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Being Prepared - What Essentials


Texaslady22
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We're a Scout family, so our motto is Be Prepared. 🙂 

 

We're a family of 5 - 2 late 30s adults and 3 kids, 15b, 12b, 10g. We'll be in a family harbor suite on the Vista in 2 weeks.

 

I know there are a few things that could go wrong, like a family member getting COVID or the ship having propulsion issues. With that in mind, what items would be helpful to pack in case something goes wrong?

 

So far, we've got:

Playing cards

Uno

Nightlight/flashlight

General medicines/first aid kit

 

What else would you consider necessary to consider yourself "prepared"? 

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I always bring a small first aid kit and most important, medication in case of tummy trouble and cold/allergies. Itch cream for bug bites, etc.

They will not carry Tums/Pepto in the gift shop and if you go to the medical center for it, they will quarantine you for possible Noro even though it's more likely from eating/drinking different than at home.

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Given recent world events we thought about this also.  Probably a worst case scenario is an engine room incident/fire that disables the ship.  (EMP is the ultimate example of this -Chengkp can comment).  So a transatlantic was a no.  (Getting stranded due to sudden new govt. rules is up there).  The range of a diesel lifeboat is 144 miles.  Coastal voyages seemed best.  We brought a 5 gallon collapsing water carrier.  And sun hats.  I was hoping Carnival got the memos on backup generators.  But this fits in the category of serious but unlikely.   A bigger worry was running out of limes 🙂

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I cruised in January and getting ready for my next cruise in June. 

 

Back in January I packed all kinds of travel meds - allergy meds, motion sickness meds, tylenol, ibuprofen, imodium, benadryl, cough medication, couple Covid home tests, thermometer, pulse ox etc etc in a gallon size ziplock - no way was I going to go to the medical clinic on the ship unless it was a life/death situation.  I plan on doing the same with my June cruise.  

 

Not afraid of Covid or catching something - I just didn't want to be forced to quarantine if I had to make a visit to the medical clinic for something minor. 

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Travel Insurance

 

A white board for the kids to leave messages in cabin (DS when he was 12 and above to let us know where he planned to be etc) did not trust the message system on hub or text to always go through.

 

Ext cord if they have alot of electronics to charge or you want to plug additional items in 

 

Small fan to move air through cabin at night (especially if all of you are in same room)

 

All the boys can shower and use the bathrooms in the gym (easier for the boys)

 

Sunblock 

 

Your own straws

 

Bonine

 

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here is our packing list for a cruise with a kid:

 

Passports, covid vaccine cards, negative tests, wallet, credit card, cash, printouts
Masks + lanyards
Medications (stomach, echinacea, cough, ibuprofen, prescriptions, diarrhea, laxative, cold, vitamins, zinc, thermometer, all of children’s meds, afrin), bandaids and first aid (our kid is always getting some kind of a small trauma)
Lysol wipes (we wipe everything in the cabin and on the plane)
SPF lotion and spray
Swimming suits, trunks, rashguard, sunhats, beach bags
Sunglasses
Swim ring, floaties, swim vest, nose clip and goggles
Water masks
Sand toys
Shoes: flip flops or crocs, sandals, sneakers, proper, water shoes
Charging cables, laptop(?), phones, tablet and tablet holder
Truvia, thermos cup, water bottle, zip lock bags for snacks
Shorts, underwear, pjs, t-shirts, pants
Toothbrushes, hair brush, cosmetics, always pads and tampons
 

I like Essie's mom's suggestion to have toiletries in duplicate in case some of you have to quarantine in a different cabin.

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  • 1 month later...

You can never have enough chargers. Bring a European adapter if you've got one (I bought a pair of Euro USB chargers on Amazon), too, so you can use both types of outlets, not just the US ones.

 

I always pack my own reusable coffee cup because I hate the melted plastic taste of disposable paper cups. I've heard of quarantined people getting only disposable dishes & cutlery, which I would not enjoy, so I'll also pack a pair of Light My Fire reusable kids sporks from our school lunchbox drawer, and a stainless steel and silicone takeout container for snacks/leftovers. I bring a tiny 1 oz Nalgene bottle of dish soap in my toiletry kit already to keep all these dishes clean.

 

I'm packing a couple of jigsaw puzzles for my August voyage, because I love them and that's how I'd most like to fill time if quarantined.

 

Plus what others said: USB rechargeable nightlight, first aid kit, COVID tests, water bottle, USB rechargeable fan.

 

Maybe a new game from your kids' wishlist just in case you're quarantined, so there's a good surprise? (My teens are all about the video games.)

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P.S. We also downloaded a bunch of movies onto the tablet from Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix in case we got quarantined, and some e-books in addition to paper books.

We got "lucky" and became symptomatic the day after the cruise ended. That said, I did read both books on the balcony quite a bit, even without being "quarantined".

 

 

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Everything everyone said above, but we also bring baby wipes -- kids are no longer babies, but SO USEFUL to clean things and people up! -- and a small ace bandage because someone is almost always tripping in our family. 

 

Also, extra extra chargers and our backup batteries. My least favorite kid argument to break up is "...but mom, I have only 5% on my iPad and brother is using the chargers for his phone/iPad/switch/battery"

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  • 6 months later...

UPDATE!

 

I never got around to posting this update. As prepared as we were, we did not except this: My daughter broke her arm and hand in 3 places the DAY before we left for her cruise on her birthday.

 

We had insurance and tried to talk her into canceling it, but she decided to go anyway and just "do what she could do." 

 

No swimming. No running around. No ropes course. She could hardly color or do crafts in kids club....

 

And we had the best cruise ever!!

 

She played Bingo. We looked for cruise ducks. We saw movies in the Vista theater. She made tons of friends in the family harbor lounge and class, some she still talks to. We found two excursions that you could do with a broken arm. We went to the candy store. We got ice cream. It was great! 

 

So lesson learned from my daughter: The most important thing to pack for a cruise is a positive attitude. 

 

CruisePhoto.jpg

Edited by Texaslady22
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  • 2 months later...
On 1/4/2023 at 5:27 PM, Texaslady22 said:

UPDATE!

 

I never got around to posting this update. As prepared as we were, we did not except this: My daughter broke her arm and hand in 3 places the DAY before we left for her cruise on her birthday.

 

We had insurance and tried to talk her into canceling it, but she decided to go anyway and just "do what she could do." 

 

No swimming. No running around. No ropes course. She could hardly color or do crafts in kids club....

 

And we had the best cruise ever!!

 

She played Bingo. We looked for cruise ducks. We saw movies in the Vista theater. She made tons of friends in the family harbor lounge and class, some she still talks to. We found two excursions that you could do with a broken arm. We went to the candy store. We got ice cream. It was great! 

 

So lesson learned from my daughter: The most important thing to pack for a cruise is a positive attitude. 

 

CruisePhoto.jpg

My daughter broke her arm in two spots 3 weeks before our cruise on Saturday!  We have games packed and booked different excursions that do not involve water (we are going on a Mexican Riveria cruise).

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