalMart sells little colored round plastic containers in the travel section 2/$1...they are just the right size to take my daily meds in and the lid screws on, so they are also water proof. They are small enough to carry in your pocket as well.

3. I like to take one 4 gig memory card for each port and one for on the ship and one for embarkation and disembarkation port, so if I lose my camera or it gets wet, I still have the rest of my memories...the reason for the 4 gig is that it is the right size for a DVD. I just label them 1,2,3 and so on, so I can reuse them on my next cruise...

Because there is always a next cruise!!!!! :D

Instead of a flashlight I bring a disposable booklight. I can use it to read without disturbing anyone and it doubles as a flashlight. I also bring a monocular. It's very small and about 5X. Very handy to carry into ports etc. (Mine was designed to get rough yardage on a golf course.) Always bring a hat. At the end of the day you can throw all of your stuff in it, room key, wallet, etc. and will know where everything is. (On our last cruise we ended up tearing up the cabin for my wife's lost room key. This isn't the first time she hadn't listened to me.)

If you have a balcony, a bungie cord to keep the door open to your cabin:D

If you have a balcony, a bungie cord to keep the door open to your cabin:D

Keep in mind that this is not good for the overall operation for all of the AC on your deck.

Large and small safety pins. Just a couple will do. Bungee cord-- good for strapping your carry on bag or purse to your luggage for the long walk to the ship and good for other things as well. An extension cord/power strip. And my number 1 necessity -- a blister kit containing moleskins which you can buy at a sporting goods store. If you notice a sore spot developing on your foot you can put a moleskin on it before it turns into a blister. Nothing will ruin your vacation like damaged feet. It also helps to take two different pair of walking shoes and swap them out each day if your cruise is port intensive.

Just got back from the Dawn. There was only one outlet in the cabin so bring an extension cord if you plan on charging your phone etc. We had phones and laptops to charge.

Agreed! I personally own and use the following as it has prongs that can pivot so it will fit just about anywhere. An added bonus is the USB ports on the end of it. :D

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Mini-Surge-Protector-Charger/dp/B0015DYMVO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363299215&sr=8-2&keywords=belkin+outlet

If you are taking a hanging bag check what you put in the bag - on a Carnival cruise I packed my husbands suit and dress shirt and just assumed his pants were hung under his jacket and guess what - no pants.... he got ready for dinner and went to put on his suit and only had a shirt and jacket :eek: :eek:

Tam

A few more things to consider packing---

- BAR SOAP: the cabins provide liquid soap in the showers, but no bar soap. I much prefer the bar soap, so I bring my own travel size bar.

- POWER STRIP: for recharing your camera, I phone, Ipad, computer, etc. etc. Power strips really helpful to have, otherwise you have just one plug outlet (maybe two) in the cabin.

- A "cut proof" (i.e. metal inside the cord) NECK POUCH to carry money, passport, ship's ID card, etc. when you go off the ship

- A small NOTEBOOK to carry off the ship with you, to make note of foods you ate, monuments/museums you visited, the names of famous landmarks, squares, etc... so when you get home, and go through your photos, you have the notes/info on what/where each one was.

- CLOTH TOTE BAG (or two-- I buy the 99c ones from the grocery store) to use to carry stuff to the Pool on board and back, to use in ports for souvenirs, etc.

- TRAVEL ALARM CLOCK so you can see what time it is in the middle of the night, and also be able to get up in time for those excursions!!

- NIGHT LITE to help you navigate the bathroom in the middle of the nite

- MAGNETS: I bring a few Magnetic clips... the walls of the cabins are metal, so they will stick. Magnets are great to hold receipts, coupons, the ship's "Dailies" (newsletter of daily activities), necklaces, etc. so they are handy and visible.

Children's liquid medicine if you're bringing your little ones. Our last cruise on Princess (in Jan), both of our kids got RSV, and had fevers of 103ish. No liquid meds sold on board. They got sick on the night of our first port (followed by a sea day), so we had to wait till St. Maarten to get to the pharmacy to buy liquid motrin/tylenol. Nothing sucks worse for your little ones than grinding up adult medicine and mixing it in ice cream/non-alcoholic smoothies to get it in them.

