What I learned on my first cruise!

Ditto what Z'loth just said. I'm the same way. I usually cruise solo, so taking the ship's tours is one way of assuring safety and security.

Roz

Just shows how different we all are.

Of your positives 1-4, 6 and 8 I think are useless.

Of the negatives, never heard half of the things you were told...

7 swimsuits, someone was having alend of you surely.

Pack heavy, most advise the opposite, pack and then take half out.

Tupperware container to keep food. Why, just order later when you want more.

You can link your ship card to your credit card. When you are checking in, you can give the credit card you want and all your on board purchases will be charged to this card (drinks, gift shops, duty free items). You use your ship card (called Sign and Sail card on Carnival, but other lines work the same) for everything- opening your door, getting back from port, leaving the ship, buying things on the ship.

 

 

 

People suggest bringing cash, especially small bills, for tips for room service and porters for the cruise, craft market/gift shop purchases in port, taxis etc. Don't come with only 20s and 50s.

I'll be on Royal Caribbean. Is there a way to link up the CC with the ship before the cruise? Or must I wait until I have my seapass on the ship?

First timers

RCI LOS 05/14/17

I'll be on Royal Caribbean. Is there a way to link up the CC with the ship before the cruise? Or must I wait until I have my seapass on the ship?

 

 

First timers

RCI LOS 05/14/17

I've never taken Royal before, but honestly I don't think it matters. All cruises require a check-in, so when you give your ID and booking docs you will also give the credit card you want to charge your on-board purchases to. I can confirm that you can set it up ahead of time on Carnival, but they always ask if you want to switch to a different card, or even a different payment method at check-in. If you want, you can even switch your payment method mid-sail at Guest Services, or have different people in your party have different credit cards linked to their accounts (great for cruises with friends- everyone uses their personal card for on-board charges), or even have different charging privileges for different cards (for instance, my 8 & 9 year old will have a restricted spending limit- it prevents them buying $100 worth of candy in one day!)

Some good advice! We actually do one carry on and a personal item (backpack or tote bag) when we cruise. PJ's and meds in the tote. After packing for about 2 cruises I realized no cares if I wear the same thing twice; so now, I mix and match and wear my formal clothes more than once with different jewelry! I also bring a compression bag or two and clip them in the closet on hangars to put my dirty clothes in. At the end of the cruise, I just roll all the air out and I have room in my suitcase for things I bought!

Although ship excursions aren't popular here, we do book them. It stood us in good stead on one of our cruises to Canada. There had been a Nor'Easter and then some heavy, heavy fog so the ship was stuck at the dock and couldn't sail until the next day. While we did make all our ports, all the days were off. This was no problem for us - all our excursions had been moved (and the Canadian cities did a fabulous job because they had to scramble to cover them all!) and we were all set. We also were a little late getting back on one of those excursions but it wasn't a problem. So they may be expensive, but to us they're worth it!

Some good advice from all. One major thing to remember--WHERE are you going and WHAT are you likely to do?

Examples:.binoculars in Caribbean--probably not. Alaska--oh, yes!

Swimsuit: do not own one myself (sun and chlorine allergies!)

Ship excursions:sure, if you are unsure. Otherwise, plan private ones for a small group and YOU tell them when to return (I insist on more than an hour leeway)

Getting to the ship for embarkation very early--not me--I go at 1:30 and walk on board without lines.

Since we are all so different, as are the ports and climates, new cruisers need to think most about the "where" and the "what." Best advice of all--bring LOTS of money!

You can link your ship card to your credit card. When you are checking in, you can give the credit card you want and all your on board purchases will be charged to this card (drinks, gift shops, duty free items). You use your ship card (called Sign and Sail card on Carnival, but other lines work the same) for everything- opening your door, getting back from port, leaving the ship, buying things on the ship.

 

People suggest bringing cash, especially small bills, for tips for room service and porters for the cruise, craft market/gift shop purchases in port, taxis etc. Don't come with only 20s and 50s.

I've only been on two lines, but I think it's pretty standard that on board spending on ships are basically "cashless" now. You present the credit card (I've heard that one should avoid debit cards) that you want to use for your account when you check in at the terminal. So make sure you bring that with you.

If you don't have a credit card, then check with the cruise line ahead of time as to how much cash to give as a deposit.

And yes, have a mix of $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills for use for tipping the porters and taxi drivers, and for spending off the ship for some ports (check ahead of time for ports not in the Caribbean or Mexico -- you can usually use US dollars, but you may end up with local coinage/currency as change, so smaller bills will help avoid this). Definitely avoid large currencies (one time my hubby got $100 travelers cheques...while I got $20 ones....guess who had an easier time using these and got less nasty looks from store clerks). Don't get $1 coins or $2 bills -- when you've been on Cruise Critic a while, you'll see people who claim they give these out for extra tips on board (above autograts) and don't understand these are inconvenient for crew members.

In fact, it's good to check your cruise line's website for info about the cruise line and your ship. I always do even when repeating a ship (which we've done twice). You'll find out a lot of great info. For ports, you can check out guide books at the library (and even buy the newest edition at Amazon or other books stores of a book that looks good to you), and also google each port. Most of the time, we don't do any excursions, but we make sure to be careful if going away from the port. The one excursion that we booked at the port my hubby thought had uncomfortable transportation. We've liked most of the excursions we've booked through the ship....and I've actually found comparable independent ones that weren't a significant amount less so it ended up better and easier for us to book through the ship. It might be different for others. We haven't had a cattle call experience that others claim is the situation for ship's excursions.

