Hi, hi, hi! Hope you guys are having a great week so far :) I'm still trying to kick this icky cold that I got at the beginning of the new year, and it just does not want to go away! I swear my nose is going to be cracked and dry for days. Ugh. Annnnyways, today I am sharing with all of you the second part to my first cruise experience and talk all about the essentials!
Jeremy and I did a ton of research before our cruise of must-have things to take with us that others swore by. We'd watch youtube videos and look up articles, and I'm so glad we did. He had been on a cruise before but it was like 10 years ago, so he didn't really remember what all he packed. And as the planner that I am I wanted to be fully prepared and have everything I needed out at sea.
First up will be the 6 essentials that we bought and took with us and that I would 100% recommend you bring with you on a cruise. Next, I'll share with you guys 6 more items that I WISH we had taken with us but didn't. I will say that some items I had found that people recommended didn't really apply to us. For example, there are decorations you can buy to decorate your cabin door so you can easily find it. Personally, I think that it is a great idea if you are cruising with kids, but for Jeremy and I we didn't feel like it was necessary to do that. Although some decorations were pretty cute, haha!
These essentials though are exactly that. ESSENTIALS, haha. I definitely would've struggled without these, that's for sure! Another great thing about all of these is they all can be found on Amazon Prime! :)
Here are the 6 essentials we packed with us:
(click each item's name that is underlined and italicized to take you to the link!)
First up we have these amazing Waterproof Phone Pouch Dry Bags. We were a little skeptical even with all the great reviews, but have no fear! These things seal perfectly and leave no room for water to go through. They worked so well that Jeremy was even able to record with his phone in the water during one of our excursions! They came in handy when we were out snorkeling or just floating in the water and wanted to snap a couple pics. These have to be in your suitcase HANDS DOWN!
Next, we brought along this ZOMAKE Ultra Lightweight Water Resistant Packable Backpack. I have a Northface hiking backpack, but we wanted something that wouldn't take up a lot of room in our suitcases and that was easy to bring along off the ship. It comes in a bunch of colors and is so so lightweight and best of all water resistant! Worked fantastically at the beach and on our excursions. Is also a great backpack to have outside of cruising for hikes as well!
Next up are these fun Baiji Collapsible Silicone Water Bottles. These were lifesavers on excursions and at the gym. Saves you from having to buy plastic water bottles (yay environment!) They fold up nicely so you can store them and barely take up any space. I also really loved the little clasp it had so we could attach them to our backpack.
**Pay close attention to this one if you get motion sick!** Jeremy gets motion sick pretty easily, so he made absolute sure we packed some medicine for that. He found MotionEaze after reading reviews and it worked awesome! I even had to use it one night when the waters were a little choppy. He never once got sick and totally enjoyed himself! What's great about it is that its an oil that you just put behind your ears so it's extremely easy to apply and smells like essential oils (thanks to the ginger!)
Our main thing we wanted to do on our cruise was snorkel as much as possible, haha. So, instead of renting gear at every stop, we just decided to purchase our own snorkel set. This OMORC Snorkel Set worked perfectly and has great reviews. I will suggest also buying some mask spray because eventually they will fog up a bit, but all masks do that. We chose to go with the normal snorkel sets instead of the full on new headgear ones, but I've seen great reviews on those as well!
Lastly is your ordinary, simple Downy Wrinkle Releaser haha. This stuff was absolutely an essential for us, especially for Jeremy and all of his dress shirt and shorts. Depending on how you pack your suitcase, you'll notice some stuff get a little wrinkled on the journey. This stuff works great and gets all those wrinkles out and makes your clothes look and smell brand new! You can get your clothes dry-cleaned on the boat for a fee if you'd like as well.
Next up I'll be sharing 6 other essential items I wish we had brought along with us:
First off are these fun and bright Beach Towel Clips. To be honest when I was first doing research I thought these were stupid and unnecessary. That was until I was trying to suntan on the top deck of the boat and had my towel almost fly out into the ocean!!! Nobody really tells you how windy it can get on the top deck of the boat and having these towel clips will totally save you a bunch of hassle. It was almost impossible for me to sit up and reach for my phone or book while trying to keep my towel in place, lol!
Second, and I know some of you will laugh, but is Toilet Spray, lol. There are ZERO fans in your bathrooms in your room and we all have to go #2 at some point, lol. I honestly don't know why I didn't buy any in the first place, but it definitely would've been nice at times to have it to freshen up your bathroom. Trust me!
Next up are these Waterproof Badge Holders. You will absolutely want to pack these along with you. Before you board the ship, they give you your cruise card. You use this card to get off and on at ports as well as for purchasing things on the ship. At every port it was such a hassle to search in our bag, grab the cards out just to put them back in the bag once we got off the ship. We eventually bought some badger holders at a port so we could easily access our cards. What I love about this once is that it has a secure lock on it so you can rest assured that your card is safe :) Trust me, you will see a ton of people with badge holders and then you'll be sitting there wondering why you didn't bring any with you lol.
Next is this BeachLocks Lock & Cable. This comes in handy when you are off the ship and out exploring at each port, especially when you are on the beach. We really could've used one of these when we had our beach days and wanted to keep our stuff secure and safe next to our beach chairs. Thankfully each port didn't make us feel like we couldn't leave our stuff, but it would've been nice to have that extra security.
I almost bought this Dock & Bay Microfiber Beach Towel but didn't and I so wish I had. I knew the cruise ship gave you towels to use and each port I'm sure would have towels at certain places, so I thought we could manage. But what's so great about this towel is that it is completely sand proof, which is a biggie for me because I actually hate sand, haha! It also dries 3x's faster than normal cotton towels, is nice and big and is compact and easy to bring along with you. The cruise ship's towels were great but once they got wet were so heavy and the sand definitely stuck to them. Save yourself the hassle and get you one of these towels.
So, we actually did bring along an extension cord, but not this exact one. They don't really tell you how far away your outlets are from everything once you are in your room. The extension cord we bought worked great but just didn't reach as far as we needed. This one I chose to share with you guys instead because 1) has great reviews and 2) is 5 ft long! You'll absolutely want to bring along an extension cord, trust me! You can shop this portable extension cord here.
Okay, for real though who is in the mood to go on a cruise now?! Ah!! Lol, I have two friends who are going on a cruise for their honeymoon in about 3 weeks and I am super jelly. We are hoping to take another one this year, well I shouldn't say hoping. We are PLANNING on it! I want to cross of Aruba from my bucket list so badly.
I hope you guys find this post helpful if you are going on a cruise/planning on going on a cruise. Have a fantastic rest of your Wednesday!
xo,
Micaiah