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Tips For Travellers. I’m going to take a look at 21 really unusual, unexpected and slightly strange things that you absolutely should pack for your next cruise vacation. First of all highlighter pens. Highlighter pens are fantastic for highlighting the various things within the daily program that you may want to do.
It simplifies huge amounts of information down to the things that are really important to you. The second thing is a multi USB charger strip and a multi power strip. The reason for that is, many cruise cabins have very few plug sockets. So you find nowadays when we have phones and tablets and cameras, all sorts of things that we want to charge, it becomes incredibly difficult to charge them.
So taking one of those strips where you can plug in multi USB things you can charge all your tablets and phones (and everyone in the cabin’s tablets and phones) if you have a strip where you can charge everything that you need to charge. Next is a beach towel clip or a bulldog clip. These are really helpful because you can clip them onto your towels so they don’t blow away when you’re sunbathing on deck or at the beach.
And also you may find if your curtains don’t quite fit properly in your cabin you can also clip your curtains together, and lock out the light. Next little sample sizes of laundry detergent. Although there are laundries, you normally have to buy the actual detergent that goes in those. So grab a couple of those little sample size packs.
It’s one less thing that you have to pay for. The fifth thing is your own personal first-aid kit. It can cost you a lot of money if you have to go and grab them out pharmacies in the port or you have to go to the medical center. So pack a little kit and then put things like seasick tablets, headache tablets, anti-diarrhea, plasters, ointment, mouth ulser gel – everything that you might use at home.
Take a look in your medicine cabinet or in your bathroom at home and look at all the things that you use – even if they’re infrequent. It’ll be really helpful and it will save you potentially money and stress. My next tip which is linked to that and is make sure that you also take with you a dental repair kit.
On board the ship while there are medical centers, there is no dentist on board. So if you have a tooth crack, filling come out or a crown come off, having your own little tooth repair kit will be an absolute boon. You can buy those at pharmacy or at drugstores. A lot of people say you should pack one of these over-the-door shoe organizers, especially if you’ve got a small cabin.
The series of pockets in them, which can be up to 24 pockets, are great for storing everything from Sun cream, sunglasses, all sorts of bits and pieces so it keeps your cabin nicely organized as it’s where you can store and find things very easily. Pack a couple of water bottles, particularly ones that are not transparent so you can’t see through them.
A lot of people swear by them. They go out with water and sometimes come back with something other than water inside them! I’m not saying that’s the right thing to do as many cruise lines don’t like you bringing alcohol back on board. But a lot of people do go out with a water bottle come back with it full of other stuff, because those things are not necessary screened for what’s inside the water bottle.
Pack either a small folding umbrella or one of those plastic rain ponchos because you never know when it’s gonna get wet and when you’re going to need it. As they are pretty small, it’s easy to put in your pocket or your rucksack and take it with you out and about and it rains, or on deck and when you’re out on excursions.
I always like to pack eye shades and earplugs. You never know what the situation is going to be in your cabin and whether there might be a little bit of noise that disturbs you when you’re sleeping or the sunlight coming in that you find troublesome. So it’s always handy to have as insurance some eye shades and ear plugs.
My eleventh suggestion is to pack some small magnets. The reason for those is most of the walls in many cabins are metal, so they become really handy for using as an organization space. You can put up reminders to yourself or the daily program, tickets for excursions. It comes a really handy way again of using all the space in your cabin, and making sure that you can find things very easily.
Antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer. They’re really important to keep your hands free and clear and to help make sure that you try and avoid catching the norovirus. Particularly when you head out on an excursion they become really handy if you have to use the restrooms or you’re touching lots of grubby services to make sure that you keep your hands nice and clean and free of bugs.
Many people also link to that are small tissue packs which if they do need to go to the bathroom and there is no paper there for them to use. Another great thing to take are a pair of portable speakers which you can then connect by bluetooth to your iPhone or tablet or your computer, and you can take a listen to music.
The television channels are not always that interesting and the great and advantage of course if you take a little speaker is you can listen to the music that you like. The fourteenth tip is to take room freshener. This is not something that’s provided. If you’re sharing a cabin with one or more people, having a little room freshener (perhaps kept in the bathroom) may spare blushes and be nicer smelling for everybody.
Now one of the most important things of all: take your own pillow. Why? I’ve always found that I never sleep as well as I do when I have my own pillow. The great thing about when you go on a cruise, particularly if you’re driving to the cruise, is you have lots of space to take your own pillow.
It will be a absolute boon to sleep on your own pillow. Many people also swear by bringing duct tape. People talk about duct tape as being a basic to fix all sorts of problems. So whether your cabin has got problems like doors or cabinets rattling because you’ve got rough seas or you’ve broken something and you need to tape it up.
So a lot of people just pack a roll of duct tape in their case and they say it becomes the Mr. Fixit all for all sorts of problems you may encounter on board. My seventeen tip is to make sure that your phone or your tablet or your computer is packed full with entertainment. So download movies or shows from things like Netflix or Amazon Prime, or if you’re coming from places like the UK you’ve got catch-up services like BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub to actually download shows onto your device.
Of course you can also pre- load them with various books to read. My eighteenth tip is to bring a waterproof container that you can keep your iPhone in or your smartphone in when you head out into the beach or you’re near water. Also the advantage is you can also put things like some spare cash or other documents that you may want with you.
It protects them obviously from water and from sand on the beach, and also it means that they are kept in one place and safe. One of the things that a lot of people pack is a lanyard, which they can then can attach their cruise card to. The cruise card of course is very important as it unlocks your cabin door, it’s a security pass for when you leave the ship and come back onto the ship.
It’s also what you hand over when you’re paying for things. So it’s really important that you want to keep it safe and so a lot of people bring a lanyard so they can attach their card to it, or they can slip their card into it. One of the things that a lot of people like to do, despite the fact that there’s so much choice onboard, is to take their own favorite tea or instant coffee.
One of things that I really miss, for example, is decaffeinated coffee and I find it quite hard to find on a board a ship so often so I take my own favorite decaf coffee with me so that I can make sure that I can have coffee that I want. If you have tea-making facilities in your room and you want to have your favorite little cup of tea or cup of coffee you have that with you.
It’s a great little suggestion. Another great thing to pack are those brightly colored little post-it notes, you know those little sticky notes. They become really helpful for leaving notes around the cabin for your roommates or your family telling them where you’ve gone, what time to meet, and perhaps leaving messages for your cabin steward of things to do if you haven’t seen them like if you want extra towels.
So there you have it that’s twenty-one unusual, strange and slightly bizarre you may think things to pack. If you have other things that you absolutely love taking and they’re a little bit unusual or different and you strongly recommend then please leave a comment and let other people know what those things are.
