"I wish I knew before..."

You should pour coffee into a ship's mug(s) and transfer into your travel mug, to avoid contamination of the communal dispenser. You'll find self-service coffee dispensers in the Lido buffet.

DW was always taking nightcaps back to the room, particularly since ms Amsterdam had happy hour pricing at 10PM.

I wish I knew how tall the space under the beds is. Will our honkin' great suitcases fit - they are 11 inches deep. We are travelling for almost 4 weeks and doing everything from hiking through snow at Bryce Canyon to Vegas to Everglades/Ft. Lauderdale beaches and the mini cruise to the Bahamas is only 4 days so I know we don't need all those clothes. Our problem right now is what to do with those suitcases while we are cruising. Does anyone know of a hotel in the Port Canaveral Area that might store them for us if we are staying there for a few days when we return if the suitcases are too big. BTW our ship is RC Majesty.

Thanks for any insight, we haven't cruised before. This portion of our trip seems more fraught with anxiety that the 5 week trip for caving, hiking, and beaching in the Philippines that we planned out ourselves.

I wish I knew how tall the space under the beds is. Will our honkin' great suitcases fit - they are 11 inches deep.

You can open your suitcases and put them under the bed that way, so they're only half as tall.

You can open your suitcases and put them under the bed that way, so they're only half as tall.

They wouldn't be 1/2 as tall as the zipper is located along one edge so that when open, they look like a box with a flap lid like this:

BTW, I'm not smuggling a friend in with us, lol.

I wish I knew how tall the space under the beds is. Will our honkin' great suitcases fit - they are 11 inches deep. We are travelling for almost 4 weeks and doing everything from hiking through snow at Bryce Canyon to Vegas to Everglades/Ft. Lauderdale beaches and the mini cruise to the Bahamas is only 4 days so I know we don't need all those clothes. Our problem right now is what to do with those suitcases while we are cruising. Does anyone know of a hotel in the Port Canaveral Area that might store them for us if we are staying there for a few days when we return if the suitcases are too big. BTW our ship is RC Majesty.

 

Thanks for any insight, we haven't cruised before. This portion of our trip seems more fraught with anxiety that the 5 week trip for caving, hiking, and beaching in the Philippines that we planned out ourselves.

Can’t tell you about Majesty but ours fit about half the time on Royal. For the times that they don’t we carry 4 small blocks of wood 1by2by4 inches to put under the feet of the bed.

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Unzipped, your suitcase should definitely fit under your bed. The beds usually have a "lip" around the frame that is a few inches lower to the floor. If your bag is truly huge, you may have to lift up the edge of the bed frame slightly to allow the suitcase to slide under, but it should fit. And the open suitcase under the bed is a great place to stash dirty clothes!

Sounds like a great cruise, enjoy!!

They wouldn't be 1/2 as tall as the zipper is located along one edge so that when open, they look like a box with a flap lid like this:

BTW, I'm not smuggling a friend in with us, lol.

I have the same style suitcase, not sure how tall it is but it is really big, so big I have to be careful what and how much goes in it or it will be over weight. Anyways it fit under the bed on carnival.

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I just take cheap ear plugs

I love this tip! I've been trying to do this more often. Last cruise it was just my DH and I. We would offer to take other people's pictures and then ask them to take ours in return. Everyone was always so happy that we offered.

This is a great tip.

Embarkation Day

We just got back from our 2nd cruise on Norwegian Epic and truly had an Epic time! We watched tons of YouTube videos, read many forums and so on to prepare for this trip. Following everyone’s advice we brought on our carry-on luggage so we could have our swimsuits and evening wear with us in case our luggage arrived late to our room. What we didn’t realize is that if you are one of the first few groups on the ship (we boarded at 11:30), our room wasn’t ready til around 2:00! So we had lug around our carry-ons until our room was ready. We ended up having a leisurely lunch in one of the main dining rooms to kill most of the time, so it wasn’t a super big deal, but just wish I knew! So next time we will just bring a shoulder bag or backpack on board!

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Must haves

Here are a few things that we did learn from this forum that were helpful:

*Towel clips are a must!

*have free room service delivered in the morning to you can enjoy fresh coffee on your balcony or in your cabin (we also brought our own French Press and coffee in case the coffee wasn’t very good)

*If you can reserve shows on your cruise, do so preferably before you sail

*Waterproof cell phone holder was very handy

*Go to the buffet/dining options during non peak times to avoid lines

*Book excursions early if you care about what you want to do

*take advantage of spa deals on port days. I didn’t this time, but definitely will next time!

*Take the stairs instead of the elevator

*Bring extra tip $ for shuttle drivers, excursion guides, room service, etc.

*Have cash for port days so you don’t get charged an international service fee

*If you have room, bring your own snorkeling gear. We used ours twice on beach days in port. Turned out to be our favorite “excursion “!

*Don’t overpack!

*Be sure to have a light sweater or jacket. Sometimes it’s chilly in the restaurants or show areas plus on the deck at night.

*bring a highlighter to highlight all the activities you’d like to do every day (I forgot mine)

*We didn’t need ours, but bring any medicines you would need in case you get sick. Everything on board is very expensive and they don’t have a huge assortment. I got all my stuff at Dollar Tree and took everything out of the original boxes to save space.

*Don’t be a lounge chair hog!

*We booked our excursions through the ship, but will do my research next time. They were okay, but more expensive. Next time we just might pay a taxi driver to take us around for a tour and maybe a beach stop or something. Just do your research!

*If you have the UBP (NCL), find a bartender/bar you like and tip them a little extra and they will take care of you!

*Make the best of every minute and enjoy being on vacation! No whining allowed!

