3-4 Must-pack non-standard items!

[barante]

Yes, a sewing kit comes in handy. I needed to sew a button on ra recet cruise. We began a hunt for a sewing kit in Korsula, Croatia, and continued it in Istanbul. From the great bazaar to individual shops no one seemingly could produce a sewing kit, hard to believe.

We finally bought a needle and some thread. They were sold at separate stores!

[DizzyDallasDi]

Several spare batteries for your camera. Keep them all charged and bring 2 or 3 fully charged spares when in port so you never run out of power. I've been known to blow through 2 batteries on one excursion.

[ferfoodle]

Post it notes. And a pen.

 

Never know when you are going to need to leave a note for your travel mates or steward or write down someone's info, etc. It also never fails, when you need pen and paper - seems you can never find them. The last two cruises I have been on, no blank paper in stateroom and on one - no pen either.

[FlaGrl4Evr]

A deck of cards, a crossword or word search book, a few paperbacks to read and a travel game. You will have some downtime and these items come in handy. One of our favorite places to "chill" is the small seating areas on the Promadande deck. During the day this area is nice and quiet and the tables are in front of the windows so you can sit and realax and watch the ocean go by.

 

 

*** One of our favorite travel games to bring is called LCR. It is fun and addictive and a nice way to pass some time playing with friends. You can play for Hershey's kisses if you do not want to use Quarters or betting chips.

 

 

.

[SadieN]

There ya go. Remembering that Carnival ship that was stranded in November 2010 has actually changed the way I cruise and even take hotel rooms now. Like you, not wanting to be caught in the dark, I take a small penlight flashlight with us and keep it in the bedside table of all hotel rooms and ship cabins. I put it in my purse when I fly. You just never know. :)

.

 

There have been several recently, the Splendor and an NCL electrical bus problem come to mind.

 

I agree to a point. .........."over the door thingy" are ridiculous, IMO.(I actually thought that the over the door thingy might be useful and looked for one at Macy's and Walmart. They are expensive and bulkie and I decided that, for me, not worth it.)

 

...........

 

When you travel with more than two in a regular cabin space becomes a premium. Lighter, cheaper pocket holders can be found at the dollar stores.

[RoofingPrincess]

*** One of our favorite travel games to bring is called LCR. It is fun and addictive and a nice way to pass some time playing with friends. You can play for Hershey's kisses if you do not want to use Quarters or betting chips.

We play LCR at the December meeting of our quilt guild every year! We use "fat quarters" (a quilting term for a quarter yard of fabric that is half a yard long and half the width of the fabric) instead of money or chips. With 6 or 8 women per table, 3 FQs each, the winner takes home a nice little pile of fabric!

[binkysmom]

a couple of safety pins and a very small flashlight.

[RedHeadTexan]

1. Air Freshener for the bathroom is a MUST.:eek:

2. Purell

[Harley123]

I'm a bird watcher and I've always been glad that I have my binoculars with me but wished that I brought my bird book as well. I have the book on my list for the next cruise (although I may have DH get one for his iPad instead of bringing a heavy book along).

 

Water shoes are always good to bring as well.

 

We've taken a GPS with us, but we've never been able to get a good signal when on the ship.

 

On my next cruise, I'm thinking of bringing an empty photo album that has pockets. On one of our cruises a small album came with one of the pictures taken by the cruise photographers and it was a great way to save the daily news letter as well as any of the other photos that we opted to buy (on subsequent cruises I've wanted to buy one of these albums, but they've never been available).

[mitejoma]

The security of packing all those things and having them if you need them far outweighs the insecurity of people thinking it's stupid to bring all those things.

 

I've brought almost every item mentioned and yes, I used the duct tape. The two items I didn't pack......safety pins and binoculars. I needed them both.

 

What you pack depends on your personality. If you need something and don't have it, do you say oh well or do you buy it. If you know you are going to buy it, then pack it.

[sjcruiser]

1 - Powerstrip

2 - $100 or so in singles ($1.00 dollar bills)

3 - Hand sanitizer (on a keychain, etc)

4 - Air freshener. The small spray cans of BOD, AXE, or the no name brand/knockoff colognes and perfumes from either the travel section or perfume counters/sections in Walmart, Target, Marshall's, Ross, Burlington Coat Factory, etc work great and usually they're just 1-2 dollars and don't take up that much space (1-3oz spray).

[erinmarie424]

sham-wows (I roll up our bathing suits in them at the end of the day and they are dry the next morning, also good for wiping dry at the beach and keeping your beach towel dry)

 

ziplock bags in multiple sizes (large ones are good for putting wet towels and bathing suits in before putting them in a backpack)

 

a couple pieces of bubble wrap in case I pick up any fragile souvenirs

 

travel packs of wet-ones and lysol wipes

[Happy ks]

We carry the same stuff every trip. Have never needed duct tape but many people swear by it...never needed it for anything.

