So, you’ve booked your next cruise and started the countdown to embarkation!
If you’re anything like me, you started packing the second the confirmation page was saved. I race to my closet and start gathering all my favorite cruising items. And once the smoke has cleared, I’m left with a pile of things that will not fit in my suitcase, so I have to spend the next few weeks (lets be real, months) pairing down what I plan to bring on my next cruise. But no matter how many rounds of “Okay, I don’t need to bring this” I go through, there are a few items that always stay in the GOING pile.
Whether you’ve cruised before or this is your first time, I urge you to consider packing the following 10 essential items to ensure a great cruise:
1. An over-the-door shoe organizer
It is no secret that cruise ship staterooms, though lovely and my favorite home away from home, often fall short in the way of storage space. All of those small items get jumbled up in drawers making it difficult to quickly find what you’re looking for. Who wants to waste time digging through drawers for Tums when you’re on vacation! And, in my opinion, cluttering the counter tops is a little overwhelming to me and makes it difficult for the stateroom attendant to straighten up.
Enter, the over-the-door shoe organizer. Despite the name, it will not be organizing your shoes. Instead, hang it on the outside of your bathroom door and use it to organize everything. From sunglasses and sunscreen to dry shampoo, cough drops, and nail files. It makes it easy to take a quick look and grab what you need.
Here’s a link to our favorite organizer:
2. Poo-Pourri
It is no secret that we all go and, more times than not, it doesn’t smell great. Fun fact, there is about a 1-inch gap at the bottom of the stateroom bathroom door, so it doesn’t exactly keep the smell in.
My husband’s very first cruise was our honeymoon. While we had been living together for a few years at this point, he had never had to sit in a room just outside the bathroom door waiting for me while I did my thang. I was beyond glad I had thought to pack Poo-Pourri as it starts working before you go.
For those that have never used it, you spritz the water in the bowl 3-5 times with the Poo-Pourri, then go. The oils sit on the top of the water and start to perfume the air. They then also lock in the stench when the deed happens. Poo-pourri helped keep the magic alive for us that trip and all of our trips thereafter.
Some people wonder about just using an aerosol spray. You can. I personally do not like the aerosol sprays for a few reasons:
- They take up too much room in the suitcase and risk spraying during travel.
- You have to wait until after to use them.
- They are full of a lot of harsh chemicals and fragrances and I think it doesn’t get rid of the stench – you just wind up with a stank that also smells like lavender or citrus.
But, that’s my opinion. I prefer the natural essential oil smell of the toilet spray. Here is a link to my favorite Poo-Pourri for setting sail:
3. Snorkel Masks
I don’t love spending money where I don’t have to. I don’t love purchasing excursions. I am also afraid of deep water so a snorkeling excursion doesn’t exactly sound like a great time to me. BUT I LOVE SNORKELING! And I love seeing all of the things that lie just below the water.
So, on our honeymoon cruise, we decided to purchase snorkel masks to bring along so we didn’t have to rent them at each stop along our trip. Snorkel gear rentals are typically $10-$25 and are the goggles and snorkel funnel thing that you put in your mouth. Five cruises later and our masks have more than paid for themselves.
We have used them on beach excursions and on beaches we have taken local transportation to. We have seen countless species including, our favorite, Sea Turtles! I really enjoy the full face masks because they are relatively easy to use and act as a flotation device – it is damn near impossible to dive down into the water with them on. This flotation feature makes it so nice and easy to float along the top of the water and view all of the wild life below.
Pro-tip: Before you go on your trip, practice using your snorkel mask if you can! It definitely takes some getting used to.
Here is the link to our favorite snorkel masks:
4. Waterproof Fanny Packs
As I mentioned before, I am cheap. We don’t do a ton of cruise sponsored excursions(though we do at least 1 per cruise). So, when we go to the beach or out exploring there aren’t storage lockers to safe-keep our valuables.
Enter the waterproof fanny pack. I keep our seapass cards, passports, cell phone and money in mine. I typically wear it under my shirt or cover up. When we go swimming or snorkeling, I wear it right into the water. We purchased ours on our honeymoon cruise – 5 years and 5 cruises later, they are both still in perfect condition(I also wear it paddle boarding during the rest of the year).
My favorite part of the fanny pack is that it also has a buoyancy factor while snorkeling – the mask keeps my head and shoulders up while the fanny pack keeps my hips up at the water line. Then I can relax and float around.
Pro-tip: Before you go swimming, ALWAYS check that your fanny pack doesn’t have a leak by walking in up to your hips and submerging the pack, squeeze ever so slightly – if the air bubble deflates and water enters, there’s a leak… GET OUT!
Here’s the link to our favorite fanny packs:
5. Magnetic Hooks
In case you didn’t know, the walls in your stateroom are metal! I don’t know why this surprised me, but it really did.
These metal walls probably serve a very important cruise ship purpose but my purpose is that I can put up magnetic hooks to further organize our stateroom. As previously mentioned, there’s not a ton of space and there’s not a ton of hooks! On the inside of your bathroom door there are about 3 or 4 hooks and that’s about it. That’s just not enough for us.
My husband and I are in and out of the pool all day. We typically pack 5 or so swimsuits each so that we always have a semi dry suit to put on. 4 hooks do not hold 10 wet bathing suits and allow them space to ‘dry’… trust us, we’ve tried. So, we bring magnetic hooks to hang up our swimwear.
We prefer these hooks for their durability and weight limit:
6. Stupid Hats
I know, some people don’t like the word stupid and I do apologize for that. BUT that is how my husband and I refer to our goofy sun hats. As thirty-something year olds, we’ve had a hard time grappling with the fact that we are no longer young and cool. While we wear the unfashionable sun hats and the thicker-than-what-we-wore-10-years-ago sandals, we seem kind of like kids pouting when their mom makes them put on their hat so they don’t get sunburn.