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1. "Bring 7 swimsuits!"

 

wow, I haven't seen this advice. usually people will say two -- one extra if have a still wet one, but that would be for warm weather cruises. It usually helps to roll the wet one in a towel for a while to get rid of the excess water.

 

 

2. "Pack heavy - it's hot down there and you're going to be soaking all your clothes with sweat!"

 

You're right, this is not good advice. We stay with cruise lines that have self-service laundries, but for those on the ships w/o these could use their bathroom sinks and maybe a travel size container of Febreeze to freshen up clothes. With cold weather cruises, layering is the key.

 

3. "Get to the port and 10:30 and you will miss the crowd and get to sit and read until you can get on the boat!"

 

As someone said, please don't use "boat" when referring to the ship. As for arrival time, we usually try to get to the port around 10:30 or 11. You might get lucky and not have a line, but bring some reading material and a snack just in case you end up in a waiting room. For our last three cruises, we've actually didn't have more than a couple of people in the line we waited in, for the two cruises we were there before noon. The other time we got there after that (stupid transportation company we used to get from our home to San Pedro) and we had a line to wait in. Some people say they arrive after 1pm to avoid a wait, but I wouldn't want to risk it. I'm for cutting down on stress.

 

 

4. "Bring binoculars, 3 highlighters... (and a variety of other miscellaneous things.)"

 

Most of the "must bring" lists I see here have all sorts of things I wouldn't bring. For others, these are necessities.

As someone noted, zip lock bags of various sizes can be useful. I would go through my medicine cabinet and put various medications, first aid items, etc. in a big zip lock bag that goes into my carry on. It helps if some are in blister packs -- like Sudafed. I would recommend bringing the prescription info for those kind of drugs, but for most cases your medications aren't going to be checked.

There's a ship;s store on many ships will have many of these (Tylenol, motion sickness, band aids, etc) for sale but at a big mark up.

One thing to check on the cruise line website is whether you'll have a mini fridge in your cabin. Princess has them in every cabin....but that's not the case for some cruise lines, and even then maybe just in higher category cabins.

One thing to emphasize is that you won't be allowed to take food off the ship in most ports. This is a topic often discussed here on CC, but many countries have laws to protect their environment. For most ports, you can have unopened, factory-sealed items such as granola bars so I'll pack some for those port stays that we might get hungry before we get to a restaurant or return to the ship for lunch.

 

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1. "Bring magnetic clips and hooks."

 

Some cabins will have magnetic walls so if you want to bring magnetic hooks (which you can get at various hardware or even Target/walmart), you can hang your itinerary (like my hubby did on our last cruise) and other items.

 

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6. "Look for a shopping sale the last day!" This is true - there was one on our ship, and I wished I had some money left to take advantage!

 

Carnival and Princess will have sales during the cruise but especially the last day or so for logo wear.

 

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9. "Stay overnight the night before in your port city." We did, and were glad we did. Eliminated any stress about missing the boat or getting there later than we wanted to, and made getting to port a more efficient process.

 

This is my number one advice. If we're not leaving from the Port of LA (San Pedro), we plan to get to our embarkation port at least a day ahead. Too many things can go wrong with travel nowadays. Plus getting there early gives you a chance to go to a store for things you left back at home including wine and soft drinks.

 

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Some other things I learned on my first cruise:

 

1. No one tells you how exhausting it is. Every day I was completely wiped out pretty early at night. There is so much to do, and you get so much exercise on the boat!

 

Don't try to pack your time on board or in port with activities even second. I'm a compulsive planner, but I don't plan ahead what we're doing on board. You'll get the ship's newsletter at night for the next day and you can look it over and take a highlighter (or a pen like me to circle possible activities or entertainment). Often you might have a hard time deciding when there's several things to do. In port, we don't try to do everything -- and often we will change our plans on the fly. The planning I do is to make sure sites we're interested in are open that day. I shake my head when I read some people's plans on this site -- they feel every minute has to be planned.

 

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4. DO NOT plan to park at port. Find a way to park at your hotel and take a shuttle or taxi.

 

As someone has said above, it depends on the port. Most of our cruises have been out of San Pedro, and for the ones 7 days or less, we have driven to port and parked there. Pretty easy to drop off passengers and luggage at the curb and then the driver drives down to the parking lot and parks. An easy walk for most back up, but there may still be a shuttle that runs there.

Our last three cruises were the two week Hawaiian ones and we used a car service from our house as both of our cars have small trunks...so not enough run for all the stuff we were taking. For the remaining of our cruises from other ports, usually we have used a taxi or shuttle to get to the port.

If you're driving to a port and decide to stay at a hotel, then it's a matter of pricing out how much parking at a hotel and transportation to the pier would cost vs parking at the port.

 

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:):):)

When you receive your disembarkation info, if the time slot you have been given isn't what you want, just go to Guest Services and ask for later or earlier. Norwegian is the only cruise line I know that hit on the brilliant idea of just putting all the different color coded luggage tags in a wall display and letting the passengers select their own.

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When you receive your disembarkation info, if the time slot you have been given isn't what you want, just go to Guest Services and ask for later or earlier. Norwegian is the only cruise line I know that hit on the brilliant idea of just putting all the different color coded luggage tags in a wall display and letting the passengers select their own.

 

 

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Or if you are given a time slot that is "two hours too early" just ignore it and get off the two hours later!