Tips I wish I had known

[Fish Lover]

The ships I have been on now have night lights built-in to the bathrooms.

 

Carolyn

 

Doesn't the door have to be opened for the nightlight to be visible? My problem is finding the door in the dark.

[cruise47]

Write your credit card numbers and the phone numbers on a piece of paper, in case your cards are stolen/misplaced. Put that paper in your safe and destroy it when you leave. Most people have no clue who to call if their card is lost or stolen....but then it's too late.

 

Now that is an excellent tip.:D

[gentle@spici]

1 thing I had wished we took last week was some magnetic Christmas decorations to put on our door. Weve never sailed during the holidays and a lot of peeps had some cool fall holiday stickers on theirs. From Halloween to Christmas. Very festive. It did however remind me to pick up a pretty Christmas tree ornament from St Maarten while we were there.

[Tedferg]

Write your credit card numbers and the phone numbers on a piece of paper, in case your cards are stolen/misplaced. Put that paper in your safe and destroy it when you leave. Most people have no clue who to call if their card is lost or stolen....but then it's too late.

 

We do this and transpose one set of four digits on each card in case the paper is lost. Easy for you to remember which set of four - same for each card.

[danaps]

We bring a foldable shoe holder to hang in the closet. Holds shoes (duh!), purse, camera stuff and more. Comes in handy every cruise and takes up almost no suitcase space.

[Doctor G]

Doesn't the door have to be opened for the nightlight to be visible? My problem is finding the door in the dark.

 

I believe the light stays on all the time at night, but I might be wrong. I always have a small flashlight at my bedside, but I seem to recall being able to find the bathroom without it (light coming from under the door).

 

My biggest travel tip whether on land or sea is to always have a small flashlight at the bedside. It could come in very handy if you have to evacuate a hotel room or ship's cabin. If I go to bed and discover I have forgotten something, I can get up without turning on bright cabin or room lights.

 

Carolyn

[rogfam]

We always place a copy of our entire travel itinerary in our suitcase in case it is lost.

[varoo]

My biggest travel tip whether on land or sea is to always have a small flashlight at the bedside. It could come in very handy if you have to evacuate a hotel room or ship's cabin. If I go to bed and discover I have forgotten something, I can get up without turning on bright cabin or room lights.

Yes indeed. We always keep a small flashlight on each nightstand, whether on a cruise ship or in a hotel room.

 

It's not only for emergencies, but also for finding anything you may need at night if you travel with a roommate because you can aim it exactly where you need it without needing to turn on the room lights and wake up the other person.

 

 

[Luvcrusn]

We always carry copies of our passports. One carries the copies, one carries the originals (which we leave on the safe once we're aboard). We also leave a detailed travel itinerary in our suitcases in case of loss of luggage, but only leave our cell phone number on it. No home address. Also, we leave cell phones by the bed, that way we know the time as well as can use it for a flashlight. We also take a 5 port USB charger with us. We can charge 5 devices at once and only use 1 outlet. It's small and lightweight.

[sippican]

We always carry copies of our passports. One carries the copies, one carries the originals (which we leave on the safe once we're aboard).

 

We always make copies of our passports to carry or store separately from the originals.

However, our passports never stay onboard in a foreign country, they stay with us if we leave the ship. We exercise the same cautions as with our cash, credit cards, etc. It is the single most important personal document you own. Many don't realize it is a law in some countries, that foreign residents carry it on their person. Imagine if there is an actual emergency, legal or medical, or even missing the ship. Having a copy might be better than nothing but not nearly as functional as the original. Someone explained it to me with this example; in your own country of residence, when you get stopped for a traffic violation, will the law enforcement officer accept a paper copy of your drivers license? I

realize this is a personal decision and there have been endless debates on the forums, just offering another perspective. Something only you can decide.

[Compass Rose Monica]

I scanned our passports and saved on one of my email accounts in case of loss. I also make a copy and keep them in the safe in the cabin. I carry my passport in my money belt.

 

Monica

Edited December 9, 2016 by Compass Rose Monica

[OandGlo]

Before traveling overseas, log on to your credit card web site and submit a travel notice outlining your itinerary. This will insure any charges made during your vacation are not rejected by the credit card company.

[daka]

We always bring a night light to use in the bathroom, and YES don't forget the magnetic hooks....use as note holders, wet bathing suit, hats....

We will start packing tomorrow afternoon, I get half a suitcase "she" gets 1 1/2...

[Wine-O]

Before traveling overseas, log on to your credit card web site and submit a travel notice outlining your itinerary. This will insure any charges made during your vacation are not rejected by the credit card company.

 

Yes, this is very important -- especially for your ATM card to get cash from an ATM machine.

