Going On A Cruise? What Do You Actually Need To Pack?
If you’ve never been on a cruise before, the whole process can be a bit intimidating. It’s not just scheduling your ticket and hitting the road, there’s a whole new world to plan for. Normal vacations mean there’s a chance you can buy what you need at a small shop along the way, but with a cruise you’re basically on a moving city for the better part of a week, and trying to figure out what all you actually need to bring is hard. So what do you actually need when packing for a cruise? Well, for one, plan at least two outfits per day. Also, there’s probably going to be a formal night, so plan for that. As for the other things? Here are some ‘must pack’ cruise essentials that you might not know to bring! And, because I love ya baby, I’ve included a Printable Cruise Packing Checklist!
Going On A Cruise? What Do You Actually Need To Pack?
1. PANTIES. Y’all I can’t say this enough. When you are done packing, throw in an extra pair of panties for each day. Like as in take three a day. You get up, you go swimming, you come back to your room, put on a sun dress, and then you go to whatever thing is happening in the middle of the day, then you come back and decide you want to go swimming again, and then you put on a nicer evening outfit, and then you decide you want to get in the hot tub again. ALL OF THOSE TIMES YOU WANT TO PUT ON CLEAN UNDERWEAR when you get out of your suit. I go through a weird amount of panties on a cruise. They take up practically no room, but they are essential to cruising!
2. SWIMSUITS. I bring at least three. There is nothing worse than putting on a cold wet swimsuit. And the only way around this is to haul three with you. The suit you wear on excursions is going to get sand in it in a way that ONLY a washing machine is going to get out, so you will probably wear the same one for that stuff, but you are still going to want pool suits. Again, they are something that doesn’t take up a lot of room, but are essential.
Click here for your Printable Cruise Packing Checklist
3. HOOKS. Metal hooks, like these here. They hang on the wall, and you will hang up all of your wet stuff. Your room is small! You really need a place to hang this stuff so it’s not just draped over the tiny shower.
4. SHOE ORGANIZER. This is not for shoes. This is for all of your sunscreen, shampoo, aloe vera, etc. This stuff ends up everywhere. A shoe organizer keeps it all in one place. (And you could actually use it with shoes, too!)
5. TOILETRIES. These are crazy expensive on the ship. Like 20 dollars for a bottle of herbal essences expensive. So make sure you have shampoo, conditioner, face wash, TONS OF SUNSCREEN, Aloe Vera, and FEMININE HYGIENE PRODUCTS. I don’t know why, but for some reason the ship thinks if you need pads or tampons, you need the ones your mom used to use back in 1982.
Click here for your Printable Cruise Packing Checklist
6. BATTERY PACKS. You are going to be facebooking, instasnappertwattering, etc. the entire time you are there! This one is my favorite, because it doesn’t need any extra cords, but it’s expensive, and you can pick these up pretty cheap elsewhere.
7. A BAG OF MEDICINE. Advil, Tums, Pepto. All the stuff that you might need in your normal life. When you need this stuff on the ship, you can usually buy them in travel packs and they are expensive, plus they won’t be the kid you are used to. So like— if you take gel coated advil, they are only going to have the little orange-red pills, etc. Bring anything you think you might need.
8. A LANYARD. You can usually buy one of these all over the ship, but this is a MUST. You want a lanyard that you can wear every day all day and not even think about it being on. Your sea pass card is basically like your cash, and you have to have it to get ANYTHING but you don’t always have pockets for it, so you have to have it!
9. FLIP FLOPS. I am not sure why, but every single time we go on a cruise my husband forgets his flip flops. You need them for the sand! It’s dang near impossible to traverse white sand beaches in tennis shoes. Plus, flip flops are super easy to clean up when they get all sandy. My favorite flip flops are REEF brand. They are basically the Cadillac of flip flop. Totally worth the extra dough.
As for everything else, here’s a Printable Cruise Packing Checklist to help you along! Chances are once you’ve taken this first trip you’ll want to go again and again so do your best to ‘ride the wave’ this time, and make a list of anything you miss to bring with you next time. Bon Voyage!
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