Extra tipping money! Many don't tip on board the ship since gratuities are automatically added to your account. I always take a pack of 1's to tip bartenders and such. I usually tip my room steward at the beginning, they typically provide excellent service but a few extra dollars tend to get you special service such as watching your laundry in the "self serve laundry" while you grab a bite to eat. If you happen to get a bottle of rum aboard then a $20 initial tip can help make sure you have an extra ice bucket and some cokes waiting for you.

A couple of dollars cash tip to your bartender goes a long way. On our last cruise our bartender recognized us as we walked in and made sure we were the next served as soon as he finished serving the customers he was dealing with. By the 3rd day we had him reserving us seats in the sports bar.

Also look for room stewards near your room that are from ports you may be visiting. We had a steward that served the block of rooms next to ours who was from Honduras, which was one of our stops. He gave us some good advice on what to eat while in port and some other suggestions. Although he was not our steward, he gave us excellent advice which deserved a tip.

A few dollars tipping goes a lot further on a cruise than it does here in the USA in my experience.

Your passport, cruise docs and drivers licenses. Heard of one family who left all their documents in the airplane pocket and did not realize it till the next day - the day the cruise left. Needless to say, it was a fruitless effort trying to find the envelope and they missed their cruise. They did have insurance and thus spent the week in Florida but it made for a very unhappy family with several kids.

In all my cruises, the biggest deals of what was left behind was a power strip/extension cord with multiple outlets (your cabin will have only 1 outlet) and antacid.

hangers (We bring extras because we are not light packers. )

Motion SIckness meds (Meclizine Hydrochloride???)

Travel Mug(s) for coffee or other beverage

Hangers ? ? ?

Don't need to lug those around as excess baggage - Just ask you cabin

steward for the hangers and taking skirts along ask for the skirt hanging

type.

Motion sickness and other OTC drugs YES YES YES the gift shop and the

ships infirmary will charge you an arm leg and any other exposed body

part for these all too simple items.

Travel Mugs with cover YES - without cover skip it - take one from the

buffet and another one if necessary.

Our first cruise many years ago, we had never heard of cruise critic and packed as if we were going to a resort - day clothes and evening clothes

We didn't feel we had forgotten anything and certainly never said anything about how much better it would have been with xx

However now we have done over 25 cruises and if I compare what we take now to what we took between the 10th and 20th cruise, we have reduced not increased. We stopped because it really isn't a necessity. We have really cut down the weight and it works.

We now take:

highlighter pen for the activities

EU and USA adapter plugs and celebrity and NCL have both in the cabins

not a huge list but we've stopped bringing:

duck tape

power strips

an outfit for every evening - we now mix and match

reduced the shoes

post it notes

reduced down OTC meds as there is a pharmacy everywhere we go

thermos cup for coffee (although DH wishes he took it on the last trip so its making a come back)

travel alarm clock - use the cabin phone for wake up calls

Next to work on the 15 charger wires the DH brings - are they really all needed?

Our first cruise many years ago, we had never heard of cruise critic and packed as if we were going to a resort - day clothes and evening clothes

 

We didn't feel we had forgotten anything and certainly never said anything about how much better it would have been with xx

 

However now we have done over 25 cruises and if I compare what we take now to what we took between the 10th and 20th cruise, we have reduced not increased. We stopped because it really isn't a necessity. We have really cut down the weight and it works.

 

We now take:

 

highlighter pen for the activities

EU and USA adapter plugs and celebrity and NCL have both in the cabins

 

not a huge list but we've stopped bringing:

 

duck tape

power strips

an outfit for every evening - we now mix and match

reduced the shoes

post it notes

reduced down OTC meds as there is a pharmacy everywhere we go

thermos cup for coffee (although DH wishes he took it on the last trip so its making a come back)

travel alarm clock - use the cabin phone for wake up calls

 

Next to work on the 15 charger wires the DH brings - are they really all needed?

We went on our first cruise last January. For a 7 night cruise, we...well I packed 4 large suitcases full of clothes and stuff for just two of us. We found we didn't use half the clothes I had packed.

I took 3 formal dresses in case I couldn't make up my mind, but I forgot to pack any shoes to wear with my formals.

On any trip I always pack 3 under ware for each day. It's a weird thing I do. I tell my hubby, "You never know...you might laugh too hard or something."

As far as clothing hangers go... when I buy new clothing and end up with the plastic hangers from the store, I keep them and throw several in my suitcase for each cruise. The room they take up on the trip out is usually filled on the way back with souvenirs that I purchase on the voyage. I just leave them in the cabin when we pack up. That way, I know I am taking the clip kind that can hang skirts and pants without them being wrinkled.

