Cruising is easy. You only have to unpack once and you don’t have to go hunting for a restaurant or entertainment every night.
1. Arrive at your departure port a day ahead of schedule.. It is the only way to ensure you won’t miss your ship. Many cruises depart in the afternoon, but all it takes is a moderate flight delay, or a pile-up on the highway.
If you’re traveling overseas for a cruise, recommend traveling to the port two or even three days in advance to recover from jet lag.
2. Pack your bathing suit in your carry-on. When you first arrive at a ship, your luggage is delivered to your room later in the day. You might not have access to your luggage so pack medication, phone charger, bathing suit, hat, sunscreen and other items that’ll let you head straight to the pool deck.
3. Don’t overpack. Take half of what you planned. You won’t need it. Most cruising is casual, and you really only need a few outfits to rotate. Many ships have launderettes on cabin decks
4. Alcohol. Many lines will allow you to bring your own drinks on board. Some allow restocking at every port of call. These beverages must be packed in carry-on bags. Many lines levy a “corkage fee”
5. Bring extras. Sunscreen, over-the-counter medicines (cold medicine, seasickness pills, ibuprofen), extra batteries and Band-Aids on cruise ship are expensive
6. Five things to bring: a. room freshener, b. foldable shoe rack (hang in the cabin bathroom to store toiletries), c. highlighter (to highlight activities on the daily planner). d. lanyard (to hold their cabin key card). e. magnets to affix dinner invitations, excursion tickets and other important papers to their metal cabin walls. Magnets with hooks are useful to hang up clothes and other items on their walls.
7. Skip the buffet on your first day on board. As it is very busy, head to whatever secondary dining option is available.
8. Research ports in advance. At the heart of most cruises are port calls and you want to have a plan. TPG is starting to build out a series of home port and destination port guides.
9. Join a Facebook group for your line. To get ideas for what to do in ports and on ships and contact cruisers only too willing to answer questions. Also meet some wonderful people in these groups, some of whom have become my longtime friends on Facebook.
10. Sign up for private tours. Booking a shore excursion directly through your cruise line is easy but it’s not always the best option. In many cases, you can save a lot of money — and get a better touring experience — by booking shore excursions through independent tour operators in ports or a tour booking service such as Viatoror Tours by Locals. The tours may be more intimate and smaller.
11. Sign up for activities in advance or soon after boarding. To get a seat for a specific show on a specific night, or a specific tour. Sign up more in advance when on a giant ship with thousands of other passengers.
12. Don’t feel like you have to do it all
13. Always carry the ship’s contact information with you
14. Keep your phone in airplane mode. Few plans allow roaming – talking, texting and data on cruise ships. Buy a a Wi-Fi package.
15. Download the cruise app. Many show a daily list of activities and your reservations – restaurant, shore excursions and other activities.
16. Use a travel agent to book. They may help with booking (your particular interests, travel style and preferences, and steer you to the best cruise line, ship, itinerary and cabin for you. Can help you if something goes wrong and often can you extra onboard credit and other perks that you might not be able to get by booking direct with a line.
17. Travel insurance. Cancellation, emergency medical, flight cancellation.
18. Don’t book a cabin near an elevator, just above nightclubs and other late-night venues, casinos, just below the pool deck and near the anchor.
19. Use a points credit card for onboard spending
20. Don’t tip twice for drinks and spa treatments. Most cruise ships automatically add a gratuity to bar bills — often 18% to 20% so don’t add a hefty tip at the “additional tip” line.
21. Use points to get to your cruise. Using points and miles to pay for a cruise doesn’t always make sense, as it often requires a huge number of them to secure a cabin.
HOW TO RUIN YOUR CRUISE in an INSTANT
Every so often, things do go wrong on a cruise. And they can go wrong in many ways. Sometimes they can go wrong for reasons beyond your control. But other times they can go wrong due to mistakes that you make either in advance of booking a sailing or in the midst of one. This is about the really big mistakes that you can make — the sort of mistakes that can end your cruise in an instant.
1. Forgetting key documents like your passport. If you show up for a cruise without the right documents, you will find yourself turned away before you even step foot on the vessel. This starts with a valid passport. Depending on your cruise itinerary, you might also need visas to various countries that the ship will visit.
In addition, in recent months, a growing number of cruise lines have announced new requirements that passengers show proof of a COVID-19 vaccine to board ships.
2. Not leaving enough time to get to your cruise. If you only follow one piece of advice in this story, it should be this: Always plan to arrive at your departure port a day ahead of schedule. It is the only way to ensure you won’t miss your ship.
Many cruises depart in the afternoon, so it might seem just fine to fly or drive to a port on the morning of departure. But all it takes is a moderate flight delay, or a pile-up on the highway, to upset such plans. If your ship leaves without you, you might be able to “catch up” in a different port, but will lose days of vacation, lots of added cost and untold stress.
If you’re traveling overseas for a cruise, travel to the port two or even three days in advance. This allows for jet lag.
3. Not leaving enough time to get back to your ship when in port. You also can ruin your cruise in an instant by missing your ship’s subsequent departures from ports that it visits during the voyage. If the ship already has released its lines and started to pull away from the pier, even if it remains within shouting distance, it is unlikely to return.
4. Behaving badly on board. Do not fight with other cruisers, deliberately enter restricted areas on cruise ships, damaging cruise ship property or violat serious safety rules. Captains of cruise ships have wide latitude to discipline inappropriate or unsafe behavior.
5. Skipping the muster drill. The assembly at the start of a voyage where passengers are taught about safety on board is not a minor thing. At the very least, you will be forced to appear for a “make-up” muster drill on the day after departure that might very well overlap with one of your preplanned activities.
6. Bringing illegal drugs on board. One more verboten activity is bringing aboard or consuming illegal drugs. In some destinations, you also might find yourself taken to a local jail and charged with serious crimes — even drugs that might be legal for you to possess back home.
Bermuda, for instance, have been known to raid cruise ships and arrest passengers including passengers who have legal prescriptions to use cannabis in their home countries. When it comes to drugs such as cannabis, the laws that apply to possessing and consuming drugs while cruising are the laws of the places your ship visits, not your home country or state’s laws.