This past August we ventured onto our first cruise vacation. With two toddlers and an inability to pack lightly, I scoured the internet for some cruise vacationing tips to help make our vacation run smoothly. Here are some tips that were very helpful for me and the way I travel. I hope they are useful to you or give you a new idea.
Cruise Vacation Tips
- Research your day trips. There are wonderful resources online to help you find the best fit for your day trips. Trip Advisor was my go to website. Booking the excursions separately help to save on the added cost to the trip. If you’re flexible, there are often wonderful deals to snag right on the docks.
- Space Saver Bags: Cruise vacation or not, I love traveling with our space saver bags. Let’s face it, I simply don’t know how to pack lightly. Having the space saver bags help me organize our clothes, create more space and separate outfits. Once we’re traveling, they’re also a great way to pack away dirty clothes.
- Laundry Detergent: Make use of the onboard laundry facility. It helps you pack lighter (yeah, right) and saves you some laundry work when you get home. We brought Tide Pods with us in a bag. Despite my packing the entire closet, I found myself still doing a couple loads of laundry. Detergent is available in the laundry facilities but on our cruise, it cost $3.00 for 2 loads.
- Participate. Review the cruise schedule the ship provides to you on a daily basis. Find ways to participate. I’m a bit of an introvert so it took me a couple of days to get comfortable with where everything was. It wasn’t until the third day that I started to participate in the ship events. My daughter loved the ball drop. Sometimes we would simply get hot cocoa & a coffee and sit in a public place or listen to live music. It’s such a great way to meet new people and experience something different. My favorite was having afternoon tea. Hot tea with sandwiches and desserts were a welcome treat after the buffet meals.
- Hanging Shoe Caddy. If you’re like me and you stay in the inner rooms, space can be limited. The shoe holder comes in handy for creating more storage space. Bottles of shampoo or lotions were easy to store. Flip flops could easily be put away without cluttering the limited floor space.
- Analyze your drink needs. Everyone is different in this respect. I’m not much of drinker of soda or alcohol. I do love my fancy coffees though. I opted for the 15 coffee drink/cafe punch cards. It was a 7 day cruise so 2 drinks, on average, a day. I also figured that we’d be on land about every other day. One card was more than enough for my husband and I. I also opted for the 12 water bottles in our suite. It was cheaper than buying a water bottle individually. It was also easy to pack one or two into the backpack on our land excursions.
- For the bloggers or scrapbookers, keep the daily blurbs on the city you’re visiting and use them for your blogging and scrapbooking. They contain wonderful tidbits about your destination and provide great highlights of your trip.
Have you gone on a cruise vacation? Share some of your favorite cruise travel tips in our comments! I’d love to hear your tips.
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