"I wish I knew before..."

[HNLGAL]

Hmm. I like the "personal touch", so I really liked the gift idea.... Maybe a the note and candy (which will be eaten and not take up room) or a slightly smaller gift and a few dollars so they can ship it to family back home? Or, (since I imagine they send packages home to family anyway) something small that they could include in their own package without any trouble?

 

I like the concept, can see the potential problems in execution, and would like to see more ideas on how to make this one work...!

 

I read on here one idea that I really liked and was easy.... Buy a few of those Long Distance Calling Cards (international, as most of the crew is from faaaaar away) and give them as 'special' gifts. They come in denominations from about $10 and take up no space, either for you to carry or for them to keep.

[HNLGAL]

Just one or two plugs (by the desk) and sometimes they're positioned so as to make it diffiicult to plug in a power brick. Or so I hear.

 

I got one of these at amazon for not a lot of money.

 

 

Looks like the plug is plugged into one of it's outlets? Is the plug a two prong plug?

[HNLGAL]

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=power+strip

 

Love it... just love it... .How do you do that?

[Widespreadpanic]

I have found it is just as easy to use shampoo to clean your underware or other things in the bathroom sinks so you might save some space in you luggage this way. I will be taking some of my own soap to use for big laundry as my cruise is 28 days long and I can only pack under 50 lbs in one suitcase or pay for second bag (I might as well use the laundry service on board ship. and pack less)

Purex now makes sheets for laundry. Just toss one in washer, when the clothes go into the dryer, the sheet goes in for static control. Great idea for travel!

[Dusualsuspect]

Mostly everything has been covered, but here is my "must have items" and why.

1/ A roll of "Bounty"..you're gonna definitely need it.

2/ A "Covered Travel Mug" to have an ample amount of "hot" Coffee or ice cold drinks with ice.

3/ A bunch of "Plastic grocery Bags"...Pack some of your clothes separately in some (shirts, underwear, socks, etc) to be then used as a liner for ship's garbage pail every day and for dirty clothes to bring back home.

4/ "Air Freshener Spray"... most definitely for obvious reasons ( it always seems to be that someone knocks on the door that has to come in...just at that time when needed or from just using bathroom ...LOL)

5/and to wrap up..your own "Bar of Soap" from home along with as much water & soda you can fill in a carry on

[MeadowVistaMom]

"One more thing I've just thought about formal/informal photos - if you're on a ship where they put the photos out for you to look at. Once you have had more than one set of photos taken, find the first lot and "hide" them behind the second. Then take that pile the next night and put them behind the third set ... and so on and so on.

 

You will find that the staff will keep the pile together and so by the end of the cruise you just have to find your one big pile of photos. Much easier to go through them and discard the ones you don't want.

 

So many people think that if they don't buy photos on the first night, they will get thrown away. They don't. So don't feel pressured into buying the first nice photo you see - there may be a better one later on."

 

What a great idea, Iceman's Mum, thank you for sharing it. I wish I had known to try collecting our photos on the last cruise we took. After multiple ports and formal nights I couldn't remember which photos I liked from earlier in the cruise and there were often long lines to talk to the photo personnel. We ended up not buying any that trip:(

Edited September 10, 2010 by MeadowVistaMom
No reference to original post

[MeadowVistaMom]

Do not forget to pack anti-diarrheal and anti-nausea pills in your first aid kit. They don't take up much space and are essential should you experience the norovirus onboard. We had packed them as a precaution for the land portion of our vacation before boarding the Diamond Princess in Beijing last April and did not need them, but it turned out that we had a pretty severe outbreak of the norovirus onboard.

 

When I got sick at two in the morning my husband called the ship's doctor as we had been instructed to do (the captain made announcements every day) and the nurse told him what dosages I should take of each medicine. Since I was then confined to quarters for 48 hours after the last episode of symptoms, I was glad that I had medicine to stop the symptoms as soon as possible. It also saved the cost of a doctor's visit and saved us the trouble of going down to the clinic at 2 a.m. and, two days later, it allowed me to get out of the room hours earlier than I would have otherwise.

 

For those of you unfamiliar with the norovirus, it is a highly contagious flu virus common in crowded places such as ships. In our case, I met someone on our ship who was sick with the flu the first day we were on board, so it would have been brought onto the ship from elsewhere and not caught from the ship itself. Unfortunately, once on board it seemed to spread quickly and many, many people were affected. Here is a link to the Cruise Critic information page, if you're interested:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=71

 

This is just a small bit of advice that I hope you never need. Happy cruising!

 

Lisa

[HNLGAL]

Your annual timeshare payments are cheaper than a cruise?

Even if they are cheaper, you are still only in one place. With cruises you can go all over the world!

[HNLGAL]

What do you mean by "Use suitcases that nest"?

Suitcases that when empty, fit inside each other so at the end you only have one (heavy-ish) suitcase to stow.