 

We do have (instead of a flashlight) a tap light for the bathroom. We turn it on every night and leave it on all night. No need to leave the bathroom light on and no bright lights in the middle of the night for the person who has to use the restroom or the person sleeping.

 

I take my DVD player and some DVD's along, may people would find it unnecessary but I sleep to movies and we will watch an occasional movie on a sea day. I have some downloaded to my Ipod, but it's just not the same.

 

My third item is a folding travel tray, far smaller than an over the door shoe holder and keeps the loose items from straying all over the desk top: http://www.magellans.com/store/Shop_by_Brand___Magellan_s___Travel_AccessoriesLP457 We like it so much my husband got a leather one for home use on the dresser top. This one unsnaps and is flat for packing, I just place it on the bottom of our carry on.

 

I try to find ways to pack less, not more. The above items are taken on every trip whether it is a cruise or a land trip. With the exception of the DVD player, it just stays packed (like our toiletries) all the time. The carry on is the most time consuming part of travel packing, so we just have doubles of everything we use at home.

[Emperor Norton]

My own alarm clock, miniature tools (in case I need to take parts of my camera apart in an effort to save it due to enviornmental incursions). Shoebox full of money.

[okgirl]

I take binoculars.

 

Small flashlight for bedside, and I have a credit card sized light that I carry with me.

 

Battery powered alarm clock.

 

Shamwow

 

I made an emergency kit with a hand towel that has multiple mesh pouches sewn on one side and holds everything from OTC meds, to first aid supplies, sewing kit, eyeglasses repair kit, flat packed duct tape, spare batteries, hand sanitizer cloths, wet wipes, baggies.... It gets rolled up and secured with rubber bands (though it does have velcro closers too), so that it's the width of the hand towl and about 3-4" in diameter. It fits in the bottom of my suitcase between the retractable handles

[excitedcruzr]

Don't forget the travel size first aid kit.

 

Like people have said, it depends on your personality..This past cruise, I brought my own blow dryer, and an electrical strip..didn't use either of them. Let my hair air dry, and the elec strip..we just charged our electronics one by one. We weren't on our electronics often, so they didn't die quickly. But if you're one who needs to be organized, the over the door shoe hanger would be good. If you use electronics all day, everyday, then bring the strip.

[NemoCrownie]

Sunscreen

Water shoes (Keens)

OTC meds/ bandaids, etc - this all fits in a small baggie - just a few of each.

Camera with extra batteries and memory cards.

A few sandwich bags - great to throw camera in at the beach. I put anything that might leak in them when packing and then have them to use.

Trash bag - use it for dirty clothes and then throw any wet swim suits in when packing.

 

This is more than 3 or 4 but that is all we have really needed. We do take a beach bag, too - a large reusable shopping bag works great as they are light weight. There is a flashlight and alarm on our phones, we have never had a problem charging one thing at a time as we don't use many electronics on vacation - phones get turned off as soon as we leave the US - but we do take a three plug adapter since it doesn't take up much room.

 

We've never needed post-its or highlighter but I always have them in my purse so guess I would have them if I needed them. Never needed or taken duct tape but I do worry about luggage malfunctions so not a bad idea.

[dustyroad]

wow, what a great idea. they would make great gifts for your cruise friends.

[Sandy Sails]

An extra pair of contact lenses. The one cruise I forgot, I lost one on Day 2. Day 3 my glasses broke.

 

Duct Tape - fixed my broken glasses :D

 

Various sizes of ziplock bags

 

Love the idea of bubblewrap - must remember that.

[preschool teacher]

I love the sham wow idea..i will use that one......what kind of game is LCR?

[juliawinston]

I love the sham wow idea..i will use that one......what kind of game is LCR?

 

I was wondering too--this is what I found:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCR_(dice_game)

[Teacher_91]

My 93 days were on three trips. 44 days on the Ocean Princess from Shanghai to Rome, 7 days on the Carnival Fantasy for our 25th anniversary with family and 42 days on the Dawn Princess circumnavigationg Australia and sailing to the South Pacific. The short cruise we had a suite, the long ones, we were in a balcony cabin.

 

Wow! :D:D:D:D:D:D

[Teacher_91]

I was wondering too--this is what I found:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCR_(dice_game)

 

 

I recently bought an LCR game. At Christmas my ENTIRE family (ages 8 to 72) had a GREAT time playing it! :D What a fantastic idea for those traveling with a family or group!

[luvscruising2007]

My favorite item is a collapsable hamper. It fits flat in my suitcase and in the cabin I put it in the closet. All of the dirty clothes are out of the way. I actually learned this from the same type of thread when we started cruising.

[Stickman81]

We spent 93 days on cruise ships last year and did not bring any of the above.

 

:eek:

How did you survive without duct tape, bungee cords and wrinkle release spray?

 

 

:D

 

We are going a lot lighter next time (LOL) but we did like the over-the-door shoe thingy.