tdawnp

Can you get a passport card (I think its cheaper than the real passport book) for a baby/child? Wouldn't that be an easier option and less expensive? I don't know much about them but I plan to research.

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BC's are perfectly fine, but a passport is so much easier. We have a family of 8. We drive through Canada, go on cruises, it is so much easier with passports. They are more durable than BC's too. (I'm always afraid of them getting wet or ripped.) BUT if you are only going to go on one cruise in the next 5 years, I wouldn't bother with a passport. (kids only for 5 years) They are expensive. We just had to renew everyone's at the same time... $1000 for 8! Ouch! My husband travels for work and randomly I will go with him. Having a passport makes it possible to jump on a plane and just go. If you will use it, get the passport. If not, stick with BC. For the money it will save, It isn't that much of a hassle.

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Nice to hear about others' experiences!

I must ask, though, how does one wash clothing in the shower? (i.e., do you wash whilst wearing, or squish around in your hands?) And then hang to dry without strangling one's partner?

We brought a Barlii dry bag for keeping our stuff with us while snorkeling. It keeps water out, but conversely also works to keep it in. I put the underwear and socks in it, a little bit of soap, some water and shook it well. Rinsed a few times until the water was clear. Worked great.

There is a clothesline in the shower but we found that things didn't dry very quickly. The fastest way to dry was to hang the stuff up in front of the a/c vent off hangers hanging from magnet hooks. (There are a lot of prepositional phrases in that sentence, hope it doesn't make it too confusing. Sorry!)

Alternatively, you could just wash one thing a day in the sink with your hands. It wouldn't take much space or much time. I just preferred to spend 15-20 minutes and do it all at one time, just once. I had planned to do this at the outset and packed accordingly. I was toying with the idea of bringing just enough clothes to wash and wear over and over, but in the end decided that I would prefer to just pack heavier than do laundry during this vacation. I'd like to try it on a future one, though, as a challenge to see how light I can pack.

For underwear solutions for your DH I might suggest these Ex Officio quick dry styles.

Thanks!!

I'm sorry. It should say that my backpack was filled with OUR electronics. Not "without" electronics. ;-)

These threads are notoriously difficult since everyone has such varying opinions. But I would like to offer my experience of what I actually used, what I didn't need and what I wish I had.

The specifics: There were two of us in an oceanview cabin. We cruised Celebrity. 9-days to Bermuda. We flew to our embarkation port. We got a great skeleton deal (meaning that the price was great, but there were no extra perks, internet, drinks, etc)

1. Packing was difficult. 9 days with beaches, dinner clothes, 2 evening chic nights and excursion clothes is a lot of clothes. We packed a 31" spinner and a carry-on that was extendable, packed to the gills and checked. We brought approximately 85 lbs of checked luggage. I brought a backpack, filled without electronics, etc as my airline personal item. My husband had a garment bag as his personal item. We packed enough to wear each item of clothing twice, except I brought a few dresses that I wore once each to dinner. For dinners, my husband brought dress shirts, a couple dress pants, and one suit. This worked well for us.
   
2. Celebrity doesn't have laundry rooms, just expensive laundry services. I brought enough underwear and socks for half the trip and then washed them midway. My underwear dry fast. My socks took about two days. My husband has cotton underwear which doesn't dry fast. We had to have his laundered. (We also didn't have enough space in the cabin to hang them.) It is expensive. $3/pair. I also had a few other items laundered, as well as my cardigan sweater since I ended up using it more than I thought I would. (We needed to spend about $30 to make it through the cruise.)
   
3. Magnets are very useful. I bought magnetic hooks that hold 25 lbs. I used them to store my sun hat, my headphones, the day's newsletter, I hung them from the ceiling and hung my toiletry bag. I hung it from the ceiling in front of the a/c and then hung a hanger from which I draped the socks to dry. Definitely will bring them on every future cruise.
   
4. I brought an insulated coffee cup, which I used every day, but didn't bring a water bottle which I regret. We didn't want to pay exorbitant rates for unlimited beverages so we opted to just drink the free juices/water/coffee/tea. This worked perfectly well except in the evenings when we were done for the night (our room was on deck 2) but if thirsty would have to trek up to lido deck on 10 for a drink. The bathroom water didn't taste as good.
   
5. Highlighter: meh. I used it because I brought it, but I wouldn't have missed it.
   
6. Poopourri: yes there is water in the toilets (on Celebrity anyways), so poopourri will work. We had a tiny purse-size travel bottle that ran out on the third day. Dear God, that was definitely the worst part of the cruise. ;) Any sort of air freshener is a must if you have an inside/oceanview cabin. The rooms have no air flow at all. Smells linger. Enough said, right?
   