[HNLGAL]

The sports tape sounds fantastic! I am have just crossed off duct tape on my packing list and added in sports tape instead. Great tip. Thanks for your experiences with it!:)

 

Can someone tell me what is the benefit of using sport tape over duct tape? Or is it just the size of the roll?

[HNLGAL]

1) Arrive in your embarkation port the day before. I can't imagine anything worse than your flight being delayed and, as you're turning on final for the runway, seeing your ship sailing out of the harbor ... Plus, by arriving a day early, you allow yourself an extra buffer, in case your luggage ends up misrouted and you need to pick up something to hold you over till it can be found and returned to you. you're on vacation. Take the extra time to avoid the stress ...

 

2) Break out of the herd. You don't have to go on a shore excursion in every port. Many excursions you can create for yourself by simply hiring a taxi driver for the day, at a much lower cost than the ship booked excursions. There are some risks involved in doing this, but if you're careful, and research your ports, you won't have any problems. Consider staying on the ship. Indeed, port days can be very relaxing for those choosing this option. There are seldom any lines in the pools, bars, or dining areas. The shops and the spa usually offer really decent price reductions.

 

3) Inside cabins. The couple staying in the penthouse cabin will be sitting at the same table, eating the same wonderful foods, visiting the same ports of call, and experiencing the same things as you ... they'll just be paying anywhere from 5 to 15 times what you'll pay. Another way to look at it is ... they'll take one cruise and for the same cost you'll be able to take 15 cruises! Ya know? I'm not the brightest kid on the block, but even I can figure that one out.

 

4) Turn off the cell phone. The same goes for the Internet. Both are very expensive at sea. If you're so vital to your business, friends, etc. that you absolutely, positively, HAVE to stay in touch ... then stay home with them and watch the Travel Channel. The reason you're on vacation is not to work, it's to decompress from your normal daily life. So, do it. No matter how important you think you are, the reality is that you're not. If you were to drop dead right now, your business and the rest of the world would keep on spinning. So, turn off the cell phone and don't get on the Internet.

 

5) Pack lightly. The old saw about 'Pack half the clothes and take twice the money' is very true! No one is going to care (or even notice) if you wear something more than once, as long as it's clean ... Travel shoes, dress shoes, sandals. That's it. Everything else should be mix-n-match. Many of the ships have washers and dryers on board. All of them have laundry service. Use it.

 

We are doing a 10 day Alaska in early May and I am just worried I won't have enough room for all the warmers and woolies we will need! Cold weather clothes take up twice as much room... Layers of sweaters, coats, boots/big shoes and warm slacks take up sooo much room!

[sabhoy]

Get polar fleece to wear for that cold Alaska cruise! Takes less space and is mucho warm!

[travelmatron]

When trying to pack for layers:

Silk long underwear is a pure joy. It's light weight, comfortable, and truly works.

Wear the heavy/bulky stuff; shoes, sweaters, and jackets on the plane. Once on board take what you don't need off, use it as a pillow, and/or stuff it in the bins or the under the seat in front of you.

It usually rains somewhere on an Alskan cruise; light weight (even plastic) ponchos can save a day. Nearly weightless, and eaily packable they can cover everything to about your knees. Dry is sooo much warmer than wet!

If you don't have waterproof boots, at least take plenty of socks.

Blue Jeans are heavy, bulky, and don't dry out overnight. You'll be much more comfortable in just about any other kinds of slacks.

Ships have laudry services...use them. Avoid clothing that needs to be dry cleaned.

Something you wear over a tee shirt for 2 hours is not necessarily dirty. You have permission to wear clothing more than once...(even if it actually touches your body for a little bit)

[jlan]

I don't think this has been asked yet.....

We will be leaving our 5 year old at home for our first cruise (Carnival) and are worried if something happens to her we won't be reachable. We will have our Iphones on airplane mode and check them a few times a day for messages just in case there is an emergency. We use AT&T and will be going to Cozumel and back. So the question is does anyone know if the cruise ships have emergency contact info for people to call if something happens, or is there a type of prepaid phone we could bring that would work in Cozumel and on the waters?

 

I hope that made sense!

Thanks!!:D

 

You can rent a satillite phone for a week or so. Surprisingly, they are not too expensive for short vacations.

[GlendaleCruiser]

I left a half dozen bulky sweaters in Alaska. Used the room to bring home souvenirs. I never wore the sweaters. I wore layers, including the thermal underwear, lighter sweaters that I could stand inside of the ship and a thermal fleece lined jacket for standing on the deck and watching the glaciers calve.

 

Many days were nice with just a light sweater and a light jacket over it.

[pauleydm]

I have the same movie in the player almost every night. The A & E version of Pride and Prejudice, I could practically recite the lines from the whole movie. But, part one is around 3-4 hours long...a good bit of sleep for me!