[thon]

Before traveling overseas, log on to your credit card web site and submit a travel notice outlining your itinerary. This will insure any charges made during your vacation are not rejected by the credit card company.

 

I used to do this whenever travelling out of the country but most Canadian banks no longer have this option. I asked but never really got a satisfactory answer.

[Nanny8]

We always make copies of our passports to carry or store separately from the originals.

However, our passports never stay onboard in a foreign country, they stay with us if we leave the ship. We exercise the same cautions as with our cash, credit cards, etc. It is the single most important personal document you own. Many don't realize it is a law in some countries, that foreign residents carry it on their person. Imagine if there is an actual emergency, legal or medical, or even missing the ship. Having a copy might be better than nothing but not nearly as functional as the original. Someone explained it to me with this example; in your own country of residence, when you get stopped for a traffic violation, will the law enforcement officer accept a paper copy of your drivers license? I

realize this is a personal decision and there have been endless debates on the forums, just offering another perspective. Something only you can decide.

We used to live in a bit of a dicey developing country. We were told to carry both (the real thing and a copy) -but in different places on your person- in case one got stolen from one place you would likely still have the other. The reason the copy was considered important was that if your real one got stolen you could present yourself to the embassy and they could use the photocopy to replace your passport -in theory. Some of the places we were in had me thinking we wouldn't have had much luck even with the copy but it's what the officials in our own country told us to do before we went overseas so we did. We still do it when we travel for pleasure.

A hint for the men out there. Always place your wallet in your front pocket. It is much harder to pick pocket a front pocket without the person knowing. And wear your money belt under the front of your pants/ skirts because they can be clipped very easily from the back if they are simply under your t-shirt. Helps with the whole passport thing.

[riclop]

That x entertainment was the worst.

[GCHAN]

We always carry copies of our passports. One carries the copies, one carries the originals (which we leave on the safe once we're aboard). We also leave a detailed travel itinerary in our suitcases in case of loss of luggage, but only leave our cell phone number on it. No home address. Also, we leave cell phones by the bed, that way we know the time as well as can use it for a flashlight. We also take a 5 port USB charger with us. We can charge 5 devices at once and only use 1 outlet. It's small and lightweight.

 

I also agree with emailing important information to yourself so you can recover it while on holiday.

 

Info such as passports etc. can be kept in subfolders to easily recover the information when you need it.

Edited December 10, 2016 by GCHAN

[griffy116]

Doesn't the door have to be opened for the nightlight to be visible? My problem is finding the door in the dark.

 

There's a VERY wide crack at the bottom of the door (maybe more than an inch??) so if a light is on in the bathroom, and the room is dark, you can see the light at the bottom of the door.

[fshagan]

I also agree with emailing important information to yourself so you can recover it while on holiday.

 

Info such as passports etc. can be kept in subfolders to easily recover the information when you need it.

 

Just a bit of caution is necessary here. Email is more like a postcard than it is a sealed envelope, so never put something in an email that you wouldn't write on the back of a postcard. If you are comfortable with the passport number being known to literally dozens of people who have access to your email it is fine to use this method. Information like credit card numbers, bank account numbers, passwords to financial sites, etc. should never be in an email.

 

Email is stored in open text on the sending and receiving server, and possibly on servers it has been routed through. I run a small boutique hosting business and I have every email my clients have received and sent going back three years in backups, and yes, I can access every single one of them. So can any tech with access to the servers in the data center. A physical piece of paper is safer.

 

Accessing Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. may be safer as those services require at least a password to access, and some encrypt the information on the server.

[daka]

Just a bit of caution is necessary here. Email is more like a postcard than it is a sealed envelope, so never put something in an email that you wouldn't write on the back of a postcard. If you are comfortable with the passport number being known to literally dozens of people who have access to your email it is fine to use this method. Information like credit card numbers, bank account numbers, passwords to financial sites, etc. should never be in an email.

 

Email is stored in open text on the sending and receiving server, and possibly on servers it has been routed through. I run a small boutique hosting business and I have every email my clients have received and sent going back three years in backups, and yes, I can access every single one of them. So can any tech with access to the servers in the data center. A physical piece of paper is safer.

 

Accessing Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. may be safer as those services require at least a password to access, and some encrypt the information on the server.

 

Why not just a take a pic of your docs with a camera phone...don't send it!

[Beanb41]

We scan all necessary documents that aren't sent to us electronically and store them all on two flash drives kept well apart from each other. We are fortunate enough to have two credit card style flash drives that don't look like flash drives in case someone is casually looking at them. I also store these same documents in the cloud and have hard copies of airline tickets and accommodation bookings.