7. In our oceanview cabin there were exactly 4 places to plug in. Not four two-plug in outlets. 4 plug ins total. Two American. Two European. There were all located at the desk. I have a bluetooth speaker that has a usb charger and a european adaptor. I'm so glad I brought it. I could plug my speaker in, and then plug my phone into the speaker's usb. It let me use an otherwise useless plug. For electronics we had both our phones, my tablet, my speaker, his c-pap and sometimes a curling iron/straightener. Sometimes we had to do some plug swapping, but it wasn't a big deal for two of us.
   
8. Extension cord: My husband has a c-pap. The cord wouldn't reach the outlet. We asked the steward for an extension cord. He brought one. If you are flying, don't bother with the extra weight by bringing your own.
   
9. Downy wrinkle release. I didn't use it. We hung up our clothes immediately upon arrival. And we also packed things that didn't wrinkle too badly. It wasn't a big deal. I won't bring it again. It is unneeded weight.
   
10. Luggage scale: This was vital. Flying to/from port, we would have been in a horrible mess if we didn't have a portable luggage scale. Trying to even out the suitcases in the airport would have been ridiculous.
    
11. We used the shampoo provided by celebrity and I brought a travel size of nice conditioner. This worked well for us. We were planning on using the bar soap in the shower, but our friends that were traveling with us gave us a gift of gel/lotion/etc. Otherwise we would have used the provided soap. We did use it at our sink.
    
12. Storage space: We didn't bring a clothes hamper (used an open suitcase slid under the bed). We didn't bring the over the door shoe organizer (with only two people, there is ample space for everything) I even found on the last day that on either side of the desk legs were more cupboards. (They were well camouflaged.) So more than enough storage.
    
13. Shoes: I brought a pair of sneakers (I walk every morning either on the running track or at port), a pair of Chaco sandals (I wore these almost every day and bought the color I did because it would go with almost every outfit I brought), and three sets of heels. One set of heels broke the first day so I made do with only two. I used one pair for two dinners and the other pair for the seven other dinners. The third pair was obviously not necessary. Lesson learned. My husband brought dress shoes, sandals and casual/sneaker type. He used all three.
    
14. Waterproof bag: I brought a dry bag to put our money/phones/etc in while we swam, but it wasn't necessary since our friends were stuck playing in the sand by our towels with their toddler. If we were by ourselves I would have used it since we swam for nearly an hour and we were far enough from shore that any thieves would have been long gone by the time we could have got back to the shore. Although I would like to point out that at Horseshoe Bay I felt extremely safe.
    
15. Boca clips: lots of people had these to keep their towels on their chairs. I'm not a person who likes to lay out in the sun so these weren't even on my radar as necessary. I can see how you might want them though.
    
16. Hats: I have pale, freckled Irish skin. I brought a large brimmed sunhat and am so thankful. I wore it when we were out and about in Bermuda and it was a skin saver. The only time I got burned was when I forgot to wear it or I was out in the water. (And yes, I had sunscreen on, too. 50spf, but my skin is no match for the sun, spf or no.)
    

That's all I can think of. The most difficult thing was packing for 9 days with all the clothing changes and flying into port. If we didn't have to fly and worry about checked baggage fees it would have been cake. (And I would have way overpacked.)

And air freshener. Dear Baby Jesus Laying In His Manger, do not forget the air freshener.

I believe Uber Car seats has to be Uber X you have to select Uber X before getting the car seat option.

https://help.uber.com/h/3abcbae1-132b-42a9-8277-0dab00fa3879

Thanks!!

I don't know if they have that here, I just checked my Uber app, and it wasn't an option. Drivers tend to be strict in NJ, we once had a car service pick us up for a ride to the airport, and we had to bring boosters for our almost 5 year olds. Uber car seats is in NYC.

Thank you for checking!

How old is your child....could you use a BubbleBum booster instead ?

Our friends' boy is 3.

Trying to find out how easy it is to get an uber car seat vehicle. This will be from the hotel in Elizabeth, NJ to the port in Bayonne. Has anyone had experience needing a car seat with uber? Thanks!

Honestly, I do public transit, but that's not for most people. Folks have reported good results with Uber as well as booking Summit Taxi ($50). Random taxis are random taxis - they quote you a price - it's not a metered fare.

My husband and I prefer public transportation. So how would you get to Cape Liberty from Newark Penn Station?