What is your favorite cruise "hack"?

[SillyViolet]

I bring a small trial-sized bottle of unscented castile soap. I use it to wash my tervis or yeti cups. It can also be used for laundry, used in the shower as body wash (if diluted) or to clean just about anything. Saves space in my suitcase because I dont have to pack laudry pods, dish soap or body wash.  

 

[ckube]

So you know how you always end up bringing more back that you intended to?  Here's my husband's "hack".  We cruise pretty much once a year.  He saves up his old, holey socks and underwear to take on the cruise.  Once they are worn, they get discarded!  Voila, extra space in your suitcase!

[coevan]

is he Jack Reacher? 😉 You might have to read Lee Childs to understand

[Mara!]

22 hours ago, dlphn501 said:

I just bought a box of waffle cones and sugar cones last week at the grocery store because of this!  They were BOGO!  We leave on Thursday - thanks for the tip!!

OMGOSH....I am doing this!!!!

[Mara!]

On 4/21/2019 at 1:38 PM, gothedistance said:

Couple of things that we found really helpful:

this beach blanket while in port: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CXL453D/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It is super lightweight, almost like a parachute, came with stakes and it was huge for the 5 of us! I am excited to use it in other ways too. I got it for $17 on deal.

 

These metal hooks were awesome for holding my lanyard, drying my suit, etc: I picked these up for $6 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0787Q54M1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 We had 2 cabins and 6 per cabin was great! 

 

Also we did bring towel clips, a small travel speaker, and a deck of cards- used all of those!

 

We designated one empty suitcase for dirty laundry at the getgo so that kept our cabin organized. 

Thanks, def. getting those hooks!

[Mara!]

On 11/8/2018 at 12:10 PM, bahacca said:

Over the door shoe organizer. I bought one that lives in my suitcase so I never forget it.

Great idea, which kind works best?

[bahacca]

23 minutes ago, Mara! said:

Great idea, which kind works best?

Clear plastic. You need to be able to see what is in each pouch.

[Tracey.kinney425]

Following.

[Momto3girlsintheCarolinas]

Question:  How many milliliters of wine are my husband and I allowed to bring aboard?

 

Thanks in advance!

[coevan]

750ml each

[cpayne]

On 11/30/2018 at 6:59 AM, Bobbylah said:

 

Nope. I do it every night. I just confirm what I am doing with the Maitre d' on the first night. from then on it gets brought out. 

We do this, but with the vegetarian version. It makes a great appetizer to pass around the table and share with others.   

[AAAAmerican]

We bring our own Birch Beer and make the floats.. Dr Pepper is my fav ..asking for a plate to go sometimes we do as a cheese plate in the MDR sometimes is well but in what we call the slop line on the lido deck has a much better selection these days now..

 

Asking for Cabin Service as they do have a tray as they used to before ..but the Miami Bean Counters cut costs as it keeps us paying cruisers from having more foods..How many of those Bean Counters actually Cruise?

[CoolOne56]

The plastic sleeves your newspaper/neighborhood circulars are delivered in make good shoe carries. Hmm, maybe this is more of a "packing hack".

[evandbob]

Being Diamond.

[Don Kehote]

55 minutes ago, evandbob said:

Being Diamond.

That's not a cruise hack?

[CajunCruiseDreamer]

On 11/28/2018 at 8:18 AM, Ron_L said:

I agree that an outlet strip or multi-tap adapter is essential, but ones with surge protectors are prohibited for safety reasons.  Please bring one without a surge protector to be safe. There is a fairly long technical explanation at the link below. 

 

 

http://www.omao.noaa.gov/noaafleetinspection/safety_alerts/Surge%20Suppressors%20USCG%20Safety%20Alert%20April%202013.pdf

Essentially this article is a huge safety concern. I don't know if it explains it well. Basically ships do not use a grounded systems to get 120V. In your house, you have three hole in the outlet. 1 is hot (usually the left), one is neutral (typically the right), and the other in the bottom middle is the ground. if you stuck your hand in all the holes, only one of the holes would shock you (assuming a proper system- who knows how jacked up your grounds and distribution system may be). This is important to understand, only ONE of the conductors can shock you.

Now, let's say that I'm an electrical component manufacturer, and I want to save money by installing an automatic breaker in the protector (like most have). Why would I ever want to install more than just the one on the hot lead? Why waste the money installing a pointless breaker for the neutral line, when I can electrically isolate the entire strip by breaking the one wire?

Now, here it comes! On a ship, there is no "neutral" line in the traditional sense. In a house, you have a grounded center tapped transformer. Now a ship is a big hunk of metal that rusts quickly. You can't have a ground to the hull of the ship (or the ocean), because the electrical potential in the hull would rust the entire ship. very fast. To mitigate this (along with other, more confusing benefits) ship use an UNGROUNDED system. The consequence of this is that instead of having one line that jumps up from -120V to 120V, you now have two lines that are both -60V to 60V. This is really hard to grasp for some people. The two lines are completely out of phase, and that means that when one line is at +60, the other is at -60 (creating a potential difference of 120V). This is how every outlet on a ship is. If you stuck your finger in a ship outlet, 2 of the holes would give you a shock (albeit a little less painful).