I know I don’t look very cool or fashionable anymore, but boy have I thanked the sweet Lord in heaven on a sunny day in Mexico when it felt like the only thing keeping my porcelain skin from sun poisoning was a goofy hat. Pack the hat. Wear the hat. You may look uncool, but you know what is more uncool than that hat? Sun poisoning on an expensive vacation.
Here are the links to our his and her stupid hats: His & Hers
7. Reef-Safe Sunscreen
In addition to that hat, wear the sunscreen. Reapply the sunscreen. Set a timer to remind yourself to reapply the sunscreen. Especially to these very much forgotten places: your scalp even if you have hair, your ears, the back of your legs (hello snorkeling sunburn from Bermuda), and last but not at all least… THE TOPS OF YOUR FEET.
Again, nothing more uncool on vacation than the worst sunburn of your existence. If you are lucky and just don’t burn, my husband and I are very jealous. We are fair skinned and tend to burn if we go anywhere south of North Carolina. Being a quarter Italian did me no favors.
When purchasing sunscreen for your Caribbean trip, try and do just a small part for the ocean and choose a reef safe, biodegradable sunscreen. It is required by some ports of call anyway but should be used at all ports of call.
In 1 lifetime (1957-2007), the coverage of living coral on reefs has fallen by 50% and they are continuing to decline. That is HUGE seeing as coral reefs produce 50% of the Earth’s oxygen. They are also an essential ecosystem!
Sources:
https://visitseaquest.com/blog/protecting-our-worlds-coral-reefs/
I know buying reef safe doesn’t sound like that big of a deal but every little effort counts. Saving the ocean doesn’t take 1 person doing it perfectly, it takes everyone doing it imperfectly and doing what they can to help.
Some of the brands I have tried and love are Boba Botanicals, Blue Lizard, Alba Botanica, and Bare Republic. Links below:
- Boba Botanicals Face & Spray On
- Blue Lizard
- Alba Botanica
- Bare Republic
8. Motion Sickness Medicine
Even if you do not get sea sick, pack it. The ocean is wild and unpredictable and there will be rocky days at sea.
I always get seasick and typically take Dramamine daily and douse myself in Motioneaze throughout the day. My husband never gets sea sick, but there have been windy days when I hear him say “Hey babe, let me see the stuff”—and I know it’s not a pick up line. There hasn’t been a single cruise where he hasn’t asked for it.
Pro-tip: pack more than you think you’ll need and carry it with you… always.
We absolutely found ourselves in a Mexican pharmacy after a ferry-ride-from-hell trying to figure out what was for motion sickness. I have also forgotten to pack mine on a cruise and our first day was a sea day when I absolutely needed it. I don’t like to spend money but I will absolutely buy Motioneaze from the cruise ship gift shop for $25 when it costs $5.99 at Target. Those are real numbers. That was a real experience.
Motion sickness can ruin a trip. Pack the good stuff. Below are my list of must have products:
- MotionEaze
- Dramamine – Regular, less-drowsy, and non-drowsy natural
- Bonine
9. Comfortable Shoes
Cruise ships are continuing to get bigger and bigger. They truly are floating resorts. If you find yourself on an Oasis class ship or the new Icon class ship, you will absolutely be putting in the steps.
Elevators are oftentimes very crowded and have long wait times. When we find ourselves waiting more than 5 minutes for an elevator, we opt to take the stairs. I always choose a stateroom on a deck that makes it convenient to only have to travel a deck or two for the necessities anyways.
Want the best stateroom location but don’t want to spend time pouring over ship layouts? Book with me and I’ll do the work for you!
Each day on the cruise we put in well over 10,000 steps, even when we spend 5-8 hours in the solarium pool. Again, we are letting go of what is hip and embracing our 30s. Every time I slip my foot into my Birkenstocks, I think of all the foot, knee, and back pain I won’t have at the end of the day… and then I smile as I put on my stupid hat and head to the pool.
Wear the shoes with the arch support and cushioned soles. You will be so glad you did.
10. A Good Attitude
Cruises do not always go as planned.
My favorite memory is from our April 2022 cruise. My husband and I laid off the drink package for the night and had gone to bed early – it was like Christmas Eve as we giggled over our plans for CocoCay in the morning. We were beyond excited to get up early and be some of the first guests off the ship.
The morning came, I woke up and instantly woke my husband when I saw it was 6:30 am. I ran over to our balcony curtains and threw them open, grinning ear to ear as I expected to look out at blue ocean and maybe see a glimpse of CocoCay to my left.
But my grin quickly faded as I saw a shipping yard full of massive shipping containers. This was absolutely not CocoCay…
We turned on the TV to find we were back in Miami. There had been a medical emergency overnight that rerouted us back to our embarkation port. As bummed as we were that we would not be spending the day in CocoCay sipping margs on the beach, we said a prayer for the passenger and their family, slipped into our bathing suits and headed to the pool.
You will not always make it your port of call. Whether it be weather, medical emergency, or even political issues, Ports can be canceled. Choose to enjoy your trip anyways. The crew go above and beyond to make sure those canceled days are still a great time. And they are!
You’re still on vacation, healthy and safe. Put on your swimsuit and take a dip in the pool – the water is just fine.
Any questions?
These were the top 10 things we always make sure we have packed for our cruises. Whether this is your first cruise or you’re an avid cruiser like us, let me help you plan your next cruise!
Vista Al Mar Travel 