 

That is one of my favorite movies...but my favorite thing to fall asleep to is The West Wing.

[Underwatr]

Looks like the plug is plugged into one of it's outlets? Is the plug a two prong plug?

Yes, the plug plugs into one of the outlets. It's really a very short cord and this is a way to make it very compact for travel.

 

It's a 3-pin plug, just like the outlet that you can see. It worked fine on the QM2, although I probably didn't need it - the two plugs in the stateroom were very close together but I didn't ever need to charge more than one thing at a time...

[Underwatr]

Here's a couple of tips of my own.

 

(On the QM2) there is a shaver outlet in the bathroom built into the light fixture. I thought about plugging a nightlight into the outlet but the nightlight I brought had a polarized plug (one prong wider) and the outlet had two smaller slots. Come to think of it, the outlet may only have worked when the batroom light was on anyway. We ended up leaving the light on a closing the bathroom door, and there was enough light for DW to see the way to the bathroom and for me to still sleep.

 

We didn't do self-disembarkation at Red Hook because we didn't want to carry all of our luggage, but the baggage handlers in the baggage hall didn't want anthing to do with us because we were going to the parking lot rather than the taxi stand - as a result we had to carry our luggage from the baggage hall to our car anyway. If we had known that we would have chosen self-disembarkation and would have gotten off the ship two hours earlier.

[seaview_guest]

I just got back from my first cruise on the Freedom of the Seas in the Western Caribbean! Here are things I wish I would've known, but everything turned out great:

 

- The inside of the ship is very cold relative to outside where it is 90 degrees. Pack warm sweatshirt/sweater to wear indoors in the evenings. I did not do this thinking "it's the caribbean!" and was freezing for me inside.

 

- There is tons of stuff to do everyday. You have to pick whether you're going to watch the sunrise, or stay up late dancing. :) doing both and you've had no sleep!

 

- If you plan to swim at the ports get a waterproof case for your camera and wallet if you want to carry it with you

[swedie]

Traveling, whether on a land or sea vacation: In your room - Instead of trying to wipe all the germs off of a remote control - put it in a plastic baggie!

[surf2di4]

Do not email yourself any important personal docs. Once they're sent, they could be floating around the Internet and hackers may be able to retrieve them. Just take a pic with ur cellphone if u want.

:D

 

This is why YOU encrypt important e-mail. so if they float someone needs to spend a lot of energy trying open it.

 

Karl

[surf2di4]

Been on a number of cruises, never took duct tape, never once have I regretted it.

It's not the cruises you don't need it. Its the 1 cruise that you DO. and strips of it take up no room when applied to the outside of your bag, or to the inside liner.

 

Karl

[surf2di4]

Just one or two plugs (by the desk) and sometimes they're positioned so as to make it diffiicult to plug in a power brick. Or so I hear.

 

I got one of these at amazon for not a lot of money.

 

 

i have the same 1. less than $6us

 

Karl

[Widespreadpanic]

My BF now leaves the power strip in his briefcase - plug it in once and you're good to go. I also thought duct tape was odd, until the outside zipper on a suitcase broke & it sure came in handy. My "always pack" list contains Birks/flip flops, an easy-to-wear outfit I can just pull on if I need to, and a sun visor (I have a hat too but just can't figure out how to keep it on in the breeze without a hat pin). Depending on the temp., I might wet a washcloth or hand towel & put it in a ziploc to cool off with.

[RLA2010]

I just came back from my first cruise yesterday and had a wonderful time!!! This thread was a huge help to me while packing so I thought I'd put in my two cents since now I'm not a first timer anymore ;)

 

Do:

- Bring a highlighter - I used it EVERYday to highlight what we wanted to do for the day

- Pack conditioner - our shower didn't have any and that salt water will make your hair feel like straw!

- Bring some underwater cameras (if you're going somewhere that involves water) - we brought three and used all exposures! It was fun to be able to shoot some of the fish while snorkeling

- Bring any and all medications you might think you'll need. It would've been $90 to visit the infirmary on our cruise and I did get sick the second to last day with a cold. We had brought Nyquil and Advil and I was so thankful as the shop on the boat sold a small box of cold meds for $14 :eek:

- Be prepared to encounter some rude people aboard the ship. Not everyone has manners and some treat the staff very rude - I had to learn to just let it go since it's not my business, but it is irritating.

 

Don't:

-Forget to say please and thank you - the staff are all wonderful and there to make you enjoy yourself, but they still deserve kindness!

-Think you have to do everything. Bring along that handy highlighter and do what you want to do!

-Be afraid to try something new! All food is free so order whatever you want! If you don't like it, order another entree!

-Spend too much time in the sun if you burn easily! - I saw SO many people burnt burnt burnt on our cruise and in so much pain on the second day! Bring along that SPF and reapply that baby! And find some shade if you can!

-Forget to enjoy yourself!!! I guarantee you will love cruising!