Now, let's take your single breaker power strip on a cruise, and plug your toaster into it. Now remember, that third bottom center prong still exists, solely for safety. Being plugged into a normal outlet (surge protector not in the system), if a hot wire inside your toaster comes loose touches the metal shell of the toaster and you touch the shell, bad day. If the shell is grounded to the hull (connections inside the toaster run to that middle bottom wire), the hull is a better conductor than you, and will dissipate the current, until some grumpy electrician onboard hunts your toaster down as the ground in his system (and the culprit who is rusting the ship).

Now take that same instance and plug your grounded toaster into the power strip into the ship system. Right off the bat, the breaker in the power strip trips (and your ground-wire is touching the tripped hot). There is still half of that 120V bumping around in your toaster. Since you have effectively made a new path (hot wire, to the shell of the toaster, through the ground wire, into the hull), that 60V's worth of current will be traveling through your toaster, and into the hull. This would heat up the toaster, and depending on the location of the ground, could melt things and cause fires. Hope you learned something!

[evandbob]

48 minutes ago, Don Kehote said:

That's not a cruise hack?

 

It may not be, but I have never used the majority of the suggestions posted in over 50 cruises.  So for Carnival's 40 cruises, being Diamond works best for me.  Priority boarding & disembarkation, priority tendering, unlimited laundry, preferred specialty restaurant reservations, etc. all make my Carnival cruising easier and more relaxing.  Isn't that a purpose of a hack?

 

Being Diamond works better for me than lugging along soda, water, hooks, hangers, shoe organizers, etc.  JMO, YMMV.

[Mara!]

On 4/23/2019 at 12:34 PM, bahacca said:

Clear plastic. You need to be able to see what is in each pouch.

Thank you!

[BellaSweet]

On 1/23/2019 at 10:06 AM, ShakyBeef said:

 

I quite literally take my own wine glass to the dining room and everywhere else onboard when I am drinking wine:

 

 

I bring one of my Riedel Pinot Noir glasses from home because the wine smells and tastes sooooo much better from it than from the cheap, clunky glasses used onboard.  I've gotten quite spoiled by these glasses and it is worth the trouble of packing it and cleaning it and keeping track of it for me.  I order a glass of Pinot Noir at the bar (or a bottle for the table when in the MDR) and pour it into my own glass, leaving the glass it was served in at the bar.

LOVE my Riedel glasses.. They were one of my favorite wedding gifts. I actually have started making my dirty martinis in them because I love a super thin glass.

[Crazy4Camping]

On 4/20/2019 at 2:16 PM, Number12 said:

We also bring an over the door shoe holder, but we use some strong magnets with hooks and hang it on the wall.  It's much more convenient for us, is out of the way for the stewards, and no worries about damaging the doors.

I brought strong magnets on our cruise in February and unfortunately, the walls weren't metal.  I guess it depends what ship???

[Don Kehote]

On 4/26/2019 at 10:26 AM, evandbob said:

 

It may not be, but I have never used the majority of the suggestions posted in over 50 cruises.  So for Carnival's 40 cruises, being Diamond works best for me.  Priority boarding & disembarkation, priority tendering, unlimited laundry, preferred specialty restaurant reservations, etc. all make my Carnival cruising easier and more relaxing.  Isn't that a purpose of a hack?

 

Being Diamond works better for me than lugging along soda, water, hooks, hangers, shoe organizers, etc.  JMO, YMMV.

Well, I will make sure to get 185 more days at sea.  That should only cost a few bucks, and will eventually save me money.

[ray98]

On 4/26/2019 at 10:26 AM, evandbob said:

 

It may not be, but I have never used the majority of the suggestions posted in over 50 cruises.  So for Carnival's 40 cruises, being Diamond works best for me.  Priority boarding & disembarkation, priority tendering, unlimited laundry, preferred specialty restaurant reservations, etc. all make my Carnival cruising easier and more relaxing.  Isn't that a purpose of a hack?

 

Being Diamond works better for me than lugging along soda, water, hooks, hangers, shoe organizers, etc.  JMO, YMMV.

[jbethel11]

2 minutes ago, ray98 said:

Let me just flex with my diamond card, give me a second 🤣

[amyj23]

1 hour ago, Crazy4Camping said:

I brought strong magnets on our cruise in February and unfortunately, the walls weren't metal.  I guess it depends what ship???

Yeah, I think we’ve been on seven Carnival ships and I swear none of them had magnetic walls. So I’m always baffled by that tip. I’m not saying it’s not the case for some ships, but it’s odd that none of the seven I’ve been on have had it...

[PrincessPatti]

I save hangers and bags from my dry cleaning.  I pack everything on the hangers, inside the bag.  When I get on the ship, voila — I pull everything out and hang it.  I remove the bags, which gives me a bag for dirty laundry and large bags for garbage (I tend to shop a lot).  The bags also help keep the wrinkles out of my clothes.