When you are packing for a cruise, you are not only thinking about what you need but you could be thinking about airline travel as well. As someone who is usually a carry-on luggage person, travel for a cruise was so much more daunting. It’s not like you can run down to your local Target or Walgreens if you need or forgot something. You always have clothes but these are not clothing items that you need.
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The Bear Essentials!
Regardless of if it’s a cruise or not, there are a few essentials that I always take with me on a trip or vacation. These items include pain relievers, Ibuprofen, antacids, Anti Diarrhea, Aloe Vera, antihistamines, bug bite sticks, anti-bacterial ointment, and cold medicine. When packing for a cruise, make sure to remember these! Of course there is always clothes, tickets, identification, and you can visit another blog post about, we also have this all in checklist form in our planner. This is about extra items especially cruise related.
Can’t Live Without Items on a Cruise!
This question is going to depend on how long your cruise is and what you are visiting. But here are a few things that we couldn’t have lived without when we cruised. Our room only had two plugs in the whole room. With three grown-ups, this small palm size extra plug outlet was so handy. And do note the reason I bought something special is cruise lines are very picky on what they allow you to have. Traditional surge protectors are typically a no-no.
This situation is going to be a very dependent on how many are in your room. Also, dependent how many accessories you are bringing, etc. My roommates would tell you that I went back and forth on this shoe organizer item many times. But, I ultimately not only bought it but used it well. Cruise rooms don’t have much room, especially in the bathroom. So, when you have three women, this item helped with shampoos, hairbrushes, first aid items, deodorant, and things like that. Everything had its place. With a family, I would use it as a place for glasses or hats. Or, even the bottom row for everybody’s flip-flops.
If I had to choose between the shoe item or these, I would choose these every time. Not only are they small and screw together but they allow you to have extra hooks in your room. Great for drying swimming suits, hanging up swimming suit cover-ups, hats, and more. We got the smaller size, but next time I would bring a pack of those and the larger pound sizes like these. The other girls didn’t have a problem. But, my clothes are heavier they sometimes didn’t work on the smaller size magnetic hook.
Niceties, but not Necessities!
When we travel by car, I always have scissors or a knife on me since we always seem to find reasons to need one. When you travel by plane it’s not that easy. But, I found this little kit that not only had scissors like I wanted but safety pins too. When packing for a cruise, I added a few more safety pins. When you are getting dressed up or traveling so much, you tend to need them. Between us and the others in our group, we at least used the scissors every day.
These were an extra splurge, but I would buy them again in a heartbeat. When you are sitting pool and beachside, so often you’re always sitting on towels and it gets annoying to fix them all the time. So, these little bands keep those pesky towels in place when you are trying to sit back down. Some bonus uses were it was easier to find our chairs because very few people used them. Most had clips, but it was so windy most days we could tuck our swimsuit cover-ups in them and didn’t have to worry about chasing them down.
Now, several people had clips which is also a good way to identify your chair. They make so many styles but they are also bulkier to pack. And, since I have never used clips, I can’t talk about how well they work.
We also did magnetic clips with highlighters. This wasn’t necessary but made it so much easier to highlight things that interested us. We had some, but if I was going to purchase them again they are something like this. You can also pick them up at your Target, Walmart, or sometimes local Dollar Tree.
When traveling by cruise, you can’t take a steamer or iron. So, the next best thing is wrinkle remover, and this one by grandma’s secret worked well. I have also used the one by Downy on trips before as I don’t ever want to iron when I am on a trip. These little tags weren’t fun or anything, but another nice item for our cruises. I am always more anxious or paranoid about things happening. So, these little tags were nice and helpful to make sure the little piece of paper didn’t rip off. And yes, we did see luggage that needed to be claimed as the paper had come off. The nice thing is we are letting our friend borrow them in a few weeks. And we will definitely use them again on another cruise in the future. So, a definite reusability!
Just for Fun!
One of the top fun things for the cruise was this full-face snorkel mask. As someone who does really well with traditional swimming, trying to retrain your brain to snorkel is another task. This item makes it easier.
With wanting to wear your suit a lot either getting off the boat or just around the ship, you need a cover-up of some sort. As someone who has never understood all the rules on when to wear cover-ups, I didn’t have one so I purchased this fun one. I liked it because the tie gave it an extra waist. What I didn’t like is the tie wasn’t actually attached. But, the fit was nice even on a plus-size body. Now, if you don’t purchase one beforehand, they have them at every port and there are some fun ones to be had.
All these items made the cruise smoother. Of course, I always pack a medicine kit bag and other items for any trip which you can read about here.
Which of these items are you going to pick up when packing for a cruise?
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