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I wish I knew how tall the space under the beds is. Will our honkin' great suitcases fit - they are 11 inches deep. We are travelling for almost 4 weeks and doing everything from hiking through snow at Bryce Canyon to Vegas to Everglades/Ft. Lauderdale beaches and the mini cruise to the Bahamas is only 4 days so I know we don't need all those clothes. Our problem right now is what to do with those suitcases while we are cruising. Does anyone know of a hotel in the Port Canaveral Area that might store them for us if we are staying there for a few days when we return if the suitcases are too big. BTW our ship is RC Majesty.

 

Thanks for any insight, we haven't cruised before. This portion of our trip seems more fraught with anxiety that the 5 week trip for caving, hiking, and beaching in the Philippines that we planned out ourselves.

Okay, so we are back.... we ended up taking slightly smaller suitcases as we were flying Spirit for part of the trip and Mom & Dad's borrowed suitcases were lighter by a fair bit. They fit under the bed wonderfully, but no problem anyhow as the cabin had more than enough space for all our stuff in the dresser & closet areas (we had an Ocean View room with a large oval porthole window - 5048 - no noise from corners of hallways intersecting yet very close to the elevators and the showrooms and 1 deck up from the MDR, no blocked view and no outer walkway on our deck). Shower was tiny though :o... fun shaving my legs as I have a 35" inseam. Good thing I am very flexible, lol. As suggested, the tea lights for the bathroom were a must, and the heavy duty metal hook magnets we took worked well to hang up lots of papers and towels or clothing out of the way under the TV.

The drink they offer when you board the ship is NOT free!

I have heard there is a drink available when you first arrive and it comes in a souvenir glass. I am curious as to the cost of this drink & glass?

I have heard there is a drink available when you first arrive and it comes in a souvenir glass. I am curious as to the cost of this drink & glass?

All of the, so called, "mass market" cruise lines have sail-away parties with souvenir glasses. The drinks are premium priced and include the souvenir glass in the price. The glass can be refilled with the sail away special or any other drink at the regular drink price throughout the cruise. On our last trip the drink was $15.00 plus gratuity for a rum punch that normally sells for $10.00. But that was one drink on one line about 8 months ago. Prices will vary.

Just booked our second cruise and having another look on here the best tip I got from last time was taking a little battery powered tea light (fake candle) for the bathroom cos they're pitch black at night and turning the main light on is just a nasty shock to the system

Someone posted a link to these magnets with hooks. I bought them and they were very useful. I hung a map with four of them and also hang 3 hats.

what do they adhere to? is their some type of metal in the room that allows the magnetic part to work?

what do they adhere to? is their some type of metal in the room that allows the magnetic part to work?

All of the walls are metal.

All of the walls are metal.

And ceiling.

All of the walls are metal.

oh, I guess they would be! thank you.

Tip and you will be treated like royalty. No kidding...we brought a bunch of ones and tipped frequently. The crew are so kind and do not get paid a bunch and work really hard. NCL also delivered chocolate covered strawberries to our room daily and I swear it was because we were kind to the staff.

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Ditto on the magnetic hook. We hang the lanyard on it when we get to the cabin and just grab it as we head out.

Zip-lock baggies. Good for EVERYTHING from a damp suitsuit in your luggage to travel home, to putting a snack in the fridge to keep it fresh. We use one for small bills in the dresser drawer for tips, one for our passports, ID and car keys in the safe so that it's easy to grab our essentials when we leave for home, one for our $$$ for each days excursion (if we use a private vendor), labeled and in the safe so we can grab it and go on the morning of the excursion. We use them for our packing, which makes UNpacking simple when we get to the cabin. Just toss them in a drawer or on a shelf (sanitary too). I use a 3-gal one and take it to put a plate inside with food from the cafe to the cabin so that it doesn't get germs on it or spill. Pill size zip locks for jewelry which then goes inside a larger one where I can find them and see what I want easily.

Disinfectant Wipes: I give everything the once over in the cabin when we arrive. I take a travel packet of them when we head out in port.

...Disinfectant Wipes: I give everything the once over in the cabin when we arrive. I take a travel packet of them when we head out in port.

When my DW came down with the sniffles on a recent cruise the steward came in and did a spray and wipe process on all surfaces using Purell wipes at the end. He offered to provide extra Purell wipes if we wanted. We took him up on the offer.

We just got back from our Christmas cruise, and I would encourage everyone to take a small ziplock with just some basic first aide type stuff. A few band aids, a couple of throat lozenges, DayQuil and OTC seasick meds. My son used 2 of the seasick pills on the last day just to ensure he didn't get sick, (we had some super heavy seas) and I ended up with a nagging cough our last few days underway. I hadn't brought anything like this on our last cruise, but did it as an afterthought (probably because we were cruising with family who had never cruised before) and I will NEVER leave out these few necessities again!

I think every cruise line has sea sick pills outside the medical office and you don’t have to see the doctor. During rough seas, pill packets will often be sitting in a bowl at Guest Services. One time on Carnival I ordered them through room service! However, It is best to carry your own, especially for children’s doses.

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First time cruise to the Baltic in June 2018. NCL Breakaway. Most tips re beach don’t apply, but enjoyed some of the general cruise tips (I didn’t know walls were metal, so will be brining the magnetic hooks)

Questions

1. Tips. We are Canadian, travelling in Europe... are tips in USA currency?

2. Lanyards not provided? If you want one bring from home?

3. Excursions (private company) I thought would be prepaid by credit card so found the advice re baggies for local currency plus tip intriguing... is that Normal? Pay after tour, with cash?

4. Shower gel and shampoo provided.... is it garbage and I should bring my own?

5. We have the UBP ...saw conflicting posts, first drink free or not?

6. In order to avoid sticker schock on bill at check out, what types of things might be added to my account....should I start putting a little money on my account in advance, is that done via OBC?