The other thing I take, that folds down almost flat, is a collapsible clothing organizer. It has a powerful velcro loop that attaches to the closet rod and can support a lot of weight. It fits in the outside pocket of my suitcase easily. Undergarments and such can be packed in gallon size baggies and then just slipped into one of these compartments. Saves from having to use the drawers in the cabin that probably aren't sanitized between guest uses.

http://www.amazon.com/Skubb-White-Clothes-Organizer-Compartments/dp/B00AWREPVQ

Besides all of those "essential" things that are listed on this thread, the ONE thing I really enjoyed having on my last cruise were large magnetic clip I used to hang on the wall ( all metalic walls in there ;) )

I used them to have my papers ( next day daily, restaurant reservation coupon, excursion papers, etc....) organized. I had 4 clips to the wall over the small table next to the t.v. and I was the first time I didn't have to look everywhere for my stuff....

Best addition in my cruise survival kit !!

1st timer making a list as I read:) Thank you people sooooo excited for August:D

We just got back from our first cruise! We cruised on the Epic and had a blast. I read WAY too many posts on what to bring and freaked about it a lot which wasn't necessary, but there are a few things I heeded advice about that came in handy:

1. Post-it's. There were so many cabinets in our stateroom that I couldn't remember where I stashed things. By Tuesday I had them all labeled and breathed a sigh of relief.

2. Scotch tape. You'll get papers, schedules, notes, invitations, coupons, etc. during your cruise. I loved being able to tape these up and off the flat surfaces in our stateroom. Really helped to control the clutter!

3. Strongly recommend the highlighter.

4. Suction hooks. I loved having these for wet bathing suits and other clothing; wish I'd brought more than two.

5. Hangers, definitely.

6. I nearly had an anxiety attack over not having an iron in my luggage, but omg I was so surprised to find I didn't even need it! I did have a bottle of wrinkle release just in case. Make sure you pack it in a Ziploc bag because mine leaked in my luggage.

7. I brought one set of workout clothes and washed them out in the sink with little packets of Tide.

8. Bring extra Ziploc bags for repacking things that can leak in your luggage. And also some big ones if you have a camera you'll be taking to the beach.

9. Somewhere on your person keep a list of the credit cards you are carrying with the last four digits of each and the number to report them lost or stolen. It happened to me in Miami! Lost my cc Friday night and when we went to board and set up our onboard account I discovered it lost and called to cancel it right then. Never lost a cc in my life before then! And also have more than one cc to use just in case!!

10. Thought I'd need a refillable water bottle. Didn't. We bought a few bottles of water when exiting for excursions and that was easier than keeping up with and packing my own.

Enjoy!! And take the advice of my son: "stay off the message boards and leave something to surprise!!"

Why does anyone bother with the added space taken and weight with taking hangers when your cabin attendant will bring all you need. Never had a problem with just asking as soon as we meet him/her.

Why does anyone bother with the added space taken and weight with taking hangers when your cabin attendant will bring all you need. Never had a problem with just asking as soon as we meet him/her.

On my first cruise last year I didn't forget anything. In fact I TOTALLY over packed. Took everything including a survival backpack that had survival food and water. Drove my husband nuts!!

I didn't use over half the clothes I took.

It seems there's a lot of smart and very experienced packers on here. I'm going to have to take their advice for the next ones. :)

Why does anyone bother with the added space taken and weight with taking hangers when your cabin attendant will bring all you need. Never had a problem with just asking as soon as we meet him/her.

I've had stewards tell me they are out of hangers, or only bring 3-4, and it's always after I've unpacked. It's just easier to toss in a few of my own.

Clothes pins....especially if you are in a balcony room. Can "hang" your wet suits on the chairs!!

Don't forget to bring your sense of humour

Why does anyone bother with the added space taken and weight with taking hangers when your cabin attendant will bring all you need. Never had a problem with just asking as soon as we meet him/her.

I've had stewards tell me they are out of hangers, or only bring 3-4, and it's always after I've unpacked. It's just easier to toss in a few of my own.

I have had them say on more than one occasion that they were out of extra hangers. The flimsy throw away ones when you buy clothes are perfect. They fit in the outside pocket of the suitcase wonderfully. The couple of ounces they weigh is worth the